In Givet we met Rob & Gill on their tjalk ‘Oud Bruin’ which had chewed up its ancient gearbox. They had the gearbox taken out and had found a replacement in Holland but then needed to get a hire car to take the old one in to exchange it. When they got the hire car they could not lift the gearbox from the cockpit, up the 2m quayside and into the boot of the car. We offered to help and spent a while thinking of pulleys, ropes, levers etc and then walked Tilly while we kept thinking.

About 100m along the quayside we came across a group of road workmen who were packing up for the day. On impulse, we stopped and asked them if they could help and after a hesitant start they all got enthusiastic and marched back with us to ‘Oud Bruin’. It was a bit of a shock for Rob and Gill when 6 burly workmen swirled around their boat (after asking permission) and hoisted the 75kg gearbox aloft with no preamble or drama and suddenly it was in the car boot amongst much back slapping and laughing. I fetched a small box of beers and passed it over to the happy smiling leader and off they went, hoorah.

After Givet was the Ham tunnel which cuts off a big 4km loop off the Meuse by going through the hill in between. The tunnel is small enough that the outside edges of our wheelhouse roof could get bashed by the rocky arch. However, we'd heard that it was normal for the lock keeper to lower the water level to give barges more headroom, and he did exactly that for us, thank goodness!

Here is Waterdog entering the Ham tunnel, notice that I have forgotten to take off my sun glasses and I am thinking that it is really dark in the tunnel!