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| Weir at Hun lock |
10.7°C Grey and raining first
thing. Rain had stopped by the time I’d finished the blog and we moved off at
10.15 a.m. We passed the first cruiser heading upriver ten minutes later. The
lock at Hun was ready with gates open and a green light, so we were in, down
and out in no time. Took photos of the weir from below, surprising how much
water was being let through. There were more climbers on the rocks below the
weir. We went past Allonso (857 tonnes 67m x 8.2m) who had been unloading in
the port of Givet and who was now being loaded at a quay from a succession of
tipper lorries. Below Hun the reach to Riviere was bordered by some very fine
properties, elegant detached houses in beautifully manicured gardens.
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| Sharing Riviere lock |
At
Riviere we had to wait for an empty commercial to come up, waited until an
empty commercial called Inattendu arrived and went into the lock, then we
followed him in. I made bacon sandwiches for lunch with bubble and squeak,
which we had plenty of time to eat on the 5.4 kms run down to Tailfer. About a
kilometre before the lock Mike stood on the roof of the boat to take a photo of
a swimming pool fashioned to look like a ship. We had to wait at Tailfer while
Inattendu cleared the lock, the keeper refilled the it and we went down on our
own. Lock houses for the keepers on this river come in pairs as the locks are
open long hours so there are two keepers to a lock, but the one at Tailfer was a large single white building that
had had many extensions added to it over the years.
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| This is a swimming pool |
The keeper on duty was
keeping watch over his bottom end gates while we locked down. As we left we saw
the reason why, a huge log - bigger than a canoe, was sat right outside the
gates and looked as if it would drift into the chamber as we left. There were many
more expensive properties along the river and several beautiful Châteaux around
the Ile de Dave. We passed an empty commercial called Pegase heading upriver.
Had a text from the Snails to say that they were moored in Namur on the Sambre
close to the junction with the Meuse and asked if we’d check the mooring by the
Casino, which is just below La Plante lock. Not long after, we locked down La
Plante and asked the keeper where the best place for us to moor was and he said
by the Casino.
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| Chateau by Ile Dave |
What he didn’t mention, of course, was that the charge for tying
up to the bollards on the old stone quay opposite the port-de-plaisance would
be 8€ per night with no facilities. No thanks. We went to have a look at the
moorings where the Snail had tied up. No other boats were moored along the
Sambre in Namur, ominous. We winded to moor in front of the Snail and said
hello to Anne and Olly. There were no “No Mooring” signs but it didn’t look
very good, so we decided to move on downriver to see what Dick’s mooring looked
like. Anne said Dick was still on holiday in Portugal and anyway his boat was not in its usual mooring due to work being done there, so no chance of mooring alongside him. It was 3.40 pm as we
untied again and a big boat loaded with scrap called Play Boy (1,416 tonnes and
85m long) came up the Sambre as we were heading down it to the junction.
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| Dick's boat is the white tjalk with mast |
We
continued down to Grands Malades, passing Amateur (another 85m boat) tied up
and looking abandoned among the houseboats. Natacha had just come down the
Sambre and was now moored above Grands Malades and unloading their car off the
deck with their crane. The lock lights were red. We waited while an empty
locked up then followed another empty, called Benita from Brugges, into the
chamber and tied on the opposite wall. The keeper called Mike on VHF and asked
us to move right down into the half lock – we hadn’t noticed that Benita was in
the lower end of the lock.
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| Waiting above Grands Malades |
On down the river. Another empty, called Lady Night,
went past heading upriver making a lot of wash, we bounced about for half an
hour afterwards. A loaded Dutch boat painted yellow and purple called Tesco3
went past heading upriver. We moored on the wall where Spoetnik used to be at
6.15 pm. Spoetnik was a fuel depot and had a chandlery shop in a moored boat.
Tragically, some years ago, it set on fire and all was destroyed, not to be
replaced. Olly gave Mike a hand to unload the
moped up the wall onto the quay and Mike went to move the car on to Ampsin, so
we could all go shopping from there the following day.
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