Saturday 26th & Sunday 27th June 2004 Roelagebrug to the German/Dutch border at Barnflair.

Saturday 26th June 2004 Roelagebrug to the German/Dutch border at Barnflair.

7.8° C. Sunshine, blue skies and a gentle breeze. We set off at 9.05 a.m. following Rosy up to Ter Apelersluis. Bill turned the key to empty the lock and we went up the last lock on the Ruiten Aa kanaal. Mike wound up the lift bridge above the lock and Bill went on to get the next bridge. We arrived just after a cruiser called Elles had landed on the opposite side of the

Roelagebrug - photo from 2005

bridge and a lady from the cruiser got off and worked the bridge. For some reason best known to themselves the skipper brought his cruiser through the bridge first, instead of letting the two narrowboats through first and getting out of his way, because then he had to hover about in the narrow channel while his crew closed the bridge. This meant that Bill was in front to work the last liftbridge, a bridge which carried the busy main road into Ter Apel. He managed OK, but he had great long queues of traffic while he moved Rosy through, tied up and went back to lower the bridge. The lock at Barnflair was full with the top end gates open. We tied to the sloping grassy bank below the lock, next to three old cruisers with for sale notices on them, and Mike got off to investigate. There was no sign of the keeper, but his book in the lock cabin indicated that four cruisers had gone through earlier heading uphill. We waited for his return. I tried ‘phoning the number in the book and got a shrieking recorded announcement

Below Ter Apelersluis - photo from 2005

by a Dutch woman and the call cut off. The lock keeper came back shortly afterwards and emptied the lock and we went up. He spoke no English, but wanted to know all about the origins of our boats, so he enterprisingly enlisted the aid of a gongoozler as interpreter. We signed his book and then he swung the footbridge over the canal for us and raised the vertical liftbridge over the junction with the Haren-Rütenbrock kanal. A small tjalk was moored at the landing stage for Potze’s garage, where we had to return our keys. I collected Bill’s key and we backed off into the old oval stop lock and Mike went across the road to get our deposits back for the keys (20€ each). Another tjalk was moored by the old Dutch customs place, this one was German from Lingen and had full sailing rigging with stepped masts lying across his cabin roof. It was 12.30 p.m. when we got to the lock. Bill pulled the hanging chain, but

Ter Apelersluis - photo from 2005

nothing happened. The swingbridge lights remained on red, as did the lights for the lock whose bottom end gates were open. We thought they must be closed for lunch until 1.00 p.m. so we had our lunch while we were waiting. At 1.00 p.m. we tried again, and this time the lock and the bridge lights went off to our great surprise - nobody had looked at times in the book! Mike went to look and see if there was a timetable on the new lock cabin. There was. The newly reopened, now remotely-operated canal was open from 8.00 until 13.00 on Saturdays, but last entry time was 11.00 a.m. Now we found that the canal in front of us was closed until Monday morning. Somehow, it seemed that something didn’t want us to go to Germany! We reversed towards the landing by the garage. Then I noticed that there was a short section of bank with a few trees sheltering the canal from the busy road which follows it all the way to Haren, so we moored there instead. There was enough room for the two boats side by side at the bottom of a steeply sloping grassy bank. A kind fisherman at some time had cut a few steps into the bank, so we positioned our bows by that and tied ropes around conveniently spaced trees. Mike decided to walk back to Roelagebrug to collect the car as it was only about 6 kms back and easier than trying to unload the moped. On his return he took Bill with him to get some beer and something to BBQ from Edah in Ter Apel. I prepared spuds to bake, potato salad and egg mayo while they were out shopping. We sat outside chatting and had our pork steaks

Ter Apel - photo from 2005

and sausages plus one of Bill’s hamburgers. Fanny collected twigs and sticks for making more charcoal. The weather forecast was right, it clouded over during the evening. We went indoors and Mike watched the end of the football match. The Dutch team beat Sweden. They were 0 - 0 when we went in at 10.30 and into extra time. When I went to bed at 11.30 they were still doing penalty goal kicks. Mike stayed up to watch the end and finish off his beer.

Sunday 27th June 2004 Barnflair.

An enforced day off as the canal was shut on Sundays. A mild 13.1° C overnight but the weather was no good for cruising, as rain poured down all morning with short sunny spells just before lunch. The afternoon was drier and cloudy. Mike cleared up the BBQ stuff he’d left at the top of the bank under the trees from the night before. We had some lunch, then we went out in the car to check that the mooring in the basin at Lingen was still OK and hadn’t been turned into a fancy new marina. An empty 80m boat had taken up most of the one side of the mooring opposite the builder’s yard and a few cruisers were moored in front of its bows. We picked up some German bio-diesel at 79.9c/litre and went back to the boat on the scenic route via Meppen and Haren on the 70.