Two in one

Sorry there was no post yesterday, but connectivity problems intervened. Which was a shame, because it was a fun day cruising up to Namur. The day started with flocks of geese, the Canada variety I think. There are thousands of them on the river, and they come ashore, eating and fertilizing the grass. You have to be careful where you tread!

We set off and soon came to Dinant, passing this striking needle rock on the way:

The town looked lively and there were plenty of people bustling about. All the same, the mooring was not as nice as Anseremme, so we were happy with our choice:

There was more commercial traffic on the river now, and this monster, Hell Boy, was taking no prisoners, and flying the Skull and Crossbones!

We shared a lock with a big barge too. The turbulence when the lady driver opened up her engines to emerge was rather impressive. We had to hold on tight.

We had a peaceful lunch on a quayside at Profondeville, Deeptown, I suppose.

Before reaching Namur we were pleased to see lots of people using the river – swimming, canoeing etc. and kids sailing. This is the sort of dinghy I learned to sail with a million years ago at the Salternes club  in Lymington. 

Namur itself was imposing:

We tried and failed to catch a navette up to the top – one member of crew mutinying at the idea of walking up (guess who)!

So it was onwards today, in company with several others who had spent the night at Namur. Enormous commercial locks now, which can take a long time to get through. At one point there were seven boats in the lock, and plenty of room for more. There was quite a lot of commercial traffic on the river, but the first mate handled it with great aplomb:

Then we came to yet another fort, guarding the town of Huy, which is where we are spending tonight:

In the nuclear shadow ….

Tomorrow certainly Liege, possibly across the border into Holland.

By the way, we did a few calculations of mid-voyage statistics: from our home port, St Jean de Losne, to the Belgian border was 570 kilometres, and we negotiated 218 locks – an average of 33.5 kilometres a day and 12.8 locks. We feel rather pleased with ourselves!