Saturday 13th September 2014 Anhée to abv Houx. 1.05kms 1 lock

Moored above the lock at Houx

10.5°C Grey and overcast until mid-afternoon. We set off at 9.15 am after Mike had called the lock keeper at Houx, which was just around the corner. Winded and continued upriver, passing the long wooded island in the river leading up to the lock. When the lock was full, another 2m lift, the keeper leaned out of his cabin window and said that the next lock, Dinant, was still “en panne” after the repair gang had been working on it all night. I asked what had happed and he said the gate was broken. Could we

Moored above the lock at Houx

stay on his waiting quay, yes, no problem. The big Dutch cruiser Marinus was moored at the lock end of the concrete lock approach wall. We moored in front of it, dodging the goose crap to tie up. The keeper had told us there was an Intermarché supermarket about ten minutes’ walk away, so Mike went to get some fresh bread. He said there was a big notice on the lock cabin forbidding the feeding of foreign birds such as Canada geese and Egyptian geese which are alien to Belgium and are

Commercial towing a Dutch Barge alongside in Houx lock

taking over to the detriment of the indigenous wild life. The Dutch cruiser set off upriver, so we moved the boat back down the quay to the corner as there was a shadow of one of the tall lamp posts cast across the solar panel. I finished the chores and tried the Internet - it was blue, we got 3G. I got up to date with the blog. Lunch. An empty 67m boat called Lady Night came up the lock towing a DB tjalk, with no name on it, strapped on its port side. A small Swedish yacht was behind it. They went on upriver. Around 3 pm the big cruiser came back (probably

Lady Night towing a Dutch Barge alongside 

nowhere to moor up by Dinant lock). It moored behind us on the angled bit of the quay. Not long after the skipper went off on his bike, he was back again ten minutes later. They moved the boat again, in front of us this time.