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| Nieuwe Brugsluis Hoogeveensche Vaart |
Sunny and warmer, gentle breeze.
Mike moved the car closer to the lock then we set off at 10.20 am with the
generator running. Three cruisers were coming up in Ossesluis and were not long
in overtaking us. The Snail stopped at the first mooring along the canal to
look at a museum. The boat that had been moored there went off down to
Ossesluis. Saw a marsh harrier gliding on huge brown wings over the fields to
our left below the canal.
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| Krakeel liftbridge Hoogeveensche Vaart |
Followed a rowing skiff with two rowers and a cox,
they soon decided to stop – in the middle broadside to us - but moved quickly
out of the way when they saw the boat. At 11.35 am we came to stop below Nieuwe
Brugsluis as the cruisers were going up in it. Nobody else about but us. Mike
tried calling the Snails on the handheld radios, unintelligible answer, so they
switched to marine VHF channel ten and that worked OK, they weren’t far behind.
As the lock gates opened a small cruiser arrived and went in on the left, we
followed in and hung on bollards fore and aft. The keeper called us to go
further forward as there were three more boats to come in. My fore end side
rope ended up wrapped around a vertical cord, fingers crossed it would take the
weight! The Snail came in behind us and two more cruisers came in on the left
hand wall.
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| Brug om der Ooost. Velengde Hoogevensche Vaart |
The keeper filled it slowly, we rose about 6m and then he came over
the gates and gave us all the new booklets with the maps of the new canal and
circular tour of the Drenthe canals. Well timed as the commercial Jetta, now
empty after unloading in Hoogeveen, was waiting above to come down the lock. It
was 12.20 pm. The keeper said we would have to wait until 1 pm so we could moor
above the lock on the right.
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| Lock and bridge gear Noordscheschutsluis |
Made sandwiches for lunch then, as we had a low
quay, we started cleaning the port side gunwale – only got as far as the side
doors when the boat in front set off for the liftbridge as it was 1 pm. Nieuwe
Brug lifted, operated from the lock, and we went through with the Snail and
three cruisers which all overtook us before Vlinderbrug the next liftbridge.
The washing had finished so we coasted to the bank and Mike took the plate out
and the Snail hovered until we set off again. Not long after we set off a tug
from Zwarte Water went past pushing a decked pan carrying baulks of timber.
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| Keeper Noordscheschutsluis note statue of lock keeper closing lock gate in the old way! |
Teenage lads that had been swimming by the swingbridge, Krakeel, (a footbridge
decorated with twisted steel tubes) were standing by the bridge shouting hello.
The wide deep canal continued to our left into Hoogeveen and we turned sharp
right, following the Snail on to the Verlengde Hoogeveensche Vaart and
immediately under a liftbridge, Brug om der Oost, and a swing foot bridge
Schoolvonderbrug – all worked remotely from Nieuwebrug. Two men were strimming
the grass by the swingbridge. The canal was now much narrower and shallower
with houses on both sides. Followed the Snail round a sharp right hand bend to
Noordscheschutsluis and liftbridge, all manually operated by a man and a girl.
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| Bridge at Geesbrug |
We followed a cruiser into the lock on the right, it stopped halfway up the 40m
chamber so we had to ask them to move forward a bit so they could close the
gates behind us. Snail was OK on the left. There were strange double hoops to
thread ropes through on the top edge of the lock wall. We rose about 2m. A
short way further on a string bean of a lad swung the manually operated
Noordscheschut footbridge open for us and after about two kilometres another
young man pressed the buttons to lift an electrically operated liftbridge
called Trambrug.
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| Moored near Geesbrug |
The banks on either side became higher and steeper with narrow
roads along both, they were covered in buttercups and ox-eye daisies. We moored
near to KP 34 at the foot of a steep bank not far from Geesbrug at 3.40 pm.
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