Moerbruggebrug to Dendermonde Lock

No blog last night because yesterday was a long day - almost 11 hours underway.  We didn't intend it to be that way.  We set off from Moerbrugge brug at 9.30 heading for  mooring on the outskirts of Ghent just before the lock into the Schelde River which is tidal.  You have to choose your time of passage when travelling up or down the Schelde to coincide with either the rising or falling tide depending in which direction you are travelling.  We needed to go through the lock at Ghent about an hour after high tide to travel down the Schelde River on the falling tide to the Dender, which we expected to do today.

By 3.00 in the afternoon we had arrived at our intended overnight stop but did a quick side trip into Ghent to buy fresh milk and bread.  By 4.00 we were on the way back to our overnight spot and Ian suggested I phone the lock to find out what time we had to go through the lock, thinking it would be early in the morning.  Well, it was too early in the morning, before the locks opened, and the next time was 5.30 in the afternoon, meaning we would arrive at the Dendermonde Lock after dark.

But we were still in time to make it that same day so we just kept going through Marelbeke Lock at Ghent, arrived at the Dendermonde Lock at 7.30 and found a place to stop just 2 km after the lock just as it was getting dark.

And here is the day in photos.

Our mooring at Moerbruggebrug

 Taking a walk before we left the mooring we found this huge mushroom, the size of a football!

 The open lock at Beernem.  This is a "keersluis" used to control the water in times of flood.

 This is a busy canal, lots of big barges:

Double trouble - a barge pushing a barge.

 And another one

Very heavily laden

Two barges coming towards us, one trying to overtake the other, on a bend.  Little did he know there was another big barge just behind us!  They must have missed each other by inches and caused the barge being overtaken to swerve dramatically towards the canal side. 

No cargo at all, almost surfing

Going down river on the falling tide

The lock at Dendermonde

Ian operating the mid-ships hook system in the lock

Mr Friendly Lockkeeper opened his window for a chat

Our mooring in the middle of nowhere.