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| Terwalslagerbrug, stuck. |
10.7º C Chilly foggy start. Sunny and hot by midday. Set
off at 8.15 a.m. The guy off a small cruiser that had moored beyond the bridge
overnight came and opened the swingbridge for us – which was very nice of him.
I got off to work the next bridge, Terwalslagerbrug, a semi-automatic
swingbridge. I closed the barriers then pressed the button, but it wouldn’t
open. Mike got off to help. We had to open the barriers and start again.
Meanwhile the little cruiser had set off and caught up with us, so we let him
through and Rosy. I pressed the button to shut the bridge, but the deck went
beyond the sensors and stuck. I couldn’t get it back by shoving on it and
neither could Mike. I ‘phoned the man with the van. Still the same pleasant middle-aged
bearded chap who was the maintenance man when we came through here first, back
in 1999. He pushed and shoved it too, but it wouldn’t move. They tried
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| Wollinghuizersluis with semi-automatic liftbridge |
overriding the control in the main box, but still it wouldn’t budge, and
finally he put his overalls on and crawled underneath the deck to disconnect
the hydraulics before he could shove it manually back into the right place. By
the time he’d finished and let us have our key back (you can't get your key back to continue until the box releases it!) it was just gone 9.30 a.m.
The next bridge (which has no name) worked OK, it had to be pushed manually,
but electrically operated hydraulics jacked the bridge up and down. As on all
the bridges there were barriers to be lowered to stop traffic crossing, these
had to be moved manually, but had locking devices with electric relays (at the
bigger liftbridges the
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| Totems by the junction with the arm to Bourtange |
barriers raise and lower automatically). There were
clouds of clegs (type of biting horsefly) flying around; out came the swatters
and repellent. Zuidveld lock was empty as the little cruiser had gone down it.
The liftbridge above the top end of the chamber was wound manually. I noticed
an old chap hanging around watching. When I wound the bridge back down he came
over and wound it right down before applying the locking mechanism (it must
make a noise when traffic goes over it if it’s not wound fully down and he
lives in the house 100m away). Next lock was Sellingen, again with a liftbridge
above the lock chamber, but this was a modern one as the road was fairly busy.
Just two buttons to press, one for up and
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| Totems by the junction with the arm to Bourtange |
one for down, barriers worked
automatically. A crowd of cyclists stopped to watch us go through the lock. A
family came to chat with Mike, they’d been along the canal by boat too. The
lock emptied and then the gates didn’t open. Mike called the man out again.
Meanwhile the child with the couple he was talking to pressed the button and
(to our great surprise) the gates opened. Mike handed the key over to Bill, who
went on to get the next lock ready and we waited for the man to arrive to
explain what had happened. It was 12.10 p.m. when we set off again. Lunch on
the way to
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| Close up of one of the wooden carved heads |
Jipsinghuizen. Bill did the bridge and lock. Off down to
Wollinghuizen, where there was another new electric liftbridge. Mike timed how
long the locks were taking, it took twelve minutes to fill or empty the
chamber, including the gates. We left the bottom at 1.50 p.m. Bourtange next.
Mike took photos of the totem poles by the junction with the arm leading to the
little town of Bourtange. A cruiser had just gone into the lock, the liftbridge
(which is fully automatic and works with the lock) was still up and the gate
open. I went to tell them that we wouldn’t fit in the lock with them. They
didn’t speak any English. A crowd of cyclists were waiting for the bridge. It
didn’t lower. Several of them wheeled their bikes across the bottom end gates.
We refilled the lock and went through – still the bridge remained in the
vertical position, much to the disgust of the cyclists. The cruiser had moored
on the quay below the lock. Mike had been to investigate the bridge and he said
that there was a button for the cyclists to press to lower
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| Packed moorings at Veelerveen |
the bridge
(obviously none of them had seen it). On down to Vlagtwedde. The lock was a new
concrete one and the road bridge was a fixed one below the lock. We sat in the
lock while Bill nipped across to the farmers’ shop and bought himself a new
pair of clogs. On his return he pressed the button and the lock emptied. Below
the lock there were reeds growing along both bank edges, which made the canal
look even narrower and jungly. Beyond the reeds the banks were still closely
mowed along the cycle paths. Veelerveensterbrug was another new push button
liftbridge, thankfully it was easy to work. Bill continued first to the
moorings in Veelerveen. He called Mike on VHF to ask if he had got a plan B as
the moorings were full, or nearly full. The cruiser from first thing this
morning was occupying lots of room as his kids were playing behind the boat in
a blow up doughnut. We could have moored with just the bows on the end of the
staging and a pole out at the stern, but as we arrived the cruiser set off! Then
there was plenty of space for us and Bill brought Rosy alongside. Refilled the
water tanks, then Mike rigged up the Markon to create our own 240V electricity
and ran the engine to power it then I got on with the washing and ironing. Mike
vacuumed the carpets while I was ironing. I did three loads of washing to catch
up with the backlog and we were glad to switch the engine off at 8 p.m. On the
News it was announced that the IRA had declared an end to armed conflict in
Northern Ireland and a tornado had struck Birmingham, Small Heath, demolishing
an Iceland store and flying debris injured a total of nineteen people, three of
whom had severe injuries. What a word we live in!
Click here to see the Google Earth view of today's journey along the Ruiten-Aa-Kanaal.
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