Next morning we decided to go up the four historic lifts, so we are backtracking, but on a different canal. Having come up from the main canal in a self operated 6 metre lock we are approaching Historic lift 4.
This self operated lock can be seen to the left of the small brown building (right of centre), and our mooring last night was to the left of that, on the bottom canal. We had decided not to come up to the port, shown on the left here.
Looking over to our left, Strépy-Thieu lift can be seen on the skyline. We will be there later on today.
Our second historic boat lift is number 3. These lifts were made in the same style as the Eiffel Tower, and look like meccano!
This fine building is the control “tower” for both lifts 2 and 3, as they are close together.
Looking back down to lift 3 from lift 2. We are climbing fast!
Here Andy is passing under the extra stop gate above Historic Lift 1. This lift was built in 1888, with the other three completed by 1919, but we have been unable to discover why there was this delay.
Having exited historic lift 1, we sailed back to the junction, to go left on to the new Canal du Centre, and now we are once again entering the Strépy-Thieu lift.
It is a huge caisson, so we have free choice of where to tie up. There is a Danish yacht in with us this time. They are heading for the Mediterranean, but have to take this route, because the river Meuse is currently closed to navigation, due to lack of water. As our thermometer read 47°C last week, this is not surprising. Thank goodness that the weather is now cooler, as over 100°F is not a lot of fun!
These concrete slabs are the counterweights for our caisson.
Out at the bottom again! We are feeling rather like yo-yos, with The Puzzler having been up or down 1178.7 feet over the last three days!
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