10° C. Sun shining from a blue
sky, streaked with thin high clouds. Misty and chilly when we
 |
| Gnevsdorf lock, just right for two narrowboats! |
set off at 7 a.m.
following Rosy into the Harvelberg lock, Schleppzugschleuse (the tug boat
lock), in which we rose 30cms and exited into a channel full of swirling mist
reaching up to a metre and half high. Out on to the Elbe, turning right and heading
north, going downstream with the flow (about 4 kph), the mist was still
swirling, but it was breezy and the sun was warming the air so by 8 a.m. all
the mist had gone. I made tea and cooked some buns in the oven. A work gang was
busy strengthening the flood
 |
| Leaving Gnevsdorf |
protection dyke wall at KP 427, lorries were
depositing loads of sand and diggers were spreading it out. Four red kites were
circling over a small stand of trees on the left hand bank. Further on we
spotted three more large birds of prey perched in a dead tree and a smaller
one, looking rather alone, in the same tree. They were too far away for
identification. All along the north bank of the river there were masses of
greylag geese, sitting on the bank with one or two swimming in the slow water
between the stone groynes. Suddenly a white tailed eagle swooped out of nowhere
and made a grab for
a
 |
| Gnevsdorf lock and barrage |
swimming goose, which, to our amazement, squawked loudly
and dived underwater to escape the talons of the big raptor. We crossed the
river to our right, turned sharply into the Gnevsdofer Vorfluter and followed a
winding buoyed course up to the lock. The keeper had just arrived on his moped
and dropped his crash helmet, which came hurtling down the grassy bank faster
than he did on his bike. We tied to the pontoon below the little lock and Bill
kept Rosy out in the middle while the keeper emptied the lock. The chamber
 |
Qutzobel barrage at the end of the Vorfluter kanal,
junction of rivers Havel and Elbe |
was
22m long by 5.3m wide. The keeper asked me how wide the boat was, so I told
him. He also asked Mike, who also told him. Mike called Bill to bring Rosy into
the lock first, as he was in the middle of the channel. Then the keeper asked
Bill how wide Rosy was. He was getting very concerned about whether we could
get the two boats in side by side until we were actually in the chamber, with
bags of room to spare. My best green sausage fender caught in the gate and broke
the string, with a loud bang as we went in. I tried a knot in the string after
we’d recovered it. Ropes on fore and aft. I was standing on the deck lid
holding
 |
| Quitzobel lock |
the front line while we came up 1.8m in the lock, I’d just been getting
rid of lots of spiders and, as I was looking at the ladder alongside me, a
large black crab crawled out from behind the side rail and dropped into the
water. Boy did that make me jump! King sized spiders they have here!! I took a
couple of photos of the boats in the lock before we left. It was 9.50 a.m. as
we headed back south again down a channel that was wide and 3m deep, running
between flood protection banks, which were covered with well mown
 |
| Quitzobel lock and barrage |
grass. There
was more shelter from the breeze, so it felt much warmer but still cool enough
to appreciate a cup of soup for early “elevenses”. A flock of lapwings flew
over, circled and landed back in a field out of sight behind the dyke where
they just taken off from. At the end of the Vorfluter we came to the next lock,
Quitzöbel, set in a series of floodgates in a long flood defence barrier where
the very last bit of the Havel joined the Elbe. Rosy was already in the chamber
and Bill was having a conversation with the two waterways men and a bunch of
fishermen, telling them we were going to EHS (which they looked very
 |
| Lock gates at Quitzobel |
disapprovingly on for some reason they didn’t share with us) and Poland next
year, so he showed them pictures of the Elblag lifts. The fishermen were very
keen to throw sticks for Fanny, who thoroughly approved of that. I took photos
of the up and over paddles (shades of Salter Hebble) and a slowly ascending
guillotine gate (shades of Salter’s Lode!) The keeper gave us a copy of the
Berlin WVW mag (we’d already got one, but another copy might be useful as it
had a nice map in it) plus it had got opening times for the Havel locks. Back
on a level with the Elbe, we turned left heading upstream on the Havel. Mike
worked it out that as the locks we had done were all uphill, 30cm at Havelberg,
1.8m at Gnevsdorf and another
 |
| Quitzobel lock and barrage |
30 cms at Quitzöbel, then that meant the river
Elbe ran down a slope of 2.4m over 15 kms! Who needs locks? Had lunch on the
move as we headed back to Havelberg on a very quiet placid river. A rough
legged buzzard flew over the adjacent meadow which separated us from the Elbe,
it hovered every now and then when something caught its attention. We went back
into Havelberg via a small channel which lead past the marina by a large hotel
with the floating fountain on our right. We arrived back at the place on the
public quay by the trip boat at 2.30 p.m. At 3 p.m. the trip boat
Jerichowerland set off with a party of tourists on board. They were away for a
couple of hours. Mike went for a nap. Bill came over to talk to Mike
 |
| Leaving Quitzobel lock |
about
pegels, just as the ‘phone rang. It was WWTelecom (our American callback system
that we used for making calls to the UK), Diana calling Mike back. She said
they’d had problems getting money from our account. Alarm bells started ringing
in our heads - we’d got new cards that were in the post from Glyn (which were
very late coming from the bank) - WWT must have suspended the account until
they get payment! That’s why it’s been continuously engaged since 1st Sept and
we thought it was their new computer system playing up. It’s our annoying bank
again! All for not paying a bill of $14! Bill came in and we had a discussion
about Barry Sheffield’s account of how to calculate water depths using pegels.
We all came to the conclusion that what he’d written in his book was
misleading.
No comments:
Post a Comment