Menen to Deinze

38 kms, 2 locks, 5.5 hours

We left the quay at Menen at 9.00.  Very grey and cloudy again today but not cold, no wind, no rain.  The Leie River is quite wide but green and leafy and enough curves and meanders to be more interesting than a canal.  

Entering Kortrijk from the south

Ian's favourite piece of sculpture

The entrance to the Porte de Plaisance in Kortrijk 

We passed quite a few barges going in the opposite direction but didn't see any either ahead or behind us – till we got to the first lock.  There was one “double trouble” (2 peniches line astern with one driver) already waiting to enter the lock and when I called on the radio I was told to wait for another coming up behind us, then the operator called back again to say there was yet another one behind that and to wait for her call before we entered.  As soon as those 3 were in she called us to come in so we were at the back of a huge lock with an 80m “double trouble” in front, and 80m barge behind that then a 30m peniche and us next to them - it's a very big lock.

This is a "double trouble" 

A car being loaded onto a bar

A very large load 

The containers just fitted under the bridge, the deck house was too high and watched fascinated as it was lowered by hydraulics to go under.

We also saw a lot more pleasure cruisers today.  The season is nigh;  the waterways are getting busy – definitely time for us to go home.

We have stopped in Deinze (we think this is the 6^th time we have been here). 

Right next to the quay (free but no services) there is a huge screen, beer tents, burger bars, etc, all to celebrate the football world cup. I guess it is going to be very busy and very noisy tonight.

We can see the screen from our boat

The very elaborate bars and eateries below the screen

Not long after we arrived a hire boat came passed and headed under the bridge.  But the driver didn't get it quite right and hit the bridge, then he speared off to port and hit the bank, reversed, spun around and hit the bank on the starboard side, then tied up to the railings.  There is not dock there, and it is very shallow.  Of course we had to go check it out: the steering had failed and there was hydraulic fluid all over the deck.  So perhaps not the driver's fault after all.

Sailly-sur-la-Lys , France, to Menen, Belgium

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

Merville to Estaire and Sailly-sur-la-Lys

Happy birthday to me!  Thank you everyone for your phone calls, emails, etc.

I took a quick walk around the town of Merville this morning but there is not a great deal to get excited about.  The most interesting thing is the damaged monument to fallen soldiers right next to the lock.  It was erected in the 1890’s to commemorate soldiers who died fighting for their country, with the list of names of those lost during WW1 added later.  In WW2 this area was occupied by the Germans who decapitated the statues and painted it black.  After the war it was cleaned up but it has not been restored.

The damaged monument 

A more cheerful piece of sculpture, the front end of an old barge

Lovely public gardens

The belfry and town hall

A rather modern looking church

Our mooring, cheek by jowl with wild flowers and nettles, which I had to cut down so we could get off the boat

On my way back to the boat I stopped at the busy bakery/pastry shop and bought a “baguette de chorizo”, a very slender baguette with chunks of chorizo

in it, for breakfast and two pastries for morning coffee later.

My birthday cake(s), Tartelette de Fruits and Delicieuse Mervilloise

Then we set off for Estaires just 6 kms and less than an hour away.  

Downstream of Merville the river gets a bit wider and we saw a couple of industrial sites.  Perhaps the commercial barges do still use this waterway.

2 nests: a coot with 3 chicks and a grebe still waiting

Approaching Estaires the white spire of the church is visible for miles

The free pontoon at Estaires, no services

We walked around for a bit but, again, it is a town that suffered a lot in both world wars so the buildings all look quite modern, even the church although the spire was impressive.

The church at Estaires

The Belfry and town hall

After a half hour pootle down the river we came to the town of Sailly-sur-la-Lys with a pontoon at a delightful picnic spot.  We thought, hoped, we’d find a restaurant here that would be open on a Sunday evening, but unfortunately not – so my birthday dinner will have to be postponed.

We saw lots of cows and fields of wheat today

Approaching the pontoon at Sailly

It has an interesting church

and an enormous cemetery 

Here we are sharing the pontoon with another cruiser which left a couple of hours later

And here is my birthday present, 2 bottles of my favourite French wine (no, I didn’t finish them both in one evening!) but I’ll get my real present when we get back home.

Douai to La Basée

I just discovered this post in "drafts", it never got published.  So here it is, a few days late.

32kms, no locks, 4 hours

I don’t really know what to say about yesterday.  We have done this stretch of waterway so many times and it is not particularly exciting or picturesque.

It was a lovely cool day, partly cloudy, and a bit breezy at times.  We left Douai at 9.15, passed lots of barges going in the opposite direction and saw lots of ducks, coots and moorhens with their chicks.  

Three very sad and very neglected yachts

The junction onto the Canal de la Deule

Mrs Coot and her, um, cootling (if cootling is to coot as duckling is to duck)

A very large "garage des bateaux" or boat harbour.

I had read somewhere that the VNF is making a concerted effort to clean up wrecked vehicles in this canal....

... cars, lots and lots of wrecked cars

This used to be coal mining area of France and we see a lot of these old slag heaps, now turned into attractive leisure parks 

We have also seen many derelict factories besides the canal.  Do you think in 200/300/400 years time people will be standing looking at the ruins in awe, like we do at old castles today?

It's summer and the wild flowers are in full bloom

The tiny "halte fluvial" at Pont de Vendin

The junction of the Canal de la Deule which goes north to Lille and the Canal de l'Aire which goes west to Dunkirk.

Other than that, not much happened.   We turned west onto the Canal de l'Aire and arrived at the free pontoon (no services) at La Bassée at 13.15.

So, I will digress.   A few days back we saw a black swan so I asked Mr Google about them.  He tells me they are native to Australia and I was astounded to learn that nearly 25% of males will form monogamous homosexual relationships.  Often one of them will court a female till she lays her eggs, then they kick her out, incubate the eggs and raise the cygnets as normal.  And, also interesting, there is a 6% divorce rate (all black swan couples, not just the homosexuals). In Mute swans 20% are homosexual.   Mallard ducks can also be gay but this is usually when they get thrown out by their parents, there are too many young males and not enough females.  Well I never - isn’t the natural world fascinating!

Today, Ian got out the bike trailer and we filled up with fuel.

Syphoning from the jerrycans into the boat tank

The lovely mooring at La Bassée, just 2 minutes walk to a huge Intermarché supermarket with fuel station