Where's Bertie? He's still sitting next to the Canal du Centre at Thieu.
Weather: Another murky start, but clearing more quickly today, to give some sunshine by early afternoon. Still nice and warm.
Today was mainly about the Strépy-Thieu boat lift, but first let's nip back to last night when, after tea, with the sun finally shining, we took a walk along the old canal in the opposite direction to our earlier stroll. Whereas earlier in the day we had thought the old canal to the east looked largely disused, last night we discovered that the section to the west is definitely so as we walked along a kilometre of water between two decommisioned locks. I would have taken a photo or two, except it turned out that neither of us had taken a phone (eeeh, it wasn't many years past that it would have made no sense at all to say "I didn't take a photo because I didn't have a phone with me"!). We were at a loss for a while as to how the boats moored in the marina between Lift 4 and this disused section could go anywhere, but we had missed the presence of a lock, only about 100m away from Bertie, which joins the old and new canals.
Anyway, on to today and the Strépy-Thieu boat lift which was, until 2016, the largest boat lift in the world. We hadn't intended to visit it until this afternoon, when we were sure the air clarity would be better (we could barely see the lift for the murk first thing), but our late-morning walk through the village (not very interesting) took us there via a roundabout route.
It's just as much of an eyesore when seen along one of the village streets. I wonder how the residents felt during its construction (1982-2002)?
Having photographed it from several angles and not quite walked up to the level of the upper canal...
...we stood on a nearby bridge hoping to see it in operation from closer range than yesterday, as we knew that a tour boat was due to set out from the upper canal right about that time (1330).
With our hunger becoming too great we abandoned our wait (it finally moved at 14.15), but in the meantime, we had learned something about the lift. Disappointingly, this was not from any information displayed (there is none outside and the Visitor Centre is currently closed until 2019) but from standing on the bridge reading Wikipedia. It was unsurprising to learn that I had underestimated the efficiency and mode of operation of the lift yesterday. Of course it uses Archimedes's Principle! In this case, a huge bank of concrete weights offsets the weight of the boat chamber. By using weights rather than the second boat chamber as the counterbalance, only one of the chambers needs to be operated during any lift/drop cycle.
Knowing that another tour boat was due to go through the lift at around 1530, this time from the lower canal (incidentally the price of €7 (or €6.50 for an old geezer like Mick) seemed a bargain for the 1.5hr lift experience, even if we didn't go for it) we returned after lunch and timed it perfectly.
The dimensions of the boat chamber are 112m by 12m. Doesn't the tour boat look tiny, and the cabin cruiser behind even tinier? We paced out the length of a moored barge on our way back and reckoned it to be 80-90m
Going up...
The point at which the counterbalance weights were level with the boat chamber
I'm not sure I've made any of that sound remotely interesting, but I found it so. I still can't get over the ugliness of the structure, though!
Weather: Another murky start, but clearing more quickly today, to give some sunshine by early afternoon. Still nice and warm.
Today was mainly about the Strépy-Thieu boat lift, but first let's nip back to last night when, after tea, with the sun finally shining, we took a walk along the old canal in the opposite direction to our earlier stroll. Whereas earlier in the day we had thought the old canal to the east looked largely disused, last night we discovered that the section to the west is definitely so as we walked along a kilometre of water between two decommisioned locks. I would have taken a photo or two, except it turned out that neither of us had taken a phone (eeeh, it wasn't many years past that it would have made no sense at all to say "I didn't take a photo because I didn't have a phone with me"!). We were at a loss for a while as to how the boats moored in the marina between Lift 4 and this disused section could go anywhere, but we had missed the presence of a lock, only about 100m away from Bertie, which joins the old and new canals.
Anyway, on to today and the Strépy-Thieu boat lift which was, until 2016, the largest boat lift in the world. We hadn't intended to visit it until this afternoon, when we were sure the air clarity would be better (we could barely see the lift for the murk first thing), but our late-morning walk through the village (not very interesting) took us there via a roundabout route.
It's just as much of an eyesore when seen along one of the village streets. I wonder how the residents felt during its construction (1982-2002)?
Having photographed it from several angles and not quite walked up to the level of the upper canal...
...we stood on a nearby bridge hoping to see it in operation from closer range than yesterday, as we knew that a tour boat was due to set out from the upper canal right about that time (1330).
With our hunger becoming too great we abandoned our wait (it finally moved at 14.15), but in the meantime, we had learned something about the lift. Disappointingly, this was not from any information displayed (there is none outside and the Visitor Centre is currently closed until 2019) but from standing on the bridge reading Wikipedia. It was unsurprising to learn that I had underestimated the efficiency and mode of operation of the lift yesterday. Of course it uses Archimedes's Principle! In this case, a huge bank of concrete weights offsets the weight of the boat chamber. By using weights rather than the second boat chamber as the counterbalance, only one of the chambers needs to be operated during any lift/drop cycle.
Knowing that another tour boat was due to go through the lift at around 1530, this time from the lower canal (incidentally the price of €7 (or €6.50 for an old geezer like Mick) seemed a bargain for the 1.5hr lift experience, even if we didn't go for it) we returned after lunch and timed it perfectly.
The dimensions of the boat chamber are 112m by 12m. Doesn't the tour boat look tiny, and the cabin cruiser behind even tinier? We paced out the length of a moored barge on our way back and reckoned it to be 80-90m
Going up...
The point at which the counterbalance weights were level with the boat chamber
I'm not sure I've made any of that sound remotely interesting, but I found it so. I still can't get over the ugliness of the structure, though!
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