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.
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
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
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 -
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
Under Chatelet -Farciennes road bridge, what's he up to? |
Hanging back to see what he's doing - ah-ha reversing into the winding basin |
Burnt out factory buildings |
In Montignies lock 12 with tug Melissa |
Two Dutch peniches blue-boarding |
Minor repair work! |
In the tank waiting to go down |
A boat load of aggregates heading for the lift (left) Two trip boats tied up, not working |
Strepy-Thieu lift, with all its lights on! (Both tanks working) |
The old boat lift at Thieu, new lock and campervans on the mooring quay |
Moored on the quay at Ville-sur-Haine |
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