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.
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