River Leie to Gent to Gavere (2/06 to 07/06)
2nd June – Probably the last sunny day for a while as we set off along the river Leie towards Gent – a very pretty route with the river snaking through some lovely countryside peppered with a wide selection of luxury houses, lawns flowing down to the river bank.
There aren’t many places to stop but the mooring at Sint-Martens-Latem was empty, so here we stayed for the night. Just a beautiful location.
Just to make it that bit nicer, an ice cream car parked next to our mooring as we relaxed on deck.
3rd June – We arrived in Gent today and moored up in front of the public library. This is a new mooring and worked very well for us – it was very close to the town with a park and shopping centre just a hundred metres away. We spent a place few hours drinking with friends on their beautiful barge, and then left to do a bit of sightseeing.
We decided to stay in Gent for a couple of nights – the quay was a bit busy the first evening as the weather was great, and Quentin and Denise turned up later in their boat so naturally we got together for a few too many drinks. The second evening was a little rainy, so everyone stayed indoors I think and all was quiet.
5th June – We made ready to leave today, catching a window in the rain to end up at Gavere, and moored just before the bridge. At that point we were back in commercial waterways and there were just so many large ships passing us, making the mooring less than comfortable but survivable. We decided to stick it out for two nights though because the weather had deteriorated with rain and high winds buffering the boat. Quentin and Denise were taking the same route as us for the time being, and they arrived later, mooring up just in front of us. So once again, it was drinks all round again on their boat.
Gavere is a fairly small town, very close to the mooring area. There didn’t seem to be much there, but it was a pleasant enough stop for us with lovely areas for dog walks.