Wednesday 20th April 2005 Kostryzn to nr Oksza (Warta). 23kms no locks

The cable ferry Lubusz

A cold night 0.7º C sunny day, but biting cold ENE wind. Up at seven to go at eight. As we untied from the quay wall a lone gongoozler turned up, a man who’d driven on to the wharf in his car especially to watch the proceedings. Here begins the real start of the battle upstream against the flow on the river Warta, a smaller river than the Oder, but without (we think) the hazard of stone groynes. The first section of the river ran through very flat open country, a shared floodplain with the Oder, with a nature reserve area on our right bank. All around we were surrounded by wildlife, masses of birds, in some very remote and unspoiled countryside. The ground on the left bank was under water, turned into a marsh, which hundreds of swans and ducks and gulls were exploiting to the full. The engine revvs should have given us 7.5 kph in still water, with the flow of the river against us we were traveling

Bar-tailed godwit - Wikimedia photo by Steve Maslowski

upstream at between 3.5 to 4 kph, so the flow was between 3.5 to 4 kph. A mite slower than the Oder. The marshy fields were replaced by a flood dyke along the river’s edge on our left and more open countryside on our right, which was still the nature reserve. A man in a car drove towards Kostryzn on the dyke path, returning later in the morning. We wondered if he was a water bailiff or a fisherman. Lots of swans went flying off in front, to land and take off again, until we’d collected a bunch of three dozen of the stupid birds. They eventually flew away. We were both getting very cold. Mike changed his coat, I put on tights under my jeans and found a scarf. I made us a cup of soup to warm us up. Its effects were very temporary! The wind was bitter, it felt icy just like midwinter. We ate lunch on the move. The first signs of human habitation appeared on the right bank when we saw

Red kite - Wikimedia photo by Tony Hisgett

the first cable ferry. No one around. It had “Lubusz” painted on the side, it linked the villages to the south of the river with a small town called Witnica, several kilometres away to the north. We motored slowly on upstream until the road on the right bank swung away from the river and we found a couple of tree stumps to tie the bows to. Bill brought Rosy alongside on our left, nearest the bank (for the dog), and we dropped a rope on his bows that we’d already slung around a tree stump. Secured! We dropped back a bit when we realised our bows we over some flat stones. Mike ran a stern line to another tree stump after slinging one of

Starry night sky - Wikimedia photo by Michael J Bennett

our gangplanks off Rosy’s bows. Bill said one of the things he’d forgotten to get when we were at EHS was a new gangplank. A red kite came circling to inspect us, nothing edible, so he went on his way. We could hear birds in the distance, which sounded like bar-tailed godwits (once heard at close range, never forgotten, there had been lots of them last time we were in the Netherlands). I put the PC on and Mike went for a nap. My eyes were stinging from having the wind in my face for most of the seven hours we’d been travelling. We’d already relit the coal fire earlier in the evening, but around ten o’clock the temperature was dropping like a brick, so Mike lit the central heating. The sky was black and full of brilliant stars. Silence! Wonderful.