 |
| 68 kms, 1 lock, 9 hours 15 minutes |
7.30 wide
awake, jump out of bed, hmmm a bit chilly this morning, check the thermometer: 0.0oC
outside, just 4o inside!
Thick frost
outside. Ian was the brave soul who
ventured out with the camera!
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| Frost on the solar panels |
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| .... and in close up |
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| Hmmm, I wouldn't be keen to use this cycle path |
By 9.15 it was creeping up to 3 degrees and we
were on our way. There was still a lot of
frost on the deck – very slippery – and the ropes were frozen solid.
We were now
on the Grand Gabarit, the canal the commercials use to cross from Dunkirk to
the Escaut River that takes them to Antwerp in Belgium. It is wide, with long straight sections
joined by gentle bends, pretty uninteresting, and not very pretty.
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| This is what it's all about! |
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| This turn off to La Bassée has been closed for 2 years because a tree has fallen part way across the canal. Come on VNF, remove it so we don't have to do an extra 3 km detour. |
We had
originally planned to spend 2 nights in La Bassée to get fuel but we fueled in
Menen a few days ago, so that changed to just a one night stop. We arrived at 13.30, had lunch and said “Well,
this is not the most interesting town and Douai, where we can get free
electricity, is only 4 hours away, let’s keep going.” I dashed to the large Intermaché supermarket
to get some wine and we were on our way again by 2.30. It had warmed up considerably to 15o
and was really rather pleasant until a little breeze kicked up in
mid-afternoon.
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| The junction of 2 large canals, we came from the direction of Dunkirk, turn left you back to Belgium, turn right you head further south into France. |
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| How pretty, a pink container being loaded onto a barge. |
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| The crane operator's office - I hope he doesn't have a fear of heights |
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| There are even South African containers in this huge container terminal |
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| Approaching the mooring in Douai |
At 18.30 we
tied up in Douai, but, no free electricity anymore! And it is going to be cold again
tonight. Good thing we have got an
efficient Eberspacher diesel heater.
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