Heavy rain in the night. 8.2º C overnight. Grey, overcast, windy, a few
showers and sunny spells later. Mike went to have a word with the lock keeper
and found two dozen workmen in green overalls wandering around on the lockside.
None spoke any English. One group of them said we could go through the lock in
two hours’ time – and another group just kept saying yes,yes,yes! He came back
to the boat and got on with a few jobs. At ten o’clock there was no sign of
life on the lockside, so Mike went back up the flood protection bank to the
lock and there was no one to be seen, they must have been on a tea break. At
10.45 they started to wind the
lock gates open, so we unlashed from the bank
and fetched the plank in and took the two boats in still tied side by side. A
cable was across the lock, two men on each side lifted it up to let us pass
underneath. I put the centre rope round an inset bollard in the wall and Mike
did likewise with the stern. Bill hopped off with a big bag of rubbish for the
bins and had to climb over scaffolding to get along the lockside where the men
had been replacing the brickwork. The lock keeper (he had blue overalls on)
wound a paddle and we descended. I let the boat run forward so the
bows were
close enough to a ladder for Bill to climb back down on to the boat. We dropped
down 2.3 metres from the river Wisła (which was actually in flood) above, to a
full-to-the-brim river Nogat below. It was 10.55 a.m. The Nogat was much
narrower than the Wisła, with high flood protection dykes set close to the
edges at first, but widening out later. The river was fringed with reed beds
and beyond the reeds there were cultivated fields of colza already in bloom.
There was very little flow, although the keeper at Biała Góra was running lots
of water down off the Wisła. Three startled red deer galloped away across a
field as we
approached them. I made a cup of tea and some sandwiches as we
travelled the 14 kms to the next lock. We arrived at Szonowo at 12.45 p.m. No
signs of life. We tied up in the lock mouth to wait for the keeper to emerge.
Mike got off to find the keeper. A lady keeper made out a till ticket for us
and wanted money, but Mike couldn’t understand how much. It turned out we
hadn’t paid at the first lock – well no one asked us for any money! So we paid
25 Złotys for the two boats for two locks as we were short of change as usual
and so were the keeper and her husband (what’s new?). The price should be 6,40
Złotys per boat per lock. More expensive than the Bromberg canal and Notec, who
only charged us 5,68 Złotys per boat (Note the exchange rate was roughly 6
Złotys to the pound). Mike asked if there was drinking water available, no, not
there, two locks further on. We dropped down a further 1.7m and pressed on into
Malbork. The town was perched above the flood banks, most of the houses were
almost hidden from view. The red brick fortress built by the Teutonic Knights
in the Middle Ages was very imposing. Took a few photos of Rosy with the castle
as a background. We found a mooring quay marked with a “P” and tied up right by
the castle gates. It was 2.15 p.m. It was quiet when we arrived, but soon there
were coachloads of schoolkids arriving, crossing the footbridge to the castle
and generally making a lot of noise. Mike suggested that Bill would get around
the town better
on his bike than he would on foot, and he asked if Bill could
collect our post, which he did. The post had arrived from the UK, but there
were no maps from our friend Hans in Germany. Bill had found an internet café
so the two of them went back into town to have a session on the internet. I
sent Hans a text and he replied that he had sent the maps on the 23rd
April to Malbork as promised. The internet café was being run by a fifteeen
year old girl and the place was full of twelve year old lads playing games on
the PCs. They crowded round Mike and Bill like starving refugee kids, but it
was information they wanted, not food. There were no printers, so Mike couldn’t
get a copy of our April ‘phone bill. Bill had a message for us on his web site,
which he told us was getting over 100 visits a day, the message was from our
niece bringing us up to date with family news. We had no satellite TV so we
watched the weather forecast on Polish TV - sunshine and showers.
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