Kerr Barging Blogs

We had a very smooth trip back from Belgium into France and stopped as before just over the border at the Customs Post. We had not previously mentioned that the border area is crammed with shops selling tobacco and alcohol- probably due to lower duties in Belgium

In general we were retracing our steps, but we had a couple of items to tick off.

The Crested Eagle- centre sectionThe Crested Eagle- bow section

The first was to visit Zuydcoote, a beach a little north of Dunkirk  where low tide exposes the remains of several vessels wrecked during the Dunkirk Evacuation. We were able to examine the skeleton of the HMS Crested Eagle, a Thames paddle wheel steamer, part of the evacuation fleet, which had embarked 600 soldiers at Dunkirk but was bombed by German Stuka dive-bombers after it had left the wharf. It burst into flames and the Captain ran it onto the beach, at Zuydcoote. There were 300 fatalities. What was left after the Germans broke it up for their own use remains today, a popular spot for collectors of the shellfish growing on it, as well as those like us interested in its history.  Sand yachts are popular here

The Opal Coast towards DunkirkThe protected sand dunes behind the beaches
The next item on our to do list was a visit to the Louvre- in Northern France. The Museum of Louvre-Lens opened in 2012 as a satellite of the Louvre and a chance to bring a sample of its rich collection to people outside Paris. Since 1792, the city of Lens had been a coal mining town, but when the last of the mines closed in 1986 it experienced a severe downturn. At the same time the closure of the mines left a great deal of land unused. It is well placed geographically to meet the needs of people in Northern France easily accessible from the main population centres such as Lille, Arras and Dunkirk, and convenient also for those coming from Britain through the Channel Tunnel to Calais. And so the decision was made to locate the Louvre satellite in Lens and a modern gallery was designed and built.
There is a  canal leading to Lens, previously used to transport coal. We had frequently used a pontoon near the Canal entrance but the water was very shallow just past that point. This year the channel was deeper, presumably following some dredging of the waterway, so this was our chance to visit Lens and the Louvre there. The Canal now stops short of Lens but there is a good mooring about 4 kilometres out of town. We had thought of cycling the extra distance but faced with an expected temperature of 35 degrees plus busy city streets, we decided to travel by bus instead.  The (very) infrequently travelled Lens CanalThe Museum occupies a huge area on the outskirts of the city, previously a mine site. The main gallery is open plan with over 200 works from the main Louvre collection displayed chronologically, starting at 3500BC and ending in the 19th Century, including art and artefacts from many cultures. We were also able to enjoy a temporary exhibition of the works of Charles le Brun, Louis XIV's painter and chief of decoration for over 30 years. It was a very different experience from a visit to the Louvre in Paris, but we thoroughly enjoyed it. The Brun exhibition was particularly good and had attracted his works from the Louvre and also other collections.A timeline starting from 3500BC
Anja continues to attract attention. On the Lens Canal we were moored near a large park and many families came for a closer look at the "Bateau". At the next stop, we were next to a Mairie, venue for a Saturday afternoon wedding. Our boat provided the back drop for a photo of the flower girls.
Over the past few days we had become aware of extra vibration and could not go as fast as usual, so when we stopped next, in the Scarpe River, David donned his swimming gear to check out the propeller. He found the shaft  wrapped around with black plastic, nylon fishing net and several pieces of thick fabric. No wonder it vibrated! In all he filled a large bucket with what he removed. We believe we probably started picking this up in Ypres where the Port was at the end of the Canal and seemed to be the final destination of a great deal of rubbish. Getting it off has made a great difference to our engine efficiency and smooth progress.

Barge-slowing rubbish

Best Regards,

Penny and Dave

Dunkirk is about 15Kms from the Belgian border and the canal travels not far behind the sand dunes and beaches of this part of the "Opal Coast". We spent an evening just 2Kms from the border in order to try out various phone SIMs, find our Belgian Flag plus a variety of books and charts for Belgium. This was time well spent. The spot we chose for our overnight stop was also a favourite of the Gendarmes, Customs and heavily armed Army personnel who were often there for spot checks of cars and trucks. They did not bother us and we certainly kept a low profile. Every now and then, some of them would come over to the canal and look at us (or at least, at Anja).
Veurne Cathedral (background)Town Square- Veurne
The next day, we crossed the border and experienced a most rewarding week in "Westhoek", the West Corner or quarter of Belgian Flanders. We thoroughly enjoyed our time there. This part of Belgium is very rural so we saw plenty of cattle, several black sheep and lots of tractors carrying crops to the silos as this is harvest time. The harvest is probably a little later than in France because it is cooler. It is also possible that the harvest is better because France has had the worst wheat harvest for over 30 years due to the very bad floods.
Windmill on the Lo CanalSometimes the cows were in our way!

We had been concerned about reaching Ypres due to reports of low water depth within the canal. Fortunately, because our water draft is well under one metre, we had no problems. We had also read that parts of the Lo Canal were very narrow, at less than six metres. As we are 4.4 metres, this could be a tight squeeze. We did meet some other boats but were always able to find a spot where we could pass one another without drama.
The Ijzser River
One of the towns where we spent a night was called "Fintele", population 30 with three restaurants! During a public holiday, there were hundreds of people there. The restaurants and nearby park were full of people, many of whom had cycled. One of the restaurants had a full sized children's' playground next to the terrace. Food prices were much higher than in France, probably because people were paying tourist prices.

Because it is so flat there are few locks, though lifting bridges dot the canal, very well managed by the travelling attendants. Cycling is very popular with all ages. There are 2,000 kilometres of bike paths in Westhoek and we saw many groups of people, including families and others our age enjoying the countryside on their bikes. Sometimes the bridge lifting for us held them up and gave us an audience. One of these bridges was particularly narrow with the deck remaining at quite an angle so that we were not sure we would get through. This dilemma must have been apparent to the onlookers as well because a great cheer went up when we passed through successfully. We think that is the first acclamation we have ever had and is typical of the friendliness we met with in Flanders. To follow through this welcoming approach, most of the historic markers on buildings and all the museums in this area present their information in four languages, Flemish, French, English and German.

As we travelled through these areas so central to World War 1 history we became aware of aspects new to us. We had not realised that this small part of Belgium remained free during the First World War. The town of Veurne (Flemish) or Furnes (in French and English), population now 11,000 was the capital of the area known as "Vrij Vaderland" or Free Fatherland, and was virtually undamaged so we could admire its beautiful town square and impressive Belfry and Church. King Albert and Queen Elisabeth spent much of their time around Veurne and were very active in every day support of their people.  It was King Albert's decision to open the sluices at the sea port of Nieuwpoort to flood the area near the German line, so creating a barrier which the Germans could not breach. Queen Elisabeth spent her time setting up and visiting hospitals and in organising schools to ensure continuing education for the many children who were taking refuge in this part of Belgium.
One of Mme. Curie's portable X-Ray unitsMadame Curie was a frequent visitor bringing with her portable X-ray equipment so that injured soldiers could be diagnosed and treated close to where they were injured, saving many lives. Madam Curie also brought her daughter Irene, then 17 years old, to teach technicians how to interpret the films.


Each year (just before our visit), Veurne has an anual procession of "penitents". The people dress up in sackcloth and ashes and march, carrying crosses.

Ypres and Diksmuide which we later visited were both on the German line and virtually destroyed between 1914 and 1918 while the towns behind that line remained free, though very affected by the conflict.
Ypres Courts of JusticeYpres former Cloth Hall and Belfry- now Museum
The name of Ypres is well known and has thousands of visitors. It was completely devastated during the War but afterwards was reconstructed as before. Its museum includes poignant and graphic portrayals of life during those long years. It has a beautiful town square and magnificent views from the Belfry. There are approximately 120 military cemeteries in the vicinity.
Ypres CathedralYpres Cathedral

We attended the Last Post ceremony which has been held every night at 8pm since 1928 to remember those Commonwealth soldiers who died and lie in unknown graves. Last year, they celebrated their 30,000th Last Post. There were at least 2,500 people at the Last Post that night, just an ordinary week night, and this is the normal figure. There was a Scottish honour guard and a Royal Navy flag bearer. Various people presented wreaths. It is as well that we were there almost an hour early because there was no room left when the ceremony started. The three buglers played very, very impressively and everyone seemed moved by the experience.
Menin Gate- YpresThe walls of the memorial, the Menin Gate, are filled with the names of almost 55,000 Commonwealth fatalities with unknown graves who fell before August 15th 1917. We were overwhelmed at the huge numbers of Australian names there. One reads the figures but seeing them listed makes it so much more concrete. More than 43,000 Australian soldiers fell on the Ypres battlefields though not all of them are in unknown graves.
The Last Post
at the Menin Gate (every night 8pm)

"The Trench of Death" was the name given during WW1 to our final destination, a bunker complex two kilometres north of Diksmuide. Diksmuide was in German hands and entirely destroyed. The trench was constructed along the Belgian front line facing the German posts and was successfully held by the Belgians  from 1914 to 1918. The trench has been fully restored so we could walk along its entire length of approximately seven hundred metres, examining the observation posts and lookout platforms, with an excellent museum displaying some of the equipment and describing the experiences of the men who occupied it.
And so back to France along those same canals which formed the front lines  100 years ago.

Dixmuide on the Ijzser River (view from the trenches)Dixmuide War Memorial
Dixmuide Gate of PeacePeace Tower and WW1 Museum

Best Regards,
Penny and Dave

Here are some of the photos from Dunkirk.

Princess Elizabeth- made 4 evacuations from Dunkirk to Britain

Early conveyor used in the Port

View from the Belfry

View from the Belfry

View from the Belfry

View from the Belfry

View from the Belfry

Second Belfry- Town Hall

Huge lifting bridge for entry to Port

Town Hall with Belfry

Engine from crashed Lancaster

Evacuation from Dunkirk

 

Dunkirk Beaches

Dunkirk Cathedral

Cathedral organ

Bells in the Belfry

Carillion keyboard in the Belfry

WW1 bunker on the canal near Dunkik

Jean Bart- famous privateer

3 masted sailing ship- 1903- same age as Anja

14th Century Watchtower

Bridge to the Dunkirk Beaches

Here are some of the photos promised in our last Blog Post. The Dunkirk ones will be in the blog after this.

Unfortunately, it seems notifications are not being delivered to Gmail accounts whether there are photos or not. Gmail is not treating the emails as Spam.

Most of the photos are now in the photo gallery, many annotated. You can see all the photos from 2016 by clicking here.

The maps on our home page have also been updated.

Almost 5km underground- Canal du Nord

The little-travelled Scarpe Superior

Weed cutting on the Scarpe

Scarpe lock gates choked with weeds

Friends, Brian and Charlie

Vauban's Garden in Lille

Old factories being demolished (Deule River, Nth France)

ANZAC war cemetery in Sailly sur Lys

The old church at Sailly

War memorial on the Scarpe

St Venant Church after the war

St Venant Church now

Lifting Bridge on the River Lys

Huge 13metre lift lock on the Grand Gabarit Sensee

The ancient 13metre Boat lift, replaced by the lock shown above. Foreground- old barge pullers

For some reason, the Blog system has not been sending update notifications to subscribed readers with Gmail accounts. We cannot understand why and only blogs with photos are affected. So, if you have not heard from us for a while, have a look at our web site and you may find a new Blog. When there are no photos, there are no problems with Gmail. This problem seems unique to Gmail.

A reminder that you can see the map with our travels on the home page.

From the Somme Valley, we proceeded North along the remainder of the Canal du Nord (Canal of the North). We had a side trip up the hardly-used Scarpe Superior to Arras, which we had thoroughly enjoyed in 2013. The trip was quite slow because four of the seven locks broke down and we had long waiting times for someone to come and fix them. Indeed, on the first day it took us five hours to travel five Kms and four locks! On the way out, only one of the seven locks broke. We had been issued with a remote control for the locks but had to summon someone by telephone every time there was a failure.

From Arras, we proceeded North again, through Douai to Lille, where we picked up visitors Charlie and Brian who had been to World Youth Day in Poland. They had been very sleep deprived and were able to recover during their eight days with us on Anja. We travelled along the Deule River to the River Lys which we had also enjoyed in 2013. We visited Armentiers and other towns along the River. From Sailly sur Lys, Brian and Charlie were able to duplicate our bike ride from 2013 by visiting Fromelles, VC Corner, Pheasant's Wood, Le Trou First Aid Post and other places from WWI.

We had an excellent lunch at Sailly to celebrate our 45th Wedding Anniversary. It was a fantastic restaurant in what is a relatively small town (of 2,000 people). Guests must have come from many other places because the restaurant was large and full. They even provided a Jumping Castle for children to enjoy.

From the Lys River, we rejoined the large, high capacity canal of the Sensee. There, many of the barges are 1,500 to 3,000 tonnes. But, the canal is wide do there was plenty of room for all of us. We were able to stop for one night near the disused Fontinettes Boat lift. We had seen some like it in Belgium. This boat lift replaced a staircase of five locks which took around 7hrs to traverse. The boatlift could pass six barges per hour. It is made up of two "bathtubs" linked together so that when one went down, the other went up. The design is Scottish and the boatlift operated continuously for 80 years from 1886 to 1967. David visited it and saw the film of it working- taken two weeks before the final closure (because it could not handle the newer, bigger barges). It was passing 2,000,000tonnes of produce a year which is very good.

From there, we went to Dunkirk (Dunkerque in French). Highlights of the visit were:

The 12th Century Belfry with magnificient views.
The Port Museum which detailed the history of the town and its commerce.
The Operation Dynamo Museum which illustrated and documented the evacuation of 338,000 allied and French troops from Dunkirk in WW2.
The famous Dunkirk Beaches.
The Cathedral.

We will send photos in a separate Blog (which Gmail might refuse to accept).

We farewelled Charlie and Brian a short while ago. They are going to Frankfurt for a flight to Australia later in the night.

At the moment, we have stopped for the night 2Kms short of the Belgian border, near the old Customs Post and near the town of Bray sur Dunes. There are not many boats along this section of canal. So far, we have travelled almost 1,000Kms and are looking forward to visiting Ypres, after which we will be turning around.

Best Regards,
David and Penelope