Kerr Barging Blogs

After leaving Maastricht we continued along the Maas River, then diverted into one of the many lakes that have been created through gravel extraction. We chose to stop at the ancient town of Thorn, founded as a home for noble ladies loosely attached to a women's Benedictine convent, and run by women for 800 years. There is a most attractive Church and for once a good English language explanation was provided. The Village is also called the "white" village as most of the old houses are still whitewashed, a throw- back to a time when the French gained power and taxed each residence on the basis of the number of windows. Many windows were boarded up and walls whitewashed to hide the changes.  

Church at Thorn

The stay in Thorn was also welcome as a quiet rural stop after having spent our time in cities since the children arrived. They enjoyed stretching their legs in a very pretty and well- maintained spot.

All the houses are whiteAl
We left the Maas for the quieter Zuidwillemsvaart Canal, carrying smaller commercial vessels and some pleasure boats. This took us to s'Hertogenbosch, the provincial capital of North Brabant, a busy place with some attractive buildings and plenty of squares where people stop for a drink. We discovered more about Dutch opening times: shops generally are closed all day Sunday and in this city at least, don't open again until Monday afternoon.

Canals in s'Hertegenbosch

One of the huge crowded locks. We had a very interesting chat with the skipper of the 65metre barge on our left

Soon we rejoined the Maas, now as two separate sections, the Bergse Maas and the Afgedamde Maas to visit two historic towns Heusden and Woudrichem, both of which had been fortified for many centuries. Heusden has re- erected its historic grassed ramparts and returned its harbour to its ancient state; Woudrichem also has some of the ramparts and gates which it needed as one of the towns in the "Dutch Waterline of Defences" from the 14th century.

Old Ramparts and moat lakes- Heusden

We stayed in the Historic Harbour at Woudrichem, thinking that as an historic boat we would be very welcome, but no, we were treated just like one of the 21st century white cruisers.

Historic Harbour, ramparts, windmill- Woodrichem

The weather was good so picnics were the order of the day for our daughter and family. They tired themselves out with long walks and found a great playground too. However, who needs a playground when there are cannons everywhere- s'Hertogenbosch, Heusden and Woudrichem had many handy cannons for climbing on and for making up exciting stories: favourite activities for our little ones.

In these historic towns we were reminded how important cycling is in the Netherlands. In Woudrichem it seemed that the only people walking were those exercising dogs (and us). The range of child carriers was impressive and varied. In Heusden we were having lunch in the square when over 100 middle- aged cyclists arrived. There was a sea of bikes, the late comers found it quite hard to find a spot. 

Best Regards,

Penny and Dave

In Maastricht we had our first introduction to the frustrations of touring in the Netherlands. It is compulsory for all boats to carry a copy of the Dutch Waterway regulations in the form of the ANWB Almanak 1, valid only for 2 years and therefore difficult to buy in advance. It is available on-line only to those who have a Dutch credit card, and not for sale as far as we could find in Belgium or France, so David's first task was to find an "ANWB" shop (like the NRMA or RACV) to make the purchase. Also necessary is the Water Almanak 2 which gives details of the waterways such as lock times and VHF Channels. This is valid only for the current year. Each costs 19 euros 50, good value if you are Dutch as #1 is 840 pages long, #2 is 940 pages- all in Dutch in dense printing in 8 point type! Almanak 1 does not have a sinlge word in any language other than Dutch.

Our "Dutch Encyclopaedias"

We have discovered with the help of our translator programmes that the basic rules outlined in Almanak 1 are the international ones, a copy of which we always carry. Translating the remainder would take many many hours and the legalistic "articles" do not seem to change the basic rules. Fortunately we have found our way around Almanak 2 enough to get the information we need for locks and bridges and it has other languages on four of the 940 pages, to show what the symbols and legends mean.   

Lots of Dutch = "Double Dutch"!

As well as the Almanaks it has been necessary to buy many charts. Of course, the Dutch were the world leading experts at charting and probably still are. So it has been a little surprising to find that many charts are single sided, relatively low quality paper often with nothing or advertisements on the rear side. There is a small number of atlases; these are more robust than the paper. It seems consumerism, marketing and profit making are at the forefront.

It proved very difficult to work out which charts we need for the routes we are proposing until we found that Almanak 2 shows the chart relevant for each town. We think we now have those that are required, but it has happened only after lots of urgent train and long bike trips to ANWB stores in various places when we discovered that the next day's travel was not on the chart which seemed when we bought it to cover our trip. We are now the proud owners of 12 charts and 4 atlases, each valid only for one or two years, for a country that measures 300kms North-South  (from Sydney to Canberra) by 200 kms East-West. Fortunately the ANWB stores, unlike most supermarkets, have accepted our French credit card for these substantial purchases.

In both France and Belgium, we can buy good sets of charts with the details and rules for the canals and rivers, in the major international languages, organised so that they cover a clearly defined area of travel. Certainly almost all the boats here are local ones (so far in three weeks we have spotted three German and one English boat amongst the hundreds of boats we have seen) so maybe the Netherlands does not find it necessary to cater for international visitors to their very busy waterways.

It is true too that the charts need to be very detailed as navigation is quite different from the straightforward relatively narrow canals and rivers in the other countries we have visited. We have been on quite shallow bodies of water such as the Randmeren and Kettelmer (and perhaps in future on the Waddenzee) which have complicated channels and marker buoys and require a detailed chart. Ijssemer and Markemeer are even larger so we have tried to avoid those, as any wind would make the trip unpleasant.  

The channels  do change over time too. Where we are now, there was a clearly marked channel on our 2014/15 chart, but when we reached the end we found yellow buoys blocking our route and the green and red buoys shown had been removed. So even these up to date charts and almanacs are not always up to date. As well, the list of places to stay typically does not contain Municipal quays and harbours which are the better places for us as Anja is too big for the many (expensive) Marinas.

We have been really surprised to find that the overwhelming number of Dutch boats are small modern boats. They tend not to own the bigger, older barges that are part of their heritage and history. It is also surprising how few people from other countries come here in boats.

Best Regards,

Penny and Dave

With the Sambre closed  to the south beyond the French border, we returned north and then east along the river towards Namur, where the Sambre meets the Meuse. We had chosen Namur as a suitable city for the arrival from Australia via Brussels Airport of daughter Wendy, with her husband and their two little girls. They were able to catch a train from Brussels to join us, with an easy walk from the station to the river. Namur is a bustling, lively city with excellent shops and interesting buildings as well as a Citadel which was good for an early morning walk to see the city at its best. It also has an old castle, very exciting for an almost three- year- old.

The Namur Citadel- claimed to be the biggest in EuropeWe all settled in to a different time frame of early mornings, settled sleep times and punctual meal hours, as well as a different perspective on what we were looking at- noticing castles and playgrounds, cygnets, ducklings, nests and small streams to play pooh sticks. We moved on to Liege along the Meuse in time to celebrate our older grand- daughter Mary's third birthday. It is a suitable place to buy an excellent birthday cake and we found the perfect slippery dip for both the girls at a park which also had lots of rabbits and ducks.

We had visited both Namur and Liege last year when we were in Belgium so we did not revisit museums and the like but did see some new things.

Next day we made our much- anticipated entry into Anja's own noriginal country, the Netherlands. We continued along the Meuse to the insignificant border, where the river becomes the Maas and the language changes from French to Dutch. First stop was Maastricht, a very attractive city almost entirely without cars. They are left outside the city and instead bikes take over so walking the streets is very comfortable. The architecture reflects the many years that Maastricht was in the hands of the French house of Burgundy. There are ancient town walls, 10th and 11th century churches and several most impressive squares.

Three today!We were able to tie up along a wall in the middle of the river. When we read the description in the guide books we were quite sceptical but this proved to be an excellent mooring and gave us a good view of the lively harbour and bustling city close by.

Best Regards,

Penny and Dave

Belfry at Namur

Famous Namur cartoon characters

Bridge and fountain, Liege

Old City wall, Maastricht

Old town gate, Maastricht

Main Square, Maastricht

The harbour, Maastricht

Grace enjoying the holiday

Mary the mariner tries the whistle

Hi Everyone,

Sorry about the lack of BLOGS! We are still alive, well and "Travelling & Learning".

BUT, we have been very busy. Firstly we had a wonderful three week visit from our daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren. Then the bottom of the shower area cracked and started leaking water into the hull of the boat. Further investigation showed that it had been badly installed and that is why it cracked. Then we found worse problems. The tiling had been badly performed and has been leaking water for years into an area of the hull that is sealed up so we did not know.

So, we have had a lot of unexpected work to keep us very busy. We could not buy a replacement shower base and have had to repair it. We have had to rip out the tiles, replace damaged wood, reconstruct the supports properly, coat everything in Epoxy for waterproofing, replace bad drainage pipes and connections........

On top of that, we have been sponging out the water. About 150litres now and nearly all has to come out using a sponge. We have been doing that for about 10 days now.

Anyway, we have started putting everything back together again and should be able to have proper showers again in another week. In the meantime, we are now glad we did not remove the bath because we can use it instead.

Best Regards,

Dave & Penny

Part way through the repairs

Showing the repaired shower base

Here is a small slideshow with some of the photos of our experience in the Strepy boat lift in Belgium. You will see some of the giant cables, counterweights, us in a "tub" with the peniche (barge) "Sandra" and some views. It might take a little while for the slideshow to start running.

01/15