April 2025 – Part 1 (1st to 15th)
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Waterways used in April 2025:- Meppelerdiep; Beukers-Sreenwijk canal; Zwarte Water, Zwolschediep; Ramsdiep; Ramsgeul; Ketlemeer; Keteldiep; Hanzerak; Sluizenroute Ketelhaven; Lage Vaart; Hoge Vaart.
Moving on we left the outer harbour, passing through a lifting bridge into the Meppelerdiep with extensive shipyards running along it’s far side. Very impressive!
However, as we cruised further along we spotted an imposing obstruction – a rather large dredger floating on a platform, spanning almost the width of the channel!
Fortunately we were quickly spotted by the workforce and they duly used the arm of the dredger to hook onto some mooring posts and pull itself further to one side, allowing us to just squeeze past it, and we carried on to the next bridge/sluis which would give us access into the town’s inner harbour.
We had to wait there for maybe half an hour for the harbour mistress to come along and let us through, but finally we were in and able to find the perfect mooring, right outside of the ‘Historisch Centrum Meppel’ with it’s adjoining Mill de Vlijt (a windmill built in 2001 on the base of an old tower mill that had been taken out of use in 1933 and demolished in 1965).
After a brief interlude, Nicki and I took a walk across town to a garden centre to assuage her desire to pretty-up the boat with flowers, followed a little later by a walk into the centre to look around before getting some more supplies in.
As we walked through the town, we came across several of these small brass topped stones (pebbles) embedded in the ground.
These plaques are known as “Stolpersteine” – a combination of ironically two german words: stolpern (“to stumble”) and steine (“stones”) to convey a feeling of “obstacle, hindrance”. Not literally of course, but to make passers-by pause and reflect. They are placed in the pavement in front of the last freely chosen home of victims, and each brass pebble bears the name of one victim, below that is the year of birth, place and date of arrest by or on behalf of the regime (if applicable). And finally the place and date of the victim’s murder or death.
There are Stolpersteine in at least 1,200 places in Germany, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Hungary, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Moldova, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and Ukraine.
Closer to our mooring was a bronze depiction of a traditionally dressed Staphorster farmer’s wife – “Staphorster Vrouw”. (Of all the women from the countryside around Meppel, apparently the Staphorster women were the most recognisable).
A little back story here – originally in 1968 the statue was placed in the centre of Meppel at the foot of the tower on the Kerkplein, where markets were held, and where farmers’ wives sold their products. Unfortunately residents of Staphorst found the figure too thin for a Staphorst farmer’s wife, and over the years she became the target of scorn and ridicule – market traders started using the statue as a coat rack, a cigarette was inserted into her mouth and then later her basket was filled with pornographic magazines! Locals insisted that the statue be destroyed, but instead, in 1976 she was moved to a quieter location in a small park; in 2012 she was moved once more, this time to the Groenmarkt. Then again in 2013 she was moved yet again to her current location at the Bleekerseiland looking toward the town centre.
Returning once again to put everything away safely, Nicki took the dogs for a long walk along the De Reest canal, a side arm off the main canal, and ended up in a lovely park with a lake, a large enclosed area with turkeys, chickens, goats, deer, peacocks and much more ….
As a last walk for the dogs that evening, we popped out for a wander along the nearby paths and streets to see the town literally in a different light.
Waking to a chillier morning, we began our day with a walk over to the lake and park and explore a little more. The animal enclosure was pretty large, with plenty of space for it’s occupants – we came across around ten baby deer lined up along the fence, very cute – and we discovered tiny doors at the base of trees (homes for the little dwarves or gnomes?).
Returning to Shensi for lunch, Nicki later took herself into town to look around but maybe because it was a Wednesday, none of her intended ‘targets’ were open, ie the church, the tower nor the museum. Still, I made inroads on yet more jobs until she returned, and that was the end of a fairly restful final day in this delightful town.
We had arranged with the harbour mistress to make our departure at 10.30 on 3rd April, following which we pulled in to fill up the water tank before heading off to Zwartsluis. Here the harbour mistress called by to tell us that the dredger further along was still in operation, and we would have to wait an hour or so before they could give us room to pass – as the water tank completely filled to the brim, along came the workmen to say we could not move on. Perfect … until just a few meters further along a 119m commercial barge seemed to be blocking our way again with it’s stern poking out across the water! Still, with some slow (and skilfull) manoeuvring, we squeezed past and turned into the Meppelerdiep.
Just a few hundred metres along we passed by a fuel barge; seconds later said fuel barge registered in our minds, and so we quickly turned back round to stop and fill up our much depleted fuel tanks.
An excellent start to the day, as our water and both fuel tanks were filled (and as we needed in excess of 1000 litres, the fuel was at a reduced rate of €1.65 p/l – our fill was 1,191 litres and the final bill totalled €1,969).
The rest of our day continued without interruption or problems, and we made reasonable progress towards Giethoorn on the Beuker-Steenwijk canal, passing across the Beulakerwijde en route, until we found an ideal mooring just past the main channel entrance to the water village of Giethoorn (aka the ‘Dutch Venice’).
Giethoorn’s name originates from the first inhabitants’ discovery of goat horns (gietehorens) in the peat marshlands from hundreds of goats that had died during extensive flooding in the10th-century.
The village depends on it’s tiny, shallow waterways for access and transport, and small wooden bridges cross regularly from one property to the next, or one side of the waterway to the other – in the main section there is even a one-way system operating for boats because the channels are so narrow. Lots of the old canalside homes were once thatch-roofed farmhouses and still cannot be reached by road.
Thanks to a comedy film (Fanfare) filmed in Giethoorn in the late 1950’s, over the years the village became a huge tourist destination, and it now receives in excess of a million visitors each year, who travel through the canals in sightseeing tour boats (over eighty available) or by hiring a self drive electric boat, of which there are hundreds (if not thousands) in the high season. The mind boggles to think of so many boats in such confined spaces!
Our little trip was interesting, and it was fascinating to see and hear about how tightly packed these homes and canals were (and still are) and how the community of now just under 3000 residents had developed their way of life despite all the restrictions the network implied.
Eventually Nicki and I made our way back to Shensi to prepare dinner … only to find that Casper and Pip had started without us and eaten the six defrosting, uncooked sausages I’d left on the counter for our meal! What to eat now? But Nicki was up for the challenge and quickly raided the fridge and cupboards for an alternative evening meal.
The next day we made an early-ish start to walk into Giethoorn for a closer look around which proved to be an excellent idea as there were no trip boats out and about that early, and exceedingly few self-drives in the water. We were able to have a fairly solitary walk along the binnenpad (inner path) and take in more of the scenery and views.
The village is actually fairly small, and looks idyllic although it does seem to have a few largish areas of holiday chalets backing onto the area.
Having completed our walk around this lovely village, we headed back to Shensi to pass out through the Beukerssluis, turning right to once again cruise along the Meppelerdiep canal, and into the town of Zwartsluis along the “Zijtak via Grote Volksluis”, a slight detour from the main canal, and mooring next to the Volkbrug for a couple of nights.
Zwartsluis was not a large town, and easily walked around within an hour. By now, Casper was feeling the effects of his sausage-fest the other day, so he hasn’t been at all well and aside from a few forays on the quay, he stayed onboard and rested. Nicki took Pip for a few longer walks along the main canal, and then further into the town where she came across a small inlet with a sculpture depicting a ship carrying peat, a reminder of the area’s peat farming history.
Within the narrow streets she also spotted a building sporting a plaque explaining that it used to be a Poorhouse and Orphanage building (Het Armen-en Weeshuis) although it was completely rebuilt in 1986 and is now used as a church center (according to said plaque).
In addition there was a similar looking building noted as a Jooden-school – research showed that there had been a growing Jewish community within Zwartsluis since the 17th century. This is one of the few traces left of the once-prominent Jewish community in Zwartsluis; under the World War II German occupation of the Netherlands, almost all of its Jews were deported and murdered; only a few managed to survive the war in hiding. Only one of the Jews deported from the town returned alive after the war.
Just over the bridge from our mooring there seemed to be an exceptionally popular bar (but not intrusive), and a very busy Italian restaurant around the corner – mention was made of visiting them, but in the end we just couldn’t be bothered! Casper’s health still wasn’t great, he was even turning away from food. Unheard of for him.
So, onto our next destination on 6th April – Ketlehaven in the province of Flevoland. This is somewhere we’ve visited a few times before, a nice long stretch of purpose built staging with fencing on three sides which perfectly contains Casper and Pip but allows them access to a large stretch of grass for lying out in the sunshine (or grubbing around for duck poop, one of their favourite snacks). Casper seemed a little happier by now, so we hoped he was over the worst of his excesses, and the duck poop wouldn’t set him back.
There are good long walks along the nearby dyke, plus two relatively new marinas, a villa park and a bungalow park. We have found little here of real interest however, but it is definitely a pleasant (free) stop for a day or two, especially with the sun shining.
After our third night there, it was time to move on again, this time in much cooler conditions. Sadly Casper was still unwell even by day 3 but he seemed ok in himself, so we decided to monitor him for the time being and keep his fluid intake up. Today (9th April) we passed through one sluis, three full height bridges and one button-operated bridge until we arrived at the next destination of Dronten on the Lage Vaart, where we moored on a jetty in an almost-idyllic location outside of the Survivalrun Vereniging club, a sporting club that specialise in survival runs and outdoor activities.
An information board told us that the name of this jetty – Brejenbarg – was given as it was positioned at/near a channel used for navigation and orientation by fishermen from the former Zuiderzee. Having settled at our mooring, we took ourselves and the dogs on a walk over to a couple of ‘Kringloopwinkels’ (charity/second hand shops) along a canalside path most of the way.
We managed to keep ourselves in check in the stores with just a couple of purchases made before heading back to Shensi for the remainder of the day. During the evening Nicki took herself and the dogs off for a walk, and found that we were on the edge of the beautiful forest of Wisentbos, a lovely, peaceful area with a maze of paths, and it even a small lake with beaches for dogs.
An interesting thing we noticed here in Dronten … there are many lossloopgebied (dogs off-lead) areas – as there are in most towns and cities – but something we hadn’t come across anywhere else before was a specific sign that instructed no clean-up was never for any poops!!.
Our first full day in Dronten, we decided to take out our bikes (amazingly, at Nicki’s suggestion) for a short trip to a local supermarket, which all went well, and then spent the afternoon doing odds and sods around the boat. Oh, and Nicki took a dip in the canal too, her first of the season. She’s on fire today!
Casper was still unwell (11th April, a week after he first showed signs of illness) so we decided to take him to a local vet to check him over, where it transpired he had somehow acquired a new ‘friend’ – Giardia, “a single-celled gastrointestinal parasite that causes recurring and difficult to treat diarrhea” and which is highly contagious. The visit resulted in yet more medications to be given for the next six days – this meant that he was on seven different medications to be administered at various points, eleven times a day. What else did we have to do with our time (or money for that matter? He’s cost us an absolute fortune so far this year, so what’s a few hundred more!)
Anyway, later on Nicki walked Pip through the forest, and these are just a few of the scenery including a huge wood carving of a buffalo. Just what you’d expect to find in the Netherlands!!
Anyway, it took a few more days before Casper began responding to his treatment, and we were able to consider moving on from this location again. Luckily for us all, it was an ideal location for him to be so ill – easy access to outside, relatively people-free near the boat and not too far from a vet – we did end up overstaying the permitted 3 nights, leaving after 5 nights, but we did feel we had a legitimate reason due to Casper’s illness, plus there were no other boats around until the Sunday, when the weather was glorious and perfect for smaller pleasure craft and for local fishermen, and with one other barge turning up to moor ahead of us towards the end of those five days).
Nicki began the process of dismantling and replacing the netting on the stern whilst we were in Dronten, sitting out in the sunshine and enjoying the tedium, which left our backside looking a little bare for the time being – it’s definitely not a one-day job!
Our penultimate day of this half of April and Casper was vastly improved, so were happy to continue on our journey and enjoy the solitude of the waterways. This was a fairly uneventful three hour cruise, although our intended mooring spot was mostly taken up already (and it didn’t look that great either) so we carried on further until we found a little jetty to rope onto – one thing we had noticed in this stretch of the Lage Vaart was the number of stagings/jetties along the way, most of which seemed to be undocumented in the DBA waterways guide. I have since rectified this!
It didn’t have the star quality of Dronten, but was fine for one night with a nearby wooded area and fields for the dogs. The weather had improved quite a bit as we travelled, so once settled in I took the dogs off for a walk whilst Nicki continued with the netting. All in all this was a pleasant enough stop for one night, but we packed up in the morning to head to our next destination of Almere …. at Kettlehaven I had helped take ropes for an ‘historical’ 23+metre barge that was looking to moor behind us. Chatting with the skipper in the morning he told us that he had his own mooring in Almere and we were welcome to stop on it if we wanted – hence our visit to Almere.
As we travelled along, we passed by three blocks of apartments which stood out because of their colour, red. We later found out that they are called the Red Devils and were designed to stand out from traditional housing, and to mark the transition from low building zones to the polder of Almere. Some engineering background to these striking buildings is that their form refers to industrial structures and is remiscent of old grain silos. With their soaring bodies and sturdy legs they stand astride the canal. The three residential tower blocks derive their industrial appearance from the form and the materials used: red steel. Steel plates have been moulded vertically and horizontally. The balconies are covered with red steel grills too, as are the gates, chimneys and window frames. The broad ‘feet’ of the buildings house eight apartments, all of them with a garden at ground floor. With their situation right next to the canal they make the most of the view on the water. The body of the building consists of three apartments per storey. The narrow top of the building contains penthouses. Their quality lies in the marvellous views across the polder and their orientation to the sun.””
After a pleasant cruise along the Lage Vaart in beautiful sunshine, we passed through it’s final sluis and onto the Hoge Vaart, keeping a lookout for the proffered mooring as we cruised.
Happily it wasn’t long before we reached our destination and we duly swung our bow into the vacant spot, to be immediately greeted by two residents (Kai and Eddy) from other residential moorings who had been anticipating our arrival for the past couple of days. (Apparently Habi, the skipper who offered us the use of his mooring, had WhatsApp-ed the residents’ group to let them know we would be turning up at some point!) Once tied up, we all had coffee on the stern and got to know one another a little, which was a nice way to end the day’s cruising.
Once Kai and Eddy had left we made a quick visit to a local supermarket and we were lucky enough to make it back to the boat as the first drops of rain fell, and then continued on and off for the rest of the night!
