One of Peter’s favourite descriptions of himself is ‘a bald headed old coute called Lucky’. Well his luck was in overdrive! In the morning I returned our electricity key to the Capitainne at ADEPS only to be told the the Ronquières incline plan had been closed again and would not reopen until 2nd August. It certainly would have put a hole in our plans if we hadn’t got through on one of the 4 days it was open.
Our journey now took us in south eastly direction, through Charleroi with an overnight stop at the small village of Auvelais, where we left Dori to catch a train to Dinard.
We were advised not to try and stop in Charleroi, and yes I’m glad we didn’t. The scenery of deserted factories and graffiti was like a scene from a Mad Max movie.
From Auvelais it was onto Namur, which sits at the confluence of the Sambre and the Meuse. Instead of keeping on the Sambre towards Maastricht we chose to take a detour south along the Meuse. Our plans were delayed when European heat wave hit. As we were connected to power, we could run the air conditioner continuously. Why give up this comfort and move to regions unknown?
No we didn’t just hibernate, there was a bit of sightseeing, Namur has a citadel to explore and what better way to do it than on a Segway!
Even a little shopping!
With the heat wave breaking we left Namur in the rain. Not a drastic decision, it was still warm and the blessing of water from the heavens was refreshing. We had an overnight stop at the tiny port of Yvoir, then onto Dinant.
This section is very pretty, with little commercial traffic, a marked contrast to Charleroi.
Moored below the citadel in Dinant
Dinant is a popular tourist town, with cafes along the quay and tourist boats plying their trade on the river. They make a big fuss over the inventor of the saxophone being born here. There seems to be a replica saxophone around every corner!
But the winning attraction is the view from the top of the citadel
After 3 nights in Dinant we plan to go further up the river to…. well we will decide when we get there!
Karen’s Travel Blog 
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