13 October Leers Noord to Oudenaarde

33 km, 5 locks, 4 mobile bridges

Our nav programme just refused to do a route through the Espeirre Canal.  In the diagram above the red flag is the beginning of the Espierre Canal, Leers Noord lock; the yellow flag is the junction with the Schelde River and the green flag is the Oudenaarde marina where we stopped.

The 3 locks and 3 lift bridges of the Espierre Canal are also operated by a mobile lock keeper who you have to book 24 hours in advance, and yesterday I made the booking for 9.00 this morning but he arrived early at 8.30!  I was still in the middle of making breakfast. But by 8.40 we were underway.  We kept a beady eye on the exhaust temperature and after the 2nd lock it started to rise again.   Gregory, our “eclusier” (lock keeper) told us many boats coming through from France had the same problem but the Belgian water is clear. 

What a delightful area, very different in character from the Canal de Roubaix.

There are lots of ducks on this canal

Gregory, our "eclusier"

After said goodbye to Gregory at the last lock we tied up at a tiny pontoon and Ian got busy in the engine room again, disconnected the inlet tube from the valve, opened the valve – no water came in – adapted the tool he made yesterday  and managed to hook wodges of green weed  out of the valve.  

Sharing a tiny pontoon to clear the weed

After an hour we set off again and turned into the wide Schelde River.

Leaving the Espierre Canal

and onto the Schelde River

At the first lock, Herinnes, the lock keeper told me to come up to his office, just to check on our paper work.  We are already registered with the Wallonie waterways so all I had to do was give him our number and he brought all our details up on the computer. Voila!

At the second lock, 125m long by 14m wide, the light turned green, we entered – and waited and waited.  Then we noticed a huge barge manoeuvering away from a dock just before the lock and coming it to join us.  We moved right to the front of the lock but it turned out not to be necessary because he needed the entire length. Fortunately the lock was wide enough for us both.

From one end of the lock....

....to the other

At Oudenaarde we had to wait at the lift bridge for a few minutes because there was a barge approaching from the opposite direction.  This bridge is very busy with road traffic and pedestrians crossing from one side of the town to the other so they really don’t want to open for one little pleasure boat, close it and open again just a few minutes later.

The impressive lift bridge at Oudenaarde

Then we turned off into the Oudenaarde Passantehaven, where we get 2 nights for the price of one as members of the VPF, and the showers are free. It is rather a nice little marina and close to the old town.