Waiting Expectantly

We were on 'birth alert'.  Our plan was to return to the UK as soon as our new granddaughter was born.  That meant we needed the car nearby, we needed to be not too far from Brussels so we could leave Cora there, and we needed somewhere safe to leave the boat.

We decided not to leave Belgium and to move a couple of hours south from Dinant to Waulsort where we'd identified a marina that others considered safe to leave a boat.  As we cruised, the banks were steep and rocky, really impressive river-scape.  Waulsort is a small village made smaller by closure of the railway.  The port was beautiful and had loads of space.  And it was certainly secure because it was on the other side of the river to the village, and with no car access.  It was the day before 'due date' so we paid for a week and settled down to wait wondering what we'd do if we were still waiting in a week.

How then, did one cross?  The answer was Belgium's last hand-pulled ferry.  On request Michel  (32, pony-tail, single) would pull the ferry across using the traditional wooden bat with a notch in it.  We retrieved the car (again!) and left it in the village.  We're getting pretty good at buses and trains over here.

Due date arrived and at 8am, a message arrived to say things were 'happening'.  The mighty plan rolled into action; Michel pulled us over to our car wishing us good luck and off we headed for the UK via Brussels.  This was particularly handy as I'd ordered those big batteries from a UK firm just in time.

We got to West Byfleet a perfect 30 minutes before Mum and Daughter came home from hospital.  That enabled us to rig the kitsch inflatable stork we'd seen in Holland.

All was well and Margaret Susan had made a safe entry to the world.  The statutory cuddling and photos still allowed time for a run to the battery supplier, quick hair-cut and visits to Tesco and dog food shop.  We also collected up all the 'stuff' we had sent mail order to our poor daughter and son-in-law.

Several days later and we arrived back in Waulsort where a slightly bemused Michel help me carry all the stuff onto the ferry.  I didn't have the heart or energy to lug the 2 big batteries so left them in the car for now.

We were ready to get going again . . .

Better finish with the statutory baby picture:

Comments

  1. Alan and Rosie4 June 2019 at 12:53

    Sounds like a brilliant piece of organisation and timing. Congratulations again Grandparents!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Perfect First Day

Image
Monday 1st April and we're off. We're up bright and early to get ready and say goodbye to the friends we've made in Bruges; Andy and Felix the harbour masters, and Luc the trip boat owner. Bruges is a busy city and we need several bridges lifted as we leave town.  That means we're asked to leave in convoy: 3 from our harbour and another 3 from the one just up the canal.  And there's a big commercial barge coming through as well.  There's plenty of people watching to make sure we haven't forgotten how to drive over winter . . . We head east through a total of 5 lifting bridges where our convoy stops traffic for 10 minutes.  We're last and feel most guilty but the natives still seem happy to wave.  5 out of the 6 boat convoy are British and nobody shakes a fist (although we have been assured we're the laughing stock of Europe). On down the boringly-named Gent to Oostend Canal where spring is in the air.  We see our first dabchicks (baby gr...
Read more

Paris - the city of love

Image
Paris was packed with tourists all snapping the views and having a great time.  But very few of them were passing the Eiffel Tower in their own boat that day.  It felt VERY cool.  Probably the highlight of several exciting days visiting the city of love.  But first we had to get there. We cruised the lower reaches of the Marne which pass through the up-market southern suburbs of Paris.  Very pleasant but not many boats and just the odd commercial. The extravagant loops typical of the lower reaches of a river are shortened by a short tunnel at Joinville le Pont.  Everything changes as the river becomes very busy and quickly joins the Seine and you're crossing under the Peripherique.  We'd been joined by other pleasure boats and there were large commercial boats moving fast in both directions and passing under the many bridges.  The navigation instructions warn against stopping to admire the view.  I get their point - there's so much...
Read more

The Bridge to Nowhere

Image
Where have we been?  In Brussels, that's where.  There's plenty to distract a visitor to Brussels which is one of Europe's more under-rated capitals.  But we have the added distraction of daughter and son-in-law, Cat and Chris and (almost forgot) young Alfred George who at 10 months needs to see his grandparents! After Ronquieres, we headed north on the Brussels-Charleroi canal and back into Flanders.  Here and ecluse becomes a sluis and the lock keepers speak English!  The town moorings at Halle looked unfriendly and a close call in a narrow stretch with one of the 1350 tonners encouraged us to continue on to Brussels.  The canal get quite 'gritty' as it enters the city and there was some tight corners.  But the industry is interesting.  Belgium uses its waterways to get waste and recycling moved without clogging up the roads.  We could be doing a lot more of that in the UK We arrived at the delightful Brussels Royal Yacht Club in th...
Read more