Thursday 12th May 2016 Givet to Anhée (Belgium). 27.9kms 5 locks

Boat unloading in the port of Givet

12.6° C. Drizzle, which lasted all morning. Afternoon brighter grey clouds and dry. A loaded Dutch péniche called Viridis Quo went past heading downriver around 9am. Mike and I went a walk to the shops and bought a few groceries to last us through to when we get to Pont-de-Loup from a Carrefour City. City prices too. Paying for convenience. Set off just after ten, leaving one Dutch boat (an old Bounty!) on the quay behind us. There was just one (Dutch) boat in the port of

House with wisteria above Hastiere

Givet, Solutio (W’Dam), being unloaded by crane. A Dutch DB replica went past and Mike gave the keeper at lock 59 Quatre Cheminées a shout on VHF. He replied and said the lock was ready. It was very noisy with lots of loud military aircraft in the vicinity, must be an airbase nearby. Once in the lock, Mike got off to take the telecommand into the office, but the young lock keeper hung out of the window and addressed Mike by name – just enter the boat name and the VNF computer

Barnacle geese - NOT Canadas

gave him all our details! 2.7m drop and we were soon on our way downriver again. Mike changed flags as we crossed the border into Belgium. Not much left of the fuel depot we used to visit to get red diesel back in the day when that was legal. Canada geese everywhere, plus a few swans and greylags. Very smart houses along the left bank and forested hills on the right. A kestrel was sitting on

Wanna buy a hotel? 990,900€. Anybody?

the telephone wires watching for rodents in someone’s garden. A Dutch cruiser went past heading uphill just before lock 1 at Hastière. Mike called the lock, no reply, but we had a green light and the lock was ready for us. The drizzle paused. I thought the lock was remote operated judging by all the cameras, but Mike said he saw the keeper in his cabin, way up high above the lock. Water was piddling out of the lock walls, washing the gunwales and I made sure it didn’t get my jeans wet as we dropped down

Swiss cheese rocks

2.9m. Before the first bridge we passed a boat that we both thought was a police boat, dark blue with red and white diagonal bands, but it turned out to be a Dutch cruiser as it had a huge Dutch flag on its stern! Sandpipers went yodelling across the river, then I took photo of a pair of barnacle geese to show Mike the difference between them and Canadas. More beautiful houses on the right hand side and forested hills on the left at Hastière-par-delà. There was a

Anseremme lock and weir

green light at the entrance to the lock cut leading to lock 2 Waulsort. More very noisy aircraft. The lock was ready, soon down another 2.2m. Below the lock there was a very large ornate old building for sale which was once The Grand Hotel. Even though part of its roof was missing the price tag was 99,900€. The long moorings of Hastière Yacht Club had only a dozen boats on its pontoons, one of them was a DB – the crew waved. Took photos of the old chateau. Just a few rock climbers on Freyr rocks opposite the ancient chateau of the same name. A Belgian flagged DB went past as we rounded the bend to lock 3 Anseremme. The old railway went through a tunnel into the rock

Roche Bayard and high viaduct in Dinant

on the left and above it the wind had eroded the rock, reminding us of the tunnel on the Canal du Midi. A long row of cruisers belonging to Anseremme boat club stretched down to the weirstream. Into the lock cut. A trip boat from Dinant had just come into the lock (another went up the weir stream and winded to head back into Dinant) so I threw a rope around a bollard and we waited while the lock filled. Le Sax exited the lock chamber, the lock light stayed on red so Mike gave the lock a call on

Slides for the pontoons (not there)
 at Dinant and CCTV.
Temporary moorings further downriver

VHF and the lady keeper said “entrez!” then we dropped down another 2.2m. Below the lock the underwater training wall linking the lock to an island was now marked with red and green cans (many years ago a friend of ours grounded his boat there while waiting for the lock and almost sank). On downriver into Dinant taking photos of the rocks and the viaduct. A large hotel ship, Azolla from Maasbracht, was moored below the bridge on the left bank as its superstructure was too high to pass under it. The quays along the right bank were undergoing fundamental re-development. Several cruisers were moored just downriver of the big ship. We’d already spotted that the pontoons for pleasure boats (a bit further back upriver) had been removed and there were surveillance cameras all along that bank. Lock 4 Dinant was ready with a green light so we went in and waited. Eventually the gates closed behind us and we dropped down 1.8m. It rained again briefly as we carried on downstream. Noticed that there were two ancient abandoned trip boats moored in the old arm and beyond that there was a large new vineyard. Yet another Dutch cruiser went past, heading upriver.

Digging up the waterfront at Dinant

Lock 5 Houx had closed gates and a red light, so Mike called the keeper on the radio. He said he would reopen the gates when we were a bit closer, which he did, and then we dropped down another 2m. Less than a kilometre downstream we stopped at the old quay in Anhée. There is a low quay which was almost on river water level and Mike decided to give the sides of the boat hull a good scrub, starboard side first (empty 80m

Biggest boat we've ever seen in Dinant. Hotel ship Azolla

Dune went past heading upriver and his wash snapped an old short rope that we had temporarily tethered the boat with) Mike knotted it back together. We winded and did the other side before bow-hauling the boat on downriver a bit and tying to the higher quay (a bit higher than our roof). It was just after 5pm when we finished. Solutio, now empty after unloading in Givet, went past heading downriver at 6.45pm.

Moored at an old quay in Anhee