Saturday 9th July 2005 Bergfriede to Rühen.

No photos for the 9th due to bad weather
so this is from the next moving day
Warning signs about the sloping bank edges

13º C overnight and still raining when we left at 8 a.m. Mike wanted to move, he wasn’t happy with the parking. We overtook Rosy within a few minutes of setting off and we lead the way again. Loaded boats came past us about every twenty minutes, among them was an 80m boat from Dĕčín in the Czech republic. I made tea and sat out under the brolly with Mike. The weather was appalling. Some of the cruisers going past had mast headlights  and navvies on, which couldn’t be seen until their boat was very close to us. Mike wondered why they did that and came to the conclusion they were car drivers with boats, not boaters at all! Two cruisers were on the new 100m mooring at Rühen by the café, one left before we got there and the other left as we were tying up. It was 10.15 a.m. The new mooring had lots of little bollards half way up the cabin-roof height piling and lots of ladders for access and rings on the top of the metal edge. The bank above was covered with purple rocks, another mooring that’s not kind to Fanny’s poor little feet (the mooring the night before was on a landing covered with

Rosy on Monday at Wolfsburg

metal mesh, which hurts her feet so Bill has to carry her). Mike unloaded the moped and went off around eleven to get the car, 12 kms away by water - but a far longer distance by road (18 kms), calling at a post office to get stamps for us and some for Bill too. He left the engine running to get the batteries really well topped up as it’s F1 day tomorrow, so we won’t be moving. I put the PC on. The new inverter wouldn’t work the PC while the engine was running, so I had to run it on Handy Mains. When Mike came back he said the voltage was too high – all I needed to do was slow the engine down! After lunch the rain had eased off to intermittent light

Monday sunshine brings out the bikinis

showers so Mike put the moped back on the roof. Pleased to find we had all the UK satellite channels back now we’ve crossed the old border into West Germany.

Friday 8th July 2005 Haldensleben to Bergfriede.

Loading purple gravel from lorries at Bulstringen

12.2º C overnight. Overcast and grey but dry when we set off at 8.30 a.m. Rain started mid-morning, drizzle at first becoming heavier later. We were in the lead all day. I did the chores and sat out on the back half an hour later as we were going past the loading/unloading wharves at Bülstringen. There were lots of boats on the quays and lots moving. As we left the town we spotted a stork’s nest on top of an electricity pylon. By the town bridge there was a new 50m length of mooring on the left and the old mooring on the

Stork nest on top of power cables

right beyond the bridge was still there, as was the water tap in a locked box, but now there was a sign to say that a key could be purchased from the bakery. Glyn ‘phoned for an address to send us some post. We looked at the map and judged that the middle of the next week would be ideal if he posted it today and chose Haste near Wunstorf, far side of Hannover, to send it to. At 10.35 a.m. we passed the moorings at Calvorde where we would have moored yesterday had it not rained. A

Boats moored at Calvorde

permanently moored cruiser was still there and so were three more little day boats on the 50m mooring for sport boats, occupying about half the available space. Fortuna, an 80m loaded with coils of wire, went past Bill slowly, then speeded up to go past us! I took a photo of the deep depression in the water around his bows. Transbode-6 went past, loaded with coal, but there was a young man steering it (not sure if it was the same boat as at Bydgoszcz) not the old chap who sold us some diesel. Listened to the news on BFPS in English with reports of Londoners getting back to work

Bows of passing 80m boat Fortuna

despite more scares of terrorist bombs. They said that the Queen and Price Charles were to visit the injured in hospital later in the day. Ate our lunch under the brolly in pouring rain. Decided to give up for the day and tie up at Bergfriede. The next mooring on, by a café at Rühen just beyond the old east-west border, had been dug up last time we came through here and we weren’t sure it if had been re-instated. It was 1.15 a.m. as we backed into the landward side of the metal grid platform between the end two

Transbode-6 from Poland

dolphins in a long line of dolphins put there for barge moorings. I made a cuppa and Mike went to check out the parking for the car. Not much space available as there was a gang working on building a new bridge across the canal. He couldn’t decide whether or not to move it on to our next proposed mooring at the junction with the Elbe-Seiten-Kanal, above Sülfeld locks. Bill wanted to stop for a couple of hours in Wolfsberg next day, but might have to go back there in the car if the 12 hour moorings were full. Mike went off around 3 p.m. to move the car and was back two hours

Moored at Begfriede

later. I helped stow the moped back on the roof in the pouring rain. A couple were walking their dog and stopped to chat, the man was very interested in where we’d been and where we were going once he realised we could manage a little German. He told Mike not to leave the car on the quay, the politzei have a habit of driving down the cyclepath in 4x4s and the fine for having a car on WSA land is 15€! Mike moved it, but wasn’t happy with the rough parking, too many tracks of big earth moving machines. Chicken Korma with rice and lentils for dinner. We got the

Moored at Bergfiede in pouring rain.

Beeb! Well, most of the time. Good enough to watch the News! The weather for mainland Europe was still more of the same, rain, rain, rain. It was still raining when we went to bed.

Thursday 7th July 2005 Rothensee to Haldensleben.

Smoky Czech tug overtaking Rosy
Lots of details and history of the Mittellandkanal
sorry, some of the translation into English is hilarious
but the English version lacks a lot of the info given in the original

11.8º C overnight. Grey, hazy clouds, watery sunshine giving way to drizzle and heavier rain later in the morning, sunny spells later in the afternoon. Off on the Mittellandkanal at 8.00 a.m. closely watched and photographed, by the bloke on the little cruiser moored behind Rosy. Rosy lead the way all morning. We dropped our rubbish in the big green bin on the other bank where the five pan pushtow had been. Bill had just remarked on VHF how quiet it was and Mike had replied that they were all still in the cafés having breakfast,

Go with throttle up!

when the lockgate on the new lock down to the Elbe opened and two commercials came out followed by a three-decked white cruiser. One commercial came our way, a smoky old Czech tug from Dĕčín pushing one big pan. It overtook us very slowly as we went into the first narrow, un-widened section. It started to rain, drizzle at first turning much heavier later. The docks at Haldensleben were busy, an 80m empty called Patrick was moored on the main canal waiting to be loaded. Huge piles of steel swarf were covering one corner

Digging out a new winding hole - Mittelland size

of the container terminal. We stopped at Haldensleben, under the trees, tying up in a heavy downpour. Mike had heard on the German news that a bomb had gone off on the London Underground, so we wanted to try and get a clear view for the satellite and had to choose the mooring carefully for the direction as there were lots of tall trees. Got Sky (BBC had not returned to us yet) and watched pictures of injured people from Aldgate tube station and Russell Square, where a bomb had gone off on a bus. They said three bombs had gone off on buses and in the underground.

Bankwork layers

Lunch, then Mike went off to get the car. He was back at 3.30 p.m. and we all went shopping again, this time at Kaufland a slightly better equipped supermarket than the Netto we’d been in previously. I managed to reduce my shopping list a bit (but not completely). We had almost got the Beeb back, watched the news again to see what had happened in London. The bombs had gone off at 9.00 a.m. they thought a suicide bomber had destroyed the bus and several bombs had

One Czech cruiser from Prague .......

exploded in the Underground. Thirty seven people were dead and seventy eight were in hospital, some of them in a critical condition. They suspected the bombers

.......followed by another Czech cruiser.

to be Muslim fundamentalists.

The horrific details of this eventful day in London 

Wednesday 6th July 2005 Zerben to Rothensee.

Newly widened section of canal nr Burg

11.5º C overnight. Grey, overcast and quite cold all morning, warming up and brightening up in the afternoon. We set off early at 7.45 a.m. as we were all ready to go. Rosy in front for most of the way. Some WSA men were working along the bank between the dolphins for commercial moorings. I did the chores first thing, sitting out on the stern around nine o’clock. While I’d been busy, Mike and Bill had been having a birdwatching morning. They’d seen cranes and lots of birds of prey. There seems to be a

Dredging works nr Burg and loads of traffic

concerted effort to attract the latter here, with many poles for bird perches along the edges of fields on both banks of the canal. During the widening process a big bend of the canal had been bypassed completely between KP 340 to 342, straightening the channel. In a field, close by an impressively dilapidated farmhouse, there was a wooden ladder structure with two very large birds of prey perched on top. We guessed it must be a nest the way they both flew short distances away from it one at a time. They both had pale

Bridge inspection time

shoulders and necks, the only birds in my book which looked vaguely like them were Imperial eagles. More widening in progress at KP 335, where two dredging boats were at work, with large JCBs on pontoons shovelling the bottom around. A loaded boat, called Bille from Hamburg, went past as we had just negotiated our way around the first dredger. The canal had been reduced to half its width where the dredgers were working. By the next dredger Bill was passing an empty 80m boat, called Roger from Jerichow, which

A tug in a hurry - look at the wash!!

looked huge at such close range. We passed an unusual looking Polish tanker as we went under the first bridge at Burg, where the canal narrowed and was piled both sides. A new cycle path had been made along the right bank with wooden fencing to prevent people falling in the canal. Bill told us on VHF there was a group of his favourite type of outdoor enthusiasts walking the cycle path (sorry to say this but they really get his goat as they always look like posers!), three power walkers complete with ski poles! It was 9.35 a.m. as we

Niegripp lock, access on to the river Elbe
Technical details for Niegripp and all the other waterway structures in the area

went through the town. A new mooring area had been made in a basin, where there was also a boatyard, and further on a 50m section of the new piling had also been designated as a mooring for Sport boats (that’s us). As always there were several kilometres for commercials to tie to, but none were moored there. We were overtaken by a police boat, WSP08, as we were halfway through the narrow section. As we went past the end of the Niegripper Altkanal (which was blocked off by workboats) the 44m spits Glückauf went past

Hohenwarthe shaft locks leading to aqueduct over the Elbe
technical details of Hohenwarthe locks

again loaded with sand. We saw him a week ago, on the Sacrow-Paretzer-kanal, taking sand towards Berlin. The entrance to the Altkanal was through an old gravel pit 2 kms further on. Just beyond that there was a huge pile of sand and several conveyors were moving it from one pile to another. The man in the loading crane waved, his conveyor was still running too, making a large pile behind the crane. This must be where all the boat loads of sand are coming from! Minutes later we passed the arm off to the right where the lock at Niegripp gives

Bottom end guillotine gate in the shaft lock

access on to the Elbe and what used to be a basin now has a short lock cut leading to the new twin shaft locks at Hohenwarte. There were lots of WSA and contract work boats moored and milling about. The space for Sport mooring to wait for the lock was occupied by an accommodation boat and a tug. A WSA tug called Ren had pulled out from the basin and was heading for the lock, so we followed him. The right hand chamber was working, the left was still under construction, (or being repaired), as the lock mouth was stanked off above and below the chamber. The skipper from the tug came to tell us we should moor where the designated Sport mooring was or the police would fine us. He was being helpful. We followed him into the chamber once a Polish tug and pan, followed by a smart fishing boat styled cruiser, cleared the lock. He went almost to the front of the chamber and lashed on to a floater with one rope (he was working

Waiting area above the lock, cruisers crammed in the Sport area

singlehanded). We had already tied the two boats together while we were waiting for the lock to empty and so we went in still breasted up. A female voice on the tannoy said something unintelligible as we ran along the right hand wall, then I spotted the floaters were all on the left, there were none on the right hand wall, so we changed direction and, as he was on the left, Bill slung a centre rope round one of a pair of floaters close together. I put a short rope around Bill’s side cleat and found the floating bollard was very high, making it possible for Bill’s fore end rope to get jammed in the track for the floater so I took it off again. I spotted a section of yellow

Cruisers doing a mad dash for the lock

painted rail below the bollard (put there for small cruisers to tie to, no doubt) and went to transfer the rope on to that, but the incoming water beat me to it and blew the boats off the wall, but not for long. I put Bill’s long fore end line around the bollard as soon as we drew back level with it. The water was coming in directly below our bows. It pulled strongly towards the back of the lock each time the paddles from the different levels of economiser pounds opened. The 18.5m deep lock chamber filled slowly. The lady spoke again several

Rosy at the end of the aqueduct over the Elbe
read here more info on the aqueduct

times on the tannoy, but we couldn’t hear her properly or understand what she said. A crowd of gongoozlers were stood by the top end drop down gate. They all waved and shouted hello as we went past. I joked that they must have just dropped off a bus load when I saw the coach parked by the lock! A trip boat was coming across the aqueduct with another load of tourists to look at the new structures. Before we got to the aqueduct there was a sign (in German) which said Sport boats must cross in convoy following a working boat, or call the lock keeper on 26. We kept going – they knew

Moored above Rothensee boat lift
click to read about the boat lift

we didn’t speak German, the tug had tied up above the lock (so there was nothing to follow), there was nothing else moving and we were a convoy of two anyway. It was 12.20 p.m. when we tied up, bows to bows, on the waiting area for Sport boats above Rothensee boat lift, which operates mainly just for trip boats now that it has been replaced by the aqueduct and two new locks (one on to the river Elbe and one down on to the Elbe-Havel-Kanal). I made Mike some lunch while he got the moped off the roof and  got ready to go and get the car. While we were tying up Bill had asked if we were going shopping in Magdeburg and going to the Internet café. Good idea. Mike returned

A tug with five pans, total length 185m, carrying around 2,500 tonnes

at 4 p.m. with the car. We took Bill with us into Magdeburg to look for a supermarket. Mike had looked when he went into the city earlier on the moped, but had only found a shopping centre, the Allee Center – so we headed for that expecting there to be a supermarket included. There was, but it was a Netto (a discounter about the same as an Aldi). We got the minimum basics and took the bags back to the car then went back to buy a microphone (9,99€ for a single earpiece type) from Saturn (an excellent multimedia shop) for playing with voice-recognition software . Paid 30c for parking in the multi-storey car park and went to find the Internet café in the city centre. Found it quite easily, parked for free in the street as it was after 6 p.m. It had nice new PCs, but the pop music was a bit loud and the lighting was mainly blue UV. We had an hour or so, did the bank statements and phone bill. Paid 1,90€ for the hour plus two printed sheets and set off

Museum piece at Magdeburg

home. On the way Mike paused by the docks. He’d spotted some trains when he came into the city on the moped and they turned out to be museum pieces. He’d brought the camera with him and took photos (for Glyn, he said, but he wanted copies for himself – and so did Bill for his mate Frank, who’s also a railway enthusiast). The first one looked like Thomas the Tank Engine with muscles, painted a smart black and red. There were also dock shunters, the like I’d never seen before. On the far side of the rails was an old dock, devoid of boats except for an old bucket dredger rotting away in the middle of the high walled basin, tethered there by long wire hawsers from the bank. Mike walked on taking pictures. To my surprise, Bill hopped into the driving seat and drove the car down the road along the tracks so Mike didn’t

Museum piece at Magdeburg

have the long walk back. It was 8 p.m. by the time we got back to the boats. A small cruiser had moored behind Rosy and two passenger boats were moored behind us, ropes from the stern of one were across our counter, so Mike moved us forward by a couple of feet until we were fender to fender with Rosy. A tug and five pans reversed into the arm to the boat lift and tied on the opposite bank to us. Mike had to go and take a few photos, we’d never seen five pans in a tow before. The skipper (the tug was from EHS!) saw Mike taking photos and told him it was 185m long – a bit left over in the big locks then! 40m, enough to get a péniche in behind him, should one venture this far across Germany (we know that there have been péniches here, we know that the Pedro, which belongs to Roy and Carole Sycamore, once took on a load for Magdeburg at the bourse without knowing exactly where it was when they first started carrying) 

Tuesday 5th July 2005 Wusterwitz to Zerben.

Police boat out for repair

12.9º C overnight. Wet, cold and miserable. Mike had to get out of bed and take the mast down at 2.30 a.m. as the wind had picked up and it was raining hard. It was still raining heavily when we set off at 8.30 a.m. Michael B had left about an hour earlier, but the loaded 57m boat, called Alte Heidelberg, that had arrived later last night was still tied on the dolphins furthest from the lock. A tug pushing three pans had just come up the lock before we set off, we hoped he was going to go faster than us. We hadn’t been going long, I was making some toast, when an 81m empty called Tina-Marie overtook us. There seemed to be a more or less constant stream of loaded sand boats heading towards Berlin. We met one named

Floating fire appliance

Goldberg at the end of a newly widened stretch of canal at KP 365.5, closely followed by a Bromberger tug called Navrgarz 2, pushing a panful of sand. At KP 365 we found the quay where all the boats we saw earlier in the week must have loaded up with scrap wood for re-cycling. Today there was no one around, no boats either, and only a few small piles of scrap wood. The next pan of sand was being pushed by another Polish Bizon

WSA accommodation boat

tug, we met it just before the first of the bridges at Genthin. On the right bank was another long empty piled factory quay belonging to Henkel. After the footbridge in the middle of town a new small square offline basin had been built for small pleasure boats to moor in. It was piled and had short finger moorings parallel to the canal, unfortunately it was much too small for us. There were a couple of boats in there whose crews waved as we went

A curious police helicopter pilot

past. A little further on I noticed another old mill that had been converted for housing, this one had some lovely castellated towers. A police helicopter flying along the canal towards Berlin did a circle over us just as Mike was telling Bill on the radio about the mooring we were just passing. He had to stop talking as we were being deafened. The mooring had signs which said Fahrgastschiff (passenger boat) but there was a padlock

Queuing below Zerben lock

below this which could be unlocked and the sign swung round so that the reverse of Fahrgastschiff could be seen - which said Sportboot (pleasure boat) When we moored there in 2001 a hotel boat arrived and turned the sign around and so we had to move a bit further down the canal and tie to some park railings. The boat yard on the other edge of town had an 80m boat called Königstein on its side slip and a police boat was out on the hard undergoing maintenance to its hull. On the far edge of the town there was a 2 km long

Two loaded Brombergers passing Rosy

length of piled edge on the left bank with signs to say it was a mooring area for class II boats, although it had tiny bollards and ladders every 20m (which would have suited us perfectly). It was completely empty and we weren’t allowed to moor there. The police helicopter came back for another look at us and circled round again. This time Mike retrieved the camera from where it was keeping dry in the engine room and took a few photos of it. At 12.30

Squeezed into Zerben lock 

p.m. Michael B went past heading towards Genthin, loaded with sand. We wondered where he’d been to load it in the five hours since we’d last seen him. I made some sandwiches for lunch, which we ate before we got to the lock at Zerben. We were overtaken by four cruisers and a loaded Polish boat from Szczecin before we got to the lock. They had to wait with the tug pushing three pans while two more Polish boats came down and a couple of cruisers, then the commercials went in slowly followed by the cruisers. We expected to get shut out, but the keeper leaned out of his cabin

In the middle between four cruisers in Zerben lock

window and called us in to occupy the space in the middle between the cruisers, who had gone two to each wall behind the commercials filling the last available space. We dropped alongside the two Dutch cruisers on the left hand wall and Bill came alongside us. The keeper filled the lock very slowly. The Dutch guys alongside us had a bit of trouble keeping their boats alongside the wall with nearly forty tonnes hanging alongside them, but neither of them complained, in fact neither of them spoke! The two German cruisers on the other side of the lock were only separated from us by a couple of feet and were looking decidedly nervous. (It would have been better for us to have entered the lock first and two of the cruisers could have tied to us, but they had arrived first and they were going to enter first. It would have been unheard of to allow another boat to go in a lock ahead of them - that would have meant that we could have left first!! As it so happened - we did! The two Polish boats left and the first German cruiser on our right was out right after him, leaving Rosy plenty of space. We moved out and the rest of the cruisers followed. We went to moor on the pontoon on the left hand side above the lock. Bill carried on, he thought we were going to Magdeburg today! There was a cruiser called Arrivee already moored on the pontoon, whose German skipper said (in English) that we could have the mooring as he was only waiting for the lock. We tied up and Bill brought Rosy alongside. It was still pouring down with rain. Made a cuppa and Mike waited to see if the rain would ease up. It didn’t. He found his chest high waders from the engine room and put his waterproof jacket on and set off to fetch the car at 4 p.m. - he was back at 6.30 p.m. Gave him a hand to put the moped back on the roof – it had stopped raining – and then went in to cook dinner, a transport caff special – sausages, eggs, beans and potato pancakes. Two car loads of skinhead youths arrived and looked longingly at the pontoon. Two of them set up to fish in the corner from the bank behind us, four of them hung about watching and two girls stood around also looking bored. They’d gone within half an hour. Mike had called in Kaufland in Genthin on his way back and picked up a crate of beer, plus crisps, bread, tomatoes, lettuce and cheese. He told me he’d sent me an SMS to ask what else I wanted in the way of vegetables, but the phone on the boat never beeped so I missed the call. He said the cruiser Arrivee (who had vacated the pontoon we were tied to as we arrived) was just tying up on the pontoon we left this morning as he collected the car. We had no satellite TV – too many trees in the way.

Monday 4th July 2005 Schmergow to Wusterwitz.

Fishing boat n the Havel

14.0º C Hot, sunny and very humid. We set off out of the basin at 8 a.m. The campers were still there on the opposite bank. Out in the lake there four or five cruisers bobbing about at anchor. A commercial was passing in the far distance, heading for Brandenburg. We paused at the yacht haven at KP 43 for some water. Bill thought we were doing a loop when we set off down the arm looking for a tap. He said I’ll see you at the other end (he doesn’t like the Havel much as he got stuck briefly on the bottom in one of the side loops). The arm had

Brandenburg

moored cruisers all the way down the left bank and bungalows on the right. At the end a small basin was filled with moored yachts. We winded carefully and went back to the guest mooring, right at the end nearest the lake. As Bill was already there, Mike suggested he should moor on the end and we’d come alongside him then we could both fill up our water tanks. Mike went to find the harbour master, who came back with him saying that the hoses wouldn’t reach us, only to find

A new mooring for canoes

Bill standing there with our hoses connected up waiting for someone to turn the water on. He charged us 2,50€ for the 500 litres we had between us. I did some chores and made a cuppa while we filled up. Set off again at 10.15 a.m. Lots of traffic about, mostly medium sized cruisers. One fast red speedboat slowed down to pass us and some other boats. A young topless lady made quite a to-do about bashfully hanging into the cabin hatchway until we’d all gone past. Then the speedboat opened up and went off at far more than the speed

Warehouses now converted into apartments. Brandenburg

limit of 12 kph. A long line of cruisers, headed by a couple of Dutch boats who were doing the speed limit, went past just as an open fishing boat overtook us. Into Brandeburg on the Stadkanal, under two low bridges, which Mike had to take the mast down for. The sunshade just missed the arch of the lowest one just before the lock. The lock was full and we both went in. A small cruiser, which had set off from a bit further up the canal to follow us, had to wait as there was not enough room in the lock chamber which was 22m long

Stadtschleuse (town lock) in Brandenburg

by 5.3m wide. Our guide book says it is only open from May to September and passes 10,000 boats each year. At the end of the lock cut we joined the Neiderhavel, which runs through Brandenburg town. We turned left and headed away from the town towards the lake. We ate lunch on the move before we got to the Breitlingsee. I took photos of the old coal unloading quay and the slipway where they used to launch the seaplanes that they built at the now flattened Junkers aviation factory. It was very breezy out on the lake as

Below Stadtschleuse Brandenburg

we crossed to the Plauersee. A couple of little yachts went past with shortened sails and several windsurfers went past at high rate of knots. The sunshade was just about on its limit, any windier and we would have had to take it down before it folded in half. The bridge at Kirchmöser was due to be rebuilt and work was going on at either end of it, where crane boats were at work piling the lake bed to make a new bridge. It was 2.20 p.m. as we passed under the road bridge into the Wendsee. A very large speedboat, called Enough, went past on tickover - until he

Junkers coal wharf on the Breitingsee

cleared the bridge – then he opened the throttles and the bows lifted and it shot off across the Plauersee. A very small speedboat overtook us and dropped anchor just round the bend in the Wendsee, the two nudists on board scrambled over the back of their boat into the water. Each had a flexible stick of what looked like fluorescent foam rubber, which they twisted round themselves and sat on! Bendy foam sticks, whatever next?  We turned right, leaving the last of the Havel lakes behind us, entering the Elbe-Havel-Kanal and joining a queue for the lock at

Bridge works at Kirchmoeser. Plauersee

Wusterwitz. A tug and two pans came down the lock. An empty 80m boat came and went into the empty lock, closely followed by a loaded 65m boat and another empty 80m, filling the 225m long chamber. No room for us and the little boats moored at the pontoon below the lock. Mike tied the stern end of the boat to a dolphin and the wind blew the boat round so it was parallel to the bank. The lock emptied again and we went up with just one of the little boats which had been moored at the pontoon – the other two boats stayed put. I

Speedboat called Enough

used the centre rope and Bill brought Rosy alongside. Mistake! We should have used fore and aft ropes going uphill in these long chambers as the surge of incoming water made the boats yo-yo back and forth. Mike had to start the engine to stop them charging up and down the chamber. As we left the lock, Mike had asked the guy in the cabin by the top gates if we could moor overnight on the pontoon and got a strange answer, he said go on the right. We ignored him and nobody said anything, we tied up on the pontoon on the

Tug towing a pan with a huge hole in its bows

left at 5 p.m.. Mike unloaded the moped and went off to collect the car from Schmergow. I prepared veg for a stirfry. I’d sprouted some mung beans, which were ready to eat, and had done more than we could eat at one sitting, so I gave a jugful to Bill who said they were OK. Mike was back at 7 p.m. No one else had moored in the basin at Schmergow and the campers were still there – the kids were on holiday now so they would probably be there until school starts again in September. Stowed the moped

Moored on the pontoon above Wusterwitz lock

back on the roof, then I cooked the chicken stirfry. Michael B moored in front of us, so Mike had to go and take photos of his namesake. Someone on the big boat played with a radio

Mike setting off on moped down towpath to get the car

controlled model motor boat, racing it up and down the canal.

A large empty boat called Michael B moored in front of us overnight

(Please note: Google Earth image of Wusterwitz lock shows recent improvement works in progress. I have indicated very roughly where the pontoon was!)