Cruise back to Friesland. The Van Starkenborgh Kanal, another Marrekrite nature mooring.

Monday morning dawns with bright, bright sunshine and the gentlest of breezes. The other two boats on our nature mooring have already left to continue their journeys in a westerly direction. Engine on at 0950 hours, we cast off our lines and left the pontoon using a stern spring. From here, all the remaining brug had to be called on VHF channel 85 to request opening. It was all very easy and very quick too. 

We turned to starboard onto the Van Starkenborgh Kanal at 1110 hours. There were quite a few commercial barges on the kanal but only a handful of other boats - mostly charter boats. Again, the scenery changed and we could almost have been cruising in France.

We shared the Gaarkeuken schutsluis with a commercial and 2 other cruisers. It was sweltering hot on the foredeck, and the light bouncing off Pirramimma and the water was blindingly bright. Silly me; no hat or sunglasses with me when I went forward to lasso the bollard. The skipper's view forward...

… and aft…

Off we go…

Immaculately tended farmland - the sweet aroma of freshly cut hay was wonderful!

 Irresistible isn't it! A summer idyll. 

Once we'd cruised through the Stroobos swing brug and moved back onto the Prinses Margriet Kanal, water traffic increased dramatically as we cruised ever closer towards the Sneekermeer. The sun was shining and everyone was enjoying their holiday time on the water. 

Eventually, we turned to port down the Lange Sleatten and made our way towards the town of Earnewâld, looking for a nature mooring for the night. No chance! All mooring places were absolutely rammed with boats and folk taking advantage of the weather. We turned to starboard again onto the Folkertssleat, then once again to starboard, cruising past the grassy bank on the little island we moored at two weeks ago at the start of our journey. And again, there was no space left for us against the grassy bank. Happily, the last pontoon had a few spaces and we spun around 180 to take the second last space from the end of the pontoon. 

We got chatting to the gentleman in the boat behind us. He was utterly charming and gave us a lot of information about cruising around the Alde Feanen National Park. Thank you, sir! He also said he was about to leave and suggested we walk Pirramimma back into his space afterwards. This we did after waving our goodbyes and, as a consequence, we enjoyed an uninterrupted view of the Prinses Margriet Kanal and the surrounding countryside. 

This photo was taken at 2047 hours, local time. Recreational water traffic has nearly ceased. Only the large commercials moved by after this lone boat heading south.  It was still warm enough to have all the covers up on the aft deck. Bliss.

 I was woken at 0500 hours next morning to the sound of torrential rain. Leapt out of bed to shut a couple of side portholes I'd left open to catch the breeze through the galley area. Fortunately, that's all they caught!  Rain completely stopped play for 10 solid hours after that. We stayed put. Eventually the rain passed by and we enjoyed another sunshine evening. Our view forward at 1924 hours. You can probably see how busy it is further down by the grassed bank. 

Next morning dawned bright and sunny. After a breakfast of strawberries, red currants, greek yoghurt and acacia honey …

… we jumped into Pottle and headed off to take a good look at Earnewâld. There are some truly lovely holiday homes. And a big selection of rental holiday homes, camping and caravan places to suit all needs and budgets. It was amazingly busy but everything was immaculately clean and tidy, well organised and generally extremely civilised. A useful Spar supermarket, various eating places, a smart looking hotel and restaurant. The Spar has free dinghy parking dedicated for those who need to shop there. There are several passenten and jachthavens with the usual water, electricity services available. Also a fuel berth and one of the jachthavens has foul water pump out facilities. 

Wikipedia states the Alde Feanen National Park is 25 km2 or just under 10 sq miles in size with at least 450 plant species and 100 bird species to be found. The park contains morasses, forest, lakes, peat and meadows. There's a visitor centre in Earnewâld and also a stork breeding centre nearby. We loved that it was actively enjoyed by so many folk; all of whom respect the National Park and keep to their part of the bargain; viz they keep the place clean and tidy whilst leaving the bird life in peace. 

We lunched onboard and at 1415 hours started the engine, let go our lines and rejoined the Prinses Margriet Kanal on our way back to Jirnsum, De Boarnstream and our oil filters. 
Vxx