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| New floodgates at start of lock cut. Givet |
Grey overcast start, but no wind,
sun coming out later. Mike fetched some bread while I used the Internet on
Bouygues for the last time and finished off the blog. Then I rang the customer
services line of SFR to cancel the phone, which isn’t on a contract. Easy but
the woman wanted to speak to Mike as it was his account so I had to take the
phone out on the stern for him to answer security questions, as he was steering
and we’d just passed the weir and entered the lock cut through some impressive
new flood gates and after passing a Dutch cruiser heading upriver. We could
hear commercials calling on Channel 10 VHF as we ran down through the port.
There were heaps of scrap metal, coal and pig iron around the docks.
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| Smart new lock cabin at Quatre Cheminees |
One large
boat was unloading in the middle arm of the three, the third one had cruisers
moored and out on the hard on one side of the arm, the other side was used for
loading and unloading boats. It’s good to see the port being used, never seen
much in there before. A Dutch boat called Battello, 46m x 6.3m 378 tonnes, was
waiting to be loaded at the silo as Renata, a 1000 tonne Dutch boat was
completing its loading with grain. The skipper shouted “Nice narrowboat!” in
English as we passed. Beyond the silo there were several more boats out on the
hard including two catamarans, one was having its bottom anti-fouled. The noise
of military jets taking off nearby was very loud. Lock 59, Quatres Cheminées,
was our last lock in France, now with a new cabin for the staff.
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| Belgium's weirs are modern. Hastiere. River Meuse |
An empty 750
tonne commercial called Inattendu was coming up in the lock chamber (100m long
x 11.40m wide to conform with the Belgian locks as far as Namur) with a cruiser
tucked in behind it. I took our vignette down to the lock keeper. The young man
in charge was very pleasant and surprised when he asked where we were going and
I said Berlin. I’d forgotten the telecommand, but he said he’d collect it when
we were in the lock. The commercial left, followed by a Belgian cruiser from
Waulsort (the boat club below the next lock), then we went in. Gave the keeper
the zapper and we said au’voir France. Mike held the “string” while I made a
cuppa.
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| A climber on the Roches de Freyr |
The border was just a couple of hundred metres below the lock and our
favoured place for collecting a tankful of red diesel (before they changed the
law and Belgium, like the UK, lost its derogation) Monsieur Léonard’s shop and
fuel supplier. The place looked quiet, no boats stopping to fill up now.
Another Belgian cruiser went past heading for France as we arrived at our first
Belgian lock, Hastière, and noted that the weir above the lock was a modern,
automatically operated affair with three big radial gates. An empty péniche
called Ares was moored above the lock and a German cruiser with navigation
lights on was coming up in the chamber. The red light changed to green and we
entered the big chamber, just us. The keeper came over with a piece of paper.
No more quittances we said and he said no, not any more and I looked at the
paperwork – he already had all our details and the route down to Lanaye!
Belgian efficiency, wonderful. All done from just the boat name, which brings
up our Belgian MET number (because we’re on the computer, having been there
before).
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| Roche a Bayard. Dinant |
Yippee, no more getting bits of paper stamped and having to climb back
down mucky lock ladders to get back on the boat as the lock was emptying
because there were commercials waiting. It was just midday as we left the lock
heading downriver. 4.9 ms to the next. Took photos of the château and church at
Hastière-par-dèla about a kilometre below the lock. Some very smart houses
lined the right bank while a busy road and a disused railway followed the left
bank. The low forested hills started to close in again as we approached the
lock at Waulsort. An invisible keeper this time, the lock was ready and we were
in and down in no time. I made sandwiches for lunch on the long reach (7.2 kms)
while Mike took pictures of the boats moored at Waulsort boat club and then
climbers on the Freyr rocks. A couple of Army trucks and an inflatable boat
were parked on the left, opposite the rocks and just before the Château Freyr
with its beautifully laid out gardens. The sun came out and suddenly it was much
warmer but a bit breezy. A canoeist caught us up as we finished eating lunch.
He paddled alongside asking questions, in French, then realised we were English
– he thought we were Flemish from our accents! A line of eleven cruisers
were moored at the boat club in Anseremme. The lock at Anseremme was ready for
us and the keeper leaned out of his window to wish us au’voir as we left. Below
the lock was a long line of green and red marker buoys indicating the old wall
between the end of the old lock and the island.
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| Dinant |
A boater we met in Fumay when
we were stuck there during the floods had sunk his boat by grounding on the
submerged wall, he didn’t realise his boat was on a wall and thought he had stuff on his prop, removed
the weed hatch and a passing commercial sank him by flooding the boat through
its weed hatch, traumatic to say the least, but he’s still boating. Mike took
loads of photos as we went through Dinant. The little blue electric hire boats
were doing a good trade, as was the former Amsterdam tripper. The town was
busy, as always, with tourists. The tariff boards told us we would pay 18€ per
night to moor there, (that's £15.25 per night!!) so no thanks – the first lot of pontoons were empty. A lone
retired péniche, called Remacum, was moored at the quay upstream of the trip
boats. A brand new Ibis hotel and Casino had been built next to the main
bridge since we were there last. On beyond the bridge there were two large Dutch cruisers moored on the
pontoons. The lock at Dinant was full with a red light on. We waited above for
Renata to arrive (he was the boat loading at the silo in Givet) as he went into
the lock the skipper called us to follow him into the chamber and we went down together.
3.4 kms to the next - we had no hope of keeping up with him as he was doing
twice our speed.
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| The quay at Anhee |
It was very noisy with the sounds of military jets again, but
this time we could see them flying over. Below Dinant lock there were houses
crammed into the limited space between the rocks and the river, then the space
opened up and there was a campsite on the long right hand bend. We went to the
left of the island as indicated on our guide book, but we think the commercial
went down the right hand side – there were no notices any more to say which side to
take. Renata was going down in Houx lock when we arrived so we tied up and
waited for the keeper to refill the lock. A small dayboat with a large outboard
arrived and came into the lock with us, it was a bateau ecole – a school boat –
in other words someone was having a “driving” lesson. It sped off into the
distance as we rounded the next bend and moored on the quay at Anhee at 4
pm.
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