34 kms, 4
locks, just over 5 hours.
We were up
early this morning, I went to the boulangerie to buy some bread (my last visit
to a French bakery on this trip) and we left Sailly at 8.10.
We had 2
locks (small, 38m x 5m) to traverse on the upper Lys river, then a stretch of
16 kms on the Lys Mitoyenne/Grens Leie which is the border between Belgium and
France. Well, the original river which is
very sinuous, is the border but the canal has straightened out the curves and
we cruised back and forth into French and Belgium territory.
 |
| We so enjoyed the fields and pastures of the upper Lys. |
 |
| A very ornate brewery, now abandonned |
 |
| Oh my goodness, a commercial barge on the upper Lys |
 |
| The Lys Mitoyenne, much wider but still rather lovely |
 |
| The big church (cathedral perhaps) at Wervik |
 |
| A barge, overtaking another barge, just where a bunker barge is moored with a small boat alongside - and we come around the the corner... |
 |
| ...we came to a complete stop and the overtaking barge swerved to the right side of the canal rather dramatically. Not a good place to overtake! |
There are another 2 locks on this stretch but
we were now back onto the “Grand Gabarit” canal which goes all the way to Ghent
and Antwerp. Here the locks are 185m x
12.5m. At both locks we had to wait for
barges coming in the opposite direction.
The first one we had all to ourselves, 8.9m of little Njord in a 185m
lock, the second one we shared with a double trouble peniche plus another big
container carrier.
 |
| 38m dumb barge alongside us plus 38m pusher, and another 80m barge behind them. |
Not an
eventful day. The weather, as you can
see from the photos, was overcast with light drizzle at times, rather windy and
the wind was cold. The temperature was
about 18 degrees and for the first time in weeks we wore our jackets. A nice change after all the heat we have had –
it’s not going to last, however: the weather forecast is for 28 degrees on
Wednesday, that’s melt-down weather!
 |
| Late evening, clear skies and sunshine |
Ooh...the last baguette.....enjoy!
ReplyDelete