So Ugly that it's Beautiful

Monday morning.  New week, new water.  We were heading south again on the Brussels - Charleroi canal.  That meant cruising through Charleroi which has something of a reputation for being challenging - narrow, no moorings and lots of big commercial boats. Oh Goody!

It started well with some nice countryside.  We stopped outside a supermarket to stock up.  We needed a ladder to get up to the quay but at least we could wheel the trolley right back to the boat.  Plenty of beer (and some milk) was taken on board.

There were some big commercial type locks to tackle.  We were kept waiting at one whilst some sort of work took place.  The radio conversation in French was a bit confused and a commercial boat came past and leaned out and said exactly the same thing . . .  We followed him and that went well until he was heading into a lock with a green light and notice that the lock keeper had forgotten to open the gates.  He went hard astern and just missed destroying the gates.  I went hard astern and just missed destroying . . . us! 


We'd decided against a very long day through Charleroi and opted to turn up the Sambre in Charleroi where there seemed to be a promising mooring that only took us a km or so out of way.  Good call as we didn't get there until 1700 and had a pleasant night.  The next morning we headed for the transit through town.  This narrow channel takes you through a disused steel works that way ringing with sound of demolition.  This went on for several kilometres.  It's a scene of industrial devastation, steel skeletons, rust and rubble.  It's so ugly but fascinating and has a certain beauty all of its own.  At the lock in the middle we didn't expect to see the usual onlookers.  But there was a keen photographer capturing the art of the devastation.  I couldn't quite recommend it as a tourist trip but I'm glad we saw it.  We had a full day cruising the lower Sambre which became gradually more attractive.  But there was lots of big commercial traffic and concentration was needed.  We stopped overnight by a demolished factory.  This sounds a great holiday doesn't it but remember that every cloud has a silver lining - we were just 200 metres from Lidl!

The next day, defying a dodgy weather forecast we spent the morning finishing the lower Sambre and into the big (ish) city of Namur, capital of Wallonia.  Lovely long quay below the citadel
for visiting boats and we came across the Brit friends we had seen several weeks previously.  Lots to do and we decided to settle in for a week - influenced by their special mooring discount!

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