October 2025, Part 1 (1st to 15th)
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Spending an extra day (1st October) in Paradise (well, at Paradijsluis, which sounds close enough) gave us more time to take things slowly and relax, but three nights there was enough, and we moved on again in the morning. The weather was definitely cooling down, but still pleasant as we cruised on to Meppel, where we stopped briefly for a DIY shop, oddly with an Ark behind us.
A little research showed that this ark – NOAH’S ARK – is the world’s only floating exhibition of bible stories covering 2,000 square metres over four floors; 70 meters long,10 meters wide, and 13 meters high. It was built as a full-scale interpretation of the biblical Ark, featuring animal models, including cows, penguins, a crocodile, and a giraffe, and was launched in 2010, opening to the public in 2012.
The ark’s build required 1,200 FSC certified trees, and it took 20 weeks to saw the trees into beams and planks. The exterior of the Ark was made of Canadian red cedar, and was built on a barge that formerly transported iron ore; it no longer has an engine but is towed to its many destinations. The interior was crafted from pine, having been transformed by over 50 craftsmen and artists from around the world in just six months.
Despite having seen this ship at various points over the years, we still haven’t managed to visit it, but who knows, maybe one day in the future we might rectify that.
Continuing on, we passed a couple of bridges, stopping briefly at a fuel barge to make a final top up of the season (a fill of 853 litres x 1.75pl totalling €1,496.59).
Before we reached the fuel barge we had been waved past a tug manoeuvring a huge, huge barge hull through a bridge opening. The skill of those skippers often leaves Nicki and I in awe! I mention this because as we waited at the fuel barge the same tug with attached hull continued on past, and Nicki pointed it out to the fuel man who astonishingly told us that it was a home for refugee/asylum seekers in the area around Meppel housing some 200 people, and just moves them from one place to another whilst their applications are processed!
That was just shocking to hear, particularly as from what we could see there did not appear to be any windows or available outside areas. However, an AI generated report read: “There is no evidence of a barge being used as an asylum accommodation in Meppel, according to available information” so we’re now really unsure as to the truth of the fuel man’s statement!!
(However, on googling further to check the truth of such information, it turns out that “the Dutch government uses these barge accommodations as a shortcut to address housing needs for asylum seekers, which is a costly but effective short-term solution” – the barges are leased and equipped by specialized providers to house asylum seekers and include classrooms, laundry facilities, and communal spaces for residents, along with their accommodation. Other amenities such as catering, cleaning and security services are all handled by the providers!)
After we had completed our purchases, we made our way along to the day’s destination at Beulaker Wijde, a mooring at the edge of a lake. Unfortunately at this time of year it felt pretty inhospitable as the path (singular, not plural – it was a tiny island) was extremely overgrown with an active wasp nest at one end, so walking was very restricted. As it was, we were only there for one night, so we just had to suck it up.
Gratefully we took off again the next morning, feeling less than impressed with the lakeside location, and carried on to Steenwijk via the Kanaal Steenwijk Ossenzijl, where we arrived at a long stretch of quay with just one other boat down the far end. This was a vast improvement on the previous nights stay – a nice well kept concrete quay, fairly close to the town centre but with a nice woodland park almost on our doorstep. As the day wore on though, at least a dozen more cruisers turned up and cluttered up the quay and we soon realised why. Rain had been scheduled for that evening, but in fact it was ‘Storm Amy’ paying a visit – torrential rain and strong winds began with a vengeance, and just got worse and worse overnight. The dogs were very unsettled in the lounge so ended up in the bedroom with us, and even one of our stern windows blew open at about 4am, which is when I got soaked trying to close it as the wind blew the rain straight in, plus water came into the lounge from a light fitting and puddled on the floor! (Yes leaks that we had been trying to resolve were still there).
Anyway, back to our visit to the town of Steenwijk. Starting off through the nearby park, we walked through some woodland and came across a large deer park (not that an unusual sight in the Netherlands, to be honest) abutting the beautiful Villa Rams Woerthe, an art nouveau villa built in 1898 for a wealthy timber merchant of the time. Sadly we didn’t get the chance to look inside – it’s description was that of having “richly decorated interiors full of color and ornamentation” with “luxurious period rooms, beautiful stained-glass windows, and countless Art Nouveau details”. Ah well, a visit for another time maybe. In the grounds was a pretty, sprawling landscaped ‘English’ park was a pond and winding paths, which we did take time to wander around.
Leaving the parkland we turned into the town and found ourselves walking through the market square, edged by the usual shops and museums, one of which Nicki had highlighted for a visit – The Kermis en Circus Museum which was dedicated to the history of fairs and circuses. Sadly, it seemed that the museum had been permanently closed! But through the windows we could make out a few of the old exhibits such as carousel carriages and horses, with clown costumes, musical instruments and trapezes decorating the interior.
As we continued through the surrounding streets we noticed what appeared to be huge old stable doors, with horses heads (models, not real of course) hanging either side on the brickwork. The stables were built in the early 1900s and once belonged to a wealthy bacon merchant of the Spijkervet family. Apparently they’ve been empty since the 1950s and so haven’t been changed since.
Looking inside we were intrigued to see that the stables contained seven well-preserved stalls (each stall with it’s own original individually named hay basket set on the walls). The interior was inspired by neo-renaissance and art nouveau styles, and included wrought ironwork, zinc horse heads, and multicolored painted details on its facade. In recent years each stall had been converted to individual units which are currently used as a second-hand goods market, although there is some talk of the complex becoming a museum in the near future.
The Woldpoort is one of the historic city gates that were part of the fortifications of Steenwijk.
Back to our journey. After a very disturbed night, the weather seemed to settle somewhat and we chose to push on towards our next destination of an island in the Tjeukermeer. At the exit from the quayside we had spotted a working pump-out, so took the opportunity for a quick clearing before carrying carried on at a good rate in dry conditions, only delayed slightly for a half hour whilst the bridgekeeper had his lunch. Nearing the lake however the rain began again, not too heavily, but the winds really flared up as we crossed the open water and poor old Shensi was badly rocked from side to side, so much so that Nicki was racing around trying to contain all our breakables (this time we only lost around ten mugs) and keep the dogs calm, whilst I struggled to keep us on course (and upright!). Hours later (probably only about twenty minutes, but it felt a lot longer) we reached our intended island in the lake and gratefully threw out our ropes to the empty jetty and tied ourselves in (well, no other boaters were stupid enough to be out in that weather!) By now the rain had joined the windy conditions and it remained very, very wet and windy for the rest of that day and night. We did manage to race out with the dogs for comfort breaks during brief interludes in the weather – it sounds pretty horrific, but all we could think was thank god we weren’t still on the previous Beulaker Wijde island. Now that would have been a disaster!
Despite the somewhat scary journey across the lake, this mooring turned into an almost idyllic spot once the weather had calmed down. We spent four nights there enjoying the seclusion and were completely alone until our final evening when another boat appeared on the other side of the island. The dogs had a great time racing around with no restrictions, and Nicki spent several walks throwing a ball for Pip and shouting loudly in excitement whenever Pip brought the ball back. I’m not sure who had more fun to be honest.
Still, we needed to move on and this time we headed to the small town of Grouw where we knew there was a Jumbo with its own dedicated mooring spot for it’s shoppers, once again arriving in rain. We quickly tied up and managed to not only re-stock the essentials, but also to get rid of all the paper and glass we’d been storing for weeks to recycle. Done and dusted in a fairly short space of time we carried on to our next destination of the national park, De Alde Feanen, just off the Prinses Magrietkanaal, making use of the moorings on the Rengerspolle island (a sib area of this national park) which from previous visits we knew would be another great location, and found a perfect position along its grassy bank, easy for us and easy for the dogs.
De Alde Feanen is a lovely island in the National Park of Friesland (which is one of twenty-one National Parks in the Netherlands); it is a 4,000-hectare lowland peat bog, home to 450 plant species and over 100 bird species, including the white-tailed eagle which we managed to catch a glimpse of on a previous visit.
Our first day there we got chatting to the lovely Elizabeth and Peter, an Australian couple cruising in the Netherlands on their cruiser, Longreach, and had several enjoyable get-togethers on one another’s boats over our three days on the island.
Now closing fast on our winter mooring of Reitdiephaven, we pushed off on 11th toward Burgum Mer, setting off sights on a small mooring area named Jistrumer Kolanje, just a short grassy bankside mooring, maybe 100 metres long ago but much exercise for Pip and Casper yet again.
We spent two nights there, finally moving on on 13th to Reitdiephaven to settle in for the next few months. And so ends another fantastic cruising season.
