Bokkie's Travels: Hendrina, Ghent

Saturday 19/09/26

Gorgeous Ghent (Photo by Nathan Johnson)

We left Kortrijk the next morning, and enjoyed seeing huge numbers of birds on the way towards Ghent.

We were delayed for a while at one of the locks as a vessel was coming from the opposite direction and ended up being one of four vessels waiting to enter. The lock was 280m long end the controller had calculated we could all fit in - just. We were by far the smallest vessel and, as a non commercial craft, we were asked to enter the lock last. The barge ahead of us was over 100m long and we were only just able to squeeze in behind it. We were a bit nervous about possibly being bounced about in it's wash when it left the lock but needn't have worried; the very professional captain cruised away carefully until well clear of us and we all passed through without incident - very slick.

Hendrina squeezing into the lock - lots of duckweed on the water

Once we left the the canal and entered the stretch of the river Leie to get to Ghent (via the scenic route), the pace and scenery changed dramatically. Rows of fancy houses, each with their own robo-mower hard at work, edged the river for miles. There is definitely a lot of old and new money in Ghent.

Hendrina stopping traffic

The river meanders dramatically and Nathan had his work cut out to turn Hendrina back and forth through the narrow bends, avoiding kayakers and leisure boaters along the way. As we approached the outskirts of Ghent we had the added hazard of day-trippers in rental boats, some of them with no idea how to steer or aware of the danger of getting in front of a 20m long iron barge. Nathan earned his stripes - again!

Our wonderful berth in the middle of the action

We arrived late afternoon at the marina in the centre of Ghent to find our berth had not yet been vacated by the previous occupants. They were an Aussie couple: him a chilled hippy-type fist-bumping us all on arrival and her a slightly annoying ball of stress. We had to moor up against them for the night which was no problem, thanks to our capable skipper.

We headed off into town and had a lovely meal with some more brilliant beers. We arrived back to Henny just in time for the lantern festival parade to pass us on their way out of town. We were now effectively double-parked at their final corner out of town, so it made for some tense moments as the boats made their way around. Everyone was super chilled though, and it was a lovely welcome to Ghent.

The lantern festival - an excuse to make some noise.

The next day, the Aussies left and we could move into position against the wharf. We were really quite taken with Ghent, in my opinion it rates as one of the best cities I have ever visited. It helped that we had fantastic accommodation on Henny right in the middle of the city, and we really had such a wonderful time exploring with Nathan and Charmaine.

(Phot NJ)

All too soon it was time for us to leave again and on Monday morning we caught a train to Lille, then a fast train from Lille to Aix and finally we caught a bus back to Peyrius. Our little car was waiting patiently for us and soon we were back home.