At the beginning of May, Rob and Gill P., Sue and Ali joined up with the British Rowing Recreational Rowers for a three-day tour in Steenwijk, in the Netherlands. Getting there was easy, a flight from Newcastle to Amsterdam followed by a two-hour train ride, the only difficulty was the lack of taxis at Steenwijk station. However, Rob’s masterful bartering skills came into their own as he haggled the Uber driver down and got us a reasonable rate for the last part of the journey.
The next morning, the first of the three rowing days saw us arrive at the magnificent Roeivereniging ‘t Diep rowing club. A purpose-built facility on the bank of one of the major canals; everything was in immaculate condition, from the boats to the conference rooms, erg facilities and an eat your heart out fully heated boat maintenance room!
Having been allocated a stable quad, we set off on our first tour, through two of the major canals, 33km in length. The rowing was steady and the coxing not too difficult, despite an afternoon head wind. During the morning, we passed some beautiful canal side properties which had access to the waterway and a whole host of robotic lawnmowers!
Money is obviously not an issue in this area! However, far more interestingly, we saw several storks sitting in their nests, tending their young but none were carrying any babies to expectant mothers!
The second day’s tour was a similar length to the first but took us through one of the National Parks and a little tour of Giethoornse Meer, The route through the reeds featured some extremely narrow sections which Gill had to paddle like Pocahontas and also some bridges that were so low that we had to lie flat on our backs for whilst we shipped our blades. Stopping at any point was tricky, the canal banksides were high, and this led to the only mishap of the trip with Sue getting a dunking! On getting into the boat, it slid away from the bank and Sue was left in a precarious position, Rob, charged to the rescue but was a fraction too late, but did manage to pull Sue out before total immersion! Sue bravely continued the rest of the rowing, albeit a little soggy.
Our final day of the three, again saw us row through another National Park, we were serenaded by frogs and birds chirping in the background. All in all, we had great weather, fantastic company and beers at the end of each day, so what more could you want!
