Tuesday 10th May 2011 Valenciennes - Tournai. 27kms 3 locks

Sharing Fresnes lock with push-tow

Grey clouds, rain, then sunshine. Mike walked down the weirstream checking that there would be enough room to wind opposite the row of moored cruisers as the weirstream was running fast. Set off at 8.45 a.m. just as a “crocodile” of school kids went walking past with minders, winded by the cruisers and set off back up the weir stream. Mike called the keeper at Folien lock to say we were on our way as the lock was just around the corner from the end of the weir stream. The lights were on red, so Mike backed off in case there was something coming up in the lock. Nothing in the lock and we got a green light, in and down the 3.03m in no time. Well timed as two boats were coming up to the lock, Oxbow a loaded Belgian 55m and loaded pushtow péniches Melody and Lydia. 

Sevila/Avilla push-tow in Fresnes lock

It started to pour with rain. 2.8 kms to the next lock, La Folie (2.94m). It had stopped raining by the time we arrived and the lock was ready so we were in and down slowly this time. Loaded péniche Edouard from Landelies and loaded 447-tonne Njord went into the lock we’d just left. A little further downriver we passed a small Dutch cruiser called Indy II heading fast upriver to the lock. 73m 950-tonner Gwenci from Landelies was loading scrap at the quay below La Folie. Before we arrived at the lock we were overtaken by pushtow Avila and Sevilla and 1599 tonne Apache went past heading upriver. We followed the pushtow into Fresnes lock. Mike called the keeper on VHF to ask if he still had a used oil disposal place; yes, he had, so Mike told him he had a small container of engine oil – OK to deposit it when we arrived in the lock. The pusher went on the right and we went in on the left, same side as the lock cabin and the oil disposal place. 

Bows of push-tow

Mike hopped off and got rid of the old oil. When he got back on board he asked the woman on the pusher pair if she was going to leave their prop turning, yes, but we could move further down the chamber and go out first. I slipped the rope off and we went down the chamber as the water was going down. I said with any luck it would be empty before we get there and I won’t need to put the rope around a bollard! It wasn’t quite that fast, but the gates were opening within minutes of my dropping a rope on a bollard! It wasn’t long before the pushtow overtook us and sailed off into the distance. Cervantes went past heading upriver on the long straight near Hergnies. I’d already cooked some bread buns in the oven so I made sandwiches for lunch. At the junction with the Scarpe (closed) we passed a Dutch péniche called Gondel flying a very large Dutch flag. At 1.15 p.m. we crossed the border into Belgium and Mike changed our courtesy flag. Above the bridge at Belharies an empty pusher pair called Mistral and Avalanche went past heading upstream. 

Edwin loaded with containers

There was only one boat on the quay at Bleharies downstream of the road bridge, a loaded péniche called Bona-Fide. A 1500-tonner loaded with scrap went into the Blaton-Nimy-Peronne canal as we were getting near the junction. Loaded boat Tosca from Antwerp went past heading uphill at the bridge before the junction. Four lads in an inflatable boat named Belouga were zipping around at the junction. At the TGV railway bridge we passed Edwin a boat loaded with containers. An empty 80m boat called Romy went upstream just before we reached the road bridge at Antoing. Two empty barges, 70m Typhon and 67m St Benoit were moored on the quay opposite Neptunia’s fuel and chandlery barge. Its three bunker boats were moored below it. A big empty called Shenandoah was moored outside two péniches with more empty péniches moored downriver, Orca, Sanwen, Nova-Gura and Edison. 

Chateau turrets at Antoing

A bit further on Bounty, an 80m empty barge, was moored on the quay by the blast furnace. On the quay wall that extended from Antoing to Vaulx Antalya (105m x 9.5m 2175 tonnes) was being loaded from tipper wagons and one tipped just as we went past; it looked like coal but was more likely to be aggregates; then a row of boats waiting to be loaded, two push tow pairs and 50m Mercure. Next was Emma (105m x 9.5m 2,182 tonnes) its load of scrap metal was being unloaded by digger into tipper lorries, further along the quay, an empty péniche called Anex, a loaded one called Olsé and Nessie, an empty 65m barge. A catamaran looked well out of place, out of the water on the bank at the end of the quay. 80m empty called Pat-Vero went past heading upriver as we went into Tournai. 

At last we meet! Moored at Tournai with The Snail

As we rounded the bend we spied a narrow boat on a new pontoon mooring next to the high quays that are a feature of the river in Tournai. We landed right behind Wandering Snail before Anne spotted us (she was sitting out on the pontoon, reading) and Olly came out of his workshop to say hello. We chatted for a few minutes then we finished tying up, put all the stuff away and went to sit out and have a drink with our new neighbours.