On my way back up the Maas, I stopped over at the Linne jetty at the end of a dead river arm. The small town has a shop where I needed to get some supplies. Also, there were good reviews on “google maps”. But it turned out to be a “hippie jetty”. I am unsure whether “hippie” is the correct term, as we are in 2023. They were friendly and seemed to have made a lifestyle of it to hop in simple small boats from one free spot to the next. Among themselves, they had quite a hierarchy, funnily based on who found a better way of running some little business and making an income. I expected a different dimension, frankly. Also, men were telling off the women for using the wrong knot and patronising them by asking questions about how to operate some details on the boat. They also had some strange cults and beliefs, mainly about “the system”, which appeared to be some spiritual god-like concept. But “the system” was not their god. Instead, it is an evil power manipulating humankind for some small group of beneficiaries. So they, the “hippies”, gathered wisdom to trick “the system”. One of these tricks was selling marijuana in Germany, which they smuggle over the border in their boats. That business model may soon fade, as in Germany the current government is now in the process of legalizing these substances in some kind of “drugs for votes” deal. Anyways, the setting in Linne reminded me of the movie scene in “Fizzcaraldo”.

In any case, I left early in the morning, slowly navigating through the fog covering the river arm. Then turned left for the Linne lock, which I entered with a few other boats in the early morning. I became quite skilful passing these locks single-handed. Eddie, the dog, though has to stay on a short leash during the time in the lock chamber. Should he fall overboard, it would probably be the end of him. That day we moored early and I needed to get some work done with my laptop. That’s one thing different from the Amazon of Fizzcaraldo. I have 5G.