Monday 27th September 2004 Schmöckwitz to Hermsdorfer Mühler.

Kuhnle hirebase at Zeuthen (pic from 2014)

10.1° C Grey and overcast with a light breeze, drizzle started mid-morning. We all went in the car to get groceries from the Extra supermarket and Mike bought some petrol from the Arral garage. Set off with the pins in at 9.30 a.m. doing some washing, heading upriver on the Dahme. I got on with the chores, made some popovers in the oven (puffed up batter - USA breakfast food) before doing the daily bread. At Zeuthen Mike gave me a buzz to look at the nest of Zunzle cakes - a bakery? (a hire base - Kuhnle Boats) - some had Waren on the sterns so they must do one way trips to the north of the Mecklenburg lakes. I carried on ironing, finishing

Below Neue Muhle lock (pic from 2014)

just as we arrived at Neue Mühle lock in Königs Wusterhausen. Glad to see that industry was still alive and well in the region - the tipper crane was still upending railway wagon loads of brown coal into boats to be delivered to the power station. A young man worked the lock from a control panel in a shelter that was about the same size as a telephone box. We rose about 1.5m with Rosy tied alongside. Nothing moved but us as we crossed the Krimnicksee and Krüpelsee lakes and went into the channel of the Dahme again. A small cruiser overtook us, which we saw no more sign of as the river bent and wound its way into the Dolgensee, again

Above Prieros lock (pic from 2014)

deserted, then back into the Dahme again at Dolgenbrodt. The river bank was lined with holiday bungalows and caravans, all shuttered and deserted, with rows of little open boats moored along the banks in front of them, also sheeted and covered in readiness for the colder months to come. No one around except a few hardy local fishermen. After a very short wait below Prieros lock, the blonde lady keeper emptied the water out and we went up about another metre. The lock had been modernised, rebuilt - it used to be a sloping turf sided lock but now only the right hand wall had a slope and that was above water level. The left hand wall was normal, straight sided like most other locks. Rosy went out first and we followed down the Streganzer See. Bill stopped at the end of the lake, not knowing which way to go until Mike gave him a call on the radio to tell him that the channel (almost invisible) was far to the left side of the lake and curved off round the back of a reedy island, the channel was not obvious. Heavy drizzle started just before we moored next to the old piled quay about a kilometre before Hermsdorfer Mühler lock. The car could stay where it was at Schmöckwitz for a few days.