Faring home: the end of the journey

When I posted my blog last week, we were still on the Canal de Roubaix at Leers. We eventually left on Sunday afternoon; neither of us really wanted to go at all and if we'd been able to squeeze one more night on the Belgian stretch, we would have done, but let me backtrack a bit first.

Sunday dawned bright and sunny. It was a lovely morning, so we decided to make a bit of a day of it and took the Hennie H back the way we'd come to the first (or last) bridge at Grimonpont. We'd noticed some good moorings there when we were on the way to Leers and we thought it would be fun to go and spend a few hours there. It was only about twenty minutes faring, but we enjoyed the move to this lovely spot.

Mooring at Grimonpoint

Looking towards the bridge at Grimonpoint

I took a walk around and found it an attractive and peaceful place. In fact, it is on the outskirts of both Leers and Wattrelos, so mostly there are just houses there, some of which caught my eye, like these two - one so vivid and colourful and the other so classically serious:

I loved these colours!

Symmetry and classicism  - seriously

We then cycled into Wattrelos, which had some nice architectural features. I quite liked the town altogether even though it wasn't very coherent.

I loved the upper windows on this house
and the pretty balcony

Looking down a side street in Wattrelos

The Wattrelos town hall complete with palm trees
and decorative paving

Wet paving always looks lustrous. This
was just after a shower

When we got back to the Hennie H, we called the Wallonia waterways service to ask if it would be possible to go through the locks beyond Leers. Being Sunday, we weren't sure if they would do it and it was already nearly 4pm. At first, they asked if we could wait till the next morning, but shortly afterwards, they called us back to say we could do it as there were some other boats coming through.

We cast off and headed back to Leers where a crowd was at the lock to watch the action. This is always fun as we know how fascinating it is to watch boats locking through - we do it ourselves all the time.

The Walloon lock keeper was every bit as nice and friendly as our French crew and he took us through the three bridges and two locks with great good humour and friendly banter. In truth, he was too good as we were tempted to stop on the way, but he was ready for us in advance every time so we didn't have the heart to say we didn't want to go further. This eight-kilometre stretch of the system is called the Canal de l'Espierres (the 's' seems to be optional depending on what you're reading) and it is absolutely beautiful as you can see below:

Tree-lined canals like this are just so Belgian. I love them

A lovely sight. This girl stopped her horse to watch us pass

One of the classic lifting bridges on the Canal de l'Espierres

Our delightful lock assistant. What a nice man he was/is

Magnificent barns around a village church

As we left the last lock and waved our friendly Walloon goodbye, I felt a great sense of loss. This was it now. The holiday was over and our return through Oudenaarde and Gent would be all too familiar. After all, we'd done it all last year on the way south. But I hadn't taken into account that everything looks different when going the other way. Added to that, this time the weather was beautiful (it poured with rain last year) so in fact I enjoyed it to the full all over again. The Schelde/Scheldt is a lovely river. It has a sort of majesty in its remote beauty as it winds its way north and down to the huge estuary the other side of Antwerp. It also has some of the industry we enjoy seeing so much, as well as being very busy with commercial barges. Here are a few images.

Waiting at a lock on the Schelde for a big one. The barge
that came out was 110 metres long!

The kind of industry I like seeing

Industrial art in heaps

We spent the night in Oudenaarde, a classical Flemish town on the edge of the Vlaamse Ardennes, so called because it is an area of outstanding beauty with some unusually high hills for this rather flat region. I like Oudenaarde, but for me it's a real sign of being close to home. Everything is familiar and normal, unlike France, which still feels exotic in its different customs and culture. Shops in Belgium open all day, as do restaurants - just like the Netherlands, so in many ways it is more comfortable; I love being in France almost because of its differences. All the same, it was good to be there and the morning light at our mooring was breathtaking.

Morning light in Oudenaarde

On Tuesday we made the final push for home. Once again, it was lovely weather - in fact even lovelier than the day before. I had such mixed feelings heading north. The river was magical, the skies were clear with picture book clouds and the scenery was a perfect mix of rural splendour and industrial loading quays heaped with a variety of sand, coal and cement. There were commercial barges aplenty whose skippers waved cheerfully to us. 

Huge commercial barges waiting to go through the lock
at Asper

Rich reeds and greenery

A lunchtime stop at Gavere

Industrial buildings on the Schelde

In other words, it was a perfect day, but all too soon, we were crossing the Ringvaart round Ghent and winding our way through my favourite of all cities. Again the mixed feelings fought each other: the sorrow of a journey reaching its end, but the joy of being on some of my favourite stretches of water. The lock-keeper at Brusselsepoort lock in Ghent was another lovely chap who cheerfully operated the lock manually (which takes time) and seeing we had trouble getting our umbrella down, he sped off on his bicycle to open a low bridge for us (Yes...his bicycle! All the other lock assistants we've had have driven vans - even to go a couple of hundred metres. I was very impressed with this one :)). 

The lock assistant in Ghent

Approaching the lifting bridge

There's much love for the Hennie H

Our passage here is the middle of a roundabout

 And at last we were back out on the great Ghent to Terneuzen Canal. As always, I loved being on this huge shipping corridor with its docks, cranes and turbulent, choppy waters. It never fails to inspire me and I felt my spirits lift, even as we headed for home.

And back out on the Ghent to Terneuzen Canal

We finally arrived in Sas van Gent at about 6:30pm. It had been a glorious day, both uplifting and poignant, but now we've brought the Hennie H to rest after two months of fantastic faring. What a great little barge our Hennie is! We can really give thanks that she never once let us down. We had a few battery issues but that wasn't her fault and she brought us safely and happily through 930 kilometres of glorious waterways. A big 'hats off' to our Shoe for her faithful service.

So that's it, allemaal. I hope you all have a wonderful week. I will have some other news next week, but for now, our journeys on the Shoe are over for this summer. Many, many thanks to all of you who have been kind enough to read these blog posts. I am so grateful for your kind comments. I've loved writing them for you and it's been a great way of cementing my impressions. Bless you all!

Still fair for faring

The weather is definitely becoming more autumnal now and the trees are turning such a beautiful colour, but despite a few days of very heavy rain and chill winds, we are still having some lovely sunny days. So much so that we have had yet another quick spuddle out on the canal this weekend.

But before I get to that, I wanted to add some photos here of the very special sailing barge event that we went to last Sunday the day after I wrote my last post. I'd read that the Bietentocht (as it is called here) was starting with its traditional 'warm-up' event at the town of Goes, not that far away from where we escape to at weekends. Bietentocht means Beet tour and it is just that: a tour of sugar beet loaded barges that sail from one town to another in Zeeland over a period of four days. The boats are all traditional Dutch sailing barges and the event begins when they are towed by magnificent draft horses from the lock (sas) at Goesesas to the harbour in the centre of Goes itself. The horses used for this event were Belgians, apparently. They were not quite as tall as some of the English draft horses I have seen, but still noble and beautiful.

Koos and I agreed we would like to go and see the event, so we jumped on his motor scooter and sped 50km along the highway to arrive at the start just as they were beginning to match horses to barges. In the sunshine, at the water's edge with the bright autumn light, it was a truly captivating scene, and I think the photos speak for themselves:

Horses taking up the slack lines

And then pulling the barges

Without too much effort at all - one gentle
nudge was all it took

In their Sunday best

Bargees in traditional costume

And glorious paintwork

More dressed up gee gees

Barges in the lock waiting to be released

Barges waiting to enter the lock from the
estuary

Well of course, we had to wait and see them arrive in Goes, and that was also a terrific sight. The barges were literally crammed into the harbour.

Well, having seen this and after being so inspired by it all, I decided I wanted to see the end of the tour when it reached the small town of Willemstad, which is in Zuid Holland on the south side of the Hollandsch Diep. I knew they would arrive on Thursday, so after work, I met my daughter and her family and we set off to see the barges coming in. What a difference! In contrast to the previous Sunday, it was pouring with rain, and we had to make for the safety of a café, but not before I managed to snap a few pics of the boats crowding into this small harbour.

Reversing in to the harbour was the only way

Clippers, possibly the most beautiful and elegant of the
Dutch barges

Barges like sardines in a can

Wonderful shapes and colours

The clouds started to clear just as we left

But that wasn't entirely the end of the barging week. We had a couple of days of excessively high water in Rotterdam, which is always quite exciting. Would the water wash over the side of the harbour this time? It never has and didn't this week either, but it did lap over the steps where the café puts its tables, and many's the time they have had to evacuate that part in the past.

Water lapping over the top steps of the café opposite

Getting close to the top, but not quite there.
We can relax...

Back in Zeeland again, the sun peeked through the clouds yesterday and the air was balmy and sweet. We were supposed to be cleaning the Hennie Ha, but the pull of the open water was too strong. It was still fair enough for faring! So we cast of the ropes and took to the canal. It also happened that friends were visiting in their camper van on the other side of the bridge, so we picked them up and took them for a spuddle too. It was unexpectedly lovely and a real treat. We made it back just before the heavens opened again.

Today has been a bright, clear and sunny too, but much colder and I really feel that autumn is upon us. It's dark in the mornings until eight now, which makes hauling myself out of bed even more challenging than usual. In another week, the clocks will change, which will give my body clock time to catch up a bit; the leaves will be falling hard and faring will be fully finished (or maybe not if we are brave). But what wonderful trips we've had this year to feed my soul through the winter....and as I still have a book about it to write, I can live it all over again. Aren't I the lucky one?

Watery Ways is back on sale....

....In a new, improved and exciting edition.

I first published Watery Ways three years ago through Lulu.com. As a self published book that had very little marketing, it didn't do badly, but marketing really is necessary if you want to gain readers and I never had the time. Now with the support of Boathook Books from Sunpenny Publishing, I'm hoping it will get that extra push. My dream is that Watery Ways in particular will give me a little more freedom from the daily grind - a little more freedom to write more and take to the waters more. It has been my dream since coming to the Netherlands and now I'm hoping it will start to happen - just a bit.

What I am very chuffed about with this new edition is the inclusion of several photos of the Oude Haven and the historic barges that are moored there. These photos are mainly Koos's, so as my long standing blogging friends will know, they are going to be good, but I think it gives more life to the book and I am convinced this edition is just an improvement all round.

I shall now have to devote some time to promoting it again, and I would very much like to do some talks at schools and barge associations connected to Dutch Barges. I'm intending to start making contact with people in the next weeks.

It would be great if it becomes something people will think of for a holiday read at the end of the year. I just need to get some good reviews on Amazon to get things moving. Wish me luck!  Sadly, I don't have Pete Townshend's extra something, otherwise I'd be after some TV spots too. Promoting your book is a tad easier when you already have the gleam of fame around you...at least it looks that way!

Back in action

The photo above was taken on a happy day in September 2008 when the the barge in the picture, the Hennie Ha, was newly ours and we had just finished sprucing it up to take it to its new home in Sas van Gent. We were celebrating our delight with the work we had done. However, the four years since have seen troubled times for our little barge. At the insurance inspection we'd had done in Rotterdam, the inspector told us we would have to have the steel plates that had been used to 'double' the bottom removed and replaced. They were too thin to be acceptable and we were given one year to have the work done.

Shortly after this happier photo was snapped, we made the journey through Zeeland as far as Hansweert, where I left Koos to go back to work in Rotterdam. Koos continued across the Westerschelde, an estuary so busy with sea-going ships and so riddled with sandbanks and shallows that you need a special licence to navigate it. He made the crossing without mishap, but just as he turned into the big sea canal from Terneuzen to Gent, the steering shaft broke. Some of you who have been reading my blog a long time might remember this episode. It was traumatic for Koos but a blessing that it happened so close to a lock and not out in the middle of the main shipping channel.

He was given a tow to Sas van Gent, and since then, the furthest the Hennie Ha has travelled under its own steam is from Zelzate (four kilometres towards Gent) back to Sas after having spent nearly a year at the shipyard having its bottom replaced (so to speak).

It took close to the year we were given to organise these very necessary repairs as we couldn't find anyone to do the work at a price we could afford.  Some of you might also remember that at the first attempt, the yard at Zelzate could not lift the Hennie Ha with their crane because it was too heavy, so she had to be towed back to Sas by our narrow-boating friends, Olly and Anne on the Wandering Snail. That was on 2 July 2009

The second attempt  was made early in 2010.  In the intervening months, we had looked at several other options, all of which were too costly and the Hennie Ha just lay sadly at its berth. Except for the fact that Koos managed to fix the steering and I did my best to keep up with the maintenance, it could not go anywhere. Had any problems occurred with the hull, we would not have been insured, hence we were effectively 'gated'.  In the end, another arrangement was made with the yard at Zelzate and Koos risked the trip back. This time the barge was pulled up the slipway - where it remained until February 2011.

On that cold, but exciting day, we brought the Hennie Ha back to Sas van Gent again, but that was not the end of the story. The steering was still giving problems and we needed to set up the cooling system. It had only ever been a botch job, so now it needed doing properly.

In May 2011, we attempted a trip out with some friends, but once again, the steering gave problems. By this time, our confidence in the little barge had dropped again, and it never really recovered sufficiently to get things moving again during 2011. Apart from that, the rest of the year brought other priorities that needed our attention and so the Hennie Ha lay in its berth again.

This summer did not really materialise until this month, weather wise, and again, there were other priorities that prevented us from testing out the new cooling system that Koos had set up in June. Still, (and yes, you knew I'd come to the point eventually) we finally did it.

As I mentioned in my last post, after some very necessary testing  - and I won't bore you with the details - we were finally satisfied the Hennie Ha was ready to go again. So, today, we did it. It took some resolve - after all, our faith in the boat had taken some knocks - but we finally cast off and went for a test run. The silly thing is that it was so thrilling and so exhilerating I totally forgot to take any photos!

We didn't go far. Bit by bit, you understand. Next time, it will be further, and we have a special trip in September to aim for. The point is, though, we did it. Out and back without a problem. Are we pleased? We are. More than just a bit.