Almost back in Bruges
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After our visits to the Ronquieres Inclined Plane and the Strepy-Thieu lift, we made our way to Mons where we stopped on a quay near the local Leisure Centre for a couple of nights. We took the opportunity to take down the bimini whist the weather was dry, and also walked into the town for a brief look around.
Moving on, we made our way to Antoing – everything crossed at this point as we were seriously low on fuel – where we would be able to re-fill the tanks and relax again. Fortunately the gods were in our favour and not only did we make it to the fuel barge, but there was space for us in the mooring we had decided on for that night. And it just happened that Julie and Trigger (Mimosa) were already moored there, so we were able to catch up on places we had all visited and things we had all done, and chat about the next stage of our journies through Tournai.
Trigger was able to tell us that we would not be able to pass through Tournai from Friday to Monday (due to construction works), and so we decided to take off again the following morning along with Mimosa, to get ahead of any potential delays. There were a lot of big commercials along the route to the town, but our two boats by-passed them all and got to the front of the queue, ready for the off.
On our journey through Tournai last year, we had had to pass through an old historic arch (one of three linked arches) – on that occasion we did see a small commercial make the pass, yet despite this, it was with some trepidation that we approached, as it seemed too tight to accommodate us, but we made it though fairly easily. Anyway, the point is that this year they have completely demolished the central arch (to make way for large commercial vehicles to pass through the town) – such a shame, and so sad to see.
Once through and out the other side, Mimosa took off for Kortrijk and we slowly cruised along to the Espiere junction, mooring at ‘our spot’ near to Maarten and Tina’s house. There is some lovely dog walking along/close to the tow path, and the dogs had a well deserved run around the fields, even chasing a hare. Later that afternoon Maarten came along to say hello, and we spent a lovely time catching up with him and, later still, he came round (along with Django) for dinner. In the morning he invited us round for coffee before we headed off again.
Next stop, Oudenaarde where we were anticipating mooring somewhere along the main canal through the town, but we quickly came to realise that that might not be such a good idea, and changed course into the nearby yachthaven. Yet again, rabbits galore entertained the dogs on our walks; we were quite close to the centre and took ourselves off for a look around, finding a pretty little park, a magnificent town hall and a charming coffee shop (well, we had to, didn’t we).
By this point due to the bad weather, most of our moorings were getting quite uncomfortable, which was a real contrast to the generally peaceful moorings in Holland. So, leaving Oudenaarde, with the weather deteriorating even more, plenty of rain and increasing wind speeds, and with the forecast really bad for the next 24 hours, we moored up further along the main canal and waited until Monday to get back to the marina in Bruges. That proved to be a good idea as Monday was a much nicer day (although it did take 8 hours to get there), and there was a nice gathering of friends to greet us followed, naturally, up by a few drinks in a local bar.
And so ends our second year of cruising – another fabulous year for us both.
