Boating in Belgium: Day 6 – My Poor, Abused Legs!

We started out bright and early, after breakfast at 8:30am. We traveled out of a very quiet Ghent onto the river heading south towards Oudenaarde where we are spending the night.

Heading out of Ghent

Once we left the city limits we were on a very quiet canal with just greenery on both sides of us, with the only motion other than us being occasional bicyclers.

"Occasional bicyclers"

Toby and Norman decided that they’d like to bicycle alongside the canal but David wanted to wait till there was a place where he could pull the boat over safely. After about an hour, we saw three very narrow piers that he could pull up alongside, which he did. I was in the front of the boat to hold the bow against the pier and Norman was in the back. We moved close to the pier but I didn’t realize that the ledge on the boat on which I was standing had moved slightly under the pier. I suddenly realized that if we didn’t move away from the pier, my legs would be crushed between the side of the boat and the pier. Naturally, I screamed and David was able to quickly move the boat. I was pretty shaken up at the possibility of what could have happened, and I was a bit cut up from the edge of the pier. Nevertheless, we proceeded down the canal with Norman and Toby biking way faster, on the parallel path.

The pier where we let Toby and Norman off

My boo boo knee!

It was about another hour later when we got to our first lock of the day. Norman and Toby were waiting by the beginning of the lock. We had to wait a bit for the lock to open so we pulled over and I jumped off to hold off the boat. Along the bank was a low cement wall but plants were overhanging it. I had to walk through all the plants and suddenly my legs were stinging. I looked down expecting to see that I’d been cut by pricklers but instead, I’d walked through nettles. Both of my legs were burning and a bumpy rash was all over me, and the same thing happened to David. Very unpleasant!!! Fortunately the stinging subsided after a while.

Now in a lock, two people hold lines from the bow and stern of the boat. The lines are looped loosely through a bar in the lock wall or around a cleat on top of the lock wall. You gently loosen the line as the water rises (and the boat rises) inside the lock. In this case the lines (ropes) were through a bar in the wall. Unfortunately, the way the boat was pulling against the line was causing the line to get wedged against the wall and therefore couldn’t loosen as the boat rose in the lock. We were wedged up against the slimy wall and the line got wedged. I screamed that David needed to put the boat in reverse quickly or the pull on the line would rip the cleat right out of the boat. Fortunately, he was able to move the boat just a bit so the line moved smoothly. Since we were so close to the (slimy) wall, I couldn’t push us off when the lock opened and one of our fenders (the big rubber bumpers that keep the boat from banging against anything) snapped off and was left floating in the lock. We pulled over a bit after the lock and I ran back with the boat hook (a long pole with a hook on the end), climbed around a fence, and was able to hook the fender on the second try! I did get yelled at by the lock keeper. Shortly after, we encountered our second lock. We were lucky to have no negative incidents involved this time.

Coming back with the retrieved fender

My knee, bumpy and bandaged

Toby described their bike ride as idyllic – it was beautiful and easy. They stopped to have a little snack on a bench and estimated that they went about ten miles. They also had fun watching us on the water as they rode on land.

David and I in a lock (this picture and below)

After that lock we were in Oudenaard where Toby and Norman were waiting. We found our “Yachthaven” easily and it’s a lovely place with a bar attached. We biked right into town and found a lovely outdoor restaurant to have lunch. I ordered a vanilla milkshake as a treat! Next, we bought a guide to a walking tour of the town. We were biking the tour, and promptly got lost. So we just biked around for a while and then headed back to the boat. After some water and bathrooming, we decided to go to a museum nearby that had a gorgeous display of tapestries, beautiful silver and lovely paintings. I had enough biking so I walked while the rest of them rode. We all met back at the boat later. Norman and Toby wanted to make dinner and David and I wanted to go out, so we ate apart tonight. At last, they had a quiet evening on the boat after dinner while I typed this blog.