Sunday 14th August 2011 La Louviére – Pommeroeul.

Floating lock bollard. Havre lock.

After heavy rain in the night it was a day full of grey clouds and showers (some heavy) with very brief glimpses of sunshine. Set off at 9.15 a.m. passing the two boats in the layby, an old Belgian steel boat that looked left but had bikes on the back and A40 (the Leeds and Liverpool shortboat) no signs of life aboard. I steered to the lift while Mike made another cuppa as Mum was just getting up. Arrived at Strépy-Thieu at 10.20 a.m. and moored on a low quay which had a sign saying mooring only for passenger boats. Mike called on VHF (and got an answer!!) and the guy said they were preparing the tribord caisson (starboard, I had to look that up as neither of us could remember our tribords from babords as the expressions are so rarely used on canals), so he took advantage of the rare low quay and scrubbed the starboard side hull and gunwale while we waited. In front of us was an empty pusher pair of péniches called Wallis and Futuna and on the opposite side a big boat called Barrak, loaded with scrap, was moored. A trip boat and a Belgian cruiser came up the lift, then we went down. Into the lift at 11.10 a.m. just us, and left the bottom half an hour later. Below, the trip boat Scaldis was loaded with passengers ready for the unique experience; it was followed by a British cruiser called Castaway from Dorchester. 

Piles of scrap. Abv Obourg lock.

We waited above Havré lock at 12.40 p.m. for uphill traffic to clear (two cruisers). Just us to go down the lock. Mike called the keeper on VHF to ask if there was water available at Obourg lock, the answer came back sorry, no. Left the bottom at 2.00 p.m. Two youths on jet-skis came flying up the canal at top speed so I got Mike to take photos while I steered. Fortunately the wash was not as bad as from speedboats. They went past us several times as we meandered slowly down to Mons. They were circling the Grand Large (the big basin, a wide expanse of water that we thought was huge when we first arrived back in ’93 - when the biggest expanse of canal water we’d seen before was Titford pools on the BCN or Tixall wide on the Shroppie). We went slowly up to the boat club moorings looking for a water tap. 

Below Obourg lock

No comment!

There were many on the pontoons but they were full of boats and so we went right to the end and moored along a low quay edged with tyres and tied up. Mike went to find someone. Alongside the quay was a large building full of people eating lunch (smells were delicious) but that was only a restaurant he was informed. He found the office upstairs to the right of the resto. 2€ for a fill-up, so he moved the boat back to the tap, which was behind us next to a British boat, called Varlyon from Goole, and I went up the fire escape staircase (hate ‘em – you can see the ground all the way to the top!) to pay our 2€. I made a cuppa and we set off again 3.30 p.m. We’d only just gone through the flood-lock at Ghlin when we had to pause as there was a problem with the alternator. I steered while we drifted along and Mike sorted it, changing the voltage regulator as the brushes had worn down and the thing had stopped charging. Five minutes later we were on our way again. After seeing no commercial traffic moving all day, at 4.00 p.m. two empty tanker barges went past; Necton, 84.9m x 9.6m 1,637 tonnes, followed by Calcit 10, 85.9m x 9.5m 1,564 tonnes from Zwijndrecht. We arrived at Pommeroeul at 6.00 p.m. and moored on the mole. No boats about just lots of people walking the towpath and the usual fishermen, including some with a campervan. Gave Mike a hand to get the moped off the roof and he went to collect the car at 6.45 p.m.