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.
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