Friday 10th June 2016 Pont-de-Loup – Ville-sur-Haine. 50.8kms 5 locks 1 lift

Dry dock and chandlery at Pont-de-Loup

8.9° C Sunny and warm, clouds taking over by late evening. Left the basin at 8am and met the first boat of the day, Merrimack - 81m long and loaded with scrap, by the road bridge to Farciennes. We knew there was something going on when he slowed down and his bows slewed to our left, and he blocked the canal. Kept well back out of his way as he reversed through the winding basin and under the road bridge to an unloading quay that we’d never noticed before.

Under Chatelet -Farciennes road bridge, what's he up to?

Despite the fact that the water was as dark as brown Windsor soup and had loads of floating rubbish and wood in it, there were surprisingly large numbers of ducks and geese about. Sad to see the ruins of the big factory belonging to Hainault-Sambre laid waste by fire. Opposite the factory 90m Censor was loading 2600 tonnes of scrap metal. 80m boat St Louis, loaded with 1450 tonnes of scrap went past us by the motorway bridge, heading

Hanging back to see what he's doing
- ah-ha reversing into the winding basin 

downriver. Mike called the keeper of lock 12 Montignies on VHF radio and he said OK there was a tug waiting to go up and we joined Melissa and an empty pan in the chamber. (Tug Melissa had been in the basin at Vankerhoven’s opposite us overnight). Up 2.2m with ropes fore and aft up the recessed bollards in the lock wall. Amore, loaded with soil, was waiting to go down the lock and another boat loaded with scrap had arrived below the lock to go up. The swirling wash from the tug as he left the lock glued our

Burnt out factory buildings

boat to the wall and it would not come off, so we scraped our fenders along the walls all the way out of the chamber. 5.5kms to the next and the tug was soon out of sight. A Dutch-flagged DB called Ria went past heading downriver, followed by two loaded Dutch péniches, Shiva and Athena, both blue-boarding (going round the bend on the wrong side), we were already on the left. Throughout the length of this section, between the two locks, there are navigation signs that indicate that the boat traffic swaps sides - 

In Montignies lock 12 with tug Melissa

so we should be on the left anyway!! Workmen at a building site, where some smart new houses were being built, waved and said hello as we passed them. Into the winding concrete channel through Charleroi town centre. No signs remained of the recent flash flooding. Followed the tug into lock 11 Marcinelles, right next to the steel works, and we came up 3m, then one of the lock keepers came to ask Mike if we had a “Permit de Circulation”, nope, what’s that – we though

Two Dutch peniches blue-boarding

t the toll tickets commonly called “Quittances” had been stopped as a waste of time and paper. 80m Infinity was at the scrap berth alongside the lock chamber, waiting to unload. An empty set off in front of the tug and pan and a loaded Dutch boat from Krimpen called Pauline (105m x 9m 2006T) went into the chamber we’d just left. As he was too big for any of the locks further up the canal or the Sambre, we reckoned he’d just loaded at the long quay at

Minor repair work!

the start of the canal de Centre. We turned right under a bridge then left on the Centre, while a smart Belgian cruiser turned right to head up the Sambre (which leads to the Sambre á l’Oise canal, still closed on the French side of the border, shame as it is a lovely route back into France which we miss). The tug had arrived at his dredging site so he dropped off his empty pan and circled round to pick up a pan full of dredgings to take back downriver. We had a half hour wait below lock 1 Marchienne-au-Pont, while the big empty that took off from Marcinelle went up the lock, so I made a cuppa. The next three locks were each 7 metres deep but easy to work through as they were equipped with floating bollards recessed in the chamber walls and the ones either side of the central sliding lock gate (they can use half a chamber for péniche-length boats, but rarely do) are the ideal distance apart for us. Just us to go up. 4kms to lock 2 Gosselies. Ryanair planes were taking off from Charleroi airport, to the east of Gosselies, one after another. A narrowboat and a crowd of cruisers came past heading downhill – might have guessed - it was Mike Clarke with Sika – lots of waving and shouted greetings as we passed. Houseboat Luxemotor Denta was still

In the tank waiting to go down

moored in the pound. Loaded péniche Safari came down the lock, then we went up. A workman perched in the bucket of a small digger was doing some repairs to the lock wall about 1.5m down from the coping stones as we came up another 7m, which made an unusual sight. Loaded 60m boat Eidelweiss and a smart Dutch steel cruiser went into the chamber we’d just vacated. Gaelle (73m x 8.26m 1063T) was being loaded with minced scrap metal by a digger with an

A boat load of aggregates heading for the lift (left)
Two trip boats tied up, not working

onion grab at the recycling plant just above the lock. The surroundings were starting to get less industrialised as we reached the last lock, 3 Viesville. Just us to go up. Another 7m lift and we were on the summit level. A Dutch cruiser was waiting to go down. A DB called Zophia was moored at the end of the lock waiting area, having lunch no doubt. 16kms to the junction with the new canal. Mike put the sunshade up. A British barge (a Sheffield keel I do believe) called Riccall was moored by Carrefour and just about to set

Strepy-Thieu lift, with all its lights on! (Both tanks working)

off as we went past. Lunch on the move. A loaded péniche called Mi.Amore Pat went past while I was making sandwiches. Mike swatted the first big horsefly of the year as we passed the Bellecourt arm, feeding it to the fish. Two rowing skiffs came out of the arm and raced off into the distance. An empty péniche called Porto-Rico was still moored by a factory, think it was there last time we went past, must be retired. Just the rear end of a péniche, power

The old boat lift at Thieu, new lock and campervans on the mooring quay

plant and accommodation, was being used as a tug to push a dredging platform, it went past us at the junction with the new canal de Centre and was followed by a loaded boat called Casablanca (85m x 8.45m). The water seemed cleaner as we approached the aqueduct before the new Strépy lift and there were grebe and cormorants fishing in the canal. Mike called the lift and was told next locking was on the tribord side (had to look that up, neither of us could remember which is which with tribord and babord) right – it means starboard. Loaded Dutch boat Relax (80m x

Moored on the quay at Ville-sur-Haine

8.20m 1088T) went past. Allegria (80m x 9.5m 1211T) was being loaded by tipper lorries with small granite chips at the sand quay above the lift. Into the empty tank and had a short wait while a cruiser called Mi Amore arrived, then the caisson started its descent. Mike went in the cabin and gave the young lady our Belgian MET number and she filled in the details of where we were going and printed out a form identical to a quittance, which she said was definitely not a quittance and was only for the lock keepers in case they wanted to know where we were going! Old habits die very hard here, it’s a quittance, I’ll add it to the collection. Surprisingly both caissons were working, that’s the first time we’d seen that. Admittedly it was pretty busy, even though the trippers were tied up below and not working, A boat load of aggregates was going up in the babord tank. Another loaded 80m boat called Tornado was heading for the lift as we passed the new lock leading to the old lifts. The cruiser Mi Amore was just about to go up the new lock. A new build DB Addi Quo Vadis (Dutch) was moored at the end of the quay by the lock, there were seven campervans parked on the quay. It was 5.50pm as we moored next to what used to be the public quay at Ville-sur-Haine, but was now was fenced off and had a locked pair of large gates for road access. We won’t be disturbed by fishermen then. Boat traffic continued until around 8pm. Mike watched the first Euro 2016 football match from the Stad de France, France versus Romania.