Reflections on our journey: Part 1 My favourite moorings of the trip

 During the four weeks that we've been away, internet access has been very difficult, so I have only been dipping in sporadically. As for blogging, it's been virtually impossible. I only had my iPad and Blogger does not work well with iOS, so my only post was a somewhat jumbled collection of photos. Now I'm finding it difficult to know where and how to start telling the story of our magical month-long trip.

Maybe I shouldn't even try; perhaps I should just confine myself to anecdotes or reflections on aspects that struck me most particularly.

What can I say that I haven't already said in previous blogs and books?

Well, perhaps I should sum things up in four ways: what were my favourite places on each of the main waterways we travelled? What impressions struck me most forcibly? What meetings gave me the greatest pleasure? And what were the best things we had with us to help us travel more comfortably?

I'll probably do four separate posts to cover them all, so I'll start with my favourite places this time because although we've done much of this trip before, we stopped at different moorings and explored different towns as well. We also went further along the Canal de la Sambre à l'Oise than we have done previously, mainly so we could reach the aqueducts that closed the canal from 2006 until 2021, so without further ado, here are my personal favourite places on the Schelde/Scheldt, which we followed upstream as far as Antoing, south of Tournai. We also returned along the same stretch, so we had the opportunity to spend the night at different moorings:

On our outgoing travels, we stopped first at the Kloron marina in Kerkhove, which was really pleasant, despite the somewhat overcast weather. The harbourmaster was welcoming, there were full services (shower, leccy and water) and a good supermarket nearby. But it was also in a lovely setting, a sort of lagoon-shaped short arm off the river. Of course, it was enhanced still more by the fact we met some very special friends there, but more on that next time. The second two photos here were taken by our friend, Peter. It's always so nice to see our Hennie H on the water from another perspective.

Our mooring was right at the end of the arm

To leave, we had to reverse to the wider basin and turn

On our way out

Also on the outgoing trip, we stopped in Antoing, an old favourite where the mooring has no services at all but it's close to the town, which I like very much, and it has a great view of the main waterway with its constant flow of barges heading north and south. I should also mention we stopped in Antoing going home as well for all the above reasons, and also because it has a bunker station where we could top up with fuel.

A favourite mooring in Antoing

The handy bunker station at Antoing

On our return journey, we not only stopped at Antoing, but also in Tournai and Oudenaarde, both of which were great for different reasons. The mooring at Tournai is very new, very secure and very hi-tech. We loved the first two features (clean, safe etc.), but the hi-tech part was a challenge. Long story short, it took us an hour to pay for €1's worth of electricity, which had to be achieved by scanning a QR code, registering on a website with name, address, telephone number etc. and then paying by bank transfer. It became even more complicated when the QR code of the electricity point next to our boat didn't work involving a phone call to their help desk. Luckily, we both read French and Koos speaks it very well, but I can't imagine how people cope if their French isn't good. While part of the site was in English (if requested), much of the important information was still in French. Madness for €1. Tournai was beautiful, though, and we enjoyed our day there, and the mooring, very much.

As for Oudenaarde, we know the town well, but had never been into the marina before, always opting to tie up against the quayside. The marina was a delight: an attractive setting, a lovely harbour master and all the services too. 

Tournai: A delightful city

The spanking new and secure mooring

Photo showing the protective 'wall' in the river
to prevent too much disturbance

Oudenaarde marina. A lovely tree-lined setting

And again.

There's not much more to say about our overnight moorings until we reached the Sambre. We spent a night on a quay wall in Mons, which offered us the most beautiful sunsets (I'd have to pinch some of Koos's photos for those) and another night at Marchienne-au-Pont in the outskirts of Charleroi, which we like very much but is not particularly photogenic. The real treats came when we reached the French border, so in short order, my favourite places to stay were Erquellines marina, Tupigny on the Canal de la Sambre à l'Oise and Vadencourt (likewise)where we saw the brand new aqueducts I've been so excited about. 

Erquellines doesn't look much from the photos, but it was so peaceful, so serene and so open. We loved it. Added to these qualities, it had an immaculate shower block and, to Koos's delight, the train trundled past every half hour (or maybe more), but it was the peace that struck both of us the most. We'd happily have stayed there much longer.

Erquellines marina: peace incarnate

Permanent moorings for these old classics

Tupigny was something of a Mecca for us. We've been wanting to take our boat there for a good ten years and missed the opportunity in 2018 owing to some incorrect information we were given. We first went there on a road trip and were smitten by the beauty of the setting of the village, nestling as it does in a deep valley. We saw the canal had an 'arrêt d'ammarrage' (mooring stop) with bollards and decided this was where we wanted to be one day. We finally made it this year and were so pleased to be able to spend two days in our dream spot, exploring the village. We also met some lovely fellow travellers, but again, more of that later.

The empty lock keeper's house by the Tupigny lock. Oh what I
could do with one of these! There are so many.

The arrêt d'ammarrage we have dreamed of so long

Looking along the towpath from the lock. The Hennie H is
just visible in the distance

Vadencourt was just five kilometres, three locks and three moving (turning and lifting) bridges further on from Tupigny. As our second Mecca, our main delight in mooring up on the arrêt d'ammarrage there was that we could see the restored aqueduct, which is more than impressive. I can scarcely believe it was a collapsed and overgrown mess just three years ago in 2019, but it was opened in 2021, so within two years, they have rebuilt and restored the entire system of aqueducts, locks and bridges that had been closed for so long. The village had a small épicerie, where we could buy baguettes and wine, so even better. A real highlight, it was!

Our arrêt d'ammarrage just before the aqueduct

The river from the aqueduct

The aqueduct from the river

Of course, there were other lovely stops, but in some places we only stayed an hour or two. We also spent a night on the old Canal du Centre in Belgium at La Louvière, but I'll do an entire post about that because the historic lifts we went down deserve more attention.

Next time, I'll write about the people we met and other special encounters, but I hope I've broken the blogging drought suitably with this post. Tomorrow, we are off to the shipyard with my Vereeniging. Time for an inspection again, so wish her luck! I haven't seen her for nearly five weeks now, so it will be a happy reunion in any event.

Have a good weekend allemaal!

A picture post as an interim

                              

Arriving on our beloved Sambre

About the only industry remaining on the river in Belgium

Leaving the big lift at Strèpy Thieu a few days before arriving on
The Sambre

Faring through Tournai on our fourth day from home 

Typical Wallonian scenery

Evening at one of our favourite moorings in Antoing
south of Trournai 

One of the biggest locks on the Canal Nimy-Blanton

On the Sambre

 Unfortunately, captioning all these photos seems to be too difficult on my iPad. I hope you enjoy them anyway and I’ll try and address the problem later. For now, we have had a wonderful two and a bit weeks, and are now heading northwards for home next weekend. My apologies for the lack of posts and disorganized order of the photos, but I’ll do my best to sort them out and add text soon.

Have a great weekend allemaal and I’ll fill you in as soon as signal and connection allows. Meanwhile, maybe you’d like to guess at some of the spots  pictured here :)

Still here and not elsewhere

It's already nine days since I wrote my last post, and I can't figure out quite where that time has gone. Long story short: we're still at home while Koos gathers his strength after having a stent procedure. Everything came to a head at the beginning of this week when he saw the specialist who, having received all the information from the various tests, looked at his patient in disbelief when Koos brightly said we were planning to go on holiday the following day if all was well. 

Well, all wasn't well, apparently. I've never seen so many expressions rushing across someone's face as I saw on the cardiologist's, and all of them expressed 'no, you're not going anywhere'. What he actually said was: 'I can't stop you going, but it wouldn't be a good idea at all'. He went on to explain the risks given that there was evidently a blockage in Koos's  fuel lines – sorry, circulation – and he then proceeded to arrange for a stent to be inserted two days later – this last Wednesday to be precise. It was that quick, and I was really impressed that he fast-tracked the operation so efficiently. However, I have to say it took far too long to get to see the cardiologist in the first place. What Koos had to go through to convince those in the system that it was necessary left much to be desired.

He's taking the required three days of rest, so now the plan is to leave this weekend providing he feels fit enough. It will mean a shorter trip, but with the drought and water shortages as well, that might have happened anyway. What will be will be. In the meantime, we're in the middle of a heatwave; this on top of the already seriously dry conditions that have been persisting for what seems like months. I've never seen the Netherlands look like Africa before!

The horses at our nearby nature reserve 

The photo above was taken a few days ago as I walked past our nature reserve. Everything is brown and the lake is diminishing rapidly. 

My weed patch–sorry, grass, will never recover
I'm sure. 

This second photo is ostensibly of the only buddleia cutting I've managed to nurture into life this year. I've been tending it carefully and it's growing nicely now, thanks to the help of the dirty washing up water I've been lavishing on it. Someone told me buddleias are easy to grow, but that someone must have green fingers. Mine, I can confirm, are the complete opposite. I had about five cuttings and this is the only one that's survived. Anyway, what I really meant to say is that the photo reveals all too sadly my dead grass-thats-almost-all-weeds. It was doing quite well over the winter, recovering from the previous dry years, but I fear this year will strike its death knell.

The only upside to these fierce temps is that I do enjoy the heat. It's not good for working outside, I admit, but I love the feeling of wallowing in a bath of hot sunshine, don't you?

Have a great weekend allemaal. We're still not 'elsewhere' yet, but who knows what the coming days will bring?

While we wait

I've been putting off writing this post for the reason that soon no one's going to believe we even want to go away on the boat. Of course, that's just me, and I know you know we do, but as has been happening on a regular basis this year, the fates are conspiring to stop us.

Poor Koos. After all the work that he's put into the engine, it's finally running well, but now it's his own engine that's not doing so good. Without going into details, we've just spent the last week getting to know ambulance paramedics, doctors' waiting rooms and the hospital emergency ward rather better than we'd like. The diagnosis is still escaping the medics and he's waiting on an invitation for further tests. However, he's feeling a lot better now and our fingers are still firmly crossed that we'll get away before too long, but we need to feel confident that it's safe to do so first.

In the meantime, when Koos was at the doctor the other day, I made a local discovery that bowled me over. I've always known there was an industrial museum in Sas van Gent, but it's been one of those places I've put on the back burner because it's always there. I opted to go for a stroll while I was waited for Koos. As I walked up the road, I suddenly noticed the museum and decided on impulse to pay it a visit.

What an amazing and rewarding surprise it was. I don't think I've ever seen such a wonderful collection of old factory machines, all beautifully restored and in perfect working order. The museum caters for children and as far as possible the machines can be put into operation so the youngsters can see and learn how the work. Well, I don't know about kids, but my inner child lit up and I was absolutely riveted.

The entire display represents the industry that used to be in the area, including a sugar factory, flour mills, a coke plant and a sweet factory. 

The main display hall

A roller mill for wheat crushing. Apparently, 13 of these could
crush 180,000 kgs of wheat a day. That's quite a number!

A centrifuge (spin dryer?) for separating starch from the maize

This amazing machine, built in 1957, was used to extract starch from maize. For this, the corn had first to be soaked. It was then ground and the maize and its bran were separated. What remained after that was a raw starch milk, from which the starch was separated using these centrifuges, a process which was repeated several times to achieve the highest concentration and purity.

And this, believe it or not is part of a sweet-wrapping machine,
from the Confiserie Naploeon, a local confectionary factory

I also enjoyed the displays showing the different sources of the electricity produced in Zeeland. One entire wall explained how electricity is produced from coal, gas, water, wind, biomass waste products, solar and nuclear power. Of course, many of these sources are used to create steam which in turn is used to generate the electicity. The magnificent steam generator below was one such that was used until 1999 at a coke factory in nearby Sluiskil. It was running while I was there and made some very impressive wheezing and puffing sounds as its monster pistons thrust to and fro (see bottom picture). As for the flywheel, well, I've never seen anything so magnificent!

There was plenty more to see and much I haven't included or described here, but I was quite smitten and plan to go back again when the opportunity arises. For a small town like Sas, this museum packs a real punch and I can highly recommend it if anyone is ever in the area.

So that's it from me for this time. Enjoy the rest of your week allemaal and I'll keep you posted on our vacillating vacation! Who knows what I'll have to say next time, but fingers crossed it will be from elsewhere and not here.

 

Ticking boxes

 Well, Koos has done it and we've finally got to the point when we can plan to leave for our somewhat delayed 'faring' holiday. But now procrastination has entered into the game of seeing how long we can postpone our departure. It sometimes feels as if we've got so used to having problems, we can't quite believe we can go and I, for one, am hesitating to name the day. That said, we have started ticking boxes and crossing items off our checklist.

The only trouble is, the list keeps growing. Every time I tick something off, we think of another essential item that we might or might not have. Is this procrastination? Possibly, but my excuse is it's just sense.

What, you may well ask, has led us to this point after so many months of disappointment? Well, the electric opvoerpomp supplied to us by the company we bought the engine from seems to be working well (hallelujah!!) and so we did a test run on the Hennie H yesterday, accompanied by two dear friends from Australia who serendipitously happened to arrive in Sas van Gent in the morning. I'm not sure they really took in the fact that we were testing the pump for the first time, and no one mentioned what might happen if it didn't work properly. To our good fortune (and my relief), it functioned perfectly, the Hennie H purred along and a good old catch up time was had by all.

The Hennie H at large at last

Today, I've been stocking up on essential travel sustenance: a crate of chocolate milk, another of ordinary milk (both indispensable for keeping the skipper properly fuelled), and large quantities of coffee and biscuits. Then there are the other goods that we can store in some bulk, like tinned vegetables, eggs, potatoes and onions. The perishable items will be bought as soon as Koos has received his doctor's all clear. When man has pacemaker, man must make pace to collect all his support items (in other words, he needs his meds).

So when will we actually cast off the ropes and sail into the sunset (which in our case is Gent)? Maybe Wednesday, maybe Thursday, but unless anything drastic happens, it will be this week. Wish us luck and fair faring allemaal. It looks as if we're really on the way!

The Waiting Game

Some of you may have noticed I haven't been posting as much as usual. This, my dear blogging friends, is not because I'm losing interest in my blog. Far from it. No, the problem is more that while much has been happening in our lives, it is not the kind of thing I post here. I try and keep this place for news about our watery life and travels, and sadly, there hasn't yet been much of that to write (home) about recently.

But...things are now looking up. The dreaded opvoer pump has now been replaced by an electric 'fuel transfer pump', sent to us 'free and for gratis' by the company that sold us the engine. I think they were so fed up with us bleating at them because the original wouldn't run consistently, they are hoping this will be the salve to make us shut up.

Koos has mounted it and established it works. Now, we are emptying the diesel from the tank and plan to replace it with new, fresh, fiendishly expensive diesel tomorrow, so as not to risk any further fuel problems. Once again, we await developments.

Added to the waiting game we've been playing with the engine, it appears we might also have to wait for the water levels to rise a little too before heading into France. The weather has been dry and warm for so long, there are serious water shortages and many canals have been closed. As I heard it from a Facebook friend, the route we want to take has been alright up to now, so fingers crossed we'll make it to the Sambre again this year. We can only be grateful that this part of the world isn't having the terrible fires they are experiencing in Portugal, Spain and France as a result of the intense heat. Mind you, our forecast is for 36C tomorrow and 39C on Tuesday, so we're hardly cool here.

In any event, we are hoping to be off and away in a week or so. The waiting is almost over. Wish us luck!

Meanwhile, I am still attending to my old girl in Oudenbosch, where I spend some time every week. We are planning some away days with her in September, so I've been quietly smooshing up her decks in anticipation.

A second coat on the foredeck

Repainted aft cabin and engine room roofs

I've also taken a bit of time out for some fun rides on my 'Tommy' moped. My eldest daughter has one now as well, so last week, we went out for a ride around the dykes together, and a good time was had by all, mopeds included. 

Last, but not (I trust) least. I have a new book out. It's taken me five years to write and seven months to edit, so I'm more than a little relieved to have released this particular labour of love into the world. 

Have a great week allemaal, and I hope I'll be posting from the water next time. Wouldn't that be something?

Little By Boat

Little By Boat

Has lost her ship

And doesn't know where to find her

Leave her alone and she will come home

bringing By Boat behind her

Okay, just a bit of nonsense there because this is mainly going to be a picture post. To explain, we finally got the Hennie H's engine running steadily, so last week we did a few test runs to build our confidence. However, because we didn't want to take any risks on the sea canal to Gent (the waterway on which the HH is moored), we took our little rowing boat (in Dutch bij boot, hence my bit of rhyming nonsense)) along for the ride.

Now you'd be right in thinking a tiny boat like the one in the photo below would not be capable of performing any great rescue missions, especially for a twenty-ton barge like the Hennie H, but we have an electric outboard motor for it and if push came to shove, it would be possible to pull the HH ever so gently out of harm's way with her. I know it seems unlikely, but I did mention pushing and shoving, didn't I?

Anyway, luckily, we didn't need its services, and the test runs went well. Unluckily, we have a recurrence of the same problem this week, and the Hennie H is refusing to start again. Ah well, we had some fun while it lasted! Back to the drawing board again.

Below are some photos of our last test run on Koos's birthday, the 30th of June. We did all of about eight kilometres!

The shipyard at Zelzate just over the Belgian border:
Our goal for the day

Sand barge

And just to finish off, a happy skipper

However, after suffering something of an understandable loss of motivation this week, Koos feels confident he can get the engine going again by the weekend. Keep everything crossed allemaal! Let's hope we can be faring once more very shortly!