Bossuit, Leers Nord, Tournai and on to Mons
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Everything seemed to be going so well. We headed off for Bossuit and our deepest lock to date with a 9M drop. We were told by the lock keeper that we should be able to pass through at 2pm as they were waiting for a commercial to come through first. We moored up and noticed another barge – Laura Marie – on the other side of the canal, which we had been told we should look out for, so we headed over to meet the owner, Chris Fryatt, and stopped for drinks whilst we waited. It turned out that Chris was having problems with his barge and was waiting for someone to sort out the issues so was likely to be there for a few more days. 
At 2pm we saw the commercial coming up in the lock and raced back so that we were ready to go in. But, as we are beginning to learn, things don’t always go to plan and as we arrived back on Shensi, the lock keeper came down to us to say that his computer had overheated and he could not open the gates – the commercial in the lock couldn’t get out, and we couldn’t go in! But that all got sorted and we were soon in the lock (on the plus side, as a way of saying sorry for the delay, he did fill us up with water whilst allowing the computer to cool down some more).
Anyway, off we went, heading towards Mons via Tournai; we entered the Spiere lock but from this point on, nobody seemed willing to communicate in English, the lock keeper here wanted forms filled out and to top it all, it started to rain. We got out the other side though, and then shortly after leaving the lock, the heavens opened and within seconds we could barely see anything out of the windows. So much so that I decided to quickly seek out a mooring, which we found at the entrance to a small side canal. Trying to put lines onto bollards proved difficult too as we kept sliding on the sloping concrete banks. It really was a dramatic storm!
We managed to moor up in the end, but having so far spent all our time in shorts and t-shirts, we got absolutely soaked …. here is a picture of us in our quickly donned wet weather gear, but what you can’t see is the water dripping off our clothes and any exposed body parts – we were just not prepared for that sort of downpour.
Hungry and tired, we settled down for the night – but we hadn’t bargained on frogs! They were so bloody noisy, not just for a short time, but ALL NIGHT.
The next day, whilst we were sorting out the mooring ropes, a lovely young man called Maarten came to chat to us. It turned out that he and his girlfriend were in the process of renovating an old toll house next to our mooring, at the start of the Canal de Roubaix, and after a lot of talk about their plans for the house, he invited us along to have a look and see all the work they had been doing. Such a lovely house in a brilliant location, with a fair bit of history attached. Maarten then came round to look over the boat, and stayed for quite a while – personally I think he was just putting off getting back to doing any work again!!
That evening Maarten popped round, this time with a huge basketful of cherries (from his garden) and bottles of Belgian Beer, so we had a nice evening spent with him on the boat. Its strange how easy it is to meet such nice people in this lifestyle, and we are really enjoying the different people we come across.
Whilst we were chatting though, a French boat came past and told us that there were bridge works further on in Tournai that was stopping all through traffic, and that it would be another five days before we could get through. Of course all the commercial traffic was being stopped as well so it was going to get very busy once the blockade was removed, and we stayed where we were for the extra few days, contenting ourselves with catching up on chores, followed by a cycle ride into Tournai where the works were just to see if it was worth moving closer (not really); the next day we took a rather long walk (mostly because we went the wrong way) to a supermarket, just because we could.
Whilst we were out, Piedaleau and Carmen passed Shensi on their way up the Canal de Roubaix, and on spotting us Jenny phoned and suggested we join them on the French border at Leers Noord further along the canal. I had already considered going up there but thought the entrance channel seemed a bit too tight and the navigation software was not happy with this route, but they had all made it down there and since Carmen is larger than us we thought we’d give it a go. And – and this is a biggie – we could get away from those noisy frogs. So, in the morning we set off for Leers Noord – an interesting trip starting with the narrow entrance to the canal beside Marten’s toll house, followed by two locks that were a bit tight for us and three lifting bridges. Initially we struggled to communicate with the lock keeper, as he insisted he did not speak English, but eventually we realised that he was telling us that he was having lunch and would be with us in 30 minutes (an easy mistake to make?). On arriving, he escorted us down the canal and sorted out a mooring for us at Leers Noord just in front of Piedaleau – a really delightful spot; we spent the evening as David’s guests on Carmen along with Jenny and Adrian, which was thoroughly enjoyable and we eventually retired for a good nights sleep.
Unfortunately the frogs that had kept us awake for the past few nights also seemed to either have followed us down here, or to have another colony at Leers Noord.
Due to potential lock closures in France, the next day we had to continue on through the lock at Leers Noord in order to get to a winding hole and turn round so that we could get back and continue our journey on to Namur – not really that straightforward as Leers Noord is on the border with France and the winding hole was past a lifting bridge controlled by the French lock keepers, but it all worked out well with the French operator coming up to the lock and chatting, and we then headed off through the lock to the bridge. Something had been said about weed and I had not really taken the implications on board, but the canal was indeed incredibly weedy on the French side. We have skin tanks on Shensi so there was no impact to the engine, but the thrusters were another issue and soon the grills were all clogged up, becoming almost totally ineffective. All the comments about “you need to be able to manage without relying on thrusters” started to come back to bite me. Fortunately I had taken the comments on board and we did OK getting back. By the time we got to the winding hole, Jenny and Adrian had walked up there as well so we gave them a lift back even though it would have been quicker for them to walk. Still, onwards and upwards and a small BBQ on board Piedaleau that evening ended our day, and we were again lulled to sleep by the frog chorus.
Nicki with the lovely Jenny
We headed off the next day, escorted by Gregory, our friendly lock keeper and his wife, who we also encountered later in our journey at some larger locks. We stopped at a pontoon partway down the canal and had a frog-free sleep, and then the next day Gregory was there again nice and early to escort us the rest of the way.
Back on the main course we set off towards Tournai. Closed for almost a week due to bridge works, we aimed to travel through the day after it re-opened so that most of the commercial traffic was out of the way.
Firstly we had to go through the Kain lock which seemed to take forever as there were still a lot of commercials trying to get through. At this point we realised we were in an area of Belgium where the probability of anyone wanting to talk in English was minimal so we struggled a lot but still managed to get through the lock and then on to Tournai where there was a one way system in place, so even more delays.
After getting through we found a very nice mooring basin at Antoing overlooked by a fairytale castle, and spent the evening wandering through the village.
The next day our intention was to join the Canal Nimy and head towards Mons. The start of the canal has two large locks, the first lifting us 5.6M and the second a massive 12.5M. Each lock was 85M long. We waited an eternity to get into the first lock (I don’t know why but maybe they were just loading from the other direction). Still, our turn came and in we went but to my horror, there was a commercial following us in – there seemed to be no way this was going to have a happy outcome, but surprisingly we both fitted in. Looking back it should have been obvious, he was 50M and we are 19M, so in fact there was about 15M spare.
Being a nice guy, after we exited the lock, I let him get past so that he could go in first next time and also get on quicker when we exited. But shock, horror – the big commercial that had been in front was waiting at the second lift so we realised it was going to be a long wait. We spent a long time trying to moor up to commercial sized pilings which was very uncomfortable to say the least. Anyway, when our turn came, our friend before went in and we started to take up position but another commercial steamed past us – I was less than pleased. I contacted the lock keeper but he said we would also get in. How on earth was that going to work? Last time there had only been 15M to spare. This time I was surprised to see that the second commercial had gone alongside the first, and I could not even see daylight between them. So as before, we slotted in behind them and found that we had 15M to spare. I would say that it felt like a very small gap – the bow camera showed a 3M space in front but that large sluice gate dropping from the sky behind me looked like it would take our stern off, in fact it was about 2 or 3M away. All this in the context of walls over 15M above you, ready to be flooded with water. Despite all that, it was the easiest lock ever. We had good floating bollards that secured us well and we just sat back and enjoyed the experience in the end.
After passing through these locks we headed into Mons, mooring up in the large basin near the swimming complex where there was plenty of space for us. The mooring was free and had good nearby walking for the dogs, although I had expected us to be closer to the town which turned out to be a two mile walk. Not too far really, but hardly picturesque on the outskirts. Once in the centre it was not too bad but we were quite tired by then and soon gave up and headed back to the boat. Maybe we’ll spend more time on another visit.
