6-7 May Our trip to Gent from Bruges included a deviation through the town of Deinze so that we could come up the Leie River, which is supposed to be very beautiful. We were told that the bridges near Bruges only started operating at 10am on Sundays so we left our mooring just before 10am. It was lovely weather and we saw a few people out enjoying the day. Our initial plan was to stay at Schipdonk, where we had stayed overnight last year even though officially you are only supposed to stay for 2 hours. We reached there after just over 4 hours cruising, but it was very busy and there was nowhere to moor so we decided to head immediately to Deinze. Our navigation computer said that it would take another 4 hours, but as it was only 14kms and one opening bridge we headed off. We made it there after about 2 hours. At Deinze we got a nice mooring on the town quay, and had a little walk around the town. We then stopped by for a drink with Brian in Parahandy. Brian also moored at Diksmuide over the winter although we didn't meet him there. He cruises single-handed and has masses of experience. We enjoyed our chat with him. The next morning we headed off up the Leie River. We had heard that the river was lovely, but very windy. Below is just one section. There were plenty of right angle and hairpin bends, and often we slowed down to less than 3km/hr to avoid problems. I counted about 18 really tight bends - many within 100m of the next one. It was a still and sunny day, and being a Monday the river was fairly quiet - ideal conditions for our cruise. We took it very slowly as Moondance has a flat bottom and drifts around corners. The river had quite wild sections but most often it was farmland on one side and houses on the other. In many places the houses were quite spectacular. As we got closer to Gent it was more built up and the river got a little busier. It was a beautiful cruise and we were happy to have done it.
1 Comment
Lisette McCauley
20/5/2018 11:23:20 pm
We have done that trip several times now, in both directions and have not tired of it. It is extremely pretty, and while we have shared some tight corners with little Sunday cruisers, it has always been an absolute delight. Glad that you enjoyed it too.
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