Ghent



On our way through Belgium we stopped in the city of Ghent which has a canal running through the old part of the city.
While I made lunch, Josh pumped up our inflatable kayaks, then we carefully lowered them into the canal. It was pretty stinky and there was quite a bit of rubbish floating around in it. I did feel lucky that we were in this century though as at least the spouts that were pointing out of the buildings leaning over the river weren’t spewing sewage. There didn’t seem to be any rules as to who was allowed on the river as there were many motor boats chugging up and down filled with happy punters all sipping wine. We soon came across scores of these boats laden with people as we paddled closer to the famous ancient part of the city.
We were having a lovely time drifting down the stream towards the hoards of tourists sitting with their legs dangling over the edge of the canal. I was feeling sorry that they weren't where we were - in our cosy boat piled with kids paddling in the sun. But then one of our girls showed us that she was feeling the total opposite-  she didn't want to be there at all where hundreds of tourists were watching us drift by in our funny inflatable! If the canal hadn't been so stinky, and if she could do it in secret I'm sure she would have tried to escape over the edge into the water. For her that was a humiliating time. Sorry dear daughter!
We saw many of these Meerkat ducks nesting is very precarious
places along the canals

She survived it though, and thankfully we didn't fall in though soon the wind came up and it became quite a slog to make our way up the canal to our parking spot. We all got a bit wet and needed a to shower off the stinky water once we were back at the caravan. And that is why our clothes were so stinky and needed desperately washing. (As mentioned in the last post.)
Paddling on the Ghent canal


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