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.

Monday 28th June 2004 Barnflair to above Varloh lock on DEK. GERMANY AT LAST!!!

13° C Sunny spells, grey clouds, breezy. Set off early to get a good start hoping to get to Lingen. We arrived at the swingbridge at 7.55 a.m. (in Germany at last!) and a voice

The rebuilt liftbridge on Haren-Rutenbrock kanal

announced something over a tannoy in German which none of us understood. We had to wait until 8.25 a.m. before the bridge swung and let us into the lock chamber. Meanwhile I sponged off most of the sticky mess covering the roof, which must have come from the oak trees we’d been moored under. We rose 0.1m in the first lock and went on to the summit level of the Haren-Rütenbrock kanal. I did the chores and made a cuppa as we ran down to the first downhill lock, where we dropped down 0.8m with the keeper operating the lock from his desk in Haren. A long straight followed to the next lock, where we had a short wait while three cruisers come up the lock. We dropped down the deep lock, 1.9m, which used to be worked by a very genteel lady who came out from the lock house to press buttons and

Liftbridge on Haren-Rutenbrock kanal

work the lock for us. Two more cruisers waited below. By the next road, a high level bridge carrying the A31 autobahn, a crane boat was busy putting stones along the edge of the bank and backing it up with dredgings. Mike went inside to ‘phone the bearing company while we were on the long pound. First he got an answering service, then he got through to a bloke who was a bit disorganised, first he hadn’t got a catalogue and then his computer screen had gone blank. Mike told him he’d ‘phone him back. We arrived at the liftbridge which had been under reconstruction and had been keeping the canal shut since we arrived on 17th May. We waited and waited with a side

Liftbridge on Haren-Rutenbrock kanal

wind blowing harder and harder. Mike spotted a work boat and threw a stern rope around a little bollard next to it and the construction crew’s portacabin, this stopped the wind blowing us on to the other bank and our boat rested against a little open boat, using it as a fender whilst we waited for the bridge to open. Bill hovered on the bend a little further back up the canal for a while then came alongside. Mike went inside to try ‘phoning the bearing company again and got transferred to a girl called Jenny and had to explain everything all over again. She said she would ring him back. A cruiser appeared on the far side of the bridge at 11.30 (after we’d been waiting over half an hour) and we went through the bridge and into Haren. The bearing company ‘phoned back, Mike agreed to

Vertical liftbridge in Meppen DEK - photo from 2005

compromise and have a 106 mm dia pulley (he wanted 110 mm - a larger diameter pulley was needed for slowing the water pump down) and she said they could get a bush to fit it for him from their other depot. She found the last bill we’d had and noted that last time they sent us stuff we didn’t pay the carriage, she said she’d have to charge us this time. Mike arranged with her to send the parcel by post to Bad Nenndorf. Jenny said they didn’t normally send stuff abroad. When she saw our address she remarked that she lived in Tipton. Small world? Everything should be OK to post off to us next day, but she said she would call us. We went through the liftbridges into Haren expecting to have to tie up above the lock as it was getting close to twelve o’clock and the keeper should be off to his lunch. To our great surprise it was the same guy that came on a moped to work the bridges when we were there last time, four

Below Meppen locks - photo from 2005

years earlier. He asked us for 2 Euros each and showed Mike his computer screens in his brand new lock cabin. No more uniform and kepi, he was very casually dressed as befitted an office worker. It was 12.15 p.m. when we set off upstream on the river section of the Dortmund-Ems-Kanal (DEK). One Dutch cruiser was waiting below the lock to go uphill on the canal into the Netherlands. We ran up to Schleuse Hüntel and waited while Marina came downhill, then we followed Corrona into the lock with two cruisers. The lock was 210m long, so there was enough space. A boat called Anita loaded with rocks, was waiting above when we left the top of the lock at 2.15 p.m. The river wound through some gentle bends after the canal section and we went into Meppen. Under the bypass bridge past a long gravel loading quay, where two 80m boats were loading, Breediep and Drieklag.  Swapped over to the left hand side to go round a left hand bend into the town and passed a loaded boat, 80m Eberswalde from Berlin, coming

Above Varloh locks DEK - photo from 2005

downstream through the bridges round the bends. (We did that last time). Mike called the keeper at the lock at Meppen. He said there was one to come down (we thought) and a 67m loaded called Rival came out of the lock, then there were just us two narrowboats to go up the big lock on our own. The keeper leaned out of his third storey window and shouted something which we a) couldn’t hear and b) couldn’t understand anyway. BEA-D a loaded tanker was waiting above to come down. The lock filled at the front and back from economiser pounds, then from the pound above to fill its 7.5m deep chamber. The next canal section was 5 kms dead straight all the way to Varloh lock. We met the next loaded boat, Murene 52m x 6.3m, about 1.5 kms from the lock. When we got there the lock had been refilled and another loaded boat was coming down. We went up the lock and Mike asked the keeper on VHF if we could stop overnight on the landing, He didn’t understand the answer he got. We tied up anyway - where else was there to go? It was 6.30 p.m. Mike went off to get the car half an hour later. No sooner had he gone than a police car came stooging slowly down the towpath, had a good look, but didn’t stop. I prepared garlic pork for a stir fry for dinner but didn’t cook it until Mike returned with the car. He was back at 9.30 p.m. having taken the car on to Lingen and ridden back on the moped. Put the moped back on the roof, I cooked dinner and we ate it, both of us shattered.  

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.