Oudenburg to Nieuwpoort

The penultimate leg of our Spring cruise is along the Plassendale-Nieuwpoort Canal.  Definitely not the most enjoyable.  It was sizzling hot, I didn’t know what to do with myself or where to sit to get out of the heat.  To put it mildly I can’t handle the heat and I was in a foul mood.

18 kms, 5 lift bridges, 1 lock

There are 5 lift bridges in an 18km stretch and there is a lot of road and water traffic; so the water traffic is formed into convoys at the first bridge  at the Nieuwpoort end and at the lock at the Plassendale end at specific times.  In the mornings the first opening at Plassendale Lock is at 10.00 – we entered the canal on Wednesday so would pick up the convoy at the first bridge after the lock.   

I called the control centre and we were told to be at the bridge at 10.00.  So we were, in glaring sunshine with not a breath of wind, but it didn’t open till 10.15 even though no other boats joined our convoy of one.    At the third bridge we waited nearly 10 minutes before I called in to be told to “be patient”.  10 minutes later the bridge opened.   At the third bridge our patience ran out after 30 minutes of waiting, so I called yet again, expecting to be shouted at again, but it was a different voice.  He had no idea we were waiting – obviously a change of shift seeing it was after 12.00 by this time!  By that time I was hot, bothered, fed up with inefficient lock keepers and totally out of sorts!  The first few times we used this canal the bridges were operated by a team of lock keepers who went from one bridge to the next with the convoy and it took just 2 hours to complete the full 20 kms.   Now it is automated and today it took us 3 and half hours!

This horse was not happy about our boat...

...but with a bit of encouragement from its rider he trotted past happily

There are lots of really small little houses alongside the canal, homes of the canal workers in by-gone days

My favourite "fat bottom" cows (Belgian Blues)

No, it's not a hippo, it's a cow

A wonky roof!

The Red Devils Motorcycle Club 

Just love this little sculpture

A fisherman - how much stuff does one fisherman need?

We are tied up  in VVW Westhoek marina,€12 per night, not including anything. But that’s OK, we don’t need water or electricity and there are great showers which are operated by a SEP key and work out to about 50c if you don’t stand for ages under the water just for the enjoyment of it.   Most important, we can get rid of engine oil here, refuel at a reasonable price, buy a new gas bottle (which ran out last night - perfect timing) and throw away our rubbish (it is not easy to get rid of rubbish in Belgium).  So Ian has just done an engine oil change (and vacuumed the dust out the bilges: very happy no black oily stuff anywhere).  I was just comatose till it got cooler and I decided I did want to live after all.