Having picked Veronica and Richards’ brains for some of their favourite places, we set off into the Provence of Friesland in search of the larger waters which have moorings on little islands, encountering more acres of nature paths en route. 
Everything here is to tidy and pristine. This is such a wealthy country; that’s a new complex being built below – all thatch roofed and with different roof pitches and balconies. That kind of build doesn’t come cheap.
How’s this for a free mooring; the island of Marchjepolle with our very own beach; even Baxter managed a deep paddle to lift some weight off his old bones (he’s on a lead because he’s developing a tendency to wander in the wrong direction), whilst Muttley made great friends with the cutest little Shar Pei off another boat and had a ball making holes in the beach. They are very casual with dogs here; nobody expects anyone’s dog to be aggressive so there allowed to lay outside of their respective boats on the banks. It’s quite common to walk Muttley passed a line of boats and have 2 or 3 jump off and join us for a little way.
I Also made a trip into Steenwijk on the kayak thinking I might visit the Jumbo supermarket, but it was closed. I frightened myself a bit on the way back because I wasn’t 100% sure of my route and it is ridiculously easy to get lost. A completely different perspective from down low and there are so many different waterways and junctions. In the UK and France we used to say, ‘you can run, but you can’t hide’; well you can hide here!
I love the way they duckboard all the marshy bits in the nature park so that you can walk at anytime of the year without getting muddy boots. This stork was quite unperturbed by our presence; they are huge when you get close to them.
The diversity of craft here continues to astound me – there seems to be little or no snobbery; everyone gets out on the water on anything they can. I have to admit I am growing a terrible urge for something with sails as a nice little holiday home up here for the summer. Look at this little beauty. Yeah, I know it’s too much maintenance and expense to run two boats and our joints are not up to it either; but a girl can dream.
