Travelling the Inland Waterways of Europe from The Netherlands to France – Part 11

Travelling the Inland Waterways of Europe from The Netherlands to France – Part 11

Read about this trip from the start – here.  

Namur

I needed to go for a run. Let’s not pretend, I go for a light jog, but whatever, I needed to move. One nice thing about the waterways in Belgium and in France is there is always a tow path right next to the canal. Long ago back when there weren’t motors, they used horses on the side of the canals to drag barges. Apparently, according to one of the tourist guides they used humans in Belgium!

Woman would knit as they walked dragging barges. Now that’s multi-tasking. The upside of a run is I get a bit ahead and see where we’re going. Namur had a lovely promenade next to the canal. It was yet another hot day. All the world was out swimming, water ski-ing, canoeing, basking in the sun and generally enjoying the good weather while it lasted. I liked Namur.

Namur

The Capitain as they call a Havenmeester (harbour master) in French arrived late. He’s a busy guy managing 3 marinas. He spoke perfect English and offered loads of information and advice including a fuel top up. Hell yes! And the rate was excellent considering it was being delivered. He gave directions to the organic market and advised us not to go too early. We were thrilled to have the fuel problem solved and geared up to pop across the River Meuse around 09.00am the next morning. He also collected his fee for the two nights a whole €7 per night. Excluded electricity which was .50c per 3 amps. No facilities either. But for those who want or need the full works they had facilities on the opposite side at the private marina.

Taking in fuel

We did the city walk in Namur as per the booklet. It took two hours. It’s nice and worth doing. We like that they kept it short and we could follow it without getting lost. We also went to the organic market. It’s small but they had all a person needs. According the the Capitain it’s busier outside of holiday season. Many of the vendors were on vacation. We bought the tastiest tomatoes I’ve ever eaten in my life. The farmers supplying them are doing something right. And we bought a bag of whole brown rice. There were also organic cheese and meat vans but we’re almost vegan so gave them a miss.

Handy direction sign

We were expecting to take in fuel so untied bright and early and popped across the River Meuse to a vacant spot and waited. And waited. And waited some more. The Capitain had phoned and the fuel man said he was five minutes away. Which wasn’t true. He arrived two and a half hours later with his fuel tanker then drove up next to the boats. It’s a bit like pumping petrol into a car but you pump it from a lorry into a boat. Fortunately we weren’t leaving that day or our travel plans would have been wrecked. We were grateful to have fuel delivered to our boat. We paid €1.20 per litre for diesel.

Heading towards Dinant

The next day we left for our very last stop in Belgium – Dinant. The terrain was changing. It wasn’t as flat anymore. We spotted the odd castle (chateaux). The architecture had more slate roofs and turrets. Swans glided along the canal. The canal was only going to get narrower so less big barges came past. Six deep locks later we arrived earlier than expected in Dinant and tied up on the town side of the river. The Tourist Office was directly opposite on the other side of the river so we popped over the bridge and loaded up on leaflets and were delighted to be given three FREE Leffe beers. Dinant is the home of Leffe beer. It was hell hot so we wanted to avoid the sun and sit on our back deck reading up on Dinant. We chatted to a couple who planned to go to Paris but alas their engine packed in. They were limping back to Roermond in the Netherlands to have their engine replaced.

Trying to figure out how to do a load of washing

Back at the boat we tried to connect to the electricity supply but nothing happened. My husband tried another socket. Still nothing. He took out the extension cable, moved to another pole and tried the sockets there. Nothing. We were dejected and realised we must have an electrical problem on our boat. We have an invertor and a generator so we could manage. It was a Saturday and we could only start to find someone on Monday. Not much we could do but chill and drink beer watching the world go by. What we didn’t know is they were having a biker rally in medieval Dinant. Hoardes of bikers roared around this normally sleepy town. They made an almighty noise. Emergency sirens went off every few minutes. No exaggeration on this. One has to wonder what could be going so wrong for emergency vehicles to be charging about so much? More than one boat left to find somewhere quieter. We were stuck as we had to solve our electricity problem.

Keeping cool in Dinant

One thing we found in Dinant is we could sort of understand when they spoke. I keep referring to the folk in Wallonia as French and saying we couldn’t understand them. I suspect the reason is they speak a French dialect in Belgium. Close to the French border it was more like we expected French to be. We were furiously brushing up on our Michel Thomas French CDs. Also some of what we’d forgotten was slowly coming back. But we still had a long way to go before we could have a conversation. I needed to prioritise numbers and counting so I could at least understand how much money they were asking for at the supermarkets. All I could say in perfect French was that I couldn’t speak French. Locals would look at me perplexed.

The next day it was bucketing down

Sundays not a lot happens. We decided to move our boat to the opposite side of the river as the amenities and Tourism Info office were both there. We hoped it would be a bit quieter and we thought we might have better signal so we could avail ourselves of the free wi-fi in Dinant. We tied up right outside the Tourist Office. I don’t know what made my husband think to try and plug in the electricity again. But he did. And it worked. Just like that. So it wasn’t our boat but a bunch of power points that were broken. Next we went to get tokens to do our washing and . . . the washing machine was broken. And the free wi-fi? That didn’t work either.

Power point in Dinant

The story continues – here.
And for a different take on this trip, from the captain’s perspective, click on – this link.

Travelling the Inland Waterways of Europe from The Netherlands to France – Part 10

Travelling the Inland Waterways of Europe from The Netherlands to France – Part 10

Read about this trip from the start – here.  

Huy

Our next stop was Huy. We clearly were pronouncing Walloninan place names all wrong. People did not know what we were talking about. Huy, which we were calling hay, as in straw, is actually pronounced like the French word for yes, as in Oui. When asking for a Carrefour, a French supermarket, we were saying – Carry For – but it’s pronounced – Khar Foohr. Given that it was still the height of summer, and France is a boating Mecca, we were expecting to see a lot more boats on the waterways. Belgium is a through route to France for a few countries. The Meuse River from Liege is mostly unspoilt by heavy industry and I think beautiful. I would rate it up there with some of the scenic routes we have passed through in France or the Netherlands.

Approaching Huy via the canal

The marina at Huy was a pleasure. Nice clean showers with 24 hour access, a restaurant, full strength wifi, water and electricity included in the €13 fee. There were 5 other boats with us in the marina. My husband and I took a day out and went to explore Huy. The marina is about 1.5 kilometres from the town centre. We walked along the river and over the bridge into the town. It was market day. There were some familiar faces from the Liege market. We found what we thought was a Tourist Info office but later discovered a proper one near the fort. The woman there tried to be helpful but could not speak a word of English. She gave us a map and marked key attractions and shops for us. We got by with a mix of our awful French and gesticulations. She probably wondered what the hell we were doing there but was kind enough to help us anyway. I’m sure that scenario would have made a great comedy sketch.

Stair to the fort

The cable car to the top of the fort was out of order so we walked up. With all our purchases from the market. It’s a steep walk up. Not the smartest idea, but we managed. After that we walked out of town to find a hardware shop. My other half wanted empty gasoline canisters. We’d been asking about fuel top ups en-route and discovered that not many marinas sell fuel. A bit of a problem. Our solution was to buy diesel from regular car fuel stations when we encountered them in close enough proximity to our boat. We had bought a shopping trolley which we used to wheel our groceries back to the boat. It’s possible to remove the bag from the frame. We could roll the fuel back to our boat on the frame and not have to carry it.

We were just over a month on Shangri La. Heading steadily south and the time of year was edging closer to the end of summer. The sun was setting earlier. When we left Zwartsluis it was light as late as 22.30pm. Now it was dark by 21.00pm. With the passing of time, our boat had become home to a few insects. Spider webs were popping up all over. I don’t like bumping off creatures but I was removing spider webs from the rails and awnings regularly.

Friendly swan hoping for a snack

The next place on our itinerary was Namur. Before we left I dashed round the corner to pick wild berries from the bushes. They are yummy. And free. After about four hours motoring – excluding time spent waiting for locks – we arrived in Namur a total of 32 kilometres later. Both locks went smoothly with minimal waiting time and we berthed around 14.00pm. A person can almost always spot a hire boat in the locks. I’m sure the lock keepers must have a laugh. Not that I know it all, and for sure a few years back I made those same mistakes. But people on hire boats have no idea what to expect or how to handle a boat in a lock. They put out a single rope. They leave it slack. They focus on having a holiday and basking in the sun. They don’t know how to manoeuvre a boat. Once the water starts flooding into the lock it creates turbulence and surges causing a boat to bounce all over the place. Which is why two ropes – a front and a back rope are critical. They need to be reasonably tight to stop the boat bashing about. And keeping an eye on all corners of the boat. Using boat hooks and fenders to stop bashing is rather important. We saw a hire boat sink before our eyes in a lock in France. It happens.

Marina in Huy

We chose not to use the private marina but to rather moor up next to a quay at the municipal mooring spot. As we came in we recognised a few boats from other places we had stayed. And gave a recognisory greeting. We chatted to one or two people. A Brit/Belgian couple told us they had sold up everything and now lived on their boat. All year round. They usually find a marina with all the trimmings for the winter months when the canals  have limited services or close before they freeze over. They gave us some handy boat wintering tips. Another Dutch/Australian couple were making there way back to the Netherlands from a few years spent in France. He commented that things are a lot cheaper in France but nothing works. I hoped he was a cynic.

Namur

Once tied up securely we consulted MapsMe app to locate the centre ville (town centre) and once there, looked for Tourist Info signs. They’re usually easy to find – but not always. You might remember in Ghent the signs pointed in the total wrong direction. One new thing to get used to is making sure we had ID on us. A Belgian requirement is to carry some form of ID.

Namur

The lady at the Info office was wonderful. She made suggestions and gave handy leaflets. We asked about places to buy our kind of food – read organic, fresh, wholefoods and vegan – and she gave a host of options. It was too late to start any serious exploring so we went back to the boat and read up on Namur. The guide book had a mini walking tour which was a must. There was also a mention of  a Friday organic food market from 15.00pm to 19.00pm in the car park of the Omnisport Hall in chaussee de Dinant which is off avenue de Plante. Another must. While it may not be strictly sight seeing we like opportunities to engage with locals and meet like-minded people.

The story continues – here.

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