Thursday 21st July 2005 Lingen to the Dutch border nr Ter Apel.

Rainbow at Lingen

12.2º C overnight. Sunny and windy first thing, clouding over to overcast later. After a day off to get our mail and Mike to do some shopping (I was still not 100%), we set off at 8.10 a.m. with the pins in and the washing machine going. I started catching up with the chores. Cleaned the floor, then sat down for a rest, my back was nowhere near right yet. Made some tea and toast before we got to the first lock of the day at Varloh. A cruiser overtook us and was waiting in the lock when we got there. Mike held

Leaving the harbour at Lingen

the string again. It was spitting with rain when we set off again at 10.15 a.m. The cruiser was waiting for us again in Meppen. The washing finished at midday as we were running through the twisty section through Meppen, where we met two blue boarding uphill commercials and a cruiser. It started raining as Mike paused to take the pins out. Lunch on the move then down Hüntel lock with another cruiser, leaving the empty lock just after 1

Contra-rotating propellers at the museum in Haren

p.m. Forty minutes later we tied on the landing below the bottom lock, Haren, on the Haren-Rütenbrock-kanal. Mike went into the office and paid 2€ for each boat for the trip up the canal into the Netherlands. We went uphill in the lock by less than a metre and tied on the landing stage on the left above the lock where the keeper had agreed to let us stay for an hour while Mike and Bill went for a look round the ship museum. A very strong wind was

Working boat cabin at the museum Haren

blowing the rain horizontal straight down the canal as we tied up. They came back with a fine collection of photos. We set off again at 3.30 p.m. Mike gave the keeper a hoot as we set off and he lifted the road bridge for us. Rosy lead the way. A lockful of three German cruisers passed us heading downhill at 4 p.m. Helen phoned to find out where we were. They had loaded their peniche Floan with a cargo of talc in Gent for

Bill admiring pistons from an old boat engine

Douai but had the day off as it was Belgian National Day. Told her where we were and she asked what the trip had been like. I said the MLK was getting busier with more and more Polish and Czech boats coming further west than they used to. She said that the Belgians weren’t happy with the big influx of migrant Polish workers, same in Britain. She said it had just been on the news that more bombs were going off on the London underground, but they were smoke bombs – still causing as much of a scare though. I wished her a good trip as I rushed out to hold a rope as we rose in lock 2, remotely operated by the keeper at the first lock with the aid of cctv (as are all the bridges and locks on the canal – he used to ride up the canal on a moped to work all the locks and bridges!) Up the third lock and through the next liftbridge at 5.30 p.m. Across the short summit, down the last shallow lock and through the last

Moored at the boat museum in Haren

swingbridge at a few minutes before six. Timed to perfection as the canal closes at 6 p.m. Still pouring with rain as we tied up on the old Dutch custom’s quay. Mike decided to leave the car where it was, safe on the car park in Lingen.