Hellboy going into La Plante lock |
15°C
Hot and sunny. Winded and set off upriver at 9.30am. An 80m empty called
Tora-Zo had just gone past and was waiting on the quay below La Plante lock. A
loaded boat called Avana came down, then Tora-Zo went up (we were too long to
fit in the chamber with him). Another empty called Hellboy arrived and went up,
still no room for us. Finally the lock emptied and we went up at 10.30 am with
two cruisers, rising just 1.5m. When the lock was almost full Mike took
our bag
of rubbish to find a bin. The lock keeper had to unlock it for him, he said
that if he left it unlocked all the locals would come and fill it. Hmm, sounds
like the Belgians need to issue their citizens with bigger bins. Above the lock
there was a moored police patrol boat.
Mike had connected the Markon drive so I did some washing. The largest
of the two cruisers sped off into the distance, but the smaller one stayed
behind us. Showed Mum the big riverside houses and
gardens on the outskirts of
the city, as they are very much like some of the mansions along the Thames. The
big cruiser was going up in Tailfer lock when we arrived. The lock emptied,
nothing to come down, and we went in with the small cruiser and waited about
twenty minutes before the keeper closed the gates, during which time Mike
disconnected the drive for the Markon and then looked after the boat while I
hung up the washing. It was 12.25pm by the time we left the lock just 2.22m
higher. An
empty boat called Mikemo was moored on the right opposite the quarry
and Dependant was loading aggregate at the quarry on the left. In Profondville
there were lots of kids playing in the river in blow up boats which wasn’t
disturbing the huge flocks of Canada geese much. Took a photo of the hilltop
hotel and belvedere looking back downriver. The forested hills were becoming
steeper and climbers were enjoying the sunshine climbing the cliffs above the
river. Up
Rivière lock with the little cruiser, up another 2m. A loaded 80m
boat, called Grace du Dieu, went into the lock as we left. A boat called D C
Mosa 2 from Breskens NL, loaded with sand, went past at Godinne, propelled by an
ancient thumper of an engine, it had embossed on its bow its former name of
Gerda Openlander. An Australian cruiser from St Jean-de-Losne went past heading
downriver as we approached Hun lock. Just below the lock, Europa was being
loaded with soil from tipper lorries at the new quay and climbers were going up
the
cliffs below the lock. Mike took photos and said they were mostly women
climbers. As Hun was a deeper lock at 2.8m, the recessed bars in the lock wall
were too high for me to reach so I grabbed the one we needed to use with a
boathook while Mike climbed on the roof to thread the end of my locking rope
through it. As we left the lock, a loaded French 80m boat called Black Pearl
was waiting to come down. Hellboy (what a name for a rather boring looking
boat) that had gone
upriver first thing this morning was now moored on the left
bank downstream of the island at Yvoir. A jet skier was zipping up and down the
river in the ski zone, driven by a middle-aged man. Lierdam (85mx9m) a loaded
Belgian boat from Antwerp went past heading downriver. We tied at the quay at
Anhée on the low section and Mike did more rudder tweaks. We’d just finished doing
our third tweak as a cruiser arrived and moored on the last bit of the low
section in front of us. Never, in all the many times we’ve moored here, has
anything else of any size come and moored here too. We did a third
test run
then moored on the higher quay to give them more room. They were Belgian, but
Northerners from Flanders, but the skipper spoke French so we could communicate
with them and explain the rudder tweaking. Mike had spotted an animal in dire straits,
he said it looked like it was suffering from heat exhaustion and asked me for a
bowl of water for it. I gave him a small bowl expecting it to be a small animal
but he said he wanted bigger one as it was the size of a cat. What is it? Have
to climb the wall to go and look. I’d never seen anything like it but it must
be in the same family as
stoats and weasels but much bigger and looked
three-quarters dead, eyes closed and rapid, shallow breathing. I dipped my hand
in the water to sprinkle a few drops of water on it from a distance and in a flash it came to
life leapt up and bit my finger! Wow! That was a
shock and boy did it hurt – and bleed! I thought it had taken the end off my
finger. Back on the boat to wash it, blood was pouring out of a gash at the
first joint on my index finger, plus a few more small puncture wounds. Mike put
a sterile pad on it and wrapped it with sticking plaster. The blood came
through it in no time so I wrapped a piece of kitchen roll round it and went
for a lie down as I was a bit shaky after Mike remarked “I wonder if it had
rabies?” When I checked in my guide books later I found the animal was a type of
marten, probably a pine marten. Mike said it had gone into the garden of one of
the new houses at the back of the quay. The lady from the house had phoned the
police who were sending someone to pick it up. Hope the poor thing recovers and
it hasn’t got rabies!!
Tailfer weir and lock |
Police patrol boat moored abv Tailfer lock |
Quarry at work (dust cloud) by Tailfer lock |
Belvedere at Profondville |
Climber on the cliffs at Hun |
Moored on the quay at Anhee |
What is this large mustelid, staggering past our boat? |
Well, it looked three parts dead until my fingers got within three feet of it! |
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