Friday 22nd April 2005 nr Dzierzów KP45 to Santok KP68 (Warta). 22.2kms no locks

Basin in Gorzow

Not so cold as the night before, but still decidedly chilly at 0.7º C. Sunny start with clouds rolling over and brief light rain showers. Before we set off Fanny chased a stick that Mike had thrown for her and pounced into some bushes, flushing out a duck which took flight surprising everybody including Fanny. Mike and Bill saw another otter, this one was sprawled out on a chewed tree stump not far downstream of the boats! We set off at 8.30 a.m. following Rosy upriver

Bridges over the Warta in Gorzow

until we caught up and overtook. Again there were lots and lots of swans on the river in quite large groups. As we saw the outskirts of Gorzow Wielkopolski, a short shower of rain sent us chasing after plastic bags for the GPS, ‘phone and radio – it stopped not long after the brolly went up. Gorzow from the water looked even scruffier than we remembered it from the road. A long, stretched out town along the river bank and up the hill, with

Painted building in Gorzow

old tower blocks of flats now cheered up with pastel shades of paint. We spied the onion dome of an Orthodox Christian church behind the factory chimneys and tumble down warehouses. An old basin on the right hand bank came into view. A redundant iron boat had been hauled up the sloping bank until only its stern remained in the water. Behind it stood an ancient, empty concrete quay with bollards. As we neared the town bridges we encountered the first of a dozen or so canoeists, paddling fast

The market backing on to the riverbank

downstream with the flow with such serious expressions and fast glups of breath – we thought that they must have been practising for the next Olympics! I took photos as we passed slowly through the town, the shops under the railway arches where five years earlier we had been spotted as tourists by a couple of sharks, the backs of the market stalls where bunches of youths were already drinking beer from the stalls, the cross roads under the railway by the river bridge and the guarded car park where our

An old tug on the bank covered in grafitti

sharks conned us into buying a road map of Poland as a waterways guide. Memories, memories! We’re older and more canny now! The moorings looked great, a concrete quay with mooring studs, right by the shops (and the vandals, thieves and cheeky kids!) By the new bridge over the river we noted a new mooring place in an arm on the left bank. There was a row of posts with a gangway linking them. The only occupants were two fishermen. A little further upstream on the right bank was another basin.

The market and blocks of flats in Gorzow

This one was full of boats, old waterways vessels, and a slipway and cranes. Mike had noted the place as a possible safe mooring, when we were there by car. The sun came out again as we left Gorzow astern. I made us a cup of soup to warm us up. At the edge of a large area of wasteland a man stood and watched us pass by. He had a small brown pitbull dog with him. He pointed to the boat and spoke to the dog, then he lifted the dog up and waved its paw! I just had to call on the radio and tell Bill to get Fanny

A guarded car park, by the market in Gorzow

to wave back! We’d been having trouble getting people to wave back to us, they all just gave us surly looks. A low range of little sandy hills occupied the left bank all the way to Santok. We noted more and more evidence of beaver attacks on trees. Mike pointed out one tree stump, which looked like the end of a sharpened pencil, where the beavers had actually felled the tree. Each village seemed to have a least one cartwheel on a pole with a pair of nesting storks atop it. On top of one of the hills there stood

Rosy passing through Gorzow.

the base of an old windmill, just the brick tower, now window-less and door-less. A large blue hulled cruiser (it looked like an ex-German police boat) came downriver towards us, then turned bows into the bank, tied to the kilometre marker (KP64) and a bloke jumped off and started painting the post. Mike said he’d seen five marker posts since Gorzow – the bank marker thief couldn’t work this far upriver! We motored on upstream to moor at Santok at 2.20 p.m. There was a row of posts linked together by planks

Waterways painting the marker posts

which stood in the river about three metres from the bank edge which was sloping and lined with rocks. We moored on the outside and Bill brought Rosy carefully up the inside – there was just enough depth over the rocks. Mike said Bill could borrow our plank and then he and the dog could get off. Fanny was by now in urgent need of a pee, so Bill let her off and then, once she was back on board, he put the plank on his roof. Mike lit the central heating again as the temperature dropped sharply after dark.

Moored on the Notec at Santok

Moored at Santok