June 2026 – part 2 (16th to 30th)
The previous evening whilst moored up in front of Lock 4, another boater called round to ask why we were moored there, and what was happening. He had moored for the night further back, but said that they would get to the lock for 8am when he believed the lock should be opening, so we agreed to all be ready, and sure enough the lock gates started to open on time but had to shut again as the other boat was too close to the swing bridge! That meant a little messing around, but eventually we all were underway although for the next four hours we experienced delay after delay at locks and bridges until we finally arrived at our planned stop in Haren, Germany at a nice 60m wooden staging, very conveniently located near the town centre and an Aldi store, which all worked out well for us.
We decided to stay a couple of nights here before pushing further into Germany, and on 18th June we set off to join the Dortmund -Ems waterway. Firstly we passed through the final lock on the Haren-Rutenbrock canal (where we had to pay €10 for the pleasure of entering the lock), then a right-hand turn into the main route the Ems river. This part of the cruise was all very pleasant and problem free … until we reached the first rather large lock (165m x 20m) and remembered how poor (read ‘non-existent’) our command of the German language was/is … Nicki duly radioed through to the lockkeeper in a semblance of German, and we duly received a response but had no idea what had been said!! So we decided just to hang around and see what happened.
Luckily for us, not long after this a cruiser came along also with the same intention of entering the lock, and they were Germans who spoke English. Phew! That truly was a streak of luck, especially as not only had they spoken to the lock keeper requesting passage into the lock, but he had asked them to tell us that several locks further along our planned route were out of action for FOUR weeks due to maintenance works. Not that that was good news, obviously, but it did mean we could revisit our plans, which for now primarily meant reaching the town of Meppen and mooring at a central public staging still on the Ems. Replenishing our water supply was likely to be the only issue we might face, but we could manage for now and worry about that later.
This turned out to be quite a pleasant stay, with a few reasonable places to walk the dogs, and we ended up spending four nights before being instructed to move on. (The permitted stay was just three nights.) We had already noted a couple of other nearby public moorings, so we headed a little further along before turning into the Hase river, and tying up next to a tree lined grassy area outside of some private houses. Oh, and with even better nearby walks for the dogs. Perfect, except for the 24hr mooring limit, which again we chose to ignore for a few nights.
During the past few weeks climate change was really kicking in and the weather was cycling between thunder and lightening, hail storms and intense heat, and by the time we’d arrived in Meppen the temperatures were reaching the high 30s at minimum every day. Unfortunately this heat coincided with Casper becoming unwell again, so we were in a constant battle of cleaning up after him, getting food into him that stayed in him, keeping him hydrated and keeping him cool. (The problem had started back in Veendam, and despite a veterinary visit and various medications, a couple of months on he was still unwell – his senior years (15) were against him, but so far despite all the above, he seemed content and happy to head out on the grass for wee breaks.
Yet again, three nights on, we needed to change our location (although still in Meppen) on 27th, and decided to try our luck at the first staging we’d stayed at. Initially we were just going to stop long enough to get some supplies from the local market and supermarket, but once settled in we decided to stay another three nights outside of the hotel.
The final day of June saw us move (yet again) this time just a few metres across the river and onto another three-day mooring stage. We had to tuck in fairly close to the Ems Brücke, but otherwise not too bad and still convenient for town with a newly mowed grass section running a fair distance along the river.
