14.6° C Sunny spells, between thick black clouds,
thunderstorms with heavy rain - and
 |
| The new church steps - my photo from 2013 |
windy again from just after lunch. Set off
at 7 a.m. I did my chores, while it was still cool, going back down the
Ruppinersee. Mike turned down the arm, opposite Neuruppin, called the Lanke.
Bill carried straight down the big lake (he doesn’t go to the ends just to say
he’s been there like us!). I got the camera out for Mike to take photos of the
new steps in front of the old church at Neuruppin, he also took photos of the
mooring quay by the building site (which will be gone very shortly as
 |
| The new hotel at Neuruppin - my photo from 2013 |
they are
building a new hotel) and the statue of a tin man with a boat on his head and a
whirlygig. (Looked it up, many years later, and found it is Parzival or Sir Perceval
in English, from the legends of King Arthur & the Knights of the Round
Table) All five trip boats were in their berths. That left a couple of small
havens for tiny boats and nothing for the likes of us to tie to. We caught up
with Rosy as we reached the entrance to the channel to Altfriesack lock. It
started to rain heavily, so we sheltered under the road bridge while Mike put
the radio, phone and GPS in plastic bags. The lady
 |
| Nel's photo of Hackenberg lock in 1999 |
keeper (the usual resident
one today) lifted the bridge when the lock was full. As we sailed in I asked if
we could have some drinking water. Yes, no problem. We filled both tanks and
chatted to the keeper. She showed us the photos she’d taken when we were there
in ‘99 with Pensax, Fleur-de-Segré and our Dutch friends Nel and Arend’s cruiser Liberty. Mike was keen to know
how many other narrow boats she’d seen. I asked, and was surprised when she
said none, she’d only ever seen our boats. We waved, see you again, as we left
her lock. The rain stopped as we crossed the Bützsee lake. I made us a warming
cup of
 |
| Nel's photo of Hackenberg lock in 1999 |
soup. Bill paused mid-lake to get his lunch out, it was 10.50 a.m.
Turned right after four kilometres of the Bützrhin, into the Alter Rhin, a
winding remote river. The cleggs (biting blood-sucking horseflies) were out in
force. The keeper at Altruppin was right, for the first three kilometres we did
nothing but swat flies. Had lunch on the move, still swatting flies before they
tried to bite us. A buzzard flew over and sat in a tree close by the river,
mewing softly as we went past. As we arrived at Hakenberg lock, we spotted someone
in blue overalls lifting
 |
Old fabric factory (Nazi - see link) at Fehrbellin
Wikimedia photo by Doris Antony |
a paddle. We hovered, nothing happened. Mike hooted. I
spied a big brass bell by the lock next to the fence. Mike twiddled the bows
round to get to the bell and I clanged it several
 |
Church at Fehrbellin
Wikimedia photo by Doris Antony |
times. Nothing. Mike hooted
again. A young man came over from the house to say they were closed until 2
p.m. Mike thought it was ten past two, then he looked more closely at the
radio’s clock (which was still in its waterproof bag) - it was 1.10 p.m. Sorry!
We’ll tie up until you’ve had lunch! The lady keeper we remembered from last
time came out to press the button and open the gates at 1.50 p.m. she
remembered us too. I asked how her husband was, she told us that Klaus (who has
MS) was getting slowly
 |
| Below Altfriesack double chambered lock - my photo from 2013 |
worse. He was sleeping after having gone a long way in
his wheelchair, he likes to keep active and is a great one for DIY. Their dog,
Willy, was barking at Fanny, who was barking back. We said we’d see her again
the next day as we were off to Fehrbellin. She told us she’d had a big boat
through her lock, it must have been that Swiss tjalk we saw last week at
Liebenwalde. Also she made comment that there were lots of biting flies this
year and bug repellent didn’t seem to work on them. Great! Hope ours
 |
| Mooring at the end of the Fehrbellin kanal 2004 |
does! We
continued along the Alter Rhin’s meandering bends, took a right hand bend where
the Rhin went over a weir to become the Rhin kanal. There was lots of frogbit
in the canal and a red kite flew overhead. The mast had to come off to go under
the motorway bridge, which had 3.2m air draught. The wind blew even more
strongly as we went along the next section, then sharp left when faced with a
very low road bridge, past the moored little boats (half a dozen small cruisers
and a few dayboats) of the Fehrbelliner Motorsport Club and a couple of
chalets, then more caravans and bungalows. The waterways staff had been doing
some work by the weir and had occupied half the quay with a crane boat. It was
 |
Lovely graphic illustration of the Summer Triangle
Picture by Starry Night Education |
Friday, so no one was around. It started to rain heavily again as we tied up,
with Rosy alongside us, at 3.45 p.m. When the rain stopped Mike went off to
find a shop for bread and stuff to BBQ. I prepared spuds, egg mayo and coleslaw
to go with the sausages and pork steaks Mike bought from an E-Activ supermarket
in the village. (He bought double the quantity of meat, but Bill had already
made himself some soup as he didn’t know we were doing a BBQ - neither did we
until Mike returned having found a good supermarket). Set up the BBQ on the
quay amid fishermen and piles of sandy soil (messy stuff) and cut fir trees
belonging to the waterways bank edging team. Mike got our two director’s chairs
out (one for himself and one for Bill) and I got my recliner out. Bill came and
sat out with us until dusk. Mike finished off burning wood for charcoal and
then we packed up too. The stars had just come out and we could see the summer
triangle – three bright stars - Vega in the constellation Lyra, Deneb in Cygnus and
Altaire in Aquila.
Sorry about the Google translations in the following links from the Berlin History Workshop but you'll get the rough idea!
No comments:
Post a Comment