Friday 18 September 2015
At eight thirty sharp we dropped off our marina key with
the jovial havenmeester and moved across to the duckweed filled St Joris Sluis
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| Happy harbourmaster |
where we waited at the gates for about ten minutes with a beam-on breeze making
life a bit difficult; eventually barge
Silk
Purse, owned by Canadians Barrie & Carole Grant, emerged and we could
take their place going in the opposite direction.
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| Duckweed |
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| St Joris Sluis |
A most friendly lockkeeper who incidentally, had surfed
the South African coastline from Cape Town to Durban, held us in the lock for
quite a while as we waited for any other boats coming from the Nieuwpoort side
to join the 10h00 convoy to Zandvoordedraaibrug. Eventually we led the dash to
Zandvoordebrug but it was not long before we were overtaken by a zealous Dutch
boat which in turn was overtaken by another Dutch flagged boat just before the
final bridge just so they could be certain of arriving at the free mooring
before anyone else. By the time we arrived at their mooring they were already
tied up so I made a point of going past them as fast as possible – childish but
most satisfying.
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| The convoy |
It was not long before we arrived at the pedestrian
footbridge across the canal and where there is a free mooring with pay
electricity and water and from where we experienced all four seasons almost
simultaneously!
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Pedestrian bridge Jabbeke-Stalhille
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| A short while later |
Took a 5km ride to Jabbeke where we had a beer in one of the local pubs and then rode back to Stalhille...
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| Riding across the freeway on the way to Jabbeke |
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| The road to Stalhille |
...before popping into a restaurant across the water from our mooring for a glass of wine.
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| Restaurant, Jabbeke-Stalhille intersection |
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| Meat slicer |
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| Elle through the restaurant window |
Monday 5th back in the office after +/- 3800 kl m through the Karoo this mileage included Mthakatye. Met up with very distant cousins 5th and 2nd in line and managed to stand next to the grave of the pioneering dating back to 1820's this was peter and Jane's doing! Glade to see you guys enjoying your trip hope you found Gerd and Lesley. I am a bit lost with dates at the moment, don't know when who arrives home but will keep in touch. Now going to Google your positions and start following you again enjoy.
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ReplyDeleteHere you have had heavy rain hope this has not effected you at all?
ReplyDeleteHere you have had heavy rain hope this has not effected you at all?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment James - your trip sounded lekker and a nice surprise finding the pioneering ancestors resting place. See next blog installment for 'finding Gerd and Les'. Been a bit behind with blogging due to hectic times/bad internet - will try to get more or less up to date in the morning.
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