Tournai to Moen Lock on the Bossuit-Kortrijk Canal

First thing this morning, at 8.30 Ian rode to the Colruyt supermarket because Lynn, his sister told us they had a special offer on Mateus rose (wine).  He came back with 9 bottles!

We left the mooring at 9.15 under very grey skies, ambled through Tournai,

 under the lift bridge

 and soon came to Henry VIII's bridge.

 Pity the last photo was right into the sun, it makes a better picture from the North without all the trees.
Not half an hour later we were into the first lock.  When I called in the lock keeper said we would be sharing the lock with a "bateau marchant" (commercial barge).  The commercial, "Rambo", went in ahead of us and as we started tying up slightly aft of him, he leaned out of his bridge and said we must move further forward because there was another boat coming in as well, but seeing the bollards were badly placed (for a 9m boat), we must just tie up alongside him.  How nice and friendly.
All a bit cheek by jowel!

We were first out of the lock and slowed to let the second commercial (an empty hotel boat, very friendly, loved Ian's Xacara marlin sweater!) pass us and he sped off into the distance.  We passed this very impressive chateau, Bellerive, I believe - must look it up. 

ABC, Ian says, Another Bloody Church

Then it got a moist and misty.

At the second lock, we had to wait a while for traffic coming in the opposite direction and the hotel boat was already long gone, so it was just us and Rambo in the second lock.  And the rain!

We turned off the Schelde River into the Bossuit-Kortijk Canal and tied up at a free mooring, in the rain, which promised all sorts of earthly delights such as water, electricity, toilets, showers, a shop

but there was nothing there except a tourist info place on the Schelde River which had closed at 12.00 ( we arrived at 12.45).
After lunch, in glorious sunshine(!), we strolled to the lock to buy a new "waterwegenvignet" (Flemish waterways licence) seeing the one we have expires at the end of Sept.  The very friendly lock keeper (Ian was delighted to be back in Flemish language territory, not only can he understand their language but they are happy to speak English) suggested we go through the lock because it is much nicer on the other side.  So we threw off the mooring lines and while we waited for the lock to be ready for us (it was full and had to be emptied: 9.5m rise by 110m long by 12m wide - that is a lot of water!) the clouds rolled back in and all the time we were in the lock it poured down on us.  We were inadequately prepared with minimal rain gear on and got a thorough soaking, even our socks and underwear were wet! 
We tied up just past the lock and the sun came out - Murphy!

Well, yes, it was more pleasant than the other side of the lock because we did not get bounced around by the big commercials on the Schelde River, but there was no tow-path and it was still just 3 in the afternoon.  An hour later we left the dock and ambled off along the canal just to see if there was a better place to stop.

 We ended up tied up for the night in the shadow of the lock gates at Sluis Moen

and there is still nothing here.  Not that I'm complaining, we expected that this would be a stop in the middle of nowhere, and it is beautiful, peaceful and calm.  So what more do you want!