Oudenaarde to Moerbrugge

This is what happened yesterday - no internet last night.

69 kms, 2 locks, 1 lift bridge - 9 hours

A long day today and it started off really well with the weather forecast being correct – much cooler, cloudy and even a little breeze.  It was even cool enough for jeans and a sweater - my kind of weather, I was a happy bunny today.  On the subject of happy bunnies:

these 3 were playing next to our boat early this morning

At 8.00 we left the marina at Oudenaarde heading for the first lock just 500m downstream.  There was already a commercial waiting to enter but fortunately we are small enough to share the lock with him.  The commercial, Rio 4, had left us in its wake  shortly after leaving the first lock but when we arrived at the second  lock, 11km away,  there it was queued up and waiting . Rabbit and  hare!  We entered the second lock in formation just as we had an hour or so earlier.

It was a long old slog today, almost 70  kms.  The first section in the Schelde river is attractive, 

The stately Schelde River

The lycra lads were out in force

and rode past us waiting for to enter a lock

The crossroads as the Schelde meets the Ringvaart:  north to Ghent, west to Antwerp, east to Bruges

but then you turn onto the Ringvaart around Ghent, which is the pits (all 11 kms of it).

The only interesting thing on the Ringvaart - the massive CocaColafactory

Then you turn onto the canal which connects Ghent with Oostende at the coast.  A long old slog of 301 kms.  The first 12 kms or so is rather boring but then it improves in leaps and bounds. There must have been a rally for traditional Dutch boats (Ian thinks it was at Oostende) 

A barge having to negotiate his way past 3 pleasure boats

Boring!

Much better

There are lots of irises on the banks of the canals now

At 17.00 we tied up at the quay downstream of the lift bridge at Moerbrugge, where we have stayed twice before and know that half the quay is reserved for pleasure craft.  A 38m barge, converted to a houseboat, was tied in the pleasure craft section, and there were various  commercial boats in the other section but there was plenty of room for us to tie up in the designated place.  Not 2 hours later a commercial came by with much communication taking place between them and the barge in front of us (in the pleasure craft section) but they were already waiting to go through the bridge.  However, the chap they were communicating with on the shore was from the big barge ahead of us and he came marching down  to us and demanded that we leave  because a commercial boat wanted to tie up there because we are just “passantes” (pleasure craft) and can only stay after 22.00.  What a load of bollocks.  So, Ian said to him, you are a passante  - why don’t you move?  He had a lot more to say and stalked off in high dudgeon.  Ian was so pissed off with this blatant attempt at intimidation that he took a photo of them and told them that we are reporting him to the VPF.  I have sent a report to our club president and he can decide if it's necessary to take it further.  I'm sure he saw the British flag and thought we would not know the rules and regs.

To make things worse he has a car there, but no crane to lift it onto the deck so he must be staying for longer than the permitted 24 hours.