September 2025 – Part 1 (1st to 15th)
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1st September saw us moving on from Zwolle towards Rogat, a small town in the Drenthe province with a nice little quay for visitors. That night’s mooring was very quiet and calm, which was a relief, and we were able to start the morning with a short dogwalk and a chat with a local before moving off again, all happening on The Captain’s birthday.
My birthday began with a pleasant five hour cruise, ending in Noordscheschut on the Hoogeveenschevaart waterway. Exiting the town’s sluis, we pulled over at a drinking water tap and an adjacent pumpout station, and were able to fill up/empty out the respective tanks before moving slightly further along to a nice little nearby mooring along a sloping grassy bank. We were only intending on a one night stop, and during our time there Nicki found a great dog walking area close by, so we were able to give Casper and Pip a couple of much needed longer walks after a couple of days of only lead walks around the roads. Now in the province of Drenthe, one thing we had noticed was that there was a proliferation of water taps and pump out stations, all easily identified as we travelled along, which proved very useful.
Our next stop took us slightly by surprise – our destination had been at Nieuw-Amsterdam but as we passed through a bridge at Geesbrug we spotted Moondance, a barge belonging to our friends, Howard and Deb, so we quickly pulled over (in the rain) to stop in front of them. After a brief chat and coffee on Shensi, we decided to stop for the night and later ended up on Moondance for drinks, moving on again in the morning for Nieuw-Amsterdam, as were Howard and Deb.
Still travelling on the Hoogeveensche vaart, the following morning we made a later than usual start in good weather again, turning into the Stieltjeskanaal to reach the town moorings at Nieuw-Amsterdam just three hours away. As we approached the final bridge – a spoorbrug – we saw it was raised and slid under it to the sluis, realising as we roped up to await the opening of the sluis gates (it was lunch time for the lock/bridge keepers) that moments after we passed that final bridge that it was in fact the spoor bridge, and literally just about to close for a train to race through! We should have realised, but it seemed our powers of observation were sadly lacking at that point.
The moorings at this town were very well maintained, and there was plenty of space to choose from (although initially we managed to moor in the ‘wrong’ section and were told to move further along by a bridge keeper, as we were blocking a water tap). With a supermarket on our doorstep, we all trooped over to restock, and made a walk along the canal to look at the town centre. Once again we met up with Howard and Deb and arranged for an evening meal on Shensi. I took off on the bike for a gentle ride around the locality, whilst Nicki walked the dogs around a large secluded lake about ten minutes away, so that was our exercise for the day sorted.
Having been told that ‘Veenparc’ was worth a visit, we carried on along De Veenvart (Peat Canal), which was opened in just June 2013. Officially named the King Willem-Alexander Canal, the waterway meanders between the towns of Erica and Ter Apel which enabled the circumnavigation of the entire province of Drenthe passing through lovely areas of unique natural beauty, with characteristic ribbon villages, and we were lucky enough to cruise along on a lovely sunny day and see it at its best.
Our destination for the day was the Veenparc in Barger-Compascuum, or Veenmuseum as it’s also called, is located in the Southeast Drenthe region, which has a history revolving around peat. The journey took us around some pretty tight bends and through the Koppelsluis (our first ‘couple lock’) two connected locks bridging a five-meter height difference.
Arriving at an empty public mooring opposite the Veenparc, we roped up and had a brief look around to guage our circumstances. Unfortunately we found that there was no direct access into the park from our position, so a few phone calls later we agreed with the park that we would take Shensi further along to an open bridge, then negotiate Jane and Bob and Nicki into the park. I then reversed back to our mooring, walked (with the dogs) some distance, partly alongside the canal, then onto the road and around to reception, where I paid our entrance fees and we all met up.
The greater part of the day was then spent exploring and investigating this ‘living museum’. Initially we all took a ride around the village on a narrow gauge railway, which deposited us on the other side of the park. From here we walked past the windmill, visited the village bakery, and peeped inside several ‘authentic’ homes of the era to see what the world looked like back then.
After a brief lunch, we caught a second narrow guage rail train to the peat excavation area where we were shown how peat was cut and processed around 100 years ago prior to being transported throughout the region by rail and water.
So, after a tiring day walking and riding around the park, we reversed our journey back onto Shensi and settled in for the night.
As we were getting close to the end of the season and the weather was due to deteriorate, in the morning we dismantled the bimini ready for storage, before preparing for our days journey, retracing our route of the last few days.
As we travelled along this pretty canal, we rocked up at our final sluis of the day (Spaarsluis), and noticed in the nearby distance a giraffe – yes, a giraffe! – gazing out above the treetops close to our mooring in Oranjedorp.
This turned out to be a 17-meter-tall wooden statue which serves as a landmark along the A37 motorway, near Klazienaveen. Designed by the sculptor, Homme Veenema. Installed in 2009 it is part of a project called “The Gates of Emmen”.
Oranjedorp was a pleasant stop with a wide grassy bank, just off the main De Veenvart waterway in a side arm (Oranjekanaal). A cycle ride and some dog walking were the main activities of the day, and otherwise all was very restful.
The following photos are stock shots of the construction of the Giraffe in 2009 ….
The following morning we set off to meet up with Moondance in Coevorden on the Coevorden-Vechtkanaal. Unfortunately as we slowly crossed along the heavens opened with a vengeance, so much so that after a few locks and bridge openings and several drenchings, we pulled into a mooring at the canalside in Erica and decided to stop the for the rest of the day. A lull in between downpours made it possible to pop over to the shops and for the dogs to get out for a walk, but other than that we remained indoors. Sadly that meant that we didn’t get to meet up with Deb and Howard that evening in Coevorden, and Deb was heading off the following day so we were unlikely to see her again until maybe sometime next year.
The following day arrived rainfree and warm and we were able to continue our journey toward Coevorden, finding a mooring at the entrance to the town centre on a nice stretch of wooden jetty with water and pump out included in the nights fee. From there the four of us walked into the town centre, where we found that there were major works going on in the heart of Coevorden, redeveloping the old, star shaped defensive canal. This meant that we could not fully appreciate the town, but there were a few interesting sights, such as an intricate shop front from 1692, some 3D printed ‘gold’ images of items found in local archaeological digs, a new modern development which incorporates part of the old ramparts in it’s design to showcase it as a feature of the structure.
That evening Howard called by for dinner and drinks, and we all spent another pleasant evening together. In the morning we were ready to depart at 10am and took off along the Kanal Almelo-De Haandrik, a key canal in the province of Overijssel. (Apparently after this years boating season has ended, work is due to begin to improve the canal so that it will remain suitable for water supply, recreational boating, and commercial vessels up to 700 tons. Thus, during the next 10-15 years the canal will be designed as a single-lane canal; ships will be able to pass each other at fixed points to ensure the canal remains safe for everyone.)
As we cruised we kept all eyes open for a potential mooring, eventually spotting space at Kloosterdijkbrug. By now the weather had cooled considerably, and rain set in not long after we’d roped up. Not a very inspiring location, but sufficient for our purposes for the evening.
Now on our way to Almelo, we turned off the Kanal Almelo-De Haandrik and into the Twentekanal which took us straight to the marina at the heart of Almelo, billed as the water city of the Twente canal.
Here we were directed to a mooring at its outer edges, and the havenmeister proved to be very helpful and a useful source of information, and after some conversation with him we all walked into the centre to look around, following the harbor basin all the way to the Markt in the heart of the town.
Around the edges of the water we were watched over by some beautiful, curious kingfisher sculptures.
Despite these attractive scenes, the town didn’t hold our interest for too long and so we headed back to Shensi for a meal and the evening’s rest and relaxation.
Next on our list of destinations was the town of Enschede in the province of Overijssel, whose eastern edges reach the border into Germany (I was interested in heading there as the DBA waterways guide held no reference from any previous visitors, and so I was keen to rectify that).
The journey was interesting in that we had to pass through two long, deep locks at Delden and Hengelo. The rise at the Delden lock was 6 meters and the rise at Hengelo lock is 9 meters. Each was around 130 metres long. Hengelo proved to be quite a long-winded experience, as that particular day (Saturday, 13th September) was the Dutch National Monument Day and all monuments were free to visit, and Hengelo was in that field of interest. Thus we ended up waiting quite some time before we could enter the lock, and once in we slowly rose nine metres to find an audience of several families watching us make the ascent! Fortunately we made a good show, and we were rewarded with a round of applause and with children waving excitedly at us. On exiting the lock we moved on towards Enschede, where we had booked in for the night, and we were all slightly bemused when a sad and tired looking marina came into view, and we were waved onto a somewhat neglected jetty. Still, beggars can’t be choosers and at this point we just needed to set down roots and ropes for a night. The haven mistress was a nice lady (Cisca) and she was very friendly – I popped over to her office to pay and returned with her and her friend who wanted to look round our little home. Despite the general air of shabbiness, we ended up staying for two nights so that having made the effort to reach the mooring, we could have a full day to visit the town itself.
It transpired that we were some distance from the centre, so we decided to all walk to the nearest bus stop and ride into town. The walk was about 20 minutes to the stop, with buses running half hourly, but after nearly an hour of waiting we found out that in fact on this particular day buses wouldn’t be running until 3pm! We later found that the reason for this was there was a large running event in the city so all roads were closed off to traffic.
We continued walking to the town (which in the end wasn’t as far as we’d anticipated), and had a lovely time watching the last of the kiddy runners race by, wandering around the shopping area, and seeing a market in the main square. Enschede was actually quite an interesting place and deserved a longer visit. It helped that the day had turned quite warm and everyone was in a jolly mood, but in the end we had to get back and so headed to the bus station for the return journey. Back on board again, it was time for dinner and to relax before heading for bed.
Waking to a cooler day, we prepared to leave back along the Twentekanal passing back along the locks and onto the Geldersche Ijssel river to reach Zutphen, our last destination in this first half of September where we had reserved a two night mooring at the WSV de Mars passentenhaven. We arrived as the weather deteriorated and became very windy and rainy, although Nicki did manage a very reasonable dog walk in the surrounding fields during a dryer period. The days cruising was exceptionally long (for us) – we had departed Enschede at 10.10am but due to busier waterways and no suitable moorings along the way, we didn’t reach Zutphen until 18.30pm
So, after over eight hours of travelling with only the odd stop for the dogs to have a quick wee, this had been a tiring day for us all and we were soon ready for bed.
