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)