With the Great Rivers chapter now almost complete it was time to head south into the uncharted waters of Noord Brabant. For some reason, ANWB does not cover south of the Amer, but we had a 2nd-best alternative in a new Maas-Schelde book/chart, which provides information about the venues as well as slightly inadequate mapping.

We headed first into the Wilhelminakanaal via the Donge entrance which connects this busy waterway with the Amer. A short stop at Geertruidenberg confirmed the popular opinion that there is "nothing" there but continuing on we were slightly taken aback by the new bridge which challenged our mast height just south of the town. The edge of the ANWB chart showed it under construction and our new map not at all, but it was very much in existence with an air draught of 5.2m (so 0.1m to spare for us!) We found the rest of the canal rather industrial and by Oosterhout we had seen enough. We weren't going to be recommending it, so we weren't going to cruise it. So it was back to the Amer and then a much more pleasant cruise up the leafy Bergse Maas.

We stopped for the night at Heusden, which although well inland, often features on British boats' itineraries and the restored fortifications of this historic town make it well worth a stop. The old town harbour was re-excavated in 1974 and now you can stop in the very centre where for centuries the fishing boats brought their catch up to the twin steps.

Temperatures remained in the 30's all the next day and only a week or so since we were complaining of the cold and rain, we were complaining of the sweltering heat. Whilst most sensible people sat in the shade reading, we spent the day exploring the town and meeting with the harbour mistress and VVV staff. There is no rest for the wicked (or the pilot writer) and in the afternoon we had to continue our voyage to our next principal venue, 's Hertogenbosch. A long wait at the Engelen sluice culminated in some nifty lock packing, and we shared the experience with four big barges. We soon realised this is a busy commercial waterway and hoped the cruise down the Zuidwillemsvaart would prove enjoyable.

The swing bridge into the visitors harbour at 's Hertogenbosch was temporarily out of service so we had to content ourselves with a box mooring in the yacht club. These are near a busy road bridge and can be quite noisy although all the local boaters maintain you soon learn to ignore it (presumably like the odd smell, which we couldn't quite identify). A full day followed learning about the attractions of this cultural city and with the offer of a parking permit from the tourist office's marketing manager we could allow ourselves a longer stay, and planned to reunite ourselves with the car for some land-based research.

Cruising Statistics

Distance (inland): 34nm

Total to date: 522nm

Avg Speed: 5.2kn

Duration: 6:30hrs

Diesel: 40 ltrs

Mooring: €12/night at 's Hertogenbosch

Electricity:
Included at Heusden (4A); €1,50/night at 's Hertogenbosch (6A)

Water:
Included

Charts

ANWB K Grote Rivieren (electronic)

Toeristische Vaargids van Maas en Schelde

Locks

Engelen sluis

Bridges

11 fixed (min 5.25m)