Veurne to St Omer via Dunkerque

Veurne Market

French Boarder

Wednesday 8th June

We made an earlier start this morning as we are going to make for St Omer in France today. First though we had a trip to the local market which was held in the large central market place. The fresh strawberries really scented the air so we bought some of those for later. The market was a typical mix of fruit and vegetable, clothes, hardware and even some livestock and although last night the town was completely deserted, today it seemed like the everyone who lives there has turned out.

There were no locks on the first part of trip, just lifting bridges which were no problem at all. Karl pulled over to the bankside at Adinkerke for me to hop off, climb up the steep bank and nip to the chocolate factory to buy goodies - there wasn't any mooring places so he just stayed with the boat while I did my trolley dash!

The French border was a lifting bridge where we had to present the boats papers and our passports in the bridge office. We had to fill in some paperwork here which enabled us to collect a licence later at the VNF office further along the canal in Dunkerque, this was 224 euros for the remainder of the year. As we entered Dunkerque the first lock was automatic but this was broken so we had to wait for an operator who had to come from the seaport.

Immediately after we had collected our licence we went into a lock, the first of many! We then carried on along the canal via Watten to St Omer where we found a little marina for the night for the fee of 14 euros, water & electricity included - in total we have travelled 61.5 kilometres today.

In the marina Karl spotted a boat which still had a Broads licence number on it and recognised it from a marina at home where we had once moored. He wandered off to take a look while I prepared our meal, when he came back he told me that not only was it the same boat but the same owners, who happened to onboard for their holiday - they live just 3.5 miles away from us in the UK!! Small world.

From Nieuwpoort via Canal De Furnes

Tuesday 7th June 2005

After borrowing the bikes again to stock up on groceries for our trip, we left the marina just after 3pm to refuel. Belgium is one of the few places where you can still buy red diesel for boats and the savings are well worth it, so we topped right up as we don't know exactly where the next fuel point will be, but we do know for sure it will be the more expensive white diesel.

Veurne Lifting Bridge

On leaving the marina we joined the Canal de Nieuwpoort a Dunkerque which is a commercial waterway. It runs for 11 kilometres through 1 lock from Nieuwpoort (where it joins the River Yser) to Furnes where it joins the Canal de Furnes). We were only on the canal for a kilometre or so before entering the lock, once inside and tied up ready for the sluice gates we were approached by the lock keeper who asked that my husband accompany him to his office in town as we were not displaying a current Inland Waterways licence for Belgium. I stayed behind on the boat thinking 'crikey, we have only been left an hour and one of us has been marched off by officials'. The licence cost 25 euros and covered us for our journey to Dunkerque where we would join the french canals.

As we approached Veurne our stop for the night, we passed through a small lock and a railway lifting bridge, neither of which caused any problems. Immediately after the lock we entered the town where there is a large visitors mooring basin, the lock keeper had asked if we would like to stay and we were told we could moor wherever we liked. The mooring had water, electricity and for one night was free of charge.

Veurne Town Centre mooring basin