Turning North

We chugged on along the Aisne on marvelously peaceful waters.  We had almost looped Paris and were headed back towards Reims.  But we turned north before that and headed uphill into Picardy to start our journey home.  The Canal de l'Oise a Aisne has just a few commercial boats and not many of us pleasure boats.  We climbed a flight of locks and chugged through a tunnel in splendid isolation.  It was a lazy few days.  Then we turned onto the St Quentin Canal and continued our climb.  One night we moored on an island and then we had this beautiful little 'Halte Nautique' all to ourselves.

We found ourselves back on the western front.  The St Quentin was an important barrier and there are plenty of British cemeteries along the way.  We try to visit as many as we can because they are so moving.  We were also moved to find many New Zealand graves, a country that is special to us.  We moored in Marcoing right by the bridge that Henry Tandey, VC so heroically captured in September 1918 - why do we not know these stories?

At Riqueval, we had the amazing experience of being towed 6km through the 200 year old tunnel by a 94 year old electric powered chain tug.  It took a bit less than 2 hours.  We'd called to book a couple of days before and were told to be ready to go at 7.30am - the only transit of the day. We were up and ready with ropes laid out in good time.  7.30 came and we were alone in total silence.  At 7.45 a van came haring up and 4 chaps leaped out and rushed around checking our papers and fixing ropes.  With a clatter of chain, we were off.  The tug pulled up to 30 commercial boats in its hey-day but today it was only us.  At least that made steering easy!

On down the hill to Cambrai where we stayed a few days.  Another interesting town with plenty of moving history.  We had some time to spare and decided on a side trip up the Scarpre Superieure to Arras.  22km on canal with only us on it!  At the end we moored by a white water raft course which was great fun to watch as school children turned up each day to get wet!  Our boat was so unusual that many people called greetings and stopped to talk to us.  Arras was actually under British rule for a while in 1917 and has fascinating tunnels from which 24,000 troops emerged in April 1917 to start the Battle of Arras.  Well worth a visit.

We also had the rather alarming experience of rescuing someone committing suicide by jumping off a bridge together with the fireman who jumped in to rescue him.  They swam to our rescue ladder and we hauled them up.  They looked rather pleased with themselves and we were surprised/relieved/annoyed that it turned out to be an exercise!

Continuing north up the Escaut/Scheldt, we crossed back into Belgium and replaced our courtesy flag after 4 wonderful months in France.  The heavy skies were telling us that summer was definitely over and it was time to head back to Bruges.  That was still a week's cruising though but now on some big waters sharing with a lot of large commercial boats.  We'd rather missed them and I love to see massive amounts of freight moving by water.

We queued with them all through the road (water) works in Tournai, shared some massive (14m drop) locks behind their massive propellers, and looked to moor carefully to avoid the huge wash they create.  A few days back in Kortrijk was enjoyable and then down the Leie back to Gent and left for Brugge (Bruges).  A quick VHF call to the control centre and we tagged along with a French commercial boat through the lift bridges on the busy Bruges roads.  We got back to our mooring on 30th September, precisely 6 months after we left.  There's lots of Brits wintering here and some were already there to welcome us.  Others wandered in over the next few days.

It's been an amazing summer and everything we hoped for.  We've seen lovely places, done some exciting things and met fabulous people.

It was truly the trip of a lifetime.  So, we think we'll do it again next year. 😁