Thursday 26th May 2005 Below lift 3 Oleśnica to Elblag.

11º C Sunny and warm. Up at 7.00 a.m. Did a few chores while Bill glued the rubber gasket on the lid for his weed hatch (the only person we know who does that!). Set off at 9.00 a.m. following Rosy to lift 4, Jelenie, arriving at 9.30 a.m. Rosy went into the trolley to go down

first. When the other side came up we got on that. Meanwhile Mike had a good look at the bearings on the wheel carrying the cable. He said the bearing was on the wrong way round for the direction of thrust. Mention of clocks and monkeys came round again (After the end of WWII an eminent British politician was quoted as saying “Handing over former German industry to the Polish – when the Germans left Prussia, retreating to west of the Oder and it became Polish - is like giving a wristwatch to a chimpanzee” – very insulting but Mike is beginning to believe there is some truth in what he said). We had to wait on the trolley as there was something coming

uphill. Two small Polish yachts were in the upcoming trolley as we went down. More video. It was ten past ten when we reached the bottom. Mike changed the film in the 35mm camera and had problems with it – the shutter had jammed. He went inside to try to fix it and I steered down the canal to lift 5, Całuny Nowe, the last lift. We passed the newest trip boat of the fleet, called Ostroda, the guide book boasts it even has air conditioning! I pressed the buzzer to call Mike and the engine alarm went off. Mike went to check it out, either the alternator was packing up or the oil pressure was falling – but he could find nothing wrong.

Photo from Wikimedia by Lestath

Could be a momentary intermittent fault. Bill called on VHF to say he was setting off down lift 5 and there was a tripper coming up and another one waiting at the bottom. We went down the last slope with Kormoran coming up. Mike filmed the steep slope from the stern of the boat as we came down. We left the bottom at 10.50 a.m. passing a swim-suited Polish couple on a tiny sailboat heading for the lifts. The engine alarm kept sounding off and Mike had come to the conclusion that mending the camera was not going to be easy, there were hidden fasteners to find. The alarm stopped going off on its own! There were lots of weeds and twigs and muck in the Elblaski canal between the lifts and below them too.  The goat willow along the banks leading to the big nature reserve around lake Druzno was shedding fluff again – it looked like snow blown by the wind. Bill called on VHF to say that some fishermen had a net out across the canal at the end of a long straight and he’d had to get them to move it to let Rosy through. He told them we were coming. There was no net out when we got there. It was ten minutes before midday when we reached the beginning of the lake. It was getting weedier, full of birds – swans, black-headed gulls, pochard and ferruginus ducks, plus coots and mallard, grebe and heron. We passed an anchored small open boat with three men with cameras on board. They waved and said hello. At midday we noticed Rosy drifting into the lilypads and thought Bill’s gone to get his lunch, when he came on the radio to say he’d got something ‘orrible on his prop. Weed hatch up and he proceeded to extract metres and metres of blue fishing net from around the blades. We hovered in the channel in case he needed assistance. We ate lunch following Rosy out of Druzno on to the canal. Common terns were diving for fish and black terns were

Elblag - Wikimedia photo by Janusz J

skimming over the weeds catching insects. Where the lake narrowed there were big groups of over forty swans on either side of us, all close together and heads down dredging something they were all particular to from the bottom of the lake. We passed another small sailboat heading across the lake towards the lifts. At the end of the lake there were lots of great crested grebe. A mink swam past then dived out of sight, right opposite some fishermen, as we entered the canal. A tiny day boat went past with two kids on the bows, several adults stood at the back and more inside the little cabin It was so far down at the bows we were surprised that the outboard leg reached the water! They were all having a great time. Two two-man canoes went past – another family having a nice day out. As we approached the outlying houses and factories of Elblag there were more and more people on the banks (which lead us to suspect that they were on holiday today) they were fishing or sunbathing, and most of them were smoking. It was ten past two when we tied up on the town quay. Loads of people were promenading up and down or sitting on the wall at the back of the quay. Mike and Bill went off on foot to do a bit of reconnoitring. The Post Office was closed (it was a bank holiday) so they went to find people to talk to about the

Elblag - Wikimedia photo by Janusz J

availability of diesel. I wrote out the postcards we’d bought from the stall by the top lift. We moved the boats over to the other side of the canal by a canoe hire place, with Rosy on the inside (sitting on the bottom) and us on the outside. The proprietor had told them where they could get diesel and had offered to take them to the garage in his van. They made two trips with as many cans as they could muster. We had 268 litres at 3.54 Zł to top up our tank and Bill had about the same. They both gave the guy 25 Zł, he said no, he didn’t want paying, but they wouldn’t take no for an answer and so Mike stuffed the 50 Zł in his ash tray! They were back at 6.40 p.m. and started siphoning the diesel into our tank (Bill had the first load). Later Mike and Bill went for a couple of well-earned jars on the ship moored next to the town quay.

Sorry for the lack of photos, first two were taken with our ancient 35mm camera (and I've posted them before!) before it broke, things will improve soon when we enter the digital age!!

Wednesday 25th May 2005 North of Miłomłyn to below lift 3 Oleśnica.

CLICK HERE for a map of today's route through the lakes and down the lifts

A cooler 4.6º C overnight. Sunny warm day. Set off at 8 a.m. with the pins and did some washing before we arrived at the lifts. I sat outside with my coffee at 9.35 a.m. half way up

Ruda Woda lake. I believe we saw the same male marsh harrier again just south of Małdyty, that was here last time we came through, hunting low over the reedbeds at the top end of Sambrod lake. Swallows were nesting under the road bridge at Małdyty. Lunch on the move. As we went into the narrow channel we passed a tripper going in the opposite direction. Through the cutting at the top of the lifts and we arrived at the top at 1.00 p.m. The next tripper, Kormoran, was loading up at the staging. We tied to the low rails along the concrete edging before the trip boat landing, noting all the green paint and the battered wooden fendering just above waterline, the notice which said no winding, and the green paint along the waterline on the tripper’s bows. Hmm. Bill and I went to look at the maps and postcards on offer at the stall by the top lift. I bought a few more cards and Bill paid for two guide books in English (he’d missed the ones in English when he bought the previous ones). I had a good look through

the maps they’d got on display and found one of the Elblag canal with the all the lakes down to Ostroda and Iława, plus a map of the Nogat and the Szkarpawa as far as Gdansk and Malbork. The maps were only 15 Złotys each (about £2.40). I also had a look at all the souvenir gifts made from amber and bought a tiny little brown frog (16 Zł) as a present for a friend. The museum which was supposed to be open from ten until four was closed. Tripboats came up and went down. We waited for a gap. At 1.45 p.m. all went quiet so we got on the first trolley and paid 28,40 Złotys to the man in the overalls who came from the (inaccessible on foot) far side of the canal. I did some videoing as we went down the slope on lift 1, Buczyniec. A short uphill run, then down the long steep slope. It was more hair-raising going downhill than uphill, but this time nothing fell off shelves. Arrived at the bottom of the first lift at ten past two. Bill came on the radio to say, “Another perishing trip boat has slipped in between us!” (Only he wasn’t quite so polite)  He was not amused. Down the short canal section to lift 2, Kąty, and went straight into an empty trolley, set out the ropes and banged on the gong to let the spotter know we were ready – being at the top of the long slope he was less than a hundred metres away. Mike measured the angle of slope, surprisingly it was only 5º. We were soon at

the bottom. It was 2.45 p.m. Bill came on the radio to say he’d had a good start, his ropes had jammed and he’d had to cut them and he’d broken a boat shaft. The trip boat following us was at the top of lift two as we left the bottom, so we hovered and waited for him to pass us. Alongside the canal was a farmhouse. A little girl shrieked when she saw the boat and ran for the fence to come and wave and shout hello. Her mother got up from sunbathing and waved too. On their barn there were two wheels on poles and two pairs of nesting white storks. I filmed them for posterity! Made a cuppa while we waited for trip boat Pinguin to go past. A smaller trip boat was coming uphill, we passed it on a bend. He hooted and I think was surprised to get a loud hoot back! The passengers were all very cheery and waving. We dropped on to the trolley at lift 3, Oleśnica, that the tripper had just left and ran up the slow short slope, then down the bumpy longer downhill slope to the bottom. As Bill was coming down 3 he called to ask if we were going to stay on the pound below it again. Mike was quite happy to keep going, but when he looked at the time it was ten to four already. We made for the bank and were quite surprised to get almost right next to the towpath, which had two tracks of concrete for vehicles to drive on. It was 4 p.m. when we tied up and half an hour later Rosy came and tied alongside. Easy access for Bill's dog Fanny – for once there was no plank! Bill told us that his ropes had got jammed under the round plates he has on the top of the dollies on his counter. They weren’t tied, he said it was his own fault for not keeping a closer eye on which way the turn was around the bollard. The pole that broke was his nicely painted short boat shaft, he pushed on it and it snapped! It must have been rotten. I read the first part of the English version guide to the Elblag canals and lifts and asked myself is this really in English! There were lots of errors in it too, locks missing from the text and dates obviously wrong. Ah well, they sell them mainly to tourists, not canal anoraks like us!

Tuesday 24th May 2005 End of Szelag lake to north of Miłomłyn.

Today's voyage consisted of retracing our steps through the lakes and mooring a few kms to the north of Milomlyn. CLICK HERE TO SEE THE MAP

12.8º C Rain in the night with thunderstorms. 15º C chilly and overcast when we set off back down the lake at 8.15 a.m. The lake had been covered in a layer of white when Mike went out

first, but then the wind picked up and the waves washed the surface layer down to the end of the lake where it turned yellow – it was tree pollen. We looked at the channel into the rest of the lake as we passed it and decided that a cold, blustery morning was not the time to try it. The northwest wind was in our faces all the way back down the lake. We were sheltered from it once we’d turned into the channel leading back to the locks. The water was clear and the edges were shallow. Water weeds were starting to grow, lilies and water crowfoot. A couple of hoots and the lady keeper filled Mała Ruś lock for us. Bill had already paid for the return

passage. Mike got off and helped by closing the gate on the offside for her, as it was a long walk round via the bridge over the bottom end. Motored slowly across the lake so Bill could catch up. We moored above Ostroda lock and asked the keeper if we could stay for an hour or so to get some shopping done. No problems. Bill brought Rosy alongside and we went off to get re-supplied. Bill took his bike. Mike didn’t want to go but I threatened him, I wasn’t going to

carry it all on my own. There were three skleps (shops) across the bridge, a grocers, greengrocers and a butchers. We got all we needed from them, posted a card a birthday card to the UK, and went back to the boats. I unloaded the groceries and Mike went to pay for the lock. The pink cat was still following the lady in the green dungarees around the lock. Bill went down first with Rosy and we followed. It was 12.05 p.m. as we went across Drweckie lake with Ostroda town off to our left. We ate lunch crossing the lake and going into the Elblaski canal. This time we noticed that there was evidence here too of beaver damage to the trees. Bill was going slowly so we could overtake him and be first in the next lock. Just before the lock we saw a green woodpecker going round and round the trunk of a dead tree. We hooted and the keeper at Zielona stopped strimming the lockside grass and came to open the lock for us. There were bars recessed into the walls of the lock and I put my side rope around the bit pointing uphill. The keeper showed me it was better to hook a loop up through from the back of the cross then it couldn’t slip off as the water came up (that’s OK as long as you make sure the rope doesn’t “lock” by crossing the one under tension over the free end). We rose 1.7m with Rosy’s bows attached alongside our stern to make sure there was enough room at the tail end to clear the duckboard on the inside face of the wooden clapper gate. The gate paddle in the top end gate opened under water. I made remark to the keeper that there were no centre boards on his lock – in our little locks in Britain we would have sat with the bow fender on the gate and wouldn’t have used ropes. I stepped off to pay for the lock and showed him some photos to illustrate what I meant as he didn’t speak English. His wife came out to have a look too. She knew a few words of English. Their “Baby” speaks English! I helped wind the

gate open – there were two handles on the capstan for that very purpose. Bill had spotted a nest on the way down the canal. What he described could only be the nest of a penduline tit. We carried on along the canal looking carefully for it. Spotted a greenfinch. We found the nest just before the next lock, a delicate structure hanging from the branches of a tree, the twigs of which were woven into the construction. A neat little hole for access and the interior beautifully lined with feathers. We took photos and so did Bill. He said he’d seen weaver bird nests when he was out in Oman, but those were much larger things altogether. A marsh harrier hovered over the reedbeds a bit further on. A yacht was coming down in Miłomłyn lock as we arrived. The young man was working the lock on his own today. Same procedure, we went right to the front of the chamber to leave Bill enough room at the tail end. The lad threaded my rope through the cross in the wall, (two black frogs jumped out of the hole as he put my rope in), no chance of that coming off. In this lock there was a cill and the gate paddle opening was above it. The young man wound the paddle open carefully, a little at a time. (There was no sign of the older bloke today – Mike was very glad to note). Bill paid for the uphill lock. I took some photos of the lock and the memorial to Pope John-Paul (Bill, with his usual dry humour, asked if he used to be the lock keeper here!)  Before we could leave the lock Mike had to clean out the water filter – it was full of weeds – and he released an imprisoned backswimmer. The lad had opened the gate, got bored while we were emptying the filter contents and wandered off back to the lock house on the other side of a large vegetable garden. Round a big sweeping bend, past a wood working factory with masses of ventilators covering its roof. A large chimney near it was sending up black smoke. Before we reached the next lake we tied up under some trees. Bill took Rosy in first and slung a rope around a tree. We came alongside and Mike got a plank off to the bank across Rosy’s bows and went off to secure the stern ends. We’d seen a lady tending a garden, planting some flowers, just a bit further upstream and we thought we might be moored next to her garden, but we couldn’t see a house and no one came to say go away. A small open fishing boat went past later. 

Monday 23rd May 2005 Nr Miłomłyn to end of Szelag lake.

Another complex route CLICK HERE for the map

A mild night 11.7º C overnight. Hazy thin clouds, sunny. Set off at 8 a.m. arrived at the junction with the Ostroda canal a few minutes later and waited for the lock keeper to turn up. A middle aged guy came out of the house by the lock and started talking to us in Polish. No English or German again. He unlocked the shed by the lock and brought out windlasses, brushed the spider webs from around the roof of the shed. He made sure we were tied to the post by the lock mouth

using the entire length of my side rope. Then he filled the lock using the single gate paddle and when it was full he wound the gate open using a capstan which hauled the gate using a chain on a long wooden bar. There was a problem, something he kept talking about, but what we couldn’t make out. Eventually it dawned - we were too early - the lock didn’t open until 9.00 a.m. (but was open until 7 p.m.) A younger bloke appeared, who also spoke no English, with a

toddler in tow who clung to his leg and bawled “Papa” if he moved too far away from him. He did the paperwork and asked Mike for 22,72 Złotys. Waah! He wanted double the normal price for working the lock out of hours. Mike went to back the boat out. We’ll wait until 9.00 a.m.  No, no, they said, no need to do that and worked the lock! Mike paid 12 Złotys, they’ve never got any change! The chamber was long and narrow, 3.5m wide and 35m long, so we just about fit in it end

to end with Rosy’s bows close up the side of our stern. On the lockside was a memorial to Pope John-Paul II. The water in the chamber was full of all sorts of muck, weeds and twigs and grass. We dropped down 3m and left the lock. Mike noticed steam and no water coming out of our exhuast, so we had to stop while he unblocked the intake pipe. At 9.30 a.m. we passed the trip boat Kormoran heading uphill. The canal wound through a wooded cutting where we saw more red

deer in the woods. There were some really nice houses along the canal with some very well-manicured gardens. It wasn’t far to the next lock, Zielona, which was ready with the gates open, so we went in. The keeper came out of his very neat and tidy lock house and muttered something and went to turn his red/green lollipop sign (which had been red facing us as we came into the chamber) indicating that we’d gone in against a red sign. Wonderful! No one else uses the

damned things here, only him! He was OK really, just making a point. His missus came out to see the funny boats, she was really chatty, pity she didn’t speak English. She said her “Baby” spoke English, learned it at school. We wondered how old “Baby” was! The keeper went off to sort out someone who’d arrived in a car and kept pip-pipping on the horn, so his wife opened the gate for us. We’d dropped down another 1.3m. Out into a lovely winding canal

through meadows and woodland to the next lake, Drweckie. It was 11.15 a.m. and the only other vessels on the lake were a two man kayak, a small powered fishing boat and a single seater canoe. Poking up over the tops of the trees we could see the church spires and chimneys of Ostroda. We went under a low bridge, 3.2m high – mast down, and ran into Ostroda. There was a wonderful long concrete quay without bollards. A section of quay with bollards and no

mooring signs at either end of them (for the trip boats) plus a pier for pedestrians which was not designed to have boats tie to it as it had the ends of timber beams sticking out every couple of metres. A small yacht had tied to the end of a high wooden landing, which was also for the use of the passenger boats. We took photos to show we’d been there and headed off into the canal. Under another low bridge and past a basin and dry dock, where there were several passenger boats moored. A short channel lead to Ostroda lock, where a pleasant lady keeper was letting a waterways power boat (the winged variety) out of her lock. We went in. The

next two locks were uphill and too short to accommodate us both at the same time. The gates were wooden mitre gates at either end, opened by lifting up a yellow painted wooden bar which was attached to the gate and heaving on it. Gate paddles on each gate for filling and emptying the little lock, a mere 26m long by 3.3m wide. The lady keeper wore green short dungarees and was followed everywhere by a pink and black cat!  Dropped ropes on stumps of cut trees

above the lock and Mike went back to lend a hand and help lock Rosy through. I took a few photos. Bill paid for the uphill lock. At 12.50 p.m. we were on our way again. The navigation widened out, we went under a modern concrete bridge and there was a lake off to our left, although the depth was less than two metres and the channel marked with red and green cans. It was getting hotter. The lake was empty except for a few mallard and grebe. While I was preparing lunch Mike saw a snake go swimming past. Another lady keeper worked the next

lock, Mała Ruś, which was the same as Ostroda lock, but a little shorter. We went up another 1.7m, but this time there was nowhere to tie up and assist the keeper to work the lock for Rosy, as the right bank was too shallow and the left had overhanging trees and the lockside was fenced off anyway. Bill paid for up and down. We waited for Rosy in the canal above the lock. It was 1.45 p.m when we left the lock. 2 p.m. when we set off again. The canal was clean enough to see the bottom. We passed three fishermen fishing by a winding hole. Beyond the fishermen all the

way to the lake there thousands of 2” long fish. We turned right on to Szelag Wielkie at 2.30 p.m. heading southeast along a wide deep lake with forested steep banks. The was just one man fishing from the far bank and a couple of kids on the right hand bank. Apart from them the lake was EMPTY. A couple of small farmhouses were located on the right bank. We tried fruitlessly for over half an hour to find somewhere on the left side to tie up under the trees in breaks in the reedbeds. The banks shelved out to two metres, before plunging to a depth of 65 metres, (according to a booklet we bought later), too shallow too far out for a plank. Bill tried the left hand bank (and had the same problems), while we stooged up the right bank until shallows

stretching halfway across the lake forced us to go back to the left side too. We trundled on right to the end of the lake (or so we thought) until our bows were against the bank and the rest of the boat was in seven metres of water. In front of us was a main road, the 7, and a layby with a café bar and a small culvert under the road leading to the last bit of the lake. The end of the line! From here it’s turn round and go back the way you came. Bill arrived and we went a little ways back down the lake to a campsite where there was an L-shaped wooden decking on top of oil barrels. As we tied to it a man came out saying no, no, you can’t tie up here. It’s private. All this in Polish, but then he managed a few words of English to explain that it wasn’t a campsite - that was next door - and we couldn’t tie on the pontoon as it belonged to all the residents of a chalet site. Try next door. We did. They came out saying no, we couldn’t tie on their landing either, as the boats were too big and heavy and if the wind blows it will take us and the landing away. We couldn’t explain to the guy, (as he spoke no English), that we were going to lie along each side of his jetty and tie the boats together and put anchors out the back, which meant we wouldn’t be putting any strain on his jetty at all. Bill tried to get close to the bank by the trees, but couldn’t get within 5 metres. We gave up and went back to the end of the lake and tied either side of a short public landing with the bows tied together across the wooden decking, our side rope round one of the wooden legs of the jetty, and anchors out from the stern. While we were tying up a guy arrived in a car and came to apologise. He was the brother of the campsite owner who was concerned because he couldn’t communicate with us about his worries about his jetty (which I thought probably only ever gets used by his patrons for jumping off to go swimming or lying on to sunbathe). Whilst knotting ropes I told him we’d planned to anchor and not damage his jetty – just to use it as an access to the bank – but we were OK where we were. He said there was a track from by the café down to the site and we could use any of their facilities if we wanted to. I thanked him for his kind offer. He also said that there was a little channel by the side of the bungalow park leading to the rest of the lake beyond the road. I had thought it looked overgrown and shallow, he it was OK lots of boats go up there. We’ll have another look next day. It was 5 p.m. Mike went to have a look at the  channel from the road. He said he was going for a cold beer in the café, so after I’d packed up and tidied up I went to join him. I met him coming back down the road from looking at the way into the next lake. The traffic on the 7 was complete madness. As I walked up the slope to meet Mike there was a large 4x4 overtaking a line of cars, going up the hill over cross-hatching and then stayed on the wrong side of white lines. As I walked back with Mike there was a lorry coming downhill overtaking some slow Fiats (very popular little car here) doing the same. Crazy! He noise was deafening. We went in the bar and had draught beer at 3,50 Zł (56p) for a half litre. It was ice cold, tasty and – I found out after I’d drunk it – very strong stuff. Mike had a couple, I’d had enough after one. I went back to cook dinner. He came back and ate his dinner and went back with Bill for another couple of cold ones. I put the PC on to try and get up to date with the log – fighting a losing battle! The bar closed at 8.30 p.m. The proprietor said he’d only be closed for an hour and gave Mike a free beer, but when Mike went back later the bar was still closed. Mike found the last bottle of Erben Spätlese (our favourite German white wine) in our store cupboard and we sat on the stern to drink it, listening to music on Radiozet and watching lightening in the distance.  

Sunday 22nd May 2005 Opp Jerzwald to nr Miłomłyn.

CLICK HERE for a map of today's voyage through the Masurian lakes

A very much milder 9.4º C. Sunny with a cold breeze. We set off at 8.15 a.m. Lake Płaskie was empty, no one around. We wondered if the sign by the entrance meant it was off limits to powered boats, we’d assumed that it meant the place next to the sign - not the lake. I translated the words on the sign “strefa ciszy” to mean quiet zone. Back down Płaskie to rejoin Jeziorak, threaded our way back through the islands, turned left heading north again on Jeziorak (this end of the lake is shaped roughly like a trident, with Płaskie being the leftmost prong and Jezirorak being the other two. As we passed the village of Matyty we noticed there were lots of little houses and a campsite on the left bank with a few moored

yachts and a very interesting flag. At the top of the flagpole there was an Aussie flag and below it a union flag above pale blue and white stripes with a rising sun at the bottom edge. Bill had a flagmaker’s catalogue, but there was nothing like that in it. Among the little bungalows were a few old caravans which had been converted and given a new lease of life. They looked like short railway carriages with rounded roofs and big wheels, possibly used between the wars for housing road workers and were originally towed by horses or traction engines. We did a turn around the bay at the end of the lake, looking for a channel leading to the next lake. We saw a white diamond navigation marker and headed for the little channel. We didn’t get within ten metres of it as we ran out of water and into some really foul smelling mud. As Mike reversed out of it, after warning Bill that it was too shallow, I remarked that nobody should light any matches! Pooh! Heading south again to find the entrance to the third “prong” of the “trident”. Past the village of Polajny on the left bank and through a narrower section, then into a big wide bay on our left. We saw the first yacht of the day at 10.20 a.m. The breeze was getting stronger and it was making foot high waves on the surface of the lake. Two more yachts appeared in the far distance as we looked for the gap called Bramka (gate) Pomielińska. There were several yachts moored, tucked into gaps in the reedbeds under the trees at the edge of the lake. One set off under motor as we passed. The entrance was masked by big reed beds and trees. It was calmer heading up the lake, there were no waves and no one else in sight except a white-tailed eagle intent on catching fish. At 11 a.m. Bill gave up going to the ends of lakes and decided to wait for us (as is his wont) to go to the end and come back. We passed a small village called Rudnia on the left, almost at the end of the lake. I made salad for lunch, which we ate sat on the stern, dodging charter yachts from Siemiany, a small village on the right bank as we were heading south. Turned the corner at 1 p.m. (out of the wind again for a while) as we went past the large peninsula near Wieprz. At 1.15 p.m. we started heading north east again along Zatoga Kraga. Two sail boats were in the far distance and a white-tailed eagle was being given a hard time by a persistent crow. Into the narrows again and the smiling old lady was fishing there again. She asked where we were from and beamed a huge smile (again) when we said England. In the last section of lake Dauby, by a village called Duba, we noticed a strange building like an ultra-modern barn through the trees that had a series of metal masts with huge hats on top of them - a lady’s wide brimmed hat and a Davy Crockett hat. We wondered what they were for. On the opposite bank of the lake the Iławski canal started. We entered under an old bridge, which had five brand new signs on each side, two width markers, a yellow diamond, a sign which gave the width and one which gave the height - none of which were really necessary on a canal bridge. In front of a farmhouse someone had built the most sumptuous rustic garden swing ever made, we had to take a photo. Close by it there was the bloated body of a dead wild pig floating in the canal. As we went through the middle of lake Karnickie on a low embankment there were hundreds of red dragonflies darting about flying high up into the tree tops. Through the narrows (4.4m the new sign said) with a single wooden stopgate again, but no topless fishermen today. The canal was 1.7m deep and we were doing a reasonable speed, 5.7 kph or 3.6 mph. A coach was parked by the next bridge and a party of twenty or more fishermen were sitting around eating lunch. No sneaking past them, they’d already seen us and started waving and making comments. Bill tooted, they all waved. We stopped short of the town of Miłomłyn, opposite a road, and tied to trees. We got close enough to the bank, although we were sat on the bottom, but Bill, moored right behind us, couldn’t get within a metre and a half of the bank, so we loaned him one of our long planks so he and Fanny could get off easily. It was 4.15 p.m.  We said it wouldn’t matter being on the bottom as there wouldn’t be any passing traffic, famous last words -  within ten minutes a yacht went past, but the boat didn’t even rock! When I went out to turn the inverter off in the engine room at 12.40 a.m. it was quite noisy outside - the sound of warblers and crickets filling the still night air.  

(Apologies for the lack of photos, we only took one photo and I drew a blank on Wiki media)

Saturday 21st May 2005 Iława to opp Jerzwald

CLICK HERE for a map of today's voyage through the lakes to Jerzwald

5º C sunny, but cool. We all got up early and went to the shops. The kids Bill had been talking to the night before said they would show us where Kaufland was, about 3 kms away, at around 9.00 a.m. Mike and I went to the skleps opposite and got bread, but couldn’t find any veg, so we took a walk into the town and spotted a sign for Plus (a chain of small German supermarkets a bit bigger than Aldi normally) we found a greengrocers before we found the supermarket so we crossed the road and bought the best veg we’d seen in Poland. New potatoes, lovely white mushrooms, spring onions, lettuce, etc, and then we walked back along the shore of the little lake beyond the road bridge. The kids had turned up and were chatting to Bill when we got back at 9.20 a.m. We said thanks, but we didn’t need much stuff and 3 kms was a bit too far to walk for us geriatrics. Mike asked them about getting central heating oil and they wrote down what to ask for. I’d spied a bin by a café close to the road, so I took all our rubbish before we left to go under the road bridge and take a turn around the little lake. There was a fountain in the corner, so we took photos and then went back through the low road bridge and went across to the yacht harbours to find some drinking water. We found a landing in the corner of the lake and the Germans that we met the day before came to help us to tie up to the landing, we were at their boat charter base. Several people came to look at the boat and chat. One Polish lady was enthralled and asked Mike how many rooms had we got, so he asked her on board and I gave her the guided tour. Her son, aged about ten, and his friend came on the boat too. He was wide-eyed and forgot all the English he’d started learning at school. The water was free, it came through half a mile of hose from a building way across the moorings. We said thank you and went to join up with Rosy who’d been stooging around in the middle of the lake and being harried by a strange looking contraption that looked like a car ferry. Mike put the big blue sun shade up

as it was getting warmer, but had to take it down again when the wind got blustery and threated to turn it inside out. There were lots of speedboats about and the sail boats were also out in force. I made lunch and we ate late at 1.30 p.m. There were lots of yachts milling about between the chain of islands where the main body of lake Jeziorak lay off to the north west. We threaded our way through the islands and past a large tree covered peninsula into a series of islands of reed beds full of competing warblers. The course through the lake lay to the north for a while, then to the northwest into a dead end arm. A wide shallow lake called Płaskie. Deserted except for one sailboat which left as we went in - we went to the right of an island in the entrance and he went out to the other side of it. A female marsh harrier was hunting, swooping low over the surface of the lake. We passed a string of islands off to our left as we went as far as we could into the small bay in the northwest corner. We’d spotted a landing stage, opposite the village of Jerzwald, next to what looked like a camping site, so Bill went off in that direction and tied to it. We turned round and went back down the lake to moor alongside Rosy. Mike got off with the camera to take a photo of the mooring - a T shaped wooden construction. The best angle was from a small stand of trees, but he didn’t linger long as the mosquitoes descended on him and started biting. We expected someone from the camping place to come and ask us for money, but no one came near. No heating on for the first time in ages.  

Friday 20th May 2005 End of Ruda Woda to Iława

CLICK HERE for a map of today's route through the lakes

3.5º C overnight. Sunny with a chilly wind. Set off at 8.15 a.m. on to Ruda Woda lake. The  lake was surrounded on all sides by forest and it was a deep (the echo sounder went off –

either a bad bottom or very deep) winding, reed-fringed, long narrow lake. Mike did a short speed test. Up to 2,000 revvs and the best speed we could manage was 10 kph. It seemed very quiet, no birds about - not a swan or a duck in sight. Two men in a long narrow fishing boat, powered by an outboard motor, went past towing another similar boat, hugging the left hand bank. Out of the lake into a narrow winding shallow channel, 1.5m deep, dodging overhanging trees into the next wide lake. At 10.20 a.m. in Iłinsk lake (another deep one) we passed Marabut a trip boat heading towards Elblag. We turned left into another channel and met another trip boat as we turned in. Under a new bridge for the route 7 bypass and a railway bridge on the

outskirts of Miłomłyn, round some more winding bends and went under the old route 7 road bridge which was only 3.6m wide and 3.5m high and fitted with a single wooden clapper stop gate. Just beyond it was a small aqueduct over a stream. We came to a junction where the canal to the left went to Ostroda, but we carried straight on for Iława on the Iławski kanal, another narrow winding channel through woods past little farmhouses and under arched farm road bridges. Four shirtless youths were fishing where the canal had been narrowed to accommodate another stop gate. Suddenly we were in the middle of a cloud of red dragonflies, hundreds of them darting around us and way up into the trees. I hoped they were eating all the mossies that had started eating us. I made lunch, baked the last of our German part-baked long life buns and made some biscuits to bake after the bread had

White tailed eagle - Wikimedia photo by Jacob Spinks

cooked while the oven was still hot. At 1 p.m. we came to the end of the Iławski kanal and went into the first part of the long lake called Jezorio (lake) Jeziorak. By the road bridge a smiling old lady was sitting fishing, she asked where we were from (in Polish), she looked impressed when we said Engand. A white-tailed eagle swooped down to the surface of the lake, talons out, grabbed something and flew off to sit in a nearby tree. Magic! The lake was surrounded by trees and deserted as we ran south down the long narrow leg. To our right we passed a wider section with a campsite on the far distant bank, where a couple of sailboats were moored and another one was sailing. In the

far distance we could see a couple more sails going in the same direction as us, but several miles away. On past a small sailing club with a wooden building at the top of steep bank behind the moored yachts. The yachts that were sailing were not going far as there was very little wind. We turned a bend in the lake shore and saw a hotel with a bar and six moored yachts. As we rounded the next bend we were off our map - we needed the map that Hans sent to us by post that never arrived! On the left, along a low hill, there was a string of large detached houses set in well-tended grounds which stretched down to the edge of the lake. It looked like the banks of the Thames had been transported to Poland. Along the frontages were boat houses and moored fast speedboats. Hans sent a text - we’d just been talking about his missing maps. An invoice had arrived for the maps he’d got for Bill. They were already paid for so Bill said he would ring him back later. We passed another hotel with moorings in front of it. Mike put some paint on a small section of the starboard gunwale that he’d sanded earlier as the paint

had lifted and flaked. A small trip boat went past, its passengers waving enthusiastically, followed by a yacht without masts. A group of fourteen yachts were milling about, slowly. All but one did half tacks as we stooged slowly down the right hand side to keep out of their way, the exception went straight across our bows, tacked and sailed behind us. There’s always one! We were travelling at 7 kph, but Rosy was way off in front as Bill had got a move on. When we arrived at Iława Bill was having a mooch round looking for the good moorings that the German skipper of  Uhuru had mentioned. We passed a group of blue-sailed pram dinghies - kids having sailing lessons - and again there’s always one bright Herbert who sails right in

Panorama of lake Jewiorak at Ilawa - Wikimedia by MesserWoland

front of our bows. Then the cheeky little oik turned and grinned from ear to ear! Bill had found a concrete quay, just the right length, it was even equipped with mooring bollards. Excellent. Behind the mooring was a grassy bank sheltered by a few trees, where people were walking dogs and kids were playing. We moored alongside. It was 4.30 p.m. A yacht pulled alongside as we were tying up. Oh no, we thought, we’ve got somebody’s mooring. They were Germans, on holiday on a charter yacht, who had seen Bill on TV back home in Brandenburg. Fame at last, Bill! They stayed and chatted (all in German, but we could cope with that) for about ten minutes before motoring over to the far side of the lake. A group of teenagers came to sit on the grass under the trees and chat a couple of feet away from Rosy, so Bill went over to talk to them, a few spoke English, they were getting happy with a few bottles of alcoholic stuff. 

Thursday 19th May 2005 Below lift 3, Oleśnica to S of Małdyty

1.4º C Cold overnight, but sunny during the day. At 8.00 a.m. I walked up the slope with both stills cameras and the video camera. I walked up the bank and crossed the rail tracks to stand halfway up the slope on lift number 3, Oleśnica (otherwise known as Schönfeld) with a rise of 24.5m (the biggest lift of the five) over a slope of 350m. Mike gave Bill a hand. This time Bill wanted to try putting the ropes on by himself, with Mike doing nothing, to see if he could do it OK on his

own. They donged the gong. No signs of life. I took photos of the mill stream which ran over two small waterfalls. Mike shouted me to go up to the top and find out what was happening as there was no one at the “spotter’s shed” (the cabin on the crest of the slope where an assistant stands and gives directions to the winchman in the winding gear room next to the waterwheel - all good eco stuff this!) There was a small farmhouse and yard next to the winding gear and a group of

five men (and three small dogs) were stood around talking. Between me and them was a pen with two big noisy dogs. I shouted good morning to them and was ignored, so I shouted again and still got no answer, so I spoke to the dogs who quietened down a bit. I tried again, asking if there was anyone to work the lift, and one of the men said in English “ten o’clock” Oh! OK. We’ll hang about until then. Fine. I went back down the slope again, back to the boat. I told

Mike and Bill of our chauvinist farm worker/canal employees and went inside to make some tea. It was just 9 a.m. Around 9.30 a.m. a lady came half way down the slope to say they were ready, clang the bell when we were ready. Bill shouted us, so I grabbed the cameras and set off up the slope again, while Mike went to ride up the hill on Rosy with Bill. The video was playing up and wouldn’t zoom – Mike said tap it, I did and it worked. I took more photos as we 

worked the two boats up the slope. There were two lady spotters in the hut at the top. Neither one spoke any English, but we had a conversation anyway. The view from the top was splendid with Elblag way down in the misty distance. Fruit trees in bloom alongside the tracks made a good backdrop for the photos. I trekked back up the hill for the third time and said thanks to the ladies as I passed them. No signs of any of the men from this morning. I handed Bill

his camera back as we set off again along the next 2 kms long canal section. It was 10.30 a.m. The canal was narrower and wound between lovely little undulating low hills, into a cutting and diving under a road bridge covered with brand new navigation signs – width markers and a yellow diamond – how silly, where else could you go? We followed Rosy. Bill put the boat in the cradle, while we moored next to a steep sloping bank below lift number two, Kąty

(in German Kanthen) a rise of 18m over a 450m slope. The spotter this time was a pleasant older man who had two dogs with him. I took photos and video of the two boats. Mike wanted a zoom shot of the bows coming up and over the crest and I hadn’t got the long lens, so he climbed on to the walkway and dropped it down to me as the boats were going up the slope. (They'd never let you get so close to working gear like that in Britain! I had to step over knee

high moving cables!) I took shots from the bank and from the landing. The old chap said I could go in the winding gear room and take photos if I wanted. I shouted to Mike to bring the camera bag for the flash, etc, and join me as I dashed off down the steps (the bank alongside was one big carpet of cowslips) to look inside the room which housed the winding gear, big cable drums and the enormous waterwheel which powered it all. The

operator obviously took great pride in his job and was very pleased to show me the gear working. First he set the wheel revolving, then he swung two huge levers and control wheels to engage power from the wheel to move the cables which pull the trollies up and down the slope. Mike and Bill had only just tied up when I went back up the steps. It was midday when we started away from lift two. A trip boat was coming up the slope behind us. Ten minutes later it overtook Rosy and we carried on to the bottom of lift one and tied in the side opposite to the trolley, which was waiting to go up. The tripper went in and within seconds was banging the gong to haul away up the slope. Lift number 1, Buczyniec (Buchwalde), had a lift of 21.5m over a slope of 550m. This time Bill went up on his own and I rode on board Temujin for the first time since the bottom one, lift five. I took photos and video from the boat. Another tripper was coming down in the other cradle as we went up, and yet another was waiting for the cradle we were in when we got to the top. Suddenly there were people everywhere and cameras! We tied to the

tripper’s landing stage at 1.30 p.m. We’d risen from sea level by 99.45m on the five water powered lifts. An elderly Polish man came to talk to us in English. Mike went off with our camera to take photos of Rosy coming up the last lift. He returned just in time as yet another trip boat came through the bridge beyond the landing. We untied and moved on as the trip boat went to the landing to wait for Rosy to vacate the trolley. Bill wanted a booklet and some postcards, so we waited under the bridge (which had a single wooden clapper stopgate with paddle gear just like the gear on the German Finow canal, not surprising as the Prussians built it all). We asked Bill to get us a booklet and some postcards too. We moved off again just after 2.00 p.m. along a narrow, winding, reed-edged canal. The speed limit was 6 kph but we needed to do 7 kph for generating as I was doing some washing, luckily the water was deep so we made no wash. Changed the washing loads over at 3.30 p.m. as we sped off down Jezioro (lake) Sambrod, the first lake in the chain of western Mazurian lakes. There were lots of little wooden

bungalows atop a low bank along the left hand bank, each had its own wooden sentry box - an outside privvy. One ancient wooden two storey house deserved a photo, so I took one. Under a railway bridge into the next lake, it was wide and only 2m deep and there was cold north wind blowing. Threading through some islands by the village of Małdyty, a male marsh harrier hunted low down, close alongside the boat. A long train of bright blue and yellow coaches drew into the station in the town right by the lake. A lovely old house stood guard at the entrance to the next canal section, it windows were boarded up. An old lady wearing a flowery pinny and cotton trousers was standing fishing by the next bridge. We paused under the next bridge and Mike disconnected the drive as the washing had finished. It was 4.30 p.m. We went on as far as the end of the canal section to where it lead to a long wide lake called Ruda Woda – Red Water – and moored opposite a waterways house where there was another old speedboat with tailfins moored. It

was 4.45 p.m. as we tied to some tall old beech trees, a beautiful quiet mooring. 

Wednesday 18th May 2005 jnc Kanal Jagielloński to below lift 3, Oleśnica.

Click here for a Google map of today's route

2º C overnight. A beautiful sunny day – how did the TV weather forecast get it so wrong, were they a day out? We left at 8.00 a.m. The breeze was chilly and there was a slight flow on the canal, the same way as we were going - towards Elblag. More black terns were catching flies. The reedy banks were full of loud warblers. The dykes were some 20m back from the canal and covered with stunted goat willow. We could see tall blocks of flats and factory chimneys in the distance. We passed a fishing party, four young men with two cars, a rowing boat and a

speedboat, plus a tent. They looked too gob-smacked to acknowledge our greetings. In front of them, were two wooden posts in the canal bed with red rags fluttering from them. We slowed down and crawled past in case they marked nets we couldn’t see. In Elblag the banks were lined with factories – then we spotted a boat harbour and did a quick right turn to go and search for water. An old chap was working on a yacht. He spoke no

English but we managed to ask for water which he went off to organise while we tied up – well the front half anyway – to a long wooden landing stage, part of which was occupied by small yachts. A purple hosepipe supplied the necessary and we both filled up. A large older bloke arrived and came to chat. He also spoke no English, but he brought his digital camera with him and picked on me to photograph. A younger guy with a long haired German shepherd dog at his heels came to speak about mooring. We said we only wanted water as we were pushing on to

Ostroda. They didn’t want any money for the water, which was very nice of them. As we turned back on to the main canal we spotted another boat yard on the far side – no signs of boating life at all for ages and now we were spoiled for choice! On the left bank we passed a very large factory with Alstom in large letters on its roof. Two very large propellors stood on the grass between the factory and the canal bank as decoration. On the right bank there was a police station

with two police boats moored in an arm (which looked like former GDR boats). Four very large trip boats were moored by a footbridge across the canal.  Later we realised that these boats did not continue any further in the same direction we were going but probably went down the other canal (Szkarpawa) and out into the big lagoon. Beyond the bridge there was a nice quay for mooring by a tall church tower.  Just before a railway bridge there was a junction, we took the left turn and went under the bridge – looking closely at the map later

the right turn was called Fiszewka. A bit further on we were faced with another junction and turned left again – on our right was another un-navigable canal called Kanal Tjna. There were lots of fishermen on the banks as we left Elblag behind. The first lake we came to was just a wide area off to our right covered with weed and occupied by swans, geese and seagulls. The first big lake was called Druzno and was wide, edged with lily pads and reeds. As I started

making lunch Mike called me to look at a big bird of prey. It was all dark brown with just a

whitish top of its head and neck. The only thing like it in my field guide book was an Imperial eagle. It was flying low over the reeds, dived down to catch something, then it took off to land out of sight in a tree. The canal leaving the lake was bordered on the left bank by a low dyke backed with wide empty meadows and the right bank was lined with goat willow trees, which were teeming with fluffy seeds. I photographed the first trip boat coming towards us. A modest size, 25m long by about 3.3m wide, the passengers all waved as we passed by them quite closely as the navigation was narrow. At 1.30 p.m. we arrived at the first boat lift,

number five Całuny Nowe (in German Neu Kußfeld), a 13m lift spread over a slope of 450m. We went up first while Bill waited in the narrows by the winding gear. It was quite an experience. All that was visible of the right hand trolley was two sets of wooden walkways with handrails. There was a shed bythe space where the other, descending trolley came to rest on the left side of the cut, but there was no one around. There was another hut on the crest of the slope, so Mike went a walk to find someone. The guy he found said OK he would be ready in a couple of minutes. We took the boat into the trolley and strung two ropes out from either side of the bows and the same from the stern to keep the boat in the centre of the flat bed when the water disappeared. We’d seen pictures of the trolley out of the water with trip boats in it, so we knew it was flat. There was a gong (Really!) on the left hand walkway to beat when we were ready to go. As the cables pulled the trolley up the bank the boat settled on to the timbers which ran horizontally across the bed of the trolley, sloping metal girders supported the wooden walkways and their handrails on either side of the boat. It was faster that we’d

imagined and in no time we were at the top of the 450m slope and running down the much shorter slope into the pound between lifts five and four. I moored the boat by the winding gear house, while Mike went off back down the slope on foot to give Bill a hand to come up with Rosy. He’d left me with all the Polish change we’d got and instructions to pay for the two boats. I put fenders down and tied rather precariously to a short section of wooden fendering with the bows pointing to the middle of the cut. Lots of books had fallen off the top of the bookcase, so I stacked them a bit more neatly on the floor and removed those that were left, placing those that could fall off down on the floor. Absent-mindedly, I collected the change off the roof and dropped it into my jeans pocket, completely forgetting they were a very old pair with a hole in the right hand pocket (normally I never put things in my jeans pockets) – the change went plink, plink, plink on the gunwale and bounced into the canal. Wonderful. Too deep to reach the bottom and, I found when I checked the depth with a short shaft,

the bottom was covered with rocks anyway so I had no chance of recovering the 15 Złotys I’d just lost. As Rosy came up to the top of the slope I went to pay the man with 30 Złotys in notes, securely in my other pocket. The winchman was sitting on a bench on canal level, so I asked if I had to pay him, he said “tak” (yes) and indicated I should follow him and went off down a long flight of wooden stairs down the bank to the winch house. No

English again and I had a job to understand – all five lifts were to be paid for at the same price as the locks, 5,68 each, making a total of 28,40 Złotys (£4.50) for each boat. He had no change – his cashbox was empty. Bill arrived – he wanted his own ticket as a keepsake – and he’d only got a 50 Złoty note. The man gave Bill my twenty, so we ended up paying 30 Złotys each. (A cunning way of getting a tip and they all do it, or try to!) As we set off to the next lift, I had Bill’s

camera plus our 35mm and got off to walk the slope on the next one, lift number four Jelenie (Hirshfeld in German) a 22.5m lift on a slope of 510m, taking photos of the two boats. There was no path on the side we were on, so Mike and I trudged up the corn field, Mike went off through the undergrowth to get to Rosy and I walked on until I got to the rail tracks. Mike went up on Rosy to help Bill, then the two of them walked back down the slope and brought Temujin up. Back on board the boat, we went on along the canal to lift number three, Oleśnica. There were woods on our left and fields of yellow colza on our right. We moored in the gap at the side of the big cable drums, while Bill got Rosy settled on the trolley. Mike went to help as before. They donged the gong and waited. No one appeared, it was 5.30 p.m. work must have stopped for the day. Bill reversed Rosy to the winding gear and we dropped ropes on the bollards by the cable drums and a bit of metal sticking up out of the bank. Bill moored Rosy in the gap with his bows on the winding gear island and his stern in the narrows. It was 5.45 p.m. by the

time we’d tied up. I cooked a stir-fry for dinner. Mike lit the coal fire as it started getting chilly and when we went to bed at midnight it was still alight.