September 2024 – Part 2 (16th to 30th)
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When we arrived in Munster (some seven hours later), we initially moored at the end of the town harbour but quickly decided to move back closer to the canal entrance. Alec and Nicki took the dogs for a walk over the other side whilst I watched the Grand Prix, and they stopped for a drink at a nearby bar with a live band playing – although it packed away as soon as they arrived.
It definitely could have been a nicer mooring at Munster so we were happy to only stay one night, although before we left Alec jumped into the canal for an early morning swim. Brave lad!
Our next stop later that day, after a mere five hours of travelling, proved to be a lot nicer with a long quay beside the waterway at a small town named Riesenbecker. Still a bit of an issue with passing commercials but clean and tidy, which was many steps up from the previous night. On arrival Alec and I took a walk up into the nearby forest to exercise the dogs. A very pleasant excursion for all of us.
Alec had an early morning swim the next day, with Nicki and the dogs pacing along the cycle path alongside him.
After his daily swim, we carried on to a mooring just outside of a nice looking bar and restaurant at Lingen. It was a relief to stop there as by then we had passed through six locks over seven hours, quite a long day even for us, let alone a novice boater and the dogs. It actually turned out to be a rather pleasant stop, and whilst dinner was cooking we popped up to the bar for a quick drink.
The month was really going by quickly, and already today (18th) it was Alec’s final day with us. Naturally (for him) he made his early swim down the river, with Pip leaping along nearby and even jumping in with him at times. Today was a relatively short cruising day, just for hours and two locks before we reached Meppen, from where Alec was catching a train back to Cologne. It was a direct rail link to the airport where he would catch his flight back to the UK.
I was happy to find our targeted mooring at Meppen completely empty, so with time to spare, we roped up and went out for lunch in the lovely town hall restaurant in the center of town.
We were sorry to see Alec go, but not as distressed as Pip when she watched him board his train at the station. Where was her swim buddy going without her?
Back to our own devices again, we continued on down the Dortmund-Ems Kanaal to reach Haren, where the plan was to turn into another canal – the Haren-Rutenbrock kanaal, to Stadskanaal, only to discover that there was a bridge broken at Barnfair on this canal, so the whole stretch of water was closed until later in the year while repairs were undertaken.
We spent a fair bit of time tied up to the waiting area for the lock whilst we tried to find a plan B. Whilst we mulled it over, were decided to spend the night on the waiting stage and give us more time to review our options.
Eventually a route was finalised, and the next morning we continued along the Dortmund-Ems kanaal aiming to access the Netherlands via Delfzijl. Sadly this meant we would miss out visit to the stream engine rally at Stadskanal, but obviously there was no choice any more.
Now a lot more was involved as we were heading onto a tidal route, but that was really our only option as Nicki needed to get back to the UK later in the week. We easily cruised the four plus hours to reach the tidal Schleuse Herbrum at Papenburg, arriving at 1pm. We did however, have to await until 2pm for the lock, the one free opening that day, but it did give us a chance to walk the dogs.
Passing through and with quite a shallow increase in water level we immediately turned into a marina at Papenburg, but decided quite quickly that it wasn’t the one for us, so we turned back round and headed a little further away to the Alfewerft Haven. This marina could only be accessed via a lifting rail bridge but on arriving at the bridge, we were told it was broken. Now what to do! In the end after a few spins in the waterway looking for an alternative, we made for a rough mooring nearby alongside a high stone wall and very close to the rail tracks. We were worried about the noise as trains passed, but they did seem to quieten down and in the end we only heard a few passing toots during the night.
The following day was a slow start for us, as we had to wait once again until 2pm for the one free opening of the lock, but from then on we were travelling with the outgoing tide and breezing along, aiming to stop outside a lock at Oldersum on the tidal section. Unfortunately it turned out that the pontoons weren’t robust enough for a boat of our size, and so we moved on to the fishing port of Ditzum with fingers crossed that we would find somewhere suitable for the night.
At this point we had been travelling and stressing for over four hours – only to now find that our experiences of traveling upstream on the Rhine paled into insignificance compared to us turning against the outdoing tide in order to access the port on this ebbing tide. Still, with lots of angst, we made it into the port and moored against the harbour wall with large fishing and shrimping vessels opposite and in front of us.
Now for our next issue – with a tidal range of around four meters, all our ropes had to be just right and there was a lot of adjusting until we were satisfied that we would be ok and that were able to get ashore, much to the relief of the dogs. That sorted, Nicki took the dogs for a much needed walk.
Meanwhile a tour boat turned up and said it would be better if we moved down a bit as it was quite shallow where we were. At least I think that was the gist of it, although having agreed to change my mooring spot, they then took the place I had vacated!
Anyway, the end result was that when Nicki returned, Shensi had now moved, was now a meter lower, and was not yet re-attached to the wall. Eventually though, she was secured (we hoped), and then it was just a matter of getting Nicki and the dogs back on board, definitely a challenge as the water levels were continuing to drop, but we got there in the end! Certainly the late evening dog walk was out of the question.
Low tide was at 22:30 hrs so I made a rece around the decks to check our status – we seemed to be ok, but boats both in front and behind us were resting on mud including the tour boat, so maybe he was trying to spare us when he got us to change position.
Worrying overnight I got up to check the situation again at around 4am. High tide was 4:20am the next day, so with sunrise at 6:30am we were ready to set off by 6.45am to catch the outgoing tide down to Delfzijl.
Despite the early start, it was a glorious trip with clear skies, no wind and calm waters, and an added bonus of an early start on a Sunday was that there was no other traffic until we got closer to our destination.
We were both very pleased to finally, just three and a half hours later reach our destination of the Abel Tasman marina on the Oude Eems Kanaal at Delfzijl and we were able to catch our breath, wind down and relax again.
Having made it to Delfzijl, we gave ourselves a day off. Not that we could do much. Nicki suffering from a cracked rib and tendonitis and me with a leg that was quite sore if I walked too far. Still I did manage to get the dogs out for some exercise.
Groningen was a welcome sight the following day as we moored up in the center, conveniently located to get to the station the next day as Nicki was going back to the UK to celebrate Lesley sand Mike’s wedding anniversary and also attend Isabella’s christening. Before she left, we also went to the council to try and arrange a local address.
Meanwhile I hung around to do some mundane chores and also follow up on the address issues.
