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| Three Polish rafts KP628 R Oder |
12.9º
C overnight. Hot and sunny. Thunderstorm later in the evening. We left at 8.10
a.m. following Rosy for the first kilometre of the two kilometres before the
Odra. Bill had stopped when we overtook, he said the water was flowing at 4.2
kph according to his GPS. Ours said we were doing 9.5 kph with revvs on for 6.5
making the flow about 3 kph. At 8.30 a.m. we could see the trees on the far
bank of the Odra. German trees.
Nothing about as we left the Warta behind and started the run down the Odra,
with Germany on one bank and Poland on the other. Back to chasing bank markers,
only these were
different to the Polish ones on the Wisła. The Wisła ones had
posts behind or in front of each marker, so you knew immediately whether you
were looking at the upstream marker or the downstream one. These had red
squares spaced between the yellow Xs on the right bank and green diamonds on
the left bank between the yellow + markers. They also had red and green buoys
marking the navigation channel in some places. Mike found the two sets of
markers were sometimes contradictory and therefore confusing, this made
him
edgy. At ten to nine we passed a small WSA tug pushing a pan, battling uphill
against the current by KP 622. On the German bank new earthworks were being
constructed just downstream of KP 627. The very tip of a brightly painted red,
yellow and black border marker post could be seen over the top edge of a
concrete tube, which had been placed around it to protect it while works went
on. A kilometre further on downriver we spied three rafts, moored side by side
under the trees on the Polish side at KP 628. Just
beyond that the bank makers
were different to what Mike had added to our chart (from Bill’s new one – ours
had no marker posts indicated at all!). A loud clanking noise came from an
ancient German mowing machine cutting the grass on the dyke on the left bank of
the river. Black terns were skimming the water for flies. A wagtail rested on
the roof for several minutes before swooping away to the bank, I’m sure they
only use the boat as a convenient resting place half way across the river. We
passed the arm leading to the town of
Klienitz (KP 633) at 10 a.m. Close by the
arm there was a fishing boat with nets drying on top of it and a set of marker
flags and lights for when the nets were being used out in the river. The quay
by the old silos at Groß Neuendorf was full of sculptures, mainly of wooden
statues and heads. Our average speed, going with the flow, had increased to
10.2 kph. A yellow and black dragonfly rested on the sunshade then flew inside,
right underneath it. It rested on my hand long enough for me to see it was a
female carrying a sack of eggs - I didn’t know they did that - I thought they
laid their eggs in water like damselflies. Some Germans
had driven their car
down on to a flat topped concrete groyne and were fishing from it, right
opposite the Polish town of Czelin. Just after we passed the Polish waterways
yard at Gozdowice we had some lunch. A loaded Bromberger went upriver at KP
658. I took a photo of the old sunken boat at KP 661 near Stary Kostrzynek,
that we used for a mooring overnight when we were there in ’99 with Pensax and
Fleur de Segré. Just through the next bridge was a big market on the Polish
bank, where there was an old boat turned into a
landing for boat crews to stop
and shop. A sure sign it was getting hotter, the extractor fan over the engine
turned on for the first time this year. The red kites were back too, after
their winter in Africa. At Hohensaaten, a commercial was coming out of the
canal heading downriver towards Szczecin, as we started to turn across the
river at the junction. The lock, east Hohensaaten, had red lights and the up
and over guillotine gate was down. As we went towards the dolphins to tie up
and wait, the gate went up and the light
changed to green. We were going to
stop and visit the customs, but we thought there must be a place for boats
going down the lock to stop above and visit the customs post too, so we motored
on into the lock and tied on the wall behind a Bizon tug pushing two pans
loaded with sand. We locked down
(surprisingly) off the river by about a metre. We followed the tug out of the
lock, then turned right down past the west lock, which leads on to the canal
route to Szczecin, and went to tie next to the outer lock wall behind some WSA
boats as we could see nowhere else to tie up that would give us access to the
customs office without an excursion of several kilometres by road. Before the
ropes were tied, a man in blue overalls came to tell me (not the men) that we
couldn’t moor there. (Mike said later, wonderful how the first words from a
German were “Verboten!” Welcome back to Deutschland!) Mike explained that we
only wanted to stay for half an hour to visit the customs and he said please,
we’d push over to the other side, where the official mooring was, as soon as we
got back – and the guy said yeah, OK. Grabbed ships papers and passports and
presented ourselves to the Polish customs. The officer filled in our details on
his portable computerised machine, then wrote everything down into a book too.
Next we went upstairs to see a very jovial German, who just took note of our
name and the boat’s name and registration. We spent more time with him looking
at a big map of East German waterways and telling him we’d been to most places
on it last year. On the way back Mike tried a burst shot (rapid series of
photos for action shots) when he saw a snake (actually a slow worm) trying to
climb up the back of a WSA boat. Back on the boats and we moved to the far side
of the weirstream, where the official overnight mooring place was. It had a
yellow painted metal edged quay for tying to, complete with little bollards and
patch of close-mowed grass. It was 2.45 p.m. Later a cruiser and a small yacht
filled the rest of the space. It was stiflingly hot. We both spent the rest of
the afternoon dozing and sweltering. We had a thunderstorm and torrential rain.
At 8.30 p.m. a hotel ship came up the lock. 82m long by 9.5m wide, called Swiss
Coral it was offering Transocean Tours. Suddenly, after the calm and almost deserted
navigations in Poland, we’re back in the busy world of German waterways!
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| Entrance markers to an old loop of the river |
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| Fisherman on the German side of the river opposite Czelin |
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| Hitch-hiking white wagtail perched on satellite TV mast |
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| Rosy and a loaded Bromberger heading upriver KP608 |
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| Behind a pusher in Hohensaaten east lock, start of the Oder Havel Kanal |
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| Following Rosy, leaving Hohensaaten lock |
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| German and Polish customs post at Hohensaaten |
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| Moored at Hohensaaten |
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