Weather: Murky, but warm start, with only the slightest hint of sunshine briefly getting through by mid-afternoon.
Our parking ticket at Harelbeke expired at 10.50 this morning, but I had intended for us to leave just as soon as we had been for a run around the lake, had showers and breakfasted. Somehow, with a visit to the service point (the last time any water went into Bertie's onboard tank was somewhere in Scotland, so it was getting a bit low), it was gone 10.40 by the time we got on the road.
With only a pause to pick up a few groceries, we came to Thieu, which lies just over 100km to the SE of Kortrijk. Why did we choose to come here? Because there are two canals (by appearances I would say an older one and it's bigger replacement) and along those canals lie a number of boat lifts, instead of flights of locks.
Huge commercial barges are a common sight on the waterways of Belgium. Sometimes it is obvious what they are carrying; sometimes they are covered. This one had a huge load of scrap metal.
We went for a little strollette this afternoon, past the nearest lift (Lift 4), on the old canal...
The upper entrance to the lift. Judging by all the weed on the canal, this waterway doesn't see much traffic.
...then along a short way. It was a little while after I'd taken this snap...
...and we'd had a little discussion about that industrial-looking building, that seemed so out of place in such a rural setting, that we came to realise that it was the 'new' boat lift.
Definitely not as visually pleasing as the Falkirk Wheel or even Lift 4 (above), and from what I gleaned from one of a series of information panels, it doesn't sound as efficient either. The Falkirk Wheel works by having its two boat-carrying chambers at opposite sides of a large spoke, and by the use of Archimedes principle those chambers are always the same weight, thus very little energy is needed to rotate the wheel. More locally, the old Lift 4 here at Thieu works by a hydraulic action, with an extra 75 tonnes worth of water in the top chamber, which is used by the hydraulic mechanism to drive the bottom chamber upwards.
The new lift, however, in its overly industrial looking building, is funicular, with an engine being used to wind/unwind a cable to haul/unhaul the chamber (which can weigh in at 10,000 tonnes) up/down the 73.1m drop. When we watched it operate, only one chamber was moved, thus there was no assistance from reciprocal action. I'm no engineer, but to me that just doesn't sound an energy efficient way of getting boats up and down. Still fascinating, though!
Now just go back and look at that picture of the huge scrap-metal-carrying barge again; that had just come down in the lift.
There are more lifts along the canal. I'm not sure of the total distance involved, but we will go and have a bit more of a shufty tomorrow.
I'll throw this photo in (taken from out of Bertie's door, because I was too lazy to put some shoes on to go outside), just because it was taken at the brightest point in the afternoon.
The only other aspect of the day worthy of a mention is that when we arrived here the 'Protection Civile' arm of the Belgian police were here in force with large vehicles with flashing lights and with RIBs on, and divers in, the water. They were joined later by a helicopter. We have no idea whether they found whatever/whoever they were looking for, but by the time we got back from our afternoon stroll they were packing away and soon afterwards they were gone.
The boat hadn't been in the slot next to us when we arrived and has gone again now. The helicopter hovered for a long time.
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