Strepy-Thieu to Viesville (4-7 September)
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4th September – The overnight mooring at the Pont-canal d’Ascenseur turned into a two night stay at the top of this magnificent construction, and Nicki took the time to walk Casper down to the bottom a few times and take some photos of the site.
6th September – After our second night’s peaceful stay we continued along the Canal du Centre under lovely warm, sunny skies, eventually turning into the Canal Charleroi-Bruxelles. I was hoping that we would stop at l’ecluse Viesville that evening, but PCNavigo showed that the lock was closed until the next morning which meant that any commercials on that route would be hanging around waiting to leave as soon as it opened, which in turn meant there might not be any room left for us. I did have a backup plan, but as it turned out, there were ‘only’ eleven big ships moored up and we just managed to slide in at the end of the concrete quay, hanging on by one (shared) bollard and three stakes.
With the lock due to re-open at 6am the next day (7th), we knew that we’d probably be woken early by all the commercials leaving at the crack of dawn, so we’ll just have to patiently wait to see what time we will be allowed to enter the lock, as commercials generally take priority over pleasure craft.
