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| River Nogat - Wikimedia photo by Kepiny Wielkie |
A
cold night 5.5º C. Heavy rain in the night. Then grey clouds, rain showers with
a cold wind all day. Mike was up at 7 am to be ready for off at 8 am. I had a
hand-crafted birthday card from Bill (and Fanny)! The clouds were getting
darker as we went under the first road bridge. A pair of cranes took off from
the meadow on our left. Around 9.30 am we had a ten minute shower of rain, so
up went the brolly and the radio, maps etc, went into plastic bags. An hour
later we arrived at the first lock, Michałowo, the lock was full and there was
no sign of anyone, so we put the boat in the lock mouth and Mike went to find
the keeper. Bill went with him as it was his turn to pay for the lock. When they
got back, Mike said he’d been to the farmhouse which was surrounded by a wire
fence. He hadn’t noticed the lion (an immense old dog), which was sleeping
under an iron bench at the front of the house, until he had crossed the yard
and climbed the steps to the front door. The lion walked to the bottom of the
steps, as i t was a very old lion it woofed at them in a very deep voice, but
not with any great conviction. Mike knocked the door which caused an explosion
of dogs inside the house, they all collided with the front door at the same
time. Fortunately it opened inwards. The lady keeper calmed them down (there
were only three of them, it seemed like a dozen!) brought her windlass with her
and worked the lock for us. We rose 1.7m. Bill paid - she hadn’t got any change
and Bill only had a fifty note. We loaned him a ten. We said bye, bye to the
keeper and thanks. Above were two canoes waiting for the lock; the very elderly
couple paddling them were waiting to go down.
I made a cuppa and cooked some Scotch pancakes, setting the fire alarm
off (it’s very sensitive). A medium-sized yacht from Torún, south east of
Bydgoszcz on the Wisła, went past heading downriver. I went in the cabin to
make some lunch. Mike called me to come and look at something swimming across
the river. Through binoculars I could see it was an otter and two black terns
were giving it some grief, it kept diving under water to get away from them.
Had it been thieving eggs? There were lots of birds about. Herons and common
terns and black terns. Another couple in a two-man canoe stopped for lunch,
pulling into the bank and paddling with trousers rolled up above the knees to
get ashore. The flow rate went up to 1.5 kph before we got to the next lock. It
must have been a shallow section, after about a kilometre it slowed back down
to 1 kph again. We passed a fisherman with a most unusual boat. He’d nailed a
couple of bits of wood on top of two oil drums and was sitting on it
, fishing
without a care in the world as we went past. Bill thought it was just a seat in
the edge of the river, but the water was too deep to paddle out to it and he’d
got poles to move it around. Up Rakoweic lock. A young man came out to empty
the lock when we hooted and two older men came out to help and talk. One was in
uniform, wearing an olive green short sleeved shirt with badges on the sleeves.
This time Bill had change from his fifty. On the outskirts of Malbork we passed
an old arm with two pans and an old Bydoszcz tug in it, plus an old barge
converted into a bar and “hamburgery”, which was now disused. Beyond it was a
long piled quay with bollards where there was a big pile of sand and a crane,
plus an empty 80m pan. Behind the quay was an old abandoned factory, partly
demolished, surrounded by a fancy concrete fence which was also broken down. We
followed Bill upriver to Malbork and moored alongside Rosy on the quay. Bill
went off on his bike to do some shopping. I went to the tourist information
office to find the location of the nearest supermarket. On my return Mike came
out with the bags and told Bill where we were going. He’d fetched our mail from
the Post Office after having to argue with the woman behind the counter, who
insisted there was no poste restante mail waiting – Bill said there was – she
went to look and, well I never! - there was! He offered the loan of his bike to
carry our shopping back on instead of us having to carry it. Great idea. Our
post was a parcel from Mike’s Mum and Dad containing three birthday cards for
me and some VHS tapes of our favourite soap. We called in a shop selling
digital cameras and treated ourselves to a new Kodak digital camera (1399 Zł) plus
a bag for it (54 Zł) and a 256 mb flash card (129 Zł), all for the sum of 1573
Zł (£262) – I used my new Nationwide credit card for the first time to pay for
it. Then we topped up with groceries from the Bomi supermarket, spending
another 204 Zł on my Nationwide credit card. On the way back, I held on to the
bike with all our groceries while Mike took some cash from our current account via
a cash machine to compare the rates that Nationwide charge on credit card
sales. By the castle there were lots of tourists. Among them we heard the
unmistakable loud voices of Yankee tourists! The first Americans we’d seen
since leaving France. Unloaded the groceries and Bill went off on his bike to
do more shopping. Loaded the software for the camera into the PC and had a look
at the new camera. It had got a load of features, including being able to turn
off the automatic functions and take pictures manually. We had fresh baguettes
with cheese and onion and Pringles crisps (a treat). Later Mike and Bill wanted
to try some EB (Elblag special brew beer) so they went next door to the
floating bar - but they weren’t open - so they went to an open air bar by the
river and drank a few Tyskie beers under a tent instead. They got talking to
some locals who spoke English who told them that the Polish-German border used to
be here on the Nogat and there was once a customs post on the bridge.
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| Nogat at Malbork - Wikimedia photo by Der Hexer |
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