Saturday 14th May 2016 Namur to Auvelais. 27kms 4 locks.

9.4° C Grey skies with a cold north wind, sunny patches later. Set off at nine, downriver, into the wind again.  The skipper of  the tjalk waved as we went past. Two more DBs were also on

Road cleaning with a vacuum

the mooring, both UK replicas. Five minutes later we turned left heading upriver on the Sambre, the first bit of the river is very enclosed, much narrower than the Meuse and very little current. They’d made a good job of renovating the riverside walk and properties along the bank. There were no longer any no mooring signs, except for one at the confluence that defined the no mooring limit from the junction as 150m, and we were surprised to see a lone Dutch flagged little Luxe moored by the flats opposite the citadel. Mike called the lock keeper at Salzinnes and got the OK for the lock. A

110m boat with a load of 3,462 tonnes of sand

loaded 80m boat called Samarkand came down and passed us on the bend before the lock, we could just see another loaded boat was setting off into the chamber. We waited next to quay below the lock next to a multi-storey block of flats. Nothing else coming down just us to go up. The chamber was 136m long by 12.5m wide (18m x 2.10m filled one small corner) and we slung our centre rope on a + stud recessed into the stone wall and rose 1.5m. On upriver with the

Empty 80m boat above Floriffoux lock

railway (no traffic today) on our right and factories both sides as we passed through the outskirts of Namur. Past the bus depot and a shooting range (we could hear the pop pop of gunfire) and a road on our left was busy with Saturday holiday traffic. Mike made a cuppa while I steered. Lots of birds about, mallard, sandpipers, house martins and the ever-present Canada geese even though the canalised lower Sambre flows through a sloping sided concrete sided trough. In places the anti-flood concrete walls are 2.5 to 3m higher than the water level. Because of all the concrete there were not too

Abbaye de Floreffe

many wild flowers. The first offline basin housed a boatyard. As we passed a man came out to ask where we were going, when we said Pont-de-Loup for bottom painting he asked how heavy the boat was, we said we’d call in to see him on the way back. If he has a crane big enough we might get future work done there. There were lots of wintered boats in the basin plus the river taxis (wondered where they were, maybe they only do weekends or summer season). Erone, a boat loaded with sand (110m x

Mornimont lock

10.56m 3,462T) from Landelies, was moored at a quay opposite a recycling yard, its crane was in the air so the crew must be off in their car, probably shopping. Mike called Floriffoux lock and got a reply, OK. The lock was ready for us. Up another 3.3m. Two new lock houses had been built in recent years and the lock cabin was high over the lock at the end of the machinery for lifting the weir. A little tug called Zwever was moored in the lower weirstream opposite the HEP plant and a big tug called Turquoise was moored in the upper weirstream. Just after we left the lock an empty 80m called Raypa went past heading for the lock we’d just left, his wash was almost watering the grass at the top of the concrete and our boat did a little bouncing for a while. A converted

Moored above Auvelais lock

péniche called Carpe Diem was moored at Floreffe, a banner along its side gave a website www.bateau-carpediem.be - must check that out later. Mike took photos of the abbey high up on the hill overlooking the river. We tested the depth in the next offline basin (which had a sign at the entrance saying it was a winding hole (turning round place) and found it was pretty deep, 4m in the middle. Mornimont lock was a deep one at 4.9m, no problems as the keepers (who came to the window and waved) filled it steadily for us. Two loaded Belgian boats were moored above the lock on its waiting quay, Exaudi from Marchiennes (55m x 6.6m 665T) and Almi from Chatelet (55m x 7.23m 699T). Lunch on the move. Passed a Dutch cruiser heading downriver by the Glaciers de Moustier, followed by a Belgian cruiser, then loaded Belgian boat Insomnia from Moerbeke (79.92m x 9.0m 1332T) which went past with hardly a ripple. An empty 80m boat called Marcari from Antwerpen was moored opposite the Solvay chemical works and, as we passed the moored boat, another loaded Belgian boat called Conjono from Gent (55m x 7.20m) went past heading downstream. A group of eight youths on trials bikes went zooming past on the towpath. Mike called Auvelais, our last lock of the day, on VHF radio and got a mind block when he couldn’t think of the word in French for a pleasure boat, so I added plaisancier and started laughing. The keeper heard and was also laughing when he said Mon Dieu, l’ecluse est prête! It was, gates open, and we rose another 2.7m. A small Dutch yacht was waiting above to go down. It was 3.10pm when we tied up at the far end of the waiting quay. It was a fairly sheltered spot, so not so windy, and not long after we moored the sun started showing itself between white clouds.