With our guestroom occupied by another visitor, this time a single one, we left Steenwijk on Monday the 3rd of September at 10:44AM. First we took as much water in as possible at the entrance/exit of the town’s harbour, followed by cruising several waterways – among them the always pretty Wetering and Heuvengracht, followed by the Kalenbergergracht in the direction of Ossenzijl. Yes, again, as the two females on board were planning to have a(nother) cruise in De Weerribben, though different from the one last week. There’s a toll (lift)bridge in Kalenberg’s centre, closed between noon and 1:00PM. The queue on our side was impressive, some six boats, ourselves included. Our side got the first right of way later on. After passing the bridge we discovered even more boats waiting on the other side, two of them forced to breast up, leaving us just enough space to squeeze through.

We stopped at Ossenzijl around a quarter to two. Since we’ve shown the concerning spot several times in the past we walked back onto the bridge and made a picture of the Ossenzijlersloot and our little ship visible on the right. (Without the red roof of the farm in the distance the picture would be a lot less attractive.)

The top of a boat-lifting device is already visible at the extreme left of the last picture. Here’s the unmistakeable prove that a boat-hauling installation can be used as a car-hoist as well.

While both ladies were (again) enjoying De Weerribben on Tuesday, the male-part of the three of us changed the engine oil. Seven litres of (still clear) oil will serve the engine another 250 hours.

Ossenzijl was left on that same Tuesday at 3:10PM. Although the hottest period is behind us the Wetering-waterway is still warm enough for a swim. Sometimes even while wearing a hat!

Next to that same waterway we spotted a thatcher in full action.

The overnight stop that day was, again, Muggenbeet (Mosquito Bite). This time in front of the local restaurant, named ‘Geertien’ (http://geertien.nl/) where we arrived at 5:44PM. Of course another boat breasted up to ours. It’s that popular. Deservedly so, we enjoyed the outside sitting area, followed by a meal inside. The only downside were the stinging mosquitos. Well, we should have been warned by the name of the place, shouldn’t we?

Our journey was continued the next day, Wednesday the 5th of September, at 8:46AM – after being ‘forced’ to ask our temporary neighbours politely to set us free. About half an hour later we passed the small Jonen-community, the houses only reachable by a small ferry. It does look utterly romantic indeed. But… how’s life there during the winter??

One of the pictures, and text, in week 38 of last year was about an obelisk in a meadow, next to the waterway Goot (Gutter), fairly close to Kampen. Here’s the obelisk again, this time adorned by a small herd of interested cows.

That Wednesday we were planning to have a stopover at Kampen’s harbour and visit the pretty town once more. Alas, the harbour was unexpectedly ‘sold out’, and we had to soldier on – it was already around 5:00PM. When cruising further on downstream the river IJssel, we noticed this fisherman, obviously unperturbed fishing in this somewhat awkward position. Maybe his motto is something like ‘the deeper the water, the bigger the fish’.

Eventually we ended up in front of the Roggebotsluis at the end of the Vossemeer, part of the Randmeren (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bordering_lakes). This lock is situated next to a hamlet with the same name. It seems obvious that the hamlet is older, we think. Initially we had some hope to be able to tackle the lock, but alas, we arrived five minutes late. The lock ends operating at 7:00PM, the last boats have to arrive 15 minutes before that time – we arrived at 6:50PM and the lock-keeper, contacted by radio beforehand, was unpersuadable. So we called it a day there and then, at 7:00PM. An observant reader will notice the single red light, instead of the double red when out of service. This picture was taken the next morning around 8:15AM, when the lock is back in operation already for quite some time. That’s why. It was raining. Not that seriously.

After breakfast we passed the lock the next morning at 9:14AM and continued our journey on the Drontermeer. En route we noticed this AZC (= Asiel Zoekers Centrum / Asylum Seekers Centre). It’s just unimaginable that a (wo)man leaves his/her family, friends, country and almost all they possess just for an uncertain adventure. We should therefore approach them all positively, in spite of the inevitable few ‘rotten apples’ among them.

Two years back (week 37 – 2016) we were unable to cruise from the meanwhile named Wolderwijd towards Harderwijk’s centre because of a huge building-project, including the creation of an extensively refurbished harbour. That period came to an end – as far as we understood at the beginning of this year. We were, by all means, able to moor next to this attractive town’s centre in the new harbour. There’s plenty of space, too, even for ships of our size. We could tie our ropes at 12:56PM inside what’s called De Stadshaven (The Towns-Harbour). Note the new houses in the background.

This is the view around the corner, De Vissershaven (The Fishermen’s Harbour), with the mill De Hoop (The Hope). Just pretty.

There are several restaurants, and the likes, on the Stadsboulevard (Town-boulevard), just outside the ancient town-wall. Our ship, by the way, is visible in the background. Is that important? Well, hardly. What’s interesting is that several restaurants have an outside sitting area across the boulevard. To avoid waiters to be killed on a regular basis they have invented their own road sign. It’s not official, we think, but effective anyway (we hope).

At long last we reached the mouth of the river Eem, some 22 kilometres (over 13,5 miles) from our end-destination. The closest village there is Eemdijk, so we lived at Eemdijk for one night. This spot is shown before but the light, caused by the setting sun around 6:30PM, makes a world of difference. Oh, we almost forget to mention the time of switching off the engine. It was 3:44PM.