Ecluse 1 on Historic Canal du Centre to Ittre

Yesterday evening, while I was blogging, Ian took a ride along the historic canal and discovered that, indeed, there was no way we were going to get through.  Pity, because it really is rather charming.

So, change of plan: we decided to go into the Canal Brussels-Charleroi just to go down the Inclined Plane at Ronquiéres, a drop of 67.5m in a tank that slides down the hillside on rails for over 1 km.

Off we set at 8.45, knowing that rain would be setting in soon after noon, under thick cloud cover but it was reasonably warm.

The Canal du Centre was wide, pretty and very quiet.

We soon turned onto the Canal Brussels-Charleroi which, again, I was expecting to be big, wide, busy and unattractive.  But it is not.

After about an hour we came around a bend and there it was. 

I called, in English - just testing to see how they would reply - and it was in French. I didn't understand the reply so asked for clarification, which was in French.  This time I got the gist and answered in French to make sure I had understood correctly.  They are friendly and polite, but make sure you know some basic canal French like starboard, port, behind, in front, first, etc (if there are a lot of boats waiting you will have to know when it is your turn), before and after.  And the tank at the Ascenseur is called a "bac" and at the Inclined Plane it is a "bassinet" (not sure of the spelling).

As we approached a boat came out, the lights turned green and we went straight in. 

Well blow we down, what a ride!  There is nothing on the sides to disturb the view and the top of the incline is way above tree height. Pictures cannot do it justice but here we go.

Njord in the bassine

View from the top

Looking down

On the way down

Time for a stroll

and back again

Getting there

Preparing to dock

On the way out

Next one waiting to go it

Loved it, loved it, loved it!  And we get to do it all over again tomorrow in the opposite direction!

Just 5km past the Inclined Plane (or Plan Incliné in French, Hellend Vlak in Dutch) there is a yacht club at Ittre where we intended to stop (way in the distance!) 

However we discovered a 24 hour free mooring right next to the yacht club where we have tied up.  
As we were securing the mooring lines the heavens opened and down came the rain.  It was bang on 12.00 noon, what fortuitous timing!

Looking back from the boat towards the Ecluse de Ittre on the left of picture and yacht club on the right.  The marina looks lovely but it is all locked up.

Looking forward up the canal, picture taken at about 2.00 pm, street lights on!

The Ecluse de Ittre provided a good rainy afternoon's entertainment as we watched numerous barges going up and down.

Including one lone nitwit pleasure boat who was not even on his boat when the lock opened.  A huge barge had already exited ahead of him and another was waiting to enter the lock, but it must have been at least 5 minutes before I saw him running down the dock and jumping onto the boat.  He really messed around the commercial barge waiting to enter, and as he passed us we saw he had a British flag.  So he is giving a bad name to all pleasure cruisers and the Brits in particular!  I waved as he passed but he did not bother to wave back, even though he was looking right at me.  Perhaps he was too embarrassed - and rightly so.

There is a family of swans here: Mum, Dad, son, who is already mostly white, and two Ugly Duckling daughters

 Within minutes of tying up we were surrounded by a carpet of weed, the ducks didn't mind though.

Ian says it's nice to have a closed cooling system!

The sun finally came out after 7pm and shone on all the boats in the yacht club.