Our first scary moment. Moored at Kerkhove on the River Schelde
Posted by contentedsouls on 20/05/2014
I’m sorry I haven’t blogged for ages but it’s the usual problem – time to blog and nothing to blog about or tons to blog about and no time to do it. We’ve been having a really interesting and varied time. I left you having just moored up at St Marten Latem where we had a terrific storm; after which the light was amazing. The garden of the Police Station had an incredible statue (I think she buried her head in shame after eating all the patisserie) and Herbie greeted the locals. We had to be ever so careful when we left for fear that we’d blow the Coot’s eggs out of her nest – she seemed to be single parenting.
And then we moved on to Gent. Gent has an M25 ring road for the big boys around it and us pleasure craft people can wind our way through the city for a couple of hours singing ‘one Corneto’. We moored on the park which was cycle free and found some decent dog walking. The park has a DIY bbq area and was packed out over the weekend with youngsters – quiet, friendly and utterly charming young people. The sort of place in England you wouldn’t dream of mooring ’cause of lager louts jumping on your roof, but here they just wanted to play with the dogs and engage in conversation.
City turtles
G told Kevin to go under the bridge and turn right – what he really meant was turn right and go under the bridge! So I hovered whilst waiting for Kevin to wind at the dead end and catch up with me (yes, we are still speaking). Daisy loved the park mooring.
Now a time jump to our moorings from Saturday at Gavere – a ‘proper’ mooring in a small town but still on the Class 5 river (2,000 ish tons) which was actually tidal. At low tide big ships (they sure as hell aren’t boats) came past, sucked us down and pushed us in and under the pontoon. Neither the dogs nor us were very happy and it was sad to see the happy-go-lucky Muttley upset. Things were slung off of the surfaces and we were rudely awoken periodically during the night. All is well and we have a safe haven tonight; in fact tonight is telly night (our satellite has broken) and Avalon let us round on Tuesdays for Holby – oh and we’ve got some proper milk. I’ll try and catch up tomorrow but no promises
contentedsouls 
indigodream said
Oh my, that sounds unpleasant – reminds me a bit of the mooring at Gravesend – maybe big uns an littl’ uns don’t really mix :-p
Sue, nb Indigo Dream
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contentedsouls said
I don’t think they do mix really; business and pleasure and all that. Baxter is staring to have Ty type problems and even Muttley is getting unsure at times. We can’t leave them on the boat on their own on this Class 4 and 5 stuff.
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Dave Smith said
Holby is on Thursday this week
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contentedsouls said
Thanks Dave; just clocked it
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juneg4ouh said
The Boven Schelde isn’t tidal, it only feels like it when the big commercials go past.The tidal Schelde starts below Merelebeke lock at the end of the ringvaart and leads to Antwerp, not a good place for a narrow boat to be. A way to help the boat to stop going under the edges of landing stages is to hang two tyres/ long fenders from the landing, not from the boat, and ride up and down on them.
Some moorings for you. On the left there is a mooring at Antoing after Neptunia’s fuel and chandlery barge with supermarket behind it, in the old lock approach. If you are continuing along the Nimy-Blaton-Peronnes canal and its continuation canal van het centrum, it’s useful to know that for most of their length the sides of these canals are sloping concrete. There’s a short arm to the disused Pommeroeul lock which has a long lock waiting area – nice concrete slipway for dog paddling – also there’s a long quay at Havre by the old ship lifts – the latter may have been put back into operation now, wonderful experience if you have a day to spare to go up the 4 lifts rather than take the quicker 75m modern lift at Strepy.
Mike and June nb Temujin at Bad Essen Mittellandkanal.
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contentedsouls said
Thanks for the info on the Shelde, they must open some sluices twice a day to reduce the levels by 12-18 inches, or is it purely co-incidence that the level drops seem to coincide with low tides?
You appear to be making good headway across Germany, when do you think you’ll be in France?
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juneg4ouh said
True, it is a river and they must have been letting some water out at low tide. Usually they do this when excessive rainfall is due.
We’re going well on the Mittelland and should be off it in a couple of days, then it’s downhill on the Ems to the Rutenbrock canal leading to the Netherlands and relative peace and quiet. We plan to dry dock and paint in S Belgium in August and return to France during Sept/Oct. Are you still planning a trip down Ronquieres to Brussels?
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contentedsoulsaham said
We are not going into Brussels, we headed now for Mons, Charleroi and Namur. Going to do the tourist thing the lifts etc at Ron…….
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Linda Gifford-Hull said
We have just been to Ghent and found your comments very interesting. We haven’t been to Brugge but found Ghent lovely. Ypres next week – any comments?
Linda
Nb Mary H
http://Www.andmilliesmakesthree.blogspot.com
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