September 2022 – Part 1
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After our initial concerns, we carried on along the Elbe-Havel wasserstrasse to turn onto the Mittlelandkanaal on the final day of August, happily arriving in Hanover (on my birthday) only to be stumped at the first hurdle when, sadly, we couldn’t moor where we had intended to and had to continue along the canal looking for somewhere that would fit all our requirements. On this occasion – ie close to the car rental office (so that I wouldn’t have too far to cycle in the morning to collect it a rental vehicle for my journey to Hamburg airport), not too far from the shops, reasonable dog walking. Our first choice didn’t seem too bad, but then we later popped to the shops and realised there might yet be a better spot further along and I left Nicki, dogs and shopping at the prospective location and walked back to move the boat up. On my return however we decided that it didn’t really fill any of our criteria, so we decided to return to our first choice – so much phaffing around, but it turned out to be a good choice in the end.
Right, now it was time to cycle off and collect the hire car and drive to Hamburg, meet up with Jane and Bob, and then make the return journey to Shensi, drop off Bob and Jane, return the hire car and finally cycle back to the mooring. Phew, a successful end to the day and our little troupe is back together for the rest of the month.
Setting off in the morning, we travelled for just one hour until we came across a bunker station where we hoped to fill our tanks, but it seemed too busy with commercial barges for us to do so, so we stopped a little further along the canal where we had a nice afternoon and evening (despite the nearby trainline, the busy road on the other side of the canal, and quite a few commercials passing by). Continuing on the next morning, Bob took over the steering of the boat for the next five hours as we travelled along the Mittlelandkanaal, ending up moored up opposite a granary in a nice, quiet spot with a towpath alongside.
Our rather rainy start to the next morning was towards Minden to hopefully get in a food shop and some fuel – unfortunately the bunker station could not provide fuel for us as it only sold red diesel but at least we were able to moor up nearby and pop into the Minden shopping centre and re-supply. Moving on getting back to the boat, we set off again in much drier, hotter weather for our next night’s mooring only to find that it was already occupied and that we would have to continue on until we found somewhere for the night, which turned out to be a great alternative, and Nicki, the dogs and I were able to spend a little time in the canal. Yet again, Bob took over the wheel and put in a seven-hour day of concentrated steering Shensi along the Mittelandkanaal. Overnight the weather turned and we woke to thunder and lightning, so we decided to stay for another night hoping things would brighten up by the following morning.
A chilly morning saw us move off with Bob at the wheel, doing a sterling job of taking us through five locks until we arrived at the town of Lingen after eight-hours of driving, and happily able to moor fairly close to the town centre. We all took off to stretch our legs, and have a stroll through the town to take a look around. We spent two nights in Lingen, catching a weekly Saturday market and (amazingly) a three-yearly historical procession later in the day to celebrate children that stepped up to defend the city in the 13th century.
From Lingen we set off toward Meppen on a foggy autumnal Sunday morning, our journey beginning with a long wait at our very first lock. Still, that gave the fog time to lift and made the continuing four-and-a-half-hour journey much more pleasant. In Meppen, we secured a mooring right at the edge of town, and after a short break the four of us, plus dogs, strolled into a very quiet town centre. The market area was full of full-size elderly adult sculptures, one of which seemed to be a congo line with space for people to join in, others were of ‘people’ just looking on at the activities.
Now virtually half-way through September, we headed off into Ter Apel in the Netherlands, finally finding a fuel barge at Haren that was able to fill up our diesel tanks and water tanks. Fuel has been very expensive recently (mostly due to the Ukraine/Russian war), and this barge was no exception at 2.40 euros/litre, cash only. Fortunately I had been stock-piling cash for just this scenario, and we had enough to get 1000 litres, with no charge for the water. Unfortunately, just four hours later and now in the Netherlands, we came across a canal-side fuel pump which was charging a mere 1.999/litre and which accepted card payment – naturally we took the chance to totally fill up with fuel this time before passing through a small lifting bridge and cruising into Ter Apel at the end of the bridge/lock keepers’ working day. We spent two nights in this little town, taking in walks to the town centre and to the nearby Abbey and woodland, in lovely weather once more.
Leaving Ter Apel we travelled in good weather on to the town of Stadskanaal which I had identified as a good place for a five-day stopover. As before, we were accompanied all of the way by various bridge crews, stopping for lunch at a lock where the lock keeper called his (American) wife along to meet us just for the opportunity for her to converse in English. An hour later we were on our way again and were pleased to moor along the quayside at almost the same place as before.
