12. Peronnes to Namur 10th June - 19th June 2026
- Jun 28
- 6 min read
10th June - Peronnes Yacht Club to Peruweiz Yacht Club ( 08.10am start, 12.3km, 1 lock in 3hrs 20 mins) Nimy-Blaton-Peronnes Canal.
It was finally great to be on our way after over 6 weeks at Peronnes Yacht Club. The weather was still unpredictable, so we knew that an early start was key to get to our destination before the rain and wind kicked in. We were lucky with our start this morning. The locks on this stretch can get quite congested with commercial traffic, meaning quite a wait. We saw a commercial come though the previous lock and it looked as though it was small enough for us to be able to go along side it at the lock we were also heading for. I contacted the lock keeper and he said to come along, so we were able to set off from our mooring quickly and join the commercial in the lock.
It had been an easy cruise with nice scenery. Peruweiz yacht club, was quite a small and simple place, with a lot of geese. There was a restaurant and the people were friendly and helpful. Later on in the afternoon a lovey couple from New Zealand - Charles and Annie on Antiope - arrived in front of us and we got chatting and went out for a couple of beers at the restaurant. They asked if we could cruise together the next day, making it easier with the big locks, which made sense.
11th June - Peruweiz Yacht Club to Thieu Lock Channel Entrance ( 07.40am start, 38km, 2 locks in 5hrs 10mins) Nimy-Blaton-Peronnes Canal & Canal du Centre.
We wanted to head off early, as again the weather was better in the morning, with rain forecast later. Thankfully Charles and Annie were in agreement with an early start. Their boat is faster than ours, but they were happy to go at our pace. There was quite a bit of Commercial traffic about, and we did wonder if we would have a long wait at the locks, but again we were lucky, the commercial in front of us was small enough for us to go in along the other side of the lock. Once outside of the lock, this commercial pulled over to the side, so we then had the second lock all to ourselves, and it had floating bollards, so we were very happy boaters in deed! On arrival at Thieu we got a nice mooring, nearly all to ourselves at the entrance to the Thieu Lock channel.
Before the rain was due to start, Ayhan & I set off to explore the old and new Thieu lifts, both impressive in their own ways. We saw the works of the old lift with the hydraulic system, still in use. We will look forward to going up in the new lift in a couple of days.
The next day was wet and windy, so we spent it relaxing and catching up with e-mails etc.. Charles and Annie came on our boat for a pre-dinner drink.
13th June - Thieu Lock Channel Entrance to Veisville Lock (08.50am start, 30kms, 1 lifting lock, in 4hrs 30mis) Canal du Centre & Canal de Charleroi a Bruxelles.
Charles and Annie's Australian friends were joining us with their boat today on the cruise - Helen & Bryce. They were prompt and we got going in good time. We didn't have to hang around long to enter the lift, but once in we had a bit of a wait as there was another small boat wanting to join us. It didn't matter as we were happy to get off the boat and explore. Not sure if we were supposed to get off, but we weren't told off. It was such a fascinating structure and so large, I couldn't wait to see how it all worked. Once it got going, it didn't take that long. The views were wonderful, it had been a great experience, very enjoyable.
Just after the first aquaduct, we went along a second one. This was quite some engineering work to get the boats up to this level.
We had a lovely cruising day, going under a flood defence system as well to add to the engineering fascination. We moored near to the entrance of Veisville lock, which was very pleasant. Charles and Annie invited us all to their boat for pre-dinner drinks. We didn't stay too long. We were all tired, but it had been a great day.
14 June - Veisville Lock to Auvelais Lock. (9am start, 34kms, 6 locks, in 5hrs 30 mins) Canal de Charleroi a Bruxelles - River Sambre.
We couldn't leave until 9am even if had wanted to, as it was a Sunday and the locks don't open early. Thankfully Rachel had advised us to travel through Charleroi on a Sunday as it is very industrial, so not a pretty place and can be busy with commercial traffic and as the commercials don't travel on this stretch on Sundays, it made sense. We were very glad that we had listened to the advice as the river is also quite bendy, so would not be good to meet a lot of large commercial traffic on.
The lock doors were sliding doors, a new one for us and they were all ropen and eady for us, so it was an easy days cruising, plus we were going down in the locks, which is always a lot easier and more gentle. Our newly made antipodean friends parted ways with us at the Sambre juntion. It seemed strange to be cruising without them now. The lock keeper was confused too as presumably the previous lock keeper had told him that we were three boats travelling together. Anyway, it had been another good days cruise. We were going to continue past Auvelais lock as we had made good progress, but they had a technical issue so we had to wait for it to be fixed and so moored up before the lock and had a lovely, quiet and relaxing evening.
15th June - Auvalais Lock to Namur (7.45am start, 27kms, 4 locks in 4hrs 30mins) River sambre - River Muese.
Today was Ayhan's 68th birthday, so I was keen that we should be somewhere where we could find a nice restaurant for dinner. There had been a small boat moored up behind us and he had wanted to travel with us the next day too, which was fine. This stretch of river is particularily bendy, not at all user friendly for meeting commercial traffic. We were lucky and met only a couple, but one was going really fast on a bend, he wasn't going to slow down or give us any room. Luckily Ayhan managed to get out of his way.
The locks were all open and ready for us again today, so a great result.
We got to Namur in good time and had managed to fill up with water at the last lock, thanks to Rachel's advise yet again, on Csavargo, who were already moored at Namur and helped us with our lines when we arrived. We moored behind them. The river Meuse is quite wide.
Rachel and Yanos knew it was Ayhan's birthday, and invited us on to their boat for some Champagne and nibbles, which was really very kind of them. They had also found a Turkish restaurant, which they thought Ayhan might be interested in for dinner, so we went there and Ayhan really enjoyed his food. It had been a lovely evening.
The next day we decided to explore Namur. There was a students demonstration organised, targeting austerity measures, luckily this didn't interfere with our day. We decided to visit the citadel and took the cable car to the top.We got spectacular views along the way.
The citadel is anchored on a particularly impressive rocky spur, this exceptional heritage site has been able to preserve the traces of each period of its 2000 years of history.
Residence of the Counts of Namur in the Middle Ages, transformed into a resort by King Leopold II, it is today a mecca for events, guided tours and walks in a green setting offering spectacular views of the city.
The weather is really starting to warm up now, so much so that we need to go out first thing to do any sightseeing or shopping. We spent the next day walking around Namur town, which was nice.
We had been planning to do a 3-4 day return trip to Dinant with our boat, but we decided to take the train there instead, it was only a short trip and the train followed the river, so we enjoyed the same scenery, which was great. Dinant was another lovely riverside town with a citadel, although the cable car to the citadel was out of action and we didn't fancy walking over 400 steps and in the heat. Dinant was also the home of the man that invented the Saxophone in 1840's, Adolphe Sax.
On our return back on the train, we noticed a large boat in a garden which we have since found out, is a pool boat built in 1937.
We enjoyed our time in Namur relaxing on our boat, looking out at the river each evening, grilling our food. Not a bad life.
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