Friday 30th July 2004 Wolfsbruch lock to above Voßwinkel lock

9.6° C overnight. Clear blue sky, sunny – another “Simpson’s sky” by mid-afternoon. Away

A Tom Sawyer Tours motorised raft. Vosswinkel

again at 7 a.m. A beautiful morning. The lake was still, flat calm and placid - nothing moved but us. We went to the end of the Palitzsee, Bill stopped halfway down the lake and enjoyed the silence, drifting with the engine turned off until we came back. We went down the lock at Strasen. One cruiser was waiting above on the long moorings for the lock. (On the approach to the lock I picked up three empty bottles from under the bridge - on Mike’s instructions - that’s 30c, Scrooge!) A young lad pressed the buttons to operate the lock and we went down with the cruiser, dropping down 1.5m. Two cruisers were waiting below to go up once we’d cleared. We headed northeast on the Ellbogonsee to join the Obere Havel

Osprey - Wikimedia photo by Mauricholas

Wasserstraße - upper Havel navigation or OHW, then north past Priepert and into the Große Priepertsee, followed by the cruiser. Nothing else was moving on the big lake at 9.50 a.m. Five minutes later three came past heading down the lake and three were overtaking us. Round the western edge of Bülow Werder (a large lake with islands shown on our chart as a “no props” area) and northwest into Finow Havel. We locked up Wesenberg lock, just the two of us side-by-side with a handful of canoes behind us, after a chamber full of canoes had descended. A Dutch couple from Dordrecht came to chat to Mike as we came up. Above the lock we met a Dutch barge (you see about as many of those here as narrowboats!) called “Jan Van (something I couldn’t spell)” with radar turning, heading for the lock we’d just left. Out on to the Woblitzsee, past the town of 

Hafen at Neustrelitz

Wesenberg, which was hiding from view behind a screen of trees. I made lunch as we crossed the lake. Mike spotted an osprey’s nest in a tall pylon just beyond the lake edge - and he saw the one parent bird land and the other lift its head above the edge of the nest. Saw a tripper boat called Antje (that’s pronounced anti) from out of Neustrelitz. Followed Rosy into the Kammerkanal and waited while several cruisers came down Voßwinkel lock. The keeper came down to tell us that the trip boat would be back in five minutes and he had precedence at the lock. OK. It motored speedily into the chamber and went into hard reverse to stop. (The skipper obviously hasn’t had the experience of what doesn’t happen if a plastic sack is picked up on the propeller blades, ie stopping! - Comment from Mike). It went up with five canoes behind it. Meanwhile one canoe’s crew decided to use the bootschlepper - a trolley on rails to transport it up to the next level without using the lock. Five kilometres of 

Replica Viking ship and a fast cruiser. Neustrelitz

the kammerkanal wound through the woods to the shallow (3m) Zierkersee. We overtook Rosy, Bill pointed out that he didn’t have white buoys on his chart. The seagulls had perched on them and covered them in so much bird excrement that they were no longer green buoys! In the lake there was just one sailing yacht and four cruisers moored side by side with just one of them having an anchor down. We stooged up to the harbour at Neustrelitz and took photos, then turned round and went back across the lake. Bill had stayed well out from the shore, definitely not happy with the buoys, channel markers and 

cardinals, etc leading into the harbours. Had some long cold drinks going back - it must be 

Kammerkanal nr Neustrelitz -
Wikimedia photo by Reinhard Schiewe

getting warmer! An old-styled wooden boat like a Viking ship with a steering board out on his starboard side was heading for the town (we later learned that there was a Vikingfest in Neustrelitz over the weekend - glad we didn’t decide to stop) I took a photo as a speed boat went past it. Back into the kammerkanal and moored in the jungle above Voßwinkel lock. Mike trampled down the overgrown bank behind the posts, it was thick with creepers -bindweed, goosegrass and hops. He went down to the lock to check the parking and speak to the keeper. The latter said he could leave our old ZX next to his motor on the lockside, it would be OK there for a couple of days. I got my jeans and shoes on (protection from the biting flies and mossies) and gave

Woblitzsee - Wikimedia photo by botaurus stellaris

Mike a hand to unload the moped and push it across the very rough ground and through the jungle to the sand track by the house. A new house had been built just down the lane from the lock, very posh with a painted plastered wall around the house and garden and a smart wooden car port. He went off to collect the car from Waren at 5 p.m. and I got on with the chores. We’d arranged that he’d call me on the ‘phone, cut off and I’d ring him back - he wouldn’t answer it and I’d go and help shove the bike back through the jungle. He ‘phoned twice before I had chance to get to the ‘phone and call him back! He said later he thought he’d got the engaged tone. I pulled my jeans, shirt and shoes on again as some protection against the biting flies and went to lend a hand. The lad at the lock had said he could put the car next to his, so Mike took him a beer later to say thanks! Helped load the moped back on board and then I cooked a stirfry for dinner. 

Click here for a map of the trip through the lakes