Catching my tale

It's been over two weeks since I posted my last travel blog, and again, I find it hard to accept that the time has passed so quickly. However, I do know where it's gone: for once, we've had a spell of lovely dry weather, as well as some gloriously sunny days here in the Netherlands. The consequences for me are obvious. I've been working on the boat maintenance chores needed before winter sets in.

Still, that doesn't tell you about all the other things we've been doing since we arrived back from our holiday, so here's a quick summary.

Right at the end of August, we had a visit from a very dear South African friend. I've known Bobbity (her nickname) since the early nineties after we moved to Johannesburg. She and I became close throughout the decade and I spent many a day at her out-of-town smallholding in Krugersdorp with my girls. Since I moved back to Europe, I've been back several times but haven't always managed to see her, so it was a real delight when she decided to come and see us during a visit to her son in Munich this summer. For most people, travelling from southern Germany to the Netherlands for a weekend would be quite something, but Bobbity is South African used to long distances, and for her, it wasn't a big deal. Nevertheless, I was humbled and hugely grateful she made the journey.

I met her in the beautiful city of Middelburg on the Friday, where we roamed the centre and had coffee at a lovely café. Then, we went home and shared news, walks and chats. On Saturday, we took her to Ghent (compulsory, of course), where we had lunch and a stroll through the beautiful historic centre, which we all loved. Sadly, on Sunday, she had to go, but it was worth every precious minute to see her again.

Bobbity with daughter 1, Jo, in Ghent

The castle in Ghent

The castle from the water

Just over a week later, on September the 8th, I took a drive to the charming traditional Dutch town of Willemstad (no, not the Curaçao one) to join daughter 2, Mo, for a Shanty Choir festival. In truth, it was more a chance to walk the dogs around the lovely old fortifications and have a natter, but the shanty choirs were fun and the town was thronging with people enjoying the sunny, festive afternoon. Here are a few photos I snapped on the day.

View of the moat with a fountain from the fortifications

Willemstad village viewed from the path on the fortifications

Willemstad

Festival goers enjoying the lovely weather

Heading towards the shanty choir stage

One of the many shanty choirs performing

Singers and the public mingling together

Ten days later, Koos and I had a few away days in France. On September the 18th, we drove down to the Haute-Marne where Mo has her house and spent a few gloriously hot, sunny days in this area we've come to love. We have definite ideas about spending more time in the region and also bringing the Hennie H down the canals to Joinville or Froncles, both of which have good moorings. 

We visited the villages of Laferté-sur-Aube, Bossancourt (about 10 km north west of Bar-sur-Aube) and also a few villages along the Marne, notably Villiers-sur-Marne, which has the Koos ideal of a level crossing and a canal close together. I can hardly believe what beautiful weather we had because in the interim, it was pretty wet and miserable. Anyway, we were really lucky and had a lovely time. Here are a few photos of our adventure. The first five photos are of Laferté-sur-Aube and the next, including the one of Zoe are of Bossancourt. The sunflowers were in a field on our way home.

We returned home on the 22nd and the rest of September was quiet with rainy weather to accompany the resumption of my teaching work. I am busy with some PhD students, giving them guidance on writing their theses in English. It's what I enjoy doing as I learn so much from the subjects they're studying.

However, at the beginning of October, I had to go up to Rotterdam to the dentist, which also gave me the opportunity to visit some friends and enjoy yet another beautiful day in my old home town.

Bikes galore as usual

Trams, tracks and cables are another familiar feature

Some of the remaining pre-bombardment city houses on
the Oostzeedijk

Hotel barges in one of the inner city harbours
The Wijnhaven

The end of the Wijnhaven leading into
the Leuvehaven

On my friend's barge

His adorable little dog, Bruce

Then on the 6th, Koos went off on a photo trip to Slovakia, which gave me some fun time painting walls, clearing clutter and working on the boats, in between my teaching, of course. All of this work was facilitated by having dreary weather, and I was particularly pleased with the little shoe rack I made from pieces of scrap wood we had in store.

I've since added an extra shelf because we
needed room for six pairs of shoes and slippers

While Koos was away, poor Zoe developed a huge abscess on her neck. It came up literally overnight and within 48 hours, it was the size of a tennis ball. Luckily, our vet opens on a Saturday morning, so even though I had an appointment for the Monday, I was able to rush her in and get it seen to. We started her on strong antibiotics and, thanks heavens, she responded to them well. By Monday, when I took her back for a check-up, it had reduced significantly and there was no need to drain it. Such a relief, especially as she didn't seem to be in any pain. She was just very tired from fighting the infection.

Extra drinks needed on our walk
Don't you love that tongue?

Feeling much better now, thanks Mum

With Zoe recovered I've spent my free time in the last week catching up with essential boat maintenance. Since Koos returned, the sun has come out again and it hasn't rained at all. It's been quite lovely in the harbour and we have the best view in the world. These photos below are some that I've taken in the past days when we stayed on Vereeniging so I could take advantage of the lovely days. The mornings were cold and the dew very heavy, but at least I could get the decks painted, a big achievement, although there's still lots to do—there always is. As they say here, koop een boot, werk je dood (buy a boat, work yourself to death...yes!).

But it wasn't all labour. We also took took the chance for a short spuddle on the Hennie H, which is always exhilarating on a sparkling day.

A spuddle to visit Vereeniging is always fun

Being out on the canal is a joy

I love all the canal 'furniture'

Back on the towpath the sights are just as good

And the best view is from Vereeniging herself. This
monster shop came past while I was deck painting

So, allemaal, I've finally caught up and am back in the present. It looks as if we're going to have dry days until next weekend, so you can guess where I'm going to be. Enjoy your week wherever you are and I'll be back with an update as soon as I can drag my hands away from scraping, sanding and painting.

Barging through Belgium Part 5: From Ghent to Lokeren and home

At last, I can hear you thinking. This is the final post of our summer travels. It's just as well I've got my journal and photos as now autumn is well and truly with us the memories of those wonderful weeks in August are beginning to dim, or if not that, at least feel a little unreal.

It was Thursday, the 22nd of August when we left Ghent and headed out onto the canal to Terneuzen. As we left, we passed the Tolhuis Lock, which always seems to be closed, and I've never met anyone who's been through it.

"Wouldn't it have been great if we could have come through that way?" I said, musing on why it was never open and why too there was no information about it in our guide book.

"I don't know why it's not in use," Koos replied. "It would make a great short cut through for us."

Our mooring on the Brugsevaart two days previously was just around the corner from the canal leading to the Tolhuis Lock. As chance would have it, I've discovered since we came home that we can actually go through it now. I'll just have to go to this website to find out what days and times it's operating as it's apparently not available every day.

The Tolhuis Lock

Anyway, we continued on our way, and the two photos below show the very low bridge I can never quite believe we manage to pass under without crunching into it. We could ask for it to be lifted, but, as Koos says, where's the fun in that? Once we're through it, though, we can head north without interruption; that is, unless we're going into the Moervaart, which this time we did. 

That is one very low bridge

But we got under it without incident...phew!

I love this old power station. It reminds me
a little of Battersea in London

Meanwhile, Zoe snoozed

The turning onto the Moervaat leading to the town of Lokeren is around 6 km or 45 mins by boat from the outskirts of Ghent. The contrast between the bustling industry and busy shipping of the canal to Terneuzen and the sleepy Moervaart is quite a shock. Within a few hundred metres of the cooling tower that marks the entrance to the waterway, the factories and loading quays of Ghent’s docklands have disappeared and the farer is suddenly in deepest, rural Belgium.

Koos and I both agree it is one of the most beautiful waterways in the country, and maybe even in the whole region. It really is breathtakingly lovely, an impression emphasised by such rural scenes as these cows in the photo below sloshing around in the shallows.

Cows enjoy a cooling paddle as much as
people

After seven kilometres of peaceful cruising, we had to start a blokvaart. You may remember this from the last post. It's when we have to be at the first of a series of bridges at a specific time and then we can go through all the subsequent bridges in the series. On the Moervaart, there are seven and it takes about two and a half hours to complete them all.

Below are just some of the scenes we saw on route. Our bridge keeper was very efficient and kept us moving, although he was very friendly and it was a pleasure to see him getting ready for us as we approached each of the bridges. They're all delightfully old-fashioned, so it was a wonderful trip.

A beautiful lifting bridge for a former railway
It was built between the two great wars

And a nearby historic watertower form the
19th century

We arrived in Lokeren at the end of  navigation late in the afternoon, but by this time we were on the river Durme. The Moervaart and the Durme join forces a few kilometres north of town near the village of Daknam and from that point on the river into Lokeren becomes extremely winding and wild. 

It was the end of a beautiful, sunny day as well, but Koos was tired and finding a free spot in the marina provided more challenge than either of us wanted. We'd gone up to the end and finding nowhere to moor up, it was a question of reversing a long way back to where we'd seen a place with just enough room. 

With the Hennie H's fickleness and no bow thruster to help, the task took much longer and much more effort than we deserved. In the end patience prevailed and with a few squeaks and several gasps from me when we just avoided hitting a couple of small, expensive boats, we were in.

Our mooring

Numerous small boats to dodge

But a nice pontoon with electricity, water and wifi

The view from the entrance to the marina

Lokeren is an attractive town. Not only does it have a lovely centre with some fine old buildings, but everything is close at hand: shops, dog walking woods and plenty of cafés, museums and sights for the visitor. We really liked it so much we decided to stay a few days. The marina is also very reasonably priced, but since you really have to want to go there (the river being quite challenging), I suppose they make it as appealing as possible. 

The town hall (stadhuis)

Not sure what this was, but it's lovely. 

One day was a bit grey, but this is the main
shopping street

The end of the Durme

The photo above is where the river Durme was dammed in the town. The marina is on the other side of this basin. There's another dam further downstream towards the confluence with the Schelde. Why was it cut off, you might ask. Well, according to the museum, the navigation was closed as there was no longer a need for barges to reach Lokeren, but other information says that constant flooding became a burden in Lokeren, so I'm guessing the lack of commercial traffic gave them the excuse they needed to keep the tidal river out of harm's way.

Lokeren also has an interesting history which was explained more at the museum. Apparently it used to be the centre of the hare plucking industry. Yes, that is hare and not hair. It seems that hare and rabbit fur was used for making felt and cutting the hares' hair was big business in this small town. I didn’t want to dwell on how the poor creatures suffered during this process but was thankful the practice of hanging them upside down is no more.

In fact, we very much enjoyed our few days of rest which included a visit to the Sunday morning bric-a-brac market as well as the museum. As we know, though, all good things come to an end, and on Monday the 26th August, we left bright and early at 8:00 a.m. This time we just had to reverse a short distance to be able to turn around and head back to the first bridge for our return blokvaart.

Waiting at the first bridge

Lillies on the water

And there was our bridge keeper

The Vapeurbrug again

Serenity incarnate!

And we're nearly there

Once we were back on the great sea canal, it was all big ships and bustle again. With only around ten kilometres to go until we reached home, we enjoyed the blue skies, although clouds were looming and we were grateful to see the bridge of the last town in Belgium open – not for us, of course!

Zelzate bridge: the last town and bridge
in Belgium

Just a kilometre beyond it and we were home

So that's it, allemaal. I've managed to finish this series of blogs about our barging holiday in Belgium. I shall read these back later in the year and probably think nostalgically of those wonderful warm days. I hope you've enjoyed reading them as much as I've enjoyed reliving the experiences.

Enjoy the rest of your week, anyway, and I'll be back with a catch up of the weeks since our return very soon.