NORTH
SEA IN SIGHT
Simon
Jenkins is bringing his first historic barge from the
Mediterranean to Belgium, and now onto the Channel coast.
Last time
Simon and Amanda faced a stoppage but found time explore Glorious
Ghent. Now they are heading for their winter mooring, close to the
North Sea coast.
This is his story, in his own words.
Off
we went back out of the delightful city of Ghent. We picked our way
along a rather nice little canal and passed some posh places until we
reached the Ringvaart-haha. It was Saturday again which meant it
would be quiet with commercials. Great as we could crack on
unhindered.
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| Another early start |
Only
one lock today, however, we had traded the locks for lift bridges but
this shouldn't slow
us down much. We were still heading North and the next major place on
route was the stunning city of Brugge.
The navigable canal
skirts around the outside of Brugge and in order to see its inner
delights you need to moor up and wander in. However we needed to
crack on as we had a meeting to attend with the Belgium authorities.
The
one lock we had to do was an interesting one as it was oval shaped
with three sets of lock gates, so there was another canal that we
could have taken. Not sure where it went as we never investigated
it. It might have just been to a loading basin.
This
lock had an an actual lock keeper, grumpy bugger he was too. We
shared the lock with small cruiser and the lock keeper kept a very
close eye on the proceedings, as tying up wasn't that straightforward
and it was a big lock.
The
bridges were interesting - the traffic stopped on the roads and then
these massive structures lifted gracefully in front of us, a bit
like a military salute. In one place two bridges lifted at once,
and we glided underneath whilst onlookers took photos – or perhaps
they whispered ‘hurry up’ under their breaths.
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| These massive structures lifted gracefully in front of us |
We
soon cleared Brugge and back out in to the rural
area which, by now, was very flat indeed. As we moved even
further North it opened up to almost flat lands like Norfolk. We
passed some smashing mooring places next to proper Belgium bars
and restaurants but, alas, not enough time to sample them.
So
we ended up stopping at the junction with the Kanaal
Nieuwpoort-Duinkerke/Neiuwpoort-Plassendale (thats a mouthful). If we
had carried on we would have dropped in to the sea at Ostend just a
few kilometres further on, but the next canal was to take
us to our winter mooring.
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| We ended up stopping at the junction with the Kanaal Nieuwpoort-Duinkerke/Neiuwpoort-Plassendale |
The
final canal of our journey changed from a wide deep canal capable of
taking 2,000 plus ton barges down to a canal that can cope with 38 m
x 5 m, 350 ton barges, so it was more akin to the UK canals again-in
as much as it was narrower and shallower and we were now heading west
towards Calais and Dunkirk, following the coast.
The
canal also followed a main road and it was good to see cars whizzing
past so close to the boat chugging along at 8kmh. Bridges were spread
out and there seemed plenty of them. No manual operation here either
and, as we approached each bridge a call on the VHF radio to the
central control soon had the traffic stopped and the bridge lifting
for us.
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| A call on the VHF radio to the central control soon had the traffic stopped and the bridge lifting for us |
It
all seemed very odd, with these bridges being operated by remote
control from a central office and not a canal worker to be seen.
We
had three locks to negotiate along this stretch of
canal, and they were the most amazing structures of the entire
journey (apart from the boat lift). But first we needed to get the
motorbike off the boat as there was nowhere to do so once we reached
our mooring.
So
we pulled up at another junction where there was another rather
large lock. We didn't quite understand why it was so big as
the rest of that canal was small, but we tied up, got the ramps out
and rode the bike off the back deck of the boat. We locked
it up and then back along the main line of the canal towards the
Nieuwpoort lock system.
This
is well worth going to have a look at. It is a junction of seven
waterways and it’s also known as Ganzepoot (goose foot in Dutch).
The main river, is tidal and called the Yser. It used to have several
locks but only two are used.
These
two we had to do, and they can only be done two hours either side of
high tide, so a little bit of planning was needed to ensure
we arrived at the right time. These locks are operated by a
mobile team of lock keepers and they also have to operate lift
bridges at the ends of each lock.
We
locked through the first lock and into the tidal basin at pretty much
slack water. There wasn't even a difference in the height,
but this can be either way and the lock gates have two sets of gates
at each end - which ones are needed depends on the height of the tide
- out into the basin and sharp left and towards the next lock.
We
pretty much went straight in and then locked through and on to the
last leg of the journey – but not immediately. It was Sunday and
the next lock at Veurne and the railway lift bridge was not manned on
a Sunday - so we had an enforced stay in Nieuwpoort for the rest
of the day and night. That was OK as the bike was only
a 15min walk away so we could at least do some shopping and get off
the boat for a bit!
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| The railway lift bridge |
The
final day arrived, Monday morning and the last leg of this monumental
journey. Off we went and, after what seemed like a short period of
time maybe an hour or so we reached Veurne and the railway
lift bridge. Aa quick call to the lock keeper and in no time at all
the antiquated railway lift bridge (like the bridge at the Black
country museum groaned up in to the air, just after that
is the main town lift bridge. Traffic stopped as we glided through
there - very tight indeed as we went through - and then a sharp right
and into the lock which was ready for us, and not a soul to be seen
operating any of it.
Locked
through and our mooring was in a basin just on our right hand side.
We exited the lock spun the boat around, reversed into the short
basin and moored just in front of another barge tied up there.
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| Moored at our destination - within smelling distance of the North Sea |
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| Ambiorix resplendent in her new paintwork and new covers |
We
had made it-a journey of some 1,000 miles and about 250 locks on a
107 year old 130 ton 100 foot long barge in a very short time scale.
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| And this is where it all began - Ambiorix moored near the Mediterranean, where we found her |
We
had the meeting with the Belgium authorities who needed to do the
last survey on the boat which allows it to cruise through the
European waterways. That all went well, apart from us needing an ENI
number and that’s another story altogether.
We
put the boat to bed, sorted out the electric supply, did a few jobs
on the boat, had to collect the bike from Neiuwpoort - a
quick taxi ride - packed some of our personal stuff, (can’t get it
all on the bike) booked the tunnel crossing and the next morning we
set off for England and home (now what side of the road should I be
on?)
And
now? The next part of this story starts next year when we move the
boat from Veurne on the Belgium/France border to the Netherlands
for its internal refit!
