Along the Haut-Escaut
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19th September – An early start for me, with a shortish dog walk, before Nicki rose at 8.30, and we were easily away by 9am. Our journey today took us through Ecluse Peronnes 1 and 2 – previously a long winded affair but this time round it was reasonably quick and easy – and on toward a fuel barge in Antoing where we planned to stay in a little mooring tucked back from the main channel. First stop though was to get the fuel topped up further up river, after which we turned the boat round to head back to the mooring – but disaster! It was already occupied, and not just occupied but fully occupied! This hasn’t happened before – so far we have managed to moor wherever we planned so we had to do a quick re-think and, as they say, be flexible.
Looking at other moorings along the way, we decided to aim for the Espierre junction where we had moored before, next to Maarten’s old lock-keepers house. We were both looking forward to seeing him again, so were hoping that the space was free and that he would be in. As it turned out, there was no other boat moored, although there was an angler enjoying a quiet fish at the exact spot we needed. Luckily he was quite amenable to being ousted, and we were able to rope up reasonably easily. Whilst I tidied things up, Nicki took the dogs for a quick walk, at the same time popping in to see if Maarten was in – he was but he was due to go out again shortly so invited us back for breakfast in the morning.
The dog walking turned out to be brilliant for them, and they were very happy to get a good run after a long day spent on the boat. During the evening, until about 9pm, commercials were still very busy entering and exiting the Bossuit canal just round the corner, so it was quite a creaky, bouncy evening, but on the plus side, this time round there did not appear to be any frogs, so we were hoping for a quiet night, and luckily that is what we had.
Next morning was a nice looking day, albeit a bit breezy. We dropped round for a lovely breakfast with Maarten and his partner, and shortly after 10am were ready to leave and head on towards Kortrijk.
On approaching Bossuit lock we tried out a little more french than normal, and were not only understood but also we worked out what they were saying to us (actually more luck than judgement). Then onto our next target, where we were intending to pick up some (free) water – in the process, Nicki took the dogs for a quick stroll and met up with Becky and Kevin (owners of Rachel Ray) and she invited them back to the boat for a coffee with us before we and they had to carry on our respective journies.
In the lock Nicki managed to jam up the rope, and there was a scurry for the knife to cut us free. No serious damage done, except to the rope and her pride.
Getting through the next couple of locks was a little more time consuming than we had imagined, but once through them we were able to search and locate a mooring for the night and could settle down.
