Near the Belgium/Netherlands border, canalside at Dessel, is this delightful sculpture. In the background is the 120ft Sas tower. When we reached the top an elderly gent had set up a telescope (which he must have lugged up all those stairs, no wonder he had a rosy coloured face!)and pointed out the sights to us. We were amazed how much of Flanders was forested.

That night we ascended the tower, now spotlit, again. A storm was gathering with thunder and lightening rolling round the tower. A dramatic goodbye to lovely Belgium. Tomorrow, the Netherlands.

This ship moored in Antwerp,painted battleship grey,came straight out of a James Bond film. It has a helicopter and a sleek speedboat onboard. Not sure if we were supposed to photograph it!

On our way to the Netherlands, we stay overnight on the only free mooring in Antwerp, arranged for us by our dredger friend there, Hendrick. There were some scary moments waiting on the main canal for the lift bridge to let us in here. Ships were coming at us from all directions and a galeforce wind was not helpful with manouvreing out of their way.

We have a new crew member,pictured here making himself at home. Rescued from the canal at Gent and talking in Flemish, he (perhaps, how can you tell?)showed his gratitude by biting my finger then settling on my head so what can you do but love it?

Seen on the Moervaart on our way back to Lokeren for a few days before we begin exploring the waterways of the Netherlands. Don't know what else to say......

The approach to Brugge. The city feels to us like a living museum piece. There are beautiful buildings and intriguing narrow alleyways. We are severely over charged in a cafe. Time to move on.

The canal and river from Ieper formed a frontline for the Belgian troops. One of the many trenches has been preserved. It was called the Dodengang, the trench of death. The many clumps of poppies growing out of the walls add to the poignancy.

Still today, farmers are killed as they plough their land and hit unexploded bombs from WW1. Every year, thousands of tons are still discovered in Belgium by specialist teams.

The Menin Gate stands high above the town of Ieper. Thousands of names are carved into the walls. So many killed in the First World War whose remains could not be found that, even with such a huge memorial, there is barely enough space for them all.

We have an appointment with the monks of StSixtus in Belgium to buy a crate of their beer, the 'best in the world', and very difficult to obtain as the monks refuse to increase production in spite of the demand. Too far by pushbike from Bergues so it's off with the Enfield. After a ride through glorious countryside, we arrive back at the boat with our much sought-after 24 bottles of Westvleteren beer still in one piece, if a little shaken.

We still have a few days left before our French 'vignette' runs out. From Calais we go to Dunkirk, then down the little canal de Bergues, a deadend, finishing in this beautiful little town. It is still surrounded by Vauban's angular and canalised fortifications of the 17th century, the most complete we have found on our travels so far and we spend a few happy days here.

The Calais fest is delightfully small scale with traditional skills such as fish smoking to watch and taste. We are given pride of place, never did find out why,and consequently had to work for our keep this time with many spectators wanting to know about why the boat is so narrow.

The last part of the month-long fest is spent at Calais where they hold a yearly maritime show, not on the same scale as Ostende as our group forms the largest display.

To reach the harbour we have to go through the sea lock.....

Ostende voor Anker

For the next four days we join in with what is regarded as the very best maritime festival in Europe at Ostende.

Boats who attend are treated very well, wined and dined and entertained in return for letting the public have a look at your boat.

We are the only narrowboat here among 200 trad., sailing boats and would attract a lot of attention but, luckily for our sanity, we are six boats away from the pontoon and can hardly be seen.

On the last morning, all crews are treated to a sea voyage on a tall ship with breakfast on board. Skipper gets the chance to climb out through the netting on the bowsprit while first mate just enjoys the views of the other ships joining us out at sea.

At 02.30 on Thursday morning the trams stop running in Gent and the bridges can at last be raised for us to enter the city center, the first time boats have been allowed to do this for four years. We moor up and sink into bed at 05.30.

There are thousands of spectators, many of whom seem to be more interested in our English narrowboat than these beautiful old wooden ships we are travelling with.

We look insignificant, and there are twenty more ships to arrive!

Snail's tiller is polished for the festival.

Trad style boats arrive for fest.

Gradually, during this week, sixty traditional flat-bottomed sailing boats will arrive in Lokeren for the start of the Stroppentocht boat festival. This 24m long boat needed a little help.

Locking, Belgium style

Our friends come over to Terneuzen with their boat from the English canal system. We meet up to show them how things are done here.

Their first big lock was full of commercials jostling for position, not an easy start for them. This one, though deep, was far less fraught.

Stuck in Walloon

Thought it would be a great idea to have a pre-season trip now the ice has gone.

Leaving Tournai, the little canal de l'Espierres looked like respite from the buffeting of the 'big stuff' so we turned off the main channel and this was as far as we got!

Six hours later a 1500ton vessel bravely managed to get near enough to proffer a rope and pull us off.

October 2008

This is it until May 2009 and the return of the blog. Our plans for next summer are already made.
We join a colourful flotilla of 55 traditional wooden sailing boats and progress with them as stately as Snail can through Gent, Brugges, Ostend and briefly into France. We are very aware that we are not trad or wooden or sailing but the organiser is Fernand (he who rescued us at the start of these wanderings) and he has invited us so that's alright then.
In June we leave them and take Snail to the Netherlands and some very different waterways. So, bye for now.

September 2008

The cruisers crowd in together at the end of navigation here at Lokeren while we make a more dignified mooring, comfortably and securely rafted to Wim's boat where Snail will spend the winter. Friendly and generous, Wim is a taxi driver by day and a tango dancer at night. He has a beautiful boat which dwarfs our twentyone metres of narrowboat.
We settle Snail in, watch the cruisers leave, and then return to the UK on our trusty Royal Enfield.

September 2008

We moor overnight at the first of the five lift bridges on the river Moervaart to Lokeren.

Next morning we prepare to leave when first mate is astounded to see crowds of cruisers on this usually deserted waterway about to overtake us. They have stayed put at their moorings all over Belgium during the summer but have decided to take to the water en masse at the very end of September and head for Lokeren in this, the last official cruising weekend of the summer.

There's nothing we can do but let them all pass. Some give a cheery wave, most stare doggedly ahead.

We are recognised by the bridgekeepers who stop to chat and have a laugh about this unexpected increase to their workload. We bring up the rear, knowing our place in the scheme of things.

September 2008

We are near the end of our first summer of wanderings in Europe. To return to Lokeren and Snail's winter mooring we come back through Gent, moor up and see how Rik and Nelly have progressed with their fit-out.

They are hoping to be ready for next year's season and we look forward to meeting up with them again to share some beers and listen to more of Rik's hilarious life stories.

September 2008

Through Antwerp and the Schelde to the river Dender. This lock mooring is at Denderbelle and has a wonderfully camp lock-keeper who, with pet dog tucked under one arm, tells us about his days as a Tour de France masseuse.

We stay for two days and watch a parade of beautifully turned out horse and carriages on the opposite bank taking part in a village festival.

September 2008

Nowhere to moor here either. This is Antwerp, one of the busiest ports in Europe.

September 2008

We are now on the Dessel where we are finding moorings few and far between. The town of Turnhout provides us with a stop for a couple of days. They have heard about us from the club at Leopoldsburg and give us a discount on the mooring fee.

This moated castle in Turnhout reminded us of Gainsborough Hall in England as it too looks incongruous surrounded completely by very modern offices and shops.

September 2008

We reach the end of the canal at Leopoldsburg and are invited to stay. There is a festival here at the yacht club and we are made very welcome.

To raise money, there is a craft fair selling well-made and original items. The beer tent and waffle stalls are doing a roaring trade and some of the club members are using their cruisers to give trips up and down the canal to the paying public. We see wonderfully overcrowded boats with no obvious life-saving equipment and we doubt if the skippers have trip licences let alone insurance.....Only in Belgium.

September 2008

We explore the quiet Beverlo Canal that ends in the town of Leopoldsburg.

Barring our way is this lift bridge, the only privately owned one in Belgium. It is used to get workers from their cars parked on one side of the canal to the factory on the other. It's Sunday but thankfully the office is manned seven days a week and we are allowed through.

September 2008

Along the banks of the Albert Canal the rocks have been scarred by the digging out of this enormous waterway.

Caves both manmade and naturally forming occur at intervals. Used as ammunition dumps in the wars, they now nurture crops of cultivated mushrooms.

September 2008

This isn't an inland sea but the man-made Albert Canal. So wide that it's waters are choppy even on calm days, it was built in the last century to encourage commercial traffic and ease their way to Antwerp. It's Sunday and the only day off the commercials allow themselves so we have it to ourselves.

September 2008

Grim tho' the citadel was, the view was worth the climb. The cable cars weren't running because of high winds so more calories lost.

We are moored in front of the white boat, looking insignificant as usual.

The Meuse winds its way on to France but we stop just before the border, turn easily in this wide river and retrace our way back in to Belgium and towards Flanders.

September 2008

The approach to Huy with the town's citadel looking suitably foreboding. It was used as a concentration camp by the Nazis and now houses a very grim museum recalling Belgium under occupation. In the Great War, P.G.Woodehouse was interred here briefly.

September 2008

There were lovely walks to be had on the forested banks of the Meuse. Skipper, ever the opportunist, took the opportunity to 'harvest' some suitable sticks for carving during the winter.

September 2008

We are moored near the bridge in the far distance. Yes it was a long trek here and back again but the view from the citadel after the white-knuckle cable car ride up to it made it worthwhile.

September 2008

Dinant on the Meuse with its famous citadel perched high on the rocks looked worth a visit but with only very expensive moorings in the town we were forced to look elsewhere. Here, next to the famous Bayard's Rock, we found peaceful moorings, gratis. Okay it was a bit of a walk back to Dinant but think of the calories we'd lose.

Skulduggery from this peak in 1945 when the monarch climbed to the top to celebrate the end of the war, only to be pushed to his death in the river by the jealous husband of his mistress. Allegedly.

Woody gathers up his strength for the long walk back.

August 2008

The Meuse in winter is apparently a very different river. The commercial traffic continues all year round and to maintain navigation these hydraulic weirs have been built at intervals all the way to France.

Each weir has a salmon 'maze' at the side of it as a kinder alternative to leaping. Unfortunately we never did see any trying to find their way out.

August 2008

Further upriver we find this free mooring near the lock at Hastiere. It's provided with free electricity too and is used mainly by commercials, this one (white and blue, all one boat) enjoying a short holiday. All the family liveaboard and this boat had two cars,quadbike and small speedboat on the deck as well as a fenced in children's play area.

We are in between it and a Belgium 'spitz' behind us. The spitz are now, at 350 tons, the babies of the commercial world here. They continue to have work as they can go everywhere in France, an option not open to larger boats.

August 2008

We moor for the evening near this lovely abbey church at Hastieres.

On its wall is a memorial to the fate of the town's citizens at the hands of the Germans in the Great War. The wording is to the point and makes harrowing reading. So appalling that when occupied the second time, even the Nazis were careful to tread more gently here.

It is one of many similar stones we find all over Belgium, spelling out unequivocally the crimes of an occupying force in the last century.

August 2008

These high rocky outcrops accompany us for most of the journey along this river. Often if we look hard, we can make out climbers enjoying the challenges these spectatcular formations offer.

The few towns along the river are forced to be long and thin, their houses built hard into the rock.

There are active quarries too. So proficient that the craggy outline we've become used to disappears at intervals, blown up and carried away by the trucks that trundle back and forth.

We hope they know when to stop.

August 2008

The Meuse is wide and, for the most part, empty. It is in the Belgium Ardennes. The hilly terrain attracts and unfortunately keeps cloud and rain even in mid summer. Nothing daunted (we're British) we carry on towards the border with France.

August 2008

Just ahead of the mooring here in Namur is the T junction formed by the meeting of the two rivers, Sambre and Meuse.

These two commercials had a very near miss as they both negotiated this junction from opposite directions much too fast. The incredible noise as they scraped the quay walls to avoid each other brought us out of our boat to look and provided a spectacle from the bridge.

Tomorrow we would be joining the mighty Meuse and looked forward to some spectacular scenery.

August 2008

At the riverside mooring we attract many interested passers-by who are intrigued by the boat. They also comment on the boat's name, a first. All is revealed when we discover that Namur's symbol is the snail, this delightful bronze taking pride of place in front of the town hall.

August 2008

We reach the city of Namur on the junction with the rivers Sambre and Meuse, or Maas depending which country you hale from.

As ever, the free moorings are on a high wall that's not too suitable for a narrowboat and offers little protection from the bigstuff who observe no unwritten courtesy rules. They just steam past, anxious to get to their next port of call. Time's money.

Now very used to being rocked to sleep, we stay several nights here and enjoy the city.

August 2008

After a busy day on the trams, what better than to relax with a beer?

The brolly, along with one for first mate's chair too, has been gifted to us by a couple from the Netherlands, Rose and Ronald.

They have moored their splendid wooden cruiser in front of us and offered some of their champagne to share. Transpires that Ronald owns a cafe in Holland and the ballast on their boat consists mainly of 126 bottles of champagne. This has to last them 4 weeks (!) and we hope they can still get under the bridges when it's all gone.

August 2008

We hear that there will be a special 'open weekend' while we are in Thuin. A group of enthusiastic volunteers have restored some ancient trams and will run them on what's left of Thuin's rails.
We spend all day trying the different trams, some of which date from the early 1900's. The chaos that ensues from them unexpectedly trundling along Thuin's busy roads is very entertaining.

August 2008

On the other side of the town are medieval terraced gardens. They are now used as vineyards although we never did see any of the resulting wine on sale.

We asked why Belgium wasn't known for its wine. The answer is that in the time of Napoleon the vineyards were scrubbed up. Now they concentrate on beer and chocolate instead!

August 2008

As ever, we head for the belfry to get the best views of this lovely town. From here you can clearly see the line of retired bargees' boats and the extent of forest cover in this part of Belgium. So different from agricultural and flat Flanders away to the north.

August 2008

Thuin on the Sambre. Renowned in its heyday a century ago for its commercial boatbuilding.

Now it attracts retired bargees who either line the banks in their 'spits' (Belgian peniche) on the approach to the town or live in the houses hugging the riverline. These are adorned with artefacts from their abandoned boats. Anchors and boathooks, steering wheels and nav. lights are incorporated into walls and gardens.

The remainder of the town is atop the hill. We are told by a very elderly ex boatyard employee that this is where the posh people now live.

August 2008

This is typical Sambre scenery. Beauty and peace, the two qualities we love to find on the waterways we travel through.

August 2008

Must have been a very rich abbey in its day and now is beautiful in its decay.

August 2008

This mooring was near a ruined abbey. The French Revolution did for them what Henry VIII did for us. The brewery still exists but their results were over-priced and not memorable. A first disappointment for the skipper.