Tuesday 17 May 2016

Bergues to Aire-sur-la-Lys.

Monday 9 May 2016

We cannot believe the weather we are having here while the 30C plus weather in Durban seems to have disappeared and has been replaced by cold and torrential rains, flooding parts of our home suburb – hopefully some water has made its way to the catchment areas.

In warm sunshine and under a breathless blue sky we cruise once again down the Canal de Bergues and are greeted at the Ecluse Jeu de Mail by a smiling young lockkeeper who speaks some English. According to him the locks on this stretch are only open 7 days a week from today despite what PC-Navigo, the Almanacs, and the VNF official website say. Hmmmm....so maybe he was right after all?

It is not long before we are through and on to the Canal Bourbourg, part of the Liason Dunkerque-Escaut, the 143 kilometre long system of canals linking Dunkerque in the west with the Escaut canal in the north-center near Valenciennes.







Next are the shallow locks at Watten and Arque followed by the 13.5 meter rise in the Fontinettes lock just after Arques.


Exiting the lock who do we see but Iron Lady and after a quick hello to Alison we are on our way onto the Ancien Canal de Neufosse portion of the Liason. Not being able to find the Halte Nautique at Aire-sur-la-Lys as shown in our normally excellent guide (Nautische Atlas & Gids voor de pleziervaart van Riems tot Rotterdam – Volume 1 – Noord-Frankryk, Wallonie en Brussels Regio) at 16h30 we tie up at the Ecluse Fort Gassion, somewhat uncomfortably as the displacement from the biggies passing on the nearby Liason create quite a surge and despite a host of fenders protecting our side from the plank-and-pole supported river bank, and four firmly hammered-in stakes (three were not sufficient for the task…), we are still being constantly moved around. A short while later who should moor up ahead of us but Iron Lady.

Iron Lady ahead.

The city of Aire-sur-la-Lys about 2 kilometres away.

Another late evening downpour had us firmly ensconced with our books.


63 kilometres – a long day.

1 comment:

  1. Ah, 'Iron Lady' as featured in this month's DBA calendar.

    ReplyDelete