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| Houses and marker posts at Swiekocin |
It was really cold overnight –4º C, so we were
glad of having lit the central heating the night before. The day was sunny and
calmer, not so windy, but the light breeze was still very cold. We were about
to move off at 8.00 a.m. when Bill said he’d got problems, no rev counter again
and he thought he could see smoke (he’d had an intermittent problem with it
yesterday) so Mike went on Rosy to help sort it out. The alternator pulley had
split into two halves, so the belt was loose. They sorted out another pulley,
etc, fixed it and we set off at ten to ten. A pair of storks were flying
overhead, a gaggle
of geese took off - as did more swans (I’d never seen so
many swans) Coats on again. At 10.40 a.m. we passed a few houses on the left
bank at the village of Swiekocin by the first bridge, where there were a pile
of kilometre marker posts in a garden lying against a fence. Mike had been
complaining about the lack of posts and here they were! Had the guy stolen them?
or had they been taken in for the winter? Bill said it would be OK as long as
he put them back in the right order! I baked some buns for lunch and made some
drop scones while the oven was hot. Vacuumed the carpet and broke the belt that
drives the brush roller. Had to replace it with a new one before I could finish
cleaning
the floor. Made a cuppa and sat back out on the stern, birdwatching.
Three goosanders flew off in front, one male and two females. At 12.30 I went
inside to make some lunch. When I stepped back outside at 1.00 p.m. as we
neared Kołszyn, to my surprise there was a commercial coming downstream. Number
BM5228 (no names here) was 56.6m long and carried 495 tonnes according to his
details painted on the boat’s coamings – it looked part loaded. The skipper
just about managed a wave! A strange
ripple in the water stretching halfway across the river caused Mike to steer
towards
the left bank. It was something huge swimming just under the surface of
the water! As we approached it it disappeared. Near Chwalowice we saw an otter
swimming across the river from right to left. I tracked it with binoculars as
it headed for the bank and was hidden from sight in a mass of old tree stumps
and branches. Later on Mike said he saw
something run up a tree, I looked with my binoculars and a few minutes later a
large mink (or was it another otter – they are very much darker brown than we
expected) scooted into a bank of dead reeds. We decided to moor before Gorzow
and spied a convenient looking place by some old trees at 3.30 p.m. I threw a
bow rope around a tree stump and Mike powered the stern towards the bank. Bill brought Rosy alongside, then Mike put poles
out to keep the boats off the sandy river bottom while Bill set some long lines
fore and aft. The trees in front and behind us showed evidence of being gnawed
by beaver.
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| Traffic!! Near Kolszyn |
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| Trees make good moorings here |
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| Best not to tie to the ones the beavers have chewed. |
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