contentedsouls

We (and that includes Daisy) love mooring on these tiny island moorings but the only drawback is that there isn’t enough ‘area’ to walk Muttley; this is where the boat’s tender comes into its own. Muttley prefers the destination rather than the journey though when it gets at all rough; on this trip we got beached going to the beach and getting G off of the bottom again after he dropped Muttley and I off wasn’t easy.

You never know who or what is going to arrive; it’s common place to see dogs in tenders, but this visitor surprised us.

The duck sat there quite happily whilst the chap chatted to his mate in a canoe before driving off again – bizarre.

We managed to reserve a mooring at Eastermar for the annual horse fair as I adore the Friesian horses and hoped I might get ‘up close and personal’ and that I might be able to persuade himself that we had, ’room for a pony’. It turned out that the horse fair was also when the village had it’s annual fete and there were all sorts of fun and games and music happening over the weekend. I must admit that the Scottish pipers and drummers were another surprise.

I was up soooo early that even the market stalls were still unpacking

But it was worth it to get there early and watch the deals being done before all the tourists arrived. Many of the livestock changed hands more than once. A Friesian riding horse will set you back upwards of 5/6,000 euros apparently; no idea what the foals and unbacked ponies fetched. All of the animals were in good condition and well looked after. Peace reigned with the mares being led through the streets and their foals running free; that is until a chap came through with an entire pony that smelt the mares and then went berserk – rearing up and kicking out, catching it’s handler on her backside and sending her flying; she’ll be needing the Arnica. So, if you are not into horses (llamas, donkeys, etc.), scroll on down because here come a lot of pictures.

Gezina & Gerrit came out for the day and then G’s ‘other woman’, Marijke and Jan came out on the Sunday to give their new car a spin.

We found a new, idyllic, mooring in reach of a beach for Baxter – Mr B is on a lead because he could go the wrong way and wander off into the deep!

Over the next few days the beach turned into this

So we decided to move on before the assault on our eardrums started.