Ghent to Kortrijk via Astene

Saturday 2 May and Sunday 3 May 2015

As soon as the shops opened on Saturday we set off to buy me a fleecy top as the red Columbia one I have been wearing is getting a bit tatty. On the way back to Elle we popped into the antiques market which is held in basement of the Belfry on St Barf's Plein and bought some wine and port/liquor glasses made of Flanders crystal to replace our Consol-type glass ones.

Casting off at 10h30 we headed off south down the very pretty Leie River past lovely homes, most with immaculate gardens and some even being manicured by robotic lawnmowers. I don't think these are council houses by any means!

Some three hours and 24 kilometres later we arrived at the Astene lifting bridge with its signpost indicating that we had to give one long hoot and the bridge woud be opened. Sure enough, just after we hooted the bridgekeeper arrived and, stopping the traffic, manually wound up the bridge so that we could pass through. While this was all happening, Ian came trundling the adjacent road and showed us where they were moored just beyond the bridge which is where we spent the night, unfortunately not being able to get an invitation to the local canoe club meet being held in the only bar in town right next to our mooring - and the bar had closed to the public for their meeting.

The Astene lifting bridge

Pretty mooring

Sunday it was our usual 09h00 cast off en route to Kortrijk. but not even three kilometers later we received a radio message from Ian on Njord ahead of us: "We are pulling over, we have a problem...". As it turned out they had burst a radiator pipe, pumping 20-odd litres of coolant into their bilges! Fortunately there was no damage done and after we had cruised down to nearby Deinze marina to see if they had a space for us (which they did not due to some big celebration going on and us getting stuck in the mud while trying to moor up to what looked like a visitors jetty while not a soul from the big crowd ashore bothered to warn us away or assist with directions or instructions in any way) we returned to the small quay to which Njord was firmly tied to find smiles all around and a functional boat preparing to get underway. Only Ian could have tackled the problem with such equanimity although we could just imagine the air being turned blue in the process!

Having joined the commercial canalised Leie just after Deinze and in some pretty iffy weather we finally made it in beautiful sunshine, under the mast and bimini-down bridge, to our very pretty mooring in Kortrijk, under spring leaf laden trees and a short walk into the 'city' center.