Kortrijk to Deinze

Sunday 10 May 2015

Up early to do engine checks and then we did our final bit of Kortrijk sightseeing – despite having spent so many days in the city we had not really experienced it as we seemed to have over relaxed and developed a ‘more is ‘n nog ‘n dag’ attitude. Kortrijk is like that.

Anyway, it was into the Grote Markt with its impressive belfry first erected in 1309 (yes, before ZA was a twinkle in Jan van Riebeek's eye)

and then off to the park which celebrates the battle of the Golden Spurs, one in which a Kortrijk (or Courtrai if you were French) militia defeated a powerful French army.

 At least a thousand French noblemen were killed and the French noblemen’s golden spurs were hung in the Church of Our Lady in Kortrijk to commemorate the victory (but were taken back by the French eighty years later after the Battle of Westrozebeke). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Golden_Spurs.

Then to the beguinage and, with the help of a point-by-point recording, we were given a fascinating insight into the history and operation of the beguinage and the lives of the beguines.

With time having run out we dashed downstream on our bikes (if that makes sense) to Kuurne to meet club secretary Henk Audoor at the Kuurnse Watersportvereneging, sign papers and hand over €964 and then back to Elle for a 13h30 cast-off and a short run through to Deinze.

Our lovely Kortrijk mooring..

At the Sluis Menen the lockkeeper told us to wait for a commercial and then to follow him and another waiting leisure cruiser into the dock. The other boat, a 30 foot Linssen sort of ducklinged into the lock right on the 65m commercials’ propthrust which I thought was a little odd as most Linsson owners are pretty good skippers. Anyway, we waited until the lock was calm, moored up and as the lock started dropping I noticed out of the corner of my eye that the cruiser was hanging at an odd angle. You guessed it – they were hung up! The next thing, amid the sound of crashing glassware and crockery and the young lady crew’s screams, their line snapped and dropped the boat about 1.5m back into the water – a very lucky escape.

Anyway, with the lock having emptied, they gestured that we should go ahead which we were happy to do but I tried to indicate that I was not going anywhere until the commercial had cleared and his propwash had subsided. Not good enough for our Belgian skipper; he hightailed it out of the lock, bouncing and weaving in the biggies’ wash for about a kilometre after which, having given his  poor crew partner a real mouthful and reducing her to tears and a lonely vigil on their foredeck, he decided to overtake. Proserpina (the name of the biggie) was doing between 7 and 9.5 kph depending of river turns and I think our hero had a top speed of about 10kph so a disaster was in the offing on the busy, winding (i.e. lots of blind corners) Leie river. Sure enough, along comes another commercial in the other direction but one of the really big fellas. The Linssen seems to be taking forever to cover Proserpina’s length and eventually I think panic set in as the oncoming vessel loomed ever closer. With a hard to starboard the Linssen cut across the Proserpina’s bow, forcing them to stop engines to avoid a collision situation! With that out of the way the cruiser proceeded to stay just ahead of Proserpina for the next few kilometres but the sight of the big orange bow of the commercial continually just behind them (and I mean ‘just’) probably unnerved the skipper who eventually slowed down and, hugging the shoreline, allowed a relieved Proserpina to overtake. For that he got a big hug and smooch from his very relieved crew.

Cruiser 'Theo' shouldering aside Proserpina in the face of on-coming traffic.

We bumped into them again at the lifting bridge at Deinze, they just having done an about turn thinking that the bridge was not working. When they saw us waiting they turned around again and waited until the bridge lifted and then tied up to the quay a couple of places behind us. A while later they walked past Lynn and the skipper gave her a somewhat embarrassed wave and smile…

We were duly introduced to Oliver and Penny, ex-South Africans now living in Dorset, England, who, with their five children, farm cider on their farm 'Dorset Honey', and had a drink with them and Ian and Sian and then wandered into town to have a look at the funfair which was in progress – looked quite fun but as usual, the longest queue was at the frietes stall (the stall selling hamburgers and hotdogs did not have a soul at its counter – tells you something about the Belgians).

The cathedral, right outside our window.

Contemporary war memorial.

Being Mothers Day and Lynn not really being in the mood to cook after such a long day we eventually found a restaurant with a free table; a Turkish restaurant of all places and, with me not being a big fan of Turkish food we seated ourselves expecting a long and slow meal due to all the Moms around. But to our huge surprise the service was fast and Lynn’s moussaka was pronounced delicious and my ‘stoofpotje- (pieces of lamb, chicken and mince rolls baked in a clay server) was absolutely divine!

Mothers Day rose compliments of 't Stoofpotje.

If you are ever in Deinze make a plan to visit “’t Stoofpotje II”, Markt 40, Deinze (09) 324 4887.

And that was Sunday.