VLAANDEREN

Vlaanderen or as we know it Flanders, the north and western section of Belgium, has presented us with many varied canal structures. People said Belgium was easy cruising with very few locks. They were correct but failed to mentioned the multitude of lifting bridges. They lift in every conceivable way, right handed, left handed, vertical, swung to one side, pivoted up over the canal, turning to one side, turning centrally ...... you get the idea. Each one has to be negotiated. Some are very easy. A telephone or VHF call and up goes the bridge. Others involve a call followed by agreeing a time usually to reduce town centre road traffic impacts.

Twin lifting bridges in Bruges.

A first for us, and we don't think there are many of them, was a lifting railway bridge. What fun stopping the trains. This one certainly had to be agreed and programmed.

Lifting railway bridge in Veurne.

In Nieuwport there is a confluence of three canals, three rivers and an opening to the sea. It's appropriately called The Goose Foot. In plan it does have a similar appearance. Here we had to arrive at the correct time for the tide. The levels between the canal and the sea have to be within certain limits for the locks to operate. As there is a main road around the whole structure there are also lifting bridges, so lots of negotiating and waiting.

Going into Gravensluis sea lock in The Goose Foot.

Once in the lock, waters moved and we exited into the middle of The Goose Foot which is tidal and hence the sea. Soraya was not amused, salt water! Very quickly we entered another lock and transferred back to another canal system. The locks have four gates, depending whether you are going up or down. The canal stays at the same height but the sea end of the lock can be at very different heights. The lock gates have to take the water pressures whatever height the water is outside. All very complex.

A pair of sea lock gates in Ostend with opposing gates.

On the Lo Canal we went through a section that was more akin to ditch crawling. Thank goodness we did not meet any oncoming traffic.

The exceedingly narrow Lo Canal.

I'm sure we'll find many more interesting structures of fascinating engineering ingenuity. For now it's back to Bath and Brittany for us, so no more blog posts until September. Soraya is all tucked up in Diksmuide, her solar power station keeping all systems fully functioning, I hope.