We had a comfortable night until a barge charged past in the early hours, its wash crashing us against the quay. But we managed to get back to sleep for a while. We got away punctually – nothing to detain us there – and after an hour or so reached the day's big excitement, the Strepy boat lift. At just over 75 metres, this was the tallest in the world until the Chinese opened one at the Three Gorges Dam this year. Anyway, this is how it looks when you approach from the top:
We had to tie up and wait while traffic was brought up. It was impressive to see this large barge emerge followed by a small cruiser:
Then it was our turn to venture in – and inspect the cables to which we were entrusting ourselves:
We stepped onto the platform and went somewhat nervously along to the front. The views were spectacular – tiny boats waiting their turn a long way below.
There were warning signs everywhere – the Belgians don't mince their words. This one was certainly food for thought:
More views as we waited to set off:
There was a moment of concern when we stopped descending after a little while, and observed people fiddling around with the bottom of the upper door. But whatever the problem was, they sorted it out and we resumed our descent. When we reached the bottom, the scale of the lift was most impressive:
The bottom door is opening to let us out:
And off we go – it's spectacular looking back too:
After all that excitement, the rest of the day was rather more pedestrian. A couple of locks, and then a very long stretch with nothing much to look at. Finally we arrived at a small port de plaisance, here at Peruwelz:
We will go to the restaurant over there this evening since we're almost out of supplies. Shopping somewhere tomorrow is essential: perhaps Peronnes will offer a supermarket. Then we should cross the border into France before the end of the day.
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