5 and 6 July We headed for Zoutkamp stopping on briefly just before the Lauwersmeer for lunch. Zoutkamp We saw plenty of birds and animals on our way including the Lauwersmeer Horses, and what looked to be highland cattle replacing the more usual Friesland variety. Our trip took us as far north as we plan to go this year and marked the start of our journey south towards Belgium. Zoutkamp (meaning salt camp) was a little village whose main claim to fame was fishing and the marina for passing pleasure traffic. We moored on the outside of the wall and used our gang plank to get on and off. The next morning we took a trip to Munnekzijl, only about 6 kms away. This was the town where our barge was based when she worked as a Peat ship, and we were keen to seen what we could find out about her and her original family. Munnekzijl is in Friesland but just across the lock is the province of Groningen. It has less than 500 inhabitants and there was only a cafe in town- no other shops. The cafe was closed but did advertise Fosters Lager in the window. The town did have a windmill and two churches. We found the grave stone of the two brothers for which the boat was originally named. And we spoke to a gentleman who had known them when he was 15 or 20. Neither of the two brothers married and their mother lived with them. They took peat to Drenthe. They lived on their boat which was moored in the small mooring just below the dock when they were in town. Their mother Anke is also buried in the cemetery, although we couldn't find her grave. We were please to have found out so much in such a small trip. Our next stop is Groningen so we set off in the afternoon to reduce tomorrow's trip. We planned to moor wild, but have rafted up to Jill and Gary Archibold's boat. Howard had been chatting to him on facebook and he looked out for us as we came along. He even took a video of us travelling along, which we get from him this evening. In the mean time as I work on this, Howard is fishing off the side of the boat.
1 Comment
Hanneke Bos
6/7/2017 06:17:44 pm
I asked my mother from whom they bought the boat. They bought it from my grandfather Lodewijk Meeter. And he bought the boat from a boot dealer from Sneek. She couldn't really remember his name. Perhaps his name was v/d Woude. I hope this information will help you with the missing 20 years.
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