Netherlands inland waterway trip – Fog on the Ijssel

Fog on the Geldersche Ijssel

20th and 21st September 2014

The last few days had been wonderfully hot and sunny, but on the trip down to Zutphen (pronounced Zutfer) the weather started to change rather rapidly.

A short while after leaving Doesburg the fog came in – and rather thick.

We could only just make out the river bank and see the kilometre posts.

Vispoorthaven in Zutphen

Fortunately I had my MAPS.ME GPS programme, and Karen had her first taste of proper navigating.

Her job was to keep track of those kilometre posts, and mark them off on the chart as we passed.

It was the first time I had to have the navigation lights on too.

And of course the fog didn’t stop the commercial barges which continued to come charging along.

Zutphen town square

They all had radar, but I was surprised to see that most were not using it.

Anyway we rather hugged the starboard side of the river and after about an hour and a quarter, just before Zutphen, the fog lifted completely.

Which was a relief, as the entrance to Vispoorthaven was extremely tricky.

Zutphen buildings

Our guidebook had warned of a very strong eddy in the entrance, but it was a lot stronger than I had expected.

Together with the fast river current, this made for a rather hairy manoeuvre and I only just managed to avoid making contact with the jetty inside.

Later, during our stay there we noticed that all boats entering the harbour had similar experiences.

Beautiful Dutch buildings

Once in though, the marina was excellent – 16 Euro per night, including un-metered electricity and very good wifi/internet.

The weather continued to deteriorate and the rain came bucketing down.

Spent the afternoon on board catching up on emails and stuff.

The next day, Sunday, the weather was still a bit damp – not nice for boating – and we decided to do the walking tour of the town.

Old trading house – lower floor now under water

By now, the towns were starting to be much of a muchness, but the walk turned out to one of the best, partly because the printed guide was in English.

Also, the museum was a bit different. Along with the usual history and war relics was a whole floor dedicated to the last 50 years of Dutch children’s books and cartoons called Lemniscaat.

Loads of fun cartoons and drawings.

Shangri La in Zutphen

Statistics:

Distance        20 kms
Locks 0
Bridges 2 fixed
Motoring time 2 hours