Enjoying some Historic Engineering

We were back on the unhappily named 'Canal Nimy Blaton Peronnes' which simply lists the places it goes to.  And, for the first time, we were retracing our steps, having got back to where we were several weeks previously before our loop up to Brussels.

We stopped for the weekend in a handy 'Grande Large' (lake) where there was nice mooring and entertainment from hundreds of swallows.  They were there for the large buggy things that were hatching out and covering the boat!

Monday dawned, or seemingly didn't.  The lake was shrouded in thick fog and we could see nothing at all.  It was only a few hundred metres to the canal but there's big 3750 tonne ships out there.  So, we checked the navigation lights and sat tight until it started to lift.  That took a couple of hours but we were soon cruising in brilliant sunshine.

We passed a rather odd English boat towing a milk crate.  He didn't answer my radio called and steered into a group of anglers when moving over to let me pass.  At a big lock, the keeper told us by radio to move to the left.  I did, he didn't and earned much horn blasting as a result.  In the lock he told me he didn't have a radio which seemed pretty daft to me.  He didn't know he was towing a milk crate as it had fallen overboard.  And he wasn't sure where he was going as he didn't have any charts.  I bet he thinks Brexit is a good idea too!

Just before the big boat lift we turned off onto the historic canal du centre.  Having tried the modern boat lift, we wanted to experience the 4 historic lifts it replaced.  We moored for a couple of days at the welcoming yacht club at the bottom and took the chance to cycle up and look at the workings of these amazing, British designed, lifts that went into service just after the first world war.

Each lift has 2 balanced caissons each mounted on a piston.  A separate pumping house pumps a head of water to a vertical tank level with the top.  A boat enters the caisson and then they open a valve and flood water into the top caisson to make it heavier.  It drops forcing the piston of the lower caisson up.  Simple but effective.  Each of the 4 lifts raises boats about 16 metres.

The next day we were ready to start at 9am and a quick phone call ensured the entire team of lift operators (and they had several bridges to lift manually) were waiting to look after us.  The caissons are a good deal longer than Taddy but not much wider so there was slow and careful steering into each one.  Tie up, and wait for about 10 minutes as we climbed 16 metres more or less silently.  The lifts are spread over about 7km and there were some interesting historic bridges to be opened once the little white vans came scuttling along the towpath.  They aren't always well organised though - at one point, we had 2 chaps ready to open a heavy old swing bridge but they had to wait while a third chap turned up with his key.  And he came by bicycle!

It was about 3 hours in all and we felt very much part of something historic.  Lots of visitors watching and waving, and around 10 canal staff helping us along.  It really was a canal nerds dream day out.

Back to the Brussels-Charleroi canal but this time we turned right for Charleroi and onto new water again.  We were headed for Seneffe, a quiet yacht club on the way.  When we got there, it was anything but quiet.  They were having a waterways festival.  There were kids capsizing dinghies, trip boats in and out and what looked like a load of dogs in the water.  We hung around outside for a bit trying various phone numbers.  A passing boat waved a radio and we eventually established comms on channel 77 after some confusion about the Belgian 70 (septante) as opposed to the French 70 (soixante-dix).  We motored gingerly in past the kids and the dogs, moored up and joined in the fun.

Incidentally, the dogs were a team of trained water rescue dogs who appeared to be doing synchronised swimming together with their lady trainers in wet suits.  An odd end to a special day's cruising.