Auvelais to Seneffe

47 kms,7 locks

I forgot to add these 2 photos last night.  This is Ian's invention for the times you tie up at a dock and the bollards are too far apart.  

And here is the gadget, the T piece goes between the wooden planks and turns 90 degrees so it cannot come out. How clever is that - and it worked well, even when we got bounced around by a barge that came past at 100 mph!

We knew we had a long day today so we left soon after 8.00.  The first lock was just around the corner and the light was red as we approached so I called in saying we were going upstream.  I got a long reply, most of which I didn't understand but gathered that we would have to wait for a boat coming downstream.  30 minutes later the lock emptied, the gates opened, no boat came out, the lights went green and in we went.  It is a huge lock, 112m x 12m, and very slow.  When we emerged at the top, there was a pleasure cruiser waiting!  I guess he had called in way before he got there and the lock keeper got fed up with waiting for him to appear so gave us priority.

We were also delayed at the second lock waiting for a commercial barge to exit before we could enter and then we had to wait for another one coming up behind us.

We were told to move right to the front of the lock to make room for the commercial

And he slotted in just a few feet from out stern - his name? Play Boy, complete with bunny on the bow!

After 3 hours we had covered just 13 kms and 2 locks – the averages were not looking good with another 34 kms and 5 locks to negotiate.  

Our route took us through the heart of Charleroi:  I say nothing, but here are the photos of the beauties of Charleroi  (Jim, this will bring back some memories!)

It is a 30 kms of industrial wasteland!

However, passing through the few kms of the original old town was a little more interesting.

Lots of bridges, but what surprised us that all the way through the sides of the canal are lined with bollards, close together, but with seemingly no access to the city!

The one and only attractive thing - this lovely wrought iron bridge.

It must be a city, a barge exiting a lock and a train passing overhead

We turned off the Sambre River and onto the Canal de Bruxelles –Charleroi, 

where we had another 3 locks to ascend, all with a 7m rise.  

We really thought this stretch would go slowly but the locks all had floating bollards and took about 15m minutes each.   Fortunately we were not delayed further so we got back on schedule. 

And the scenery did improve.

And then we even enjoyed an ice cream from our freezer

We arrived at the Port de Plaisance at Seneffe at 17.15, just over 9 hours after leaving Auvelais.  It cost us €9.00 ( for a boat under 8.99m) plus €1.00 to access their wi-fi.  Everything else is extra (e.g showers: 0.03 for 5 seconds!)