Boats and boats and more boats! (part 1)

So here we are, well into May. Normally by now I would have done masses of route planning and have our 3 months cruising all set, as well as wintering possibilities for the end of the year.

But Shangri La has a new owner and we are boatless!

I am a mixture of completely devastated and yet completely relieved from the responsibility.

One of the reasons for selling Shangri La was I did not want her to deteriorate and become unsellable, like so many unloved craft we have seen over the years.

This notion reminded me of the number of unused, semi wrecked boats we have seen on our travels, as well as some other funny and interesting ones.

So, I have trawled through all the photos from our 6 years on the waterways and share some of these photos with you.

Not quite sure what the purpose of this one is…? But saw it somewhere in Vriesland in the Netherlands.

Would seem like the Dutch like ice-cream!

From the interesting and amusing to the sad – such a shame to see so many neglected craft on the waterways, mostly in France.

Once they get to this stage, pretty well un-sellable!

The Dutch really are a can-do nation! Take your dog for a canoe trip – no problem.

Shame poor thing! One of the few somewhat dilapidated boats spotted in the Netherlands.

According to the French Waterway Guides, Montchanin has a marina with all the usual amenities! MMmm…. This is what we found there – not even a jetty but a large number of unused and semi-wrecked boats up on the dry.

We found a lovely wild stop about a kilometre away, so all was well. We took a walk into the town and there was absolutely nothing there. So not surprising really that the marina fell into disuse.

And for something completely different – a garbage collection boat in Utrecht. We loved Utrecht. Went there twice on our boat travels and both times transited the canal through the town centre with it’s 19 rather low bridges.

Of course it is not only private boats that fall into disuse – numerous un-usable or wrecked commercial barges seen around the French waterways.

We loved France but it was disheartening to see how under utilised these wonderful waterways are!

More in the next post.

Bon voyage!