Wednesday 21st May 2014 Hille to Bad Essen. 25.9kms no locks

Unloading steel coils

14.2°C Sunny until late afternoon then cloudy but hot again. A large loaded commercial hovered in the middle, using his crane to move his car from one side of the back cabin roof to the other (we wondered why) while we were getting ready to move. Set off for the second time at 8.50am after we paused while I hopped off to check that Mike had locked the car, he had. A bemused fisherman, who’d just arrived with a moped towing a trailer, was setting up camp where we’d just set off from. Sun shade up, a first for this year. I wore a skirt and sandals

More Egyptian geese

 instead of shoes and jeans, that’s another first for this year. A WSA tug and workboat were moored under bridge 119, doing a bridge inspection from underneath it. I changed over duvets – winter to summer as we sweltered last night – while I made a cuppa. An empty called Allegro from Rotterdam (105mx10.5m 2433T) was moored on the quay at KP80 Lübbecke, where a square fronted boat called Frankenwalde from Koln was unloading his cargo of steel coils. At KP77.5 we passed a loaded boat called Regulus (80mx9m) from Hamburg followed by a cruiser. Really stirring up the mud again today. 500m and another loaded boat

A Dutch Barge! Longer than Temujin!!

(80.25m x 8.25m 1156T) went past, called Aquarius from Berlin (renamed from Ed-Ron, embossed on the bows). Another 500m Saturnus an empty Polish boat (85mx9m 1428T) and another cruiser – one doing a reasonable speed and making little wash. A loaded Bromberger, BM5522, went past at KP76 flying a German flag. Another first – a private boat longer than us! It looked about 20m and was a

Diver in the canal

German-flagged tjalk called Vertrouwen from Dortmund – there was a lot of waving, photos and mutual appreciation as we passed at KP75. An empty Dutch boat from Millingen called Lumina went past half a kilometre further on. A diver was in the water by bridge 107, KP74. KP73 there was a moored empty called Nordland (67mx7.3m 708T) and a small Dutch cruiser pulled in behind it – there was a very good “pub” just up the lane from there, always busy last time we moored there. At KP72 Atlantis went past loaded with 1500 tonnes of very smelly scrap metal, followed by Elbia whose wheelhouse was almost completely curtained, surprised the steerer could see where he/she was going! An empty called Susanne from Eberbach

Another hitch hiker

(82mx8.2m 1132T) went past at KP70. A mystery on the next section. Why have they changed the numbering of the bridges? We went under bridge 101 and the next bridge was number 70 at KP68. ?? Labe1 a loaded Czech boat from Decin went past then I took photos of the the village of Wimmer and the Wiehengebirge hills behind it. An empty was catching us up at KP67, the first overtaking boat of the day. It was Allegro, the Dutch empty that had been a Lübbecke this morning. We slowed down so it could overtake us before two loaded boats came past from the opposite direction. The lady of the boat stood on the boat’s side deck as it overtook us,

Wimmer and the Wienhengebirge hills

keeping an eye on us as the skipper was too high up to see us. A loaded Sunrise tanker called Jan (84mx9.6m 1886T) from Hamburg went past, closely followed by Trinitas (85mx9,5m 1520T) a loaded Dutch boat from Zwolle. I checked the depth 3.4m, there was mud everywhere again. Quiet for a short while, then at KP65.5 a cruiser went past followed by an empty, Concordia (67mx7.10m 718T) from Glückstadt, and I took a photo of the Wiehengebirg hills across the bend in the canal looking towards Osnabrück. An inflatable went past as we arrived at the mooring in Bad Essen and two Dutch cruisers were also making for the same

The Wiehengebirge as the canal winds round to Bad Essen

spot. We let them in as Mike winded to put our side doors on the outside. It was 1.25pm. As we tied up a loaded pusher pair carrying coal went past, Antaro (59mx9m 1090T and 85mx9m 1548T) Mike chatted with the Dutch skippers who said they would be here for a couple of days. A party of youths arrived and started jumping off the footbridge into the canal and were joined by several girls who did the same. Polish! They did a BBQ in the wide space by the boats. Traffic still busy as we had lunch and on into the evening. Mike did some phoning to get Poste Restante in the Netherlands sorted out, difficult but we think we cracked it.

Moored at Bad Essen