Rain, rain, rain, all night. So glad we are warm and dry inside. Our plan this morning was to go eat breakfast, pay some bills while we have good internet, then hit the road. Simple! Breakfast was good, some variation of scrambled eggs, boiled bacon, crepes, cereal, fruit, toast, pastries, coffee, juice, and it was a buffet. So we ate what we could, and returned to the room to pay bills. This part did not go well, as we need more info, and just ended up emailing people for that. We'll have to try again later. Ugh!
Drying washing, and trying unsuccessfully to pay bills.
All packed and downstairs loading the bikes, and Sven appeared. He is another cyclist from Belgium, on a three week tour. He had lots of advice for us, telling us all the things we had missed out on, and should see. He also thought we should ride further each day. What ever! We're pretty happy with our adventure, thanks Sven.
We choofed off, and made our way back to the canal. The weather had improved greatly, and the sun was even getting a bit of warmth into us. After a bit of messing around getting on the correct side of the canal, we had a much more enjoyable ride along the Canal Du Centre.
They really look like they should sink. I wonder what sort of life it is to live on a barge?
We're both just cruising along peacefully.
Lots of busy barges, loaded and unloaded, and one in particular, we saw many times during the day. We caught it, then we stopped to polish off the left over pizza, and it caught us, then we caught it, then we stopped at this massive lock, that was in action, and it almost caught us again.
We're catching you Querida. Watch this one, it is stalking us.
It was still yummy, on day two, and plenty there! Not going hungry today.
It was a pretty uneventful day, with a few minor route issues, mainly due to roadworks and forced deviations, but over all a simple cruisie ride. The hardest part of the day was the concrete path had expansion gaps, that were often very rough, and at times we sounded like a train, ker-thunk, ker-thunk, ker-thunk, and it was a little tiresome and we were happy to have a break at the huge lock.
Querida again, passing us as we ate lunch.
More geese and their babies. Instead of attacking us, theses guys just jumped in.
Perfectly timed, as a huge loaded barge and small leasure boat we entering the lock, we watched as the big steel gate was lowered and then the water level dropped very quickly. I was concerned about the small amount of rope they had used to tie off with, but as it turned out, the cleats were on some sort of float set up, and lowered with the water level. It was amazing. The water level would have dropped about 30 meters, then the gate at the other end opened and out they went, under the huge concrete access bridge. This all took about 20 minutes.
The huge barge is in and ready.
Just waiting for the little boat before lowering that huge gate.
Gates down and a few meters of water gone. So quick.
Still going down....
At the right level and the next gate opens ready for the boats to go.
Bloody amazing. All that water out in such a short time.
Passed this point, there were heaps of barges, and it was a really busy part of the canal, with lots of small canals coming off in different directions, we did lots of circling around, over bridges and such to stay on the main canal. It wasn't long before we we at the outskirts of Tournai, the second oldest town in Belgium (according to Sven). Our camp ground was just south of the town, so we haven't seen much of it. We stopped at a big shopping centre for supplies, at last, and then somehow found our way to the campground.
This mural was at a roundabout. How funny.
Almost at Tournai, and we started seeing lots of old ruins.
The start of Tournai. It looks interesting.
Really nice little campground, and cheap! We set up, drank the cold beers I'd managed to find, and chilled out. A couple of motorcycle tourers pulled in next door, and happy days, they're from England! Good pommy accents, and really nice guys. We cooked some dinner, then went and had a chat and a cuppa with Rich and Dean.
Our little corner.
Pommy bikers. This one is Richard.
Cooking up some dinner. Rice, tuna and yummy salad.
It was late and cold by the time we hopped into bed, but tomorrow is meant to be 22C and sunny. Yay!
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