Thursday 1st July & Friday 2nd July 2004 Ibbenburen to Bramsche.

Thursday 1st July 2004 Ibbenburen.

Coal barge on MLK in 1999

Heavy rain fell during the night. 12.9° C overnight. Sunny spells, breezy, heavy rainshowers.

Moored at the beginning of the Mittelland kanal (MLK) in an offline arm - the quietest mooring on the whole MLK, (quiet except for the crash made by the rocks being dropped fifteen feet into the holds of boats). Mike and Bill went in the car to the chandlers at the junction with the Dortmund-Ems-Kanal (DEK). Mike bought himself a new skippers hat (17,95 Eu) the last one in the shop of his size - 59. Amazingly Bill wanted one too and his head is the same size! Never mind there’s plenty more chandlers! He did however get the full set of four charts for the East German waterways and, after paying 28 Euros for each one, he had to go and find a bank as the chandlers didn’t take Visa as it costs them 3% of their profits! We had an early lunch then went out in the car, taking Bill (and Fanny) to find Bill’s old barracks in Menden. He was stationed there 37 years ago after finishing at Sandhurst. Into Rheine to run south on the 481 and get the 1 autobahn past Münster to Kamen then east and south, through Wickede on the 7 and into Menden. It was HILLY! Lovely scenery. Found the police station by accident and Bill went in to ask where the former British barracks were located, half expecting them to have been demolished. They gave him a copy street map printed from their computer. 

Graffiti MLK photo from 2013 

We found the street Bill was looking for, Mommenstraße, but, although nothing had been demolished, it was unrecognisable at first because the place had been very tastefully converted into a housing estate, even the mess had been turned into flats and very smart they looked. Mike and Bill went for a walk and I stayed in the car with Fanny (she was still wearing her trumpet and had got another tick). Bill took photos of the house his ex-wife lived in when she taught kids at the base and the house they moved into when they got married. Even part of the wall around the military camp remained. The place held lots of memories for him. His former office was now a pizza parlour and opposite, where they had kept big guns (which fired shells with nuclear warheads) in a large square, was now industrial premises. We went back home the same way we’d come, passing through some very heavy rain showers. Glad we’d moved the boats up into the area designated for sportboots before we set out for Menden, as several cruisers had arrived while we were out and filled the rest of the mooring. 

Overtaking traffic on the MLK - photo from 2013

Fanny and Bill came on our boat and we took her tick off (Bill had pulled one out last week and left bits in which had caused a lump under her skin, so now he was a bit anxious about removing them). Mike also took her stitches out, which she didn’t like at all - she even tried to bite him! It was a three person job! Bill hung on to her, gripping her muzzle and I held her feet to stop her wriggling, as she was quite strong for a small dog, while Mike cut the stitches and pulled them out. We finally got all the stitches out, but Bill said she would have to keep her collar on a few days longer to stop her scratching her scabs off. Mike and Bill celebrated a good day out with a beer. I put the TV on to watch the weather forecast on ZDF at 7.20 p.m. sunshine and showers for the next week at least. Great, just what we need! Mike watched more football, Euro 2004 championships, Greece beat Portugal in extra time.

Friday 2nd July 2004 Ibbenburen to Bramsche.

Unloading crane on the MLK - photo from 2013

Sunny with white fluffy clouds as we set off at 9.10 a.m. Yet another Dutch 80m boat was loading rocks from lorries via the chute at the end of the mooring. We followed Bill out on to the main MLK. A loaded 80m was just pulling away from the quay at the junction to head off in the direction of the DEK. Mike had put the pins in to run the Markon after he’d checked that we’d got enough water to do some washing. Lots of traffic moving, as usual. Had our lunch on the move. Lydia (we’d come up a lock with them on the DEK) was now loading scrap at Wackum at the Haven Achmer (named for the town on the other bank!) where there was a scrap berth and a large grain silo. We passed the arm to Osnabruck at 12.45 p.m. At 1.30 p.m. we tied up at Bramsche, in the sportboot moorings at the side of an old winding hole. All pleasure boats in Germany are called “sportboot” no matter what they are. 

Hitch-hiking wagtail on Refleks chimney MLK - photo from 2013

From the smallest run-around to the biggest gin palace. The term “pleasure boat” always makes me cringe but to call a 58ft narrowboat a sport boat brings a smile. No sooner had we tied up than two Polish commercial boats went past, one from Wroclaw heading for the DEK and a Bromberger heading for Berlin. Mike went to get the car, he returned ten minutes later with some packs of cooked meat from a supermarket, as I told him he’d eaten all the sandwich making stuff I’d bought last time we went shopping. He asked me to tell Bill that there was a fishing tackle shop just 300m down the road towards Bramsche town centre. Bill went later to try and get a big brolly like ours. He said they’d tried to sell him a tent - ten feet across and costing over 100 Euros! I made a pork and smoked sausage stew for dinner. More heavy rain showers arrived. After dinner we went out for a ride in the car. First we went to check out the possibility of mooring in Bad Essen. Found the mooring place which was 50m long and occupied by two boats - a cruiser and a yacht. Toured through the Wiehengebirge (hills) to the north and east of Osnabruck on the way home. Found some great hills and hairpin bends Back at 10 p.m. just as the next storm began. Sat in the car for five minutes until it eased off. There were two fishermen fishing under big brollies at the far side of the winding hole.