Belgium - Ardennes, Meuse

Week 38 — May 10th - 23rd (Sally).

Belgium has been a great experience for us except for the lack of internet access so apologies to all who have written and not yet received a reply. We can send through the website and receive when we get to a connection but cannot send individual emails. Strange and frustrating and has made us feel quite out of touch. Amazing how quickly one comes to depend on a service that only a few years ago was unheard of. Internet cafés are virtually impossible to find in Belgium — everyone seems to be connected so there's no need.

We continued our leisurely pace along the Dender, which Tony felt should be rechristined the Bender as it twists and turns with very little space to negotiate or even pass another boat. Thankfully, in spite of the beautiful weather the traffic was virtually non existent and we had the whole river to ourselves. That is except for numbers of ducks with ducklings in tow, geese,grebe and moorhens to name the few we recognized. The bird life was prolific and as all the banks were overgrown they offered ample protection to raise their young. This was the first time we have not had a timetable to meet so we took a very lazy 6 days to do the 68kms with frequent stops at the little towns along the way. Every village in Belgium has a town square, or Grot Markt, and every square has cafes that serve copious amounts of Belgium beer. We are told that Belgium produces 350 different brands of beer with various alcohol contents, the highest is 12%!!!

Our biggest adventure (indignity rather) on the Dender was becoming well and truly aground in the middle of the river. The river is a lot lower than normal and we proved that by coming to rest on a mudbank just before the last lock going up. With the help of the ever friendly lock keepers and a very big tractor we were towed off and into the lock, where we continued on our way. The authorities need to do some serious maintenance work on this section. It was a relief to reach the end and turn onto the Canal du Centre which took us to Mons.

We had arrived in time for "The Doudou", the biggest event in the calendar. It is a celebration that dates back to the 14th century, and involves 1500 of the townspeople all dressed in mediaeval attire. On Saturday after a church ceremony the relics of Saint Waudru are entrusted to the Mayor so that on Sunday they can be carried on a procession through the streets followed by 60 groups of religious orders and Guild Corporations. After the procession reaches the church and the casket is safely back in its usual place the Dragon appears in the Grot Markt and is confronted by St George and a host of other participants. Of course St George always wins and the people of Mons are safe for another year, which they promptly celebrate by drinking another few big brown Belgium beers. Our part in the celebrations involved a lot of people watching from a ring side seat in the square on Friday and Saturday night where we saw the start of the procession to collect the relics but my highlight was just by chance finding my way into the church on Friday for the start of the dress rehearsal for the Saturday ceremony. The organ music along with a keyboard and Drums was wonderful. I always think an organ fills a church but put a set of drums with it and you have really got a BIG sound.

From Mons we continued on to the Strepy-Thieu Boat lift. A new engineering marvel that has only been open a few years. One sails into an enourmous bath tub and the whole thing is lifted 73metres vertically and one then sails out the other end. Very ingenious and has made the Canal du Centre much more commercially viable. Barges' size has increased from 350 tons to 1350 tons which is equivalent to 60 trucks or 40 railway wagons. It meant of course that we met more than a few of them and have become very adept at keeping out of their way. Yesterday we followed two of them into a lock that measured 200m by 25m. We took up our fraction of space then were followed by a hotel barge and then another huge barge inched up beside us. It was 100m long and displaced over 2000 tonnes. The one in front of it had to sqeeze forwarded to get them all in with barely a metre between them all. Interesting but will be nice to be back to scenic cruising next week.

We are now on the Meuse where the highlight for Tony was sailing through a huge steel mill at Charleroi. We had the foundry on both sides of the canal with conveyors and walkways over. Only a man would find that fascinating. Our other stop of interest was Namur, on the confluence of the Sambre and the Meuse. We intend to be back there next Monday to collect our next guests, Nancy and Tony Stenton and then continue down the Meuse to France.Looking forward to sharing a very pretty part of both countries with them.