Mons (19/08 to 04/09)
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Leaving Pommerroeul, we arrived at Mons which is at the junction of the Nimy-Blaton canal and the Canal du Centre, taking up position in the harbour by the leisure centre for a week, and we were so glad we decided to stay as it turned out that they had an event happening in the town centre, which we stumbled upon by sheer accident … an Elephant Parade (not real ones, obviously!) in aid of elephant conservation, and a delightful beach/garden area set up in the centre, along with a few entertainers wandering around. There was just so much to see, we almost didn’t know where to go next. The elephants were fabulous with so many colourful interpretations everywhere you looked; the landscaped area was a riot of flowers and plants all carefully colour-themed; and the street entertainers kept children (and Nicki) amused.
During our first couple of days there we were moored behind Victoria (Anna and Steve), and at the same time as they were leaving left Nicki and I decided to dust off our bikes and, together with Casper, went for a bike ride along the Canal du Centre, catching up to them at their first lock and waving them off.
27th August – Unknown to Nicki, the children had organised a surprise visit over the weekend (for my 70th birthday), so I had to find various excuses not to leave Mons for the best part of a week and they were all due to arrive this evening. That meant that I had to keep her occupied over the course of the evening so that she didn’t push off to bed before they arrived, – no mean feat as we usually go to bed around 10 or 11 and they didn’t turn up till gone midnight.
Anyway, Stuart, Alec, Amy, Sara and Sam eventually arrived and Nicki was like a rabbit in the headlights and, unusually for her, she was momentarily speechless. (Sadly, Lucy wasn’t able to join us.) Once over the shock though she quickly re-organised the boat to accommodate them all for a few nights stay.
27th August to 2nd September – see separate post on the Family Visit.
3rd September – With little sun powering up the solar panels and seven of us on the boat for seven days, the boat batteries were fairly depleted, as was the water supply, so the day after everyone left we moved across the harbour to Mons marina for a night to take advantage of topping up these two vital commodities.
At this point our plan was to meet up with Keith and Lucress at the base of the historic lifts, so that they could make the trip with us to the top, and Janos was also going to come and stay for a short while. Unfortunately though Nicki came down with a sore throat, headache, cough, etc and as these were potentially cv19 symptoms we decided to put them all off, as it wasn’t worth the risk to their health.
4th September – So leaving early afternoon the next day, Nicki and I continued on our travels and arrived at the Strepy-Thieu Funicular Lift a few hours later, where we made ‘camp’ for the night at the top alongside the Pont-canal d’Ascenseur.
