Wednesday 18th June 2014 De Dellen to Nieuwolda. 5.9kms no locks

Rushes by the mooring at De Dellen

9.2°C Grey clouds with rain, mostly showers of drizzle in varying degrees of length. Breezy. We delayed setting off until it stopped around 10 am. It was soon drizzling again. Through open fields of wheat with stands of trees and long lines of trees marking distant roads. Farmhouses stood surrounded with trees as windbreaks. The mast was flat on the roof again due to the height of the fixed bridges which were all about 2.5m high. The first, Kerkijktil, had the navigation span on the right - next to the bank – the rest of the wooden bridge was sloping. Just beyond the bridge there

De Dellen windmill

was a mooring place with wooden posts for the village of Nieuw-Scheemda. The right bank was lined with trees and glimpses of farmhouses and barns in the gloom beneath the trees. Musk roses, pink and white, covered the right bank below the trees for some distance. The other side was edged with reeds and brambles. A lone swallow flew over and masses of rooks flew in and out of a great rookery in some tall trees. Back to open fields again, then a long lake was visible on the left between the reed beds. We had a water tap marked on our chart where a farmhouse

Field pump windmill

was now surrounded by summer rental cabins and a camping ground, but no tap – the hose reel was still there but empty. The cabins were smart and must have all mod cons for the modern camping tourist! At the next bend there was a fisherman hidden from view by the tall reeds, but his long rod was three-quarters of the way across the narrow canal. Mike gave a gentle toot to announce our presence and he moved it out of the way before our bows passed him. He was very pleasant and said hello. At ‘t Waar there was a small offline basin designed for small boats with a sign that said it cost 5€ per night. Under an ornate wooden bridge and round a right

Field pump wooden Archimedean screw

hand bend where there was a huge old barn and two new ones to the left of it. The band of trees continued along the right bank and open fields of wheat appeared on the left again. Into the outskirts of Nieuwolda with a few houses on the banks then a large wheat field that came right to the edge of the canal. A pair of grebe swam past, they didn’t even dive out of view as many do. We decided to stop on the left by the sloping grassy bank in the town where we had moored ten years ago with Bill and Rosy. They’d just cut the grass. It was 11.15 am. Mike pushed stakes into the bank to tie to as the ground was soft. The actual mooring places in the town were the

usual wooden posts, one set we’d just passed on the right bank and the other was beyond the liftbridge on the left. 

Old barn

Moored in Nieuwolda