Thursday 14th July 2005 Above Anderten locks to Haste.

15.6º C overnight. Hazy clouds first thing, but the sun soon burned them away. Clouds

46 foot ladder in Hindenburg lock at Anderten. MLK

developed in the afternoon and the breeze got stronger. Hot again. Ready for off at 8 a.m. but we’d missed a downhill locking by about ten minutes. Mike called the keeper on the intercom, which was alongside our stern, to ask if we could use the lock and also asked if it was OK to leave our car there for five or six hours. The keeper replied in English to say yes OK. I asked Bill if he was better after yesterday’s bad spell. He said the answer was salt. Lack of it, which was easily remedied, although he still didn’t feel 100%. The cruiser behind us, called Jersey, was going down the lock too. Bill had donated the baseball cap cycling helmet (he said it made him look a pillock) to one of the guys off the crusier. Two commercials came up and we followed the next two down to the lock, leaving our boats tied together. In front was the 100m Tiffany and behind him was Greif, an 80m boat, both were loaded German barges. The cruiser went for the biggest gap on the right hand wall leaving us what space there was behind the

Camera and loudspeakers on gantry
above Hindenburg lock

commercial. Mike moved us over to the left hand wall and I hastily went over on to Rosy’s front deck and used Bill’s bow rope to lasso one of the small iron recessed bollards in the chamber wall and held it over on Rosy’s side cleat. Bill put his stern rope around a similar bollard. We descended 14m in stages, moving ropes down to lower bollards, dropping sharply as the economiser paddles opened, slowing down as the water levels equalised before the next set of paddles opened.  It was 9.40 a.m. by the time we left the lock chamber, heading into Hannover. Two converted little tugs went past, flying German flags,  that’s three we’ve seen in west Germany. The canal threaded its way through the suburbs of Hannover, where there were some new modern bridges and a lot of redevelopment around the canal, but much of it had been defaced by graffiti and lots of it was vulgar. Some very ornate stonework looked in a sorry and dilapidated state as it had strips of stuff hanging off it, which could have been thin plastic sheeting or maybe varnish. A loaded boat called Nellie, a Dutchman from Heel, went past us heading

Getting ready to leave the lock

uphill, followed a little later by another big Dettmeer tanker, a pusher pair over 165m long. We paused for water at Hannover yacht haven. We couldn’t fit inside the moorings, which were in a small basin, so we lay against the short piles on the outside with our bows next to a wooden landing stage where there was a diesel pump and two water taps. Rosy came alongside. A man on a cruiser helped us with the hose and I got our own hose out to connect up to the other tap. There was no one around, I was told by the skipper of the cruiser, when

The last two out of the lock.

I asked where I could find the harbour master. He said he was waiting for diesel and told me we didn’t need to pay as there was no one there. So we didn’t! Set off again at 11.50 a.m. There was no sign of the sport boat mooring for the town, which used to be next to the police boat moorings, looked like it no longer existed. We passed the police boat WSP11 by the VW (van factory) nutzfahrzeugefabrik, the crew leaning out of the cabin to smile and wave. By the VW works there was a very interesting track laying vehicle making a new railway track, which had sets of road wheels which it had lifted itself off to do the digging and track laying. Mike took

Rail track laying vehicle

photos of the railway wagons at VW (for Glyn’s collection) and cranes at Continental tyres. A cruiser went past called Uranus, Bill joked on radio that it had a boat hanging on the back called tender Uranus – it had actually got “Ten Ura der nus” written across its stern. We passed the second British boat this year, a cruiser called Darius from London, heading uphill. (The first was just outside Berlin, spotted by Mike and Bill – I didn’t see it) Crossed the new aqueduct across the river Leine at KP 152. The old aqueduct was still

Coal-fired power station at Stocken KP157

there, the new one had been built alongside, but now there were signs to forbid access to the old one. At 2 p.m we passed the junction with the branch leading to Linden, a suburb of Hannover. There were lots of cruisers on the move, but there was a lull in the commercial traffic until we met a Dutch 50m empty, called Spes, from Dordrecht, just beyond the A2 autobahn bridge at KP 146, about an hour later. We were on a slight embankment, with the land on our left much lower than the canal, where fields were being harvested and we could see distant hills between

Continental tyre factory at Hannover KP157

the trees along the canal and a long line of eleven wind generators wound off towards the hills. Just after the next bend we were overtaken by a lady steering St Antonius, a loaded Dutch barge from Nijmegen. She wound it up to pass us, making a big hole in the water by her bows. There was another boat coming, but it was still nearly a kilometre away once she’d passed us. It was another Dutchman, Irbis, an 84m long 1000 tonner from Lemmer, coming towards us. Yet another Dutch boat, Mia Amore, was at the loading quay at KP 143 next to a huge pile of

Unusual crane Hannover docks

broken glass (cullet). I went on the front deck to take photos of the wall to wall water when two Dutch tugs (Mike said he thought they were private boats) were overtaking the next boat coming towards us. After they’d gone a police car drove down the towpath, heading in the same direction as us. At bridge 209, Kölenfeld, two youths jumped off the road bridge as we went underneath. They timed it well, one on either side, drenching the pair of us. Swines! They hopped out and ran round the bridge to do it again when Rosy went under the bridge. I didn’t get the camera turned on fast enough to get them dropping in. Bill didn’t get wet. Three more commercials were coming toward us as we reached the railway bridge before the mooring we

Dutch boat St Antonius overtaking

were aiming for at Haste, KP 138. A WSA craneboat was moored on the right hand side just before the bridge. It was tied to trees with “men at work” notices (with red lights on top) where the cables crossed the towpath. An empty called Havelland went past us. Then another big empty Dutch boat was overtaking a little loaded Bromberger as they came towards us through the two bridges. More photos. It was 4.15 p.m. as we tied to the sport boat mooring area. Helped Mike get the fizzer off the roof and he went off into Haste to see if the post from Glyn had

Swimmers either side of Rosy, just jumped off road bridge

arrived yet on his way back to Anderten to collect the car. Traffic on the canal was getting busy again and some of them were flying past as if they were going to miss last locking at Anderten (that’s not until ten o’clock tonight). Noisy kids were swimming in the cut between passing boats and two damp bikini clad nymphettes kept wandering up and down past our boats. Bill got accosted by a drunk on a bike who insisted on telling him about some booze smuggling. At midnight tonight, he said, a Polish boat will arrive with a load of vodka. There is a house

Dutch tugs overtaking oncoming traffic

at the other end of the quay (about a mile away) where the woman sells vodka at 5€ a bottle. He wobbled from side to side on the wide path along the moorings and Bill said he wondered if he would make it to the far end. What’s worse I said – will he make it back and will he care? I cooked pork steaks and veg for dinner and left it simmering until Mike returned at 7 p.m. He’d got the post from Glyn. We ate dinner at 8 p.m. There was no TV as we couldn’t get the satellite through the trees as we were moored at the wrong end of the mooring. Mike said that when he was going to fetch the car on the moped he saw a woman next to a camper van in a layby lifting her short skirt, doing a little dance while flashing her bright red knickers at the passing motorists! Whatever

next?

Wednesday 13th July 2005 jnc. Saltzgitter branch to above Anderten locks.

Right way up railway bridge at Dungelbeck KP206 MLK

13.3º C overnight. Sunny with a light breeze, getting more cloudy and hotter as the day went on. There were three commercials coming across the wide as we prepared to untie at 8.00 a.m. We waited until they’d passed and set off behind them at 8.15 a.m. following Rosy. A yacht set off between us from the restaurant at Sophiental KP 211, but soon overtook Rosy. There were lots of wagtails landing on the boat roof again. Bill called on VHF to say that there was a fancy looking baseball cap floating in the canal. I fished it out – it was more than a fancy baseball cap - it was a cycling safety helmet. I knocked all the shrimps out of it back into the canal and

A German cruiser overtaking a Czech pushtow that was overtaking us

took it inside to wash it and get the silt out of it. Gave it to the cyclist (Bill) later! The canal was very busy again, as always, with commercial traffic. Mike started doing his own mini-survey, as he thought that the Polish boats were starting to outnumber the German ones. The list was looking good – about equal numbers of German, Polish, Czech and Dutchmen. At 9.40 a.m. on the outskirts of Peine, we were overtaken by a Czech pusher pair, called Bohemia 1 &2, as two empty 80m boats were coming the other way. A large cruiser following the pusher

Old guy in an open speedboat overtaking us KP200 MLK

overtook it as soon as it had overtaken us. A little later we were overtaken by an old man driving a small open speed boat. He didn’t look, just lifted one hand as he went by. The scenery opened up as we came out of the cutting after crossing the little river Fuhse on an aqueduct. The old man with the speedboat stopped at the little boat club on the right and was putting his canopy up as we went past him. Everything went quiet for about an hour, just the WSA with their little launch moored under Berkum road bridge while they were grass cutting with strimmers. At KP

Silo loading chutes at Sehnde KP184 MLK

199 we could see Rosy in front and the speedboat starting to catch us up again, way in the distance behind us. A cruiser overtook us as we went into the next cutting at Sehwicheldt, the old chap in the speedboat went past again too. Bill called on the radio. He said he was coming to a place he could moor and was going to stop for a while as he was feeling a bit queasy. He’d tied to bollards in a winding hole at KP 195, so we went and hovered alongside while he went inside and took a pill. I noticed the edge of the piling, which was about cabin height, was covered in coal (whoopee freebies, coal gleaning!). Mike and I picked up the biggest lumps and dropped them on the

Polish pans being loaded with sand at Sehnde

roof as we sloshed back and forth. I gathered the coal up into two carrier bags as we set off again, following Rosy when Bill said he felt much better. Two boats, which had just unloaded at the coal wharf for the power station at Mehrum, were backing up to the winding hole and made it quite clear that they wanted us out of their way. Fine, we were leaving anyway.  There was a disgusting stink as we went past the power station, but I didn’t think it was coming from there. A little further on more boats were loading at a silo quay. It’s that time of year again. A cleg bit my

Polish pans being loaded with sand at Sehnde

leg! She died, I flattened her (always the females that bite, they need blood for producing their eggs). I went inside to apply more repellent and made a cuppa. It was midday. A loaded 1000 tonner, called Bella-Vista from Gorichem in the Netherlands, overtook us at KP 190, then a cruiser and a German thousand tonner went the other way. Salad for lunch. Polish tugs and pans were loading soil by the bridge at Sehnde, just before the junction with the Hildesheim branch. Three empty 60m boats went by, two Dutchmen and a German. A lovely converted launch overtook us, called Lousche 3 from Nekarrems, it was followed by a young couple

Bolzum lock at the start of the Hildesheim branch KP183 MLK

with a cruiser called Balu at KP 179. A crowd of youths aged from about twelve to eighteen, were swimming or playing about on the banks either side of bridge 309, near Höver. We met one empty 80m before the bend at Höver and a loaded Dutchman called Licentia, a thousand four hundred tonner from Delfzijl, followed by 67m Waterman – another Dutchman. Harvesting was under way in the field before the locks on the right bank. A whole crowd of cruisers was waiting for the lock. The waiting area was full so we motored past them and moored to the bollards on the quay beyond, right in front of the old man in his speedboat who was at

Rosy going under bridge 309 at Hover
where there were lads swimming in the canal

the head of the queue. Rosy came alongside. As we went past one of the big cruisers, a lady said “lovely boat” in English! That came as a surprise. Once we’d tied up, Mike and I unloaded the moped and he went off to get the car. Sometime later the lock gates opened, two commercials came out, followed by a dozen or more cruisers, then the cruisers moored behind us set off - except two. One of which moved right up behind us! I was going to move us back down the mooring to the other end! I called the keeper on the intercom and asked (in German – he didn’t speak English) if it was OK if we stayed overnight. Yes. Then he said “night!” I noticed that the crews of the other cruisers didn’t ask on the intercom if they could stay. One which had just come up the lock dived in to the gap behind them and joined their friends. I put extra ropes out. Bill took Fanny out for a walk for some exercise. Mike returned with the car around 5pm. I nearly dissolved cooking dinner. During the evening one of the passing boats strained my side rope on to Rosy that last little bit and the rope parted, I shortened it.

Tuesday 12th July 2005 Edesbüttel to jnc. Saltzgitter branch.

Gold-ringed dragonfly

13.9º C overnight. Hot and sunny again, clouds appearing after lunch. Mike and Bill went in the car to a new Netto just down the road, to get bread etc. I did the chores early, while they were shopping, before we set off at 9.05 a.m. heading into a shallow cutting, towpaths on each bank –or should it be cyclepaths? For miles there were groups of kids on bikes (with minders), cycling along on both sides of the canal. Boat traffic was brisk. Another 80m, 1000 tonne load of wood for recycling went by. I wouldn’t like to have to be behind that for miles, what a pong –

Train crossing the "upside down" railway bridge

mouldy wood! It was being followed by a Danish yacht and, a few minutes behind that, a Swedish one. We paused at 10.15 a.m. and went into the little harbour at Abbesbüttel, where we had filled up with water on the way east the previous year. The moorings had changed totally, instead of being parallel to the main canal they were at ninety degrees, all the trees had gone and the sand extraction plant had taken over, so it looked like the moored boats were in the Sahara, completely surrounded by dunes. I knocked on the door of the barge, no one home, tried the tap - turned off, gave up and carried on towards Braunschweig (Brunswick in English).

Dock crane at Veltenhof KP220 MLK

High bridges crossed the cutting. The old “upside down” railway bridge was still there, and surprisingly still in use, Mike got a picture of a train crossing it. A dragonfly rested on the stern for long enough for me to turn the camera on and take a picture of it. A loaded Dutch 67m tanker, called Ina, went past at K 224. A WSA tug and pan turned across the canal and into the WSA mooring in an arm at Thune. The canal skirted the city of Braunschweig, which was located to the south of the Mittelland, on our left. We listened to Forces Radio in English. The woman said it was ten o’clock, our clock said eleven, so Mike asked Bill if the British forces in Germany work to British time or German. He said German, but the Navy always works on GMT, no matter where they are, which can make life interesting – a dawn attack could start at midnight! An extended péniche went past, 55m x 5.10m called Volga from Brugge, running east empty. We didn’t bother trying for water at Braunschweig motor yacht club, we didn’t get any there last year. I took photos of loading cranes at the wharves in Veltenhof

Rosy and passing traffic at Veltenhof

KP 220/219. The piling along the right hand bank at KP 217 was starting to buckle, it looked like they’d had a small landslip. WSA were at work investigating it. Two expensive-looking Dutch cruisers overtook us just before the junction with the Salzgitter branch, we bounced about in their wash for some time, they made much more wash than the 80m barges or even the pushtows! Badly designed hulls like that were (thankfully) unusual for Dutch boatbuilders. An aluminium open boat, powered by a large outboard motor was following them, it had WSA painted on the side. It pulled into the first section of wide water at the junction. The towpath was still

Overflow weir spilling water from the MLK into R. Oker

closed across the junction and had been partly excavated behind the piling. Access for the commercial moorings had been suspended, but the mooring we were heading for, at the Peine end of the wide, was still available for small boats. We winded and moored bows to bows with Rosy beyond the slipway. It was 12.40 p.m. I put aluminium reflectors in the sunny side windows, then made some salad for lunch. Helped Mike unload the moped off the roof and he went to get the car, he was back at 5 p.m. and I helped put the bike back on a roof that was hot enough to burn exposed skin so we left tying the cover down until later when it cooled down a bit.

Monday 11th July 2005 Rühen to Edesbüttel.

Rosy passing the VW plant at Wolfsburg

12.4º C Sunny and hot again. Bill untied at eight on the dot. It was twenty past by the time Mike had been to the postbox by the café, put the pins in to do some washing and we’d untied. Bill wanted to stop and go to the visitor centre at the VW plant at Wolfsburg, but the mooring we were intending to stop at now had no signs to say it was a 12 hour mooring for sport boats. The bollards were still there, going rusty, but we didn’t stop as we thought they must have moved the mooring place. We motored on and found mooring signs at the far

Unusual to see a German-flagged converted tug 

end of the commercial moorings, right by the railway station. Bill walked back to the other end to go in the visitor centre which was on the other side of the canal, reached by a modern footbridge. He was back in no time. The museum he wanted to see had been incorporated into a theme park, access to the latter cost 14€, which he didn’t think was justified when he only wanted to have a quick look round the museum. We set off again just before midday with a second load of washing in the machine. For the first time in Germany we saw a large German-flagged

Below Sulfeld lock

pleasure boat, a 15m converted tug from Hannover called Malo. We tied to the waiting area below Sülfeld lock and called the keeper on the tannoy. He said he’d call us to tell us when we could go in the lock. We had some lunch while we waited. When the lock gate lifted an 80m barge loaded with stinky scrap wood came out. A cruiser had joined us so we all three went off into the lock and stayed right at the back. Rosy alongside us, Bill helping me with the front ropes as there were no floaters, just rows of bollards one above the other up the 9m deep chamber. Three

225m long chamber of Sulfeld lock MLK

economiser pounds filled the lock and we said hello and goodbye to the gongoozlers on the lockside as we left the 225m long chamber. Above the lock there was a queue waiting. Five commercials and a gaggle of cruisers. We kept left, as the commercials were blue boarding (wanting us to pass on the “wrong” side), and the first two in the queue set off for the lock. Half a mile away at the far end of the waiting area for the commercials, the sport boats had their waiting area. Because there was enough room left over for all of them to get in the lock, the cruisers had untied

First of the 80m boats heading into Sulfeld to go down

and were setting off from the bank. Two 80m commercials went into the lock, which meant they occupied 160m out of 225m available, so there was around sixty metres left over – not enough for another one of the remaining three commercials in the queue, so the cruisers were lucky. Bill was in the lead and he went back over to the right between the cruisers, but we’d got another commercial coming, another 80m empty which wanted to get over to the quay to queue behind the others. Mike dug out our blue board, which I held up and we passed to our left, giving the big boat all the room to get over on to the quay. He totally ignored us, no replying

And the cruisers all making for Sulfeld lock

blue board or even a friendly wave. Miserable Dutchman, we’re invisible again! We followed Rosy along the last 3 kms up to the mooring on the junction with the Elbe-Seiten-Kanal near Edesbüttel and moored in the sport mooring behind a Polish tug and pan. Mike rolled the moped off the roof (another roof high quay) and went off to collect the car from Rühen. He was back at 5 p.m. having done 42 kms by road as he had been diverted all over the place. It was too hot to cook, so we just had sandwiches for dinner.