Thursday 2nd June 2005 jnc Jagiellonski canal to Marlbork.Nogat river - Wikimedia photo by

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

Nogat at Malbork - Wikimedia photo by Der Hexer

, 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. 

Wednesday 1st June 2005 Przegalina to jnc Jagiellonski canal

Dolphins at Przegalina lock
Wikimedia photo by Gdaniek

A chilly 7.7º C overnight moored next to an ancient accommodation barge on the Wisła above Przegalina lock. It was sunny first thing, then black clouds rolled over and we had showers until mid-afternoon, when the sun came out again but the wind was still cold. We set off at 8.20 a.m. and turned the corner out of the lock channel heading upstream, against the flow on the Wisła. It was five kilometres to the lock at Gdanska Głowa, where we would turn off on to the Szkarpawa. The river was flowing at about 4 kph and we were making about 4 kph against it. I went in to bake some bread buns for lunch as we’d eaten all the bread. When I’d finished making the dough and kneading it, I put it in the engine room to rise. We were at the lock after a run of about an hour and ten minutes. One lock gate at Gdanska Głowa was open ready for us to go down. Bill went to pay the woman while the old man worked the manual lock. We dropped down 1.1m (it was 1.7m rise when we went uphill so the river level had dropped by over half a metre since we were there last time). Set off again at 9.45 a.m. on the placid little river Szkarpawa. The flow was against us by about 1 kph (they told us that the Baltic has no tide?). Stopped again

Gdanska Glowa lock - Wiki photo by Lukasz Katlewa

at Drewnica at 10.10 a.m. to wait for the pontoon bailey bridge to open. There was nowhere to tie up and wait, so Mike put our bow fender on one of the pontoons (called Alexandra – strangely all nine floating boxes had names!) I tied the bows to it and he threw a small grapple anchor out on the windward side. Bill brought Rosy alongside. The next opening time was eleven. The bread was ready for knocking back and shaping into buns. At eleven o’clock Mike got off on to the bridge and went to find the bridge workers. OK. They were coming. They wouldn’t if he hadn’t gone to tell them we wanted passage through the

Pontoon bridge at Sobieszewski - Wiki photo by  Jarba

bridge. Bill untied and backed off, then Mike lifted the anchor and we did likewise. The middle section of the bridge motored open and we went through. Just in time to get the bread out of the oven. For a while a silvery male hen harrier flew along parallel with us over the reeds along the edge of the river. White and yellow water lilies were just starting to bloom along the banks. We had a salad in bowls for lunch with my fresh brown bread buns. The boat went under the big yellow liftbridge at Rybina with the mast off to get under the bridge deck at 2.58m, so we had no need to wait for its opening time. Herons, black-headed

Pontoon bridge at Sobieszewski - Wiki photo by Yanek

gulls and terns were fishing along the next stretch of river. The clouds had blown away behind and in front of us and we had blue sky and warm sunshine, shame about the chilly wind. Had a cup of hot coffee to warm us up. At 2.50 p.m. we turned right out of the Szkarpawa’s widening channel before it arrived at the lagoon and started heading into the Nogat. The wind was blustery and two fishermen with a khaki camouflaged boat were checking fishing nets. A small yacht from Gdansk was moored in the reeds, it had a small solar panel on its stern. A man came out to wave and say hello as we passed. We were going with

Pontoon bridge at Sobieszewski - Wiki photo by Yanek

the flow now, again about 1 kph. Lots of water lilies, both white and yellow, lined both banks. We slowed down when the cable ferry at Keparybaka went across. Bill didn’t slow down and went past us. Mike had to tell him on the radio that there was a cable about 1.5m above the water (plus two more on water level). He hadn’t see it and thought the cable was underwater. The ferry went back again, then the operator lowered the cable and called us through. At 4 pm the water flow changed and started running the other way. The access into the other route to the lagoon from the Nogat, the Cieplicówka canal, was blocked

Pontoon bridge at Sobieszewski - Wiki photo by  Karina

with reeds and water lily pads. There were two small boats with people fishing from them by the entrance to the Jagiellonski canal. We turned into the canal and moored next to the piling for the third time. It was 4.30 pm. Fanny had rolled in something stinky again while Bill was tying up (she did it last time we were there) and had to have a bath - which she didn’t like at all and barked at Bill. A medium sized wedge shaped power boat went past. He'd slowed down, but his wash (from the speed he had been doing) caught up with him

Liftbridge at Rybina - Wiki photo by Andrwej Obtrebski

as he was passing us. Prat. He went through the bridge, turned round and went back again the way he'd come! Bill came over to have a chat about where we would be stopping on the Wisła. If the Wisła was flowing at about 4 kph it will take us four days to get to back upriver to Bydgoszcz. We should make 30 kms per day against it and be able to stop at Grudziadz and Chełmo, but the first night will be difficult as there was nothing that we noted as a mooring possibility on the way down. I helped with the video camera re-assembly by cleaning all the lenses. It still didn’t work. Back to the drawing board. Not another dead camera?

Saturday 28th May 2005 Jagielloński to Gdanska Głowa lock.

Liftbridge over Szkarpawa at Rybina
- Wikimedia photo by Polimerek

13º C overnight. Sunny with not a cloud in the sky and a light breeze.  Set off at 8.15am pins in and the washing machine going as soon as we turned on to the Nogat. I vacuumed the floor and then emptied the dust on to a tray, I looked but couldn’t see the tiny screw that Mike had lost. He said use the sea searcher magnet. One pass and the screw leapt out of the dust! I stuck it on a piece of sticky tape so it couldn’t escape again. I did the ironing then made a cuppa and went to sit out with my coffee at 10am. A beautiful morning. Overtook a couple of little yachts, one which was obviously home built was having engine trouble and ended up being towed by the other. We turned left on the Szkarpawa river heading for the Wisła, a winding, wide, reed fringed river, 2.5m deep, passing empty meadows and the occasional farmstead. Groups of kids were swimming in the river, all wearing their underwear – no fancy swimming trunks or bikinis here. The washing finished just before eleven and Mike paused to take the pins out. We came to a large bright yellow painted lifted bridge – a giant Llangollen style cantilever bridge. At 2.58m clearance it was high enough for us to get underneath with the sun canopy lowered

Liftbridge over Szkarpawa at Rybina 
- Wikimedia photo by Martin Poljak

and the mast taken down. A board stated the opening times 8.30 a.m. 11.00 a.m. etc etc. Two men were on duty, they came out to see if we needed it opening. A swing railway bridge was in the open position for river traffic. Lunch, sitting under the sun shade. We passed half a dozen small yachts from Elblag yacht club, they must be doing the circular tour via Malbork and down the Wisła and back along the Szkarpawa. Shortly afterwards we came to Drewnica, where bridge rebuilding works were going on apace. A barge was being used as an access

Liftbridge over Szkarpawa at Rybina 
- Wikimedia photo by Gregy

pontoon for cement mixer trucks and another for cranes and a pile-driver. We tied to a wooden pontoon placed there for the purpose and Rosy came alongside. Within minutes a three man delegation came to show us where to go to get through the blockage. They moved the accommodation barge, called Rekinn, and we went through the gap and the bailey bridge which had a moveable middle section powered by a motor in the end flotation tank. We counted twenty cars which had been

Liftbridge over Szkarpawa at Drewnica
- Wikimedia photo by Aktron

stopped by the moving of the bridge. Two kilometres to the lock on to the Wisła. It was 2.15 p.m. getting hotter and we decided discretion was the better part and decided to stop below the lock at Gdanska Głowa. There were only green painted metal pilings arranged as unlinked dolphins 10 metres from the bank, so Rosy went at the back of the left hand ones and we went between Rosy and the dolphins, tied our bows to one dolphin with Rosy attached to our port side. Then Mike got the plank off Rosy’s counter and Bill knocked a couple of

Moored by the lock on to the Wisla - photo by Bill

pins in. Rosy was just grounding on the bottom. The men went to find the keeper and ask if we could stay until Monday morning. They found a lady keeper. Yes, OK. They were open until 4 p.m. but for double the fee you could go through up until 7 p.m. She told them that the lock was closed on Sundays. Then they went to have a look at the river. It appeared to be as high as when we came down to Biała Gora, but didn’t seem to be flowing as fast. The lift on the lock was about a metre up on to the Wisła. Mike put the 35mm camera back together, still not working properly. Looks like we need a new one

Friday 27th May 2005 Elblag to jnc Nogat/Jagielloński canal.

Typical shop in Elblag - Wikimedia photo by Albertyanks

15.5º C overnight – getting warmer. Sunny with hazy clouds. Mike was up first at 7.30 a.m. and we all went into town on foot. Bill took his bike to carry some beer. First we went in the little sklep by the mooring and bought bread and tomatoes. Bill cycled a bit further down the street to get some beer in cans then took all the heavy stuff back to the boat. We walked on across the footbridge into the town, most off which was flattened by the Ruskies at the end of WWII because the Nazis built U-boats there. Most of the buildings are post-war “jerry”-built! We went to the Post Office and sent off two bags containing four films to be developed and five postcards in envelopes. Calculating how much the postage costs is a nightmare. From the tariffs we’d reckoned 2,80 Zł each for the postcards and 3,90 Zł each for the films – but she charged us 16,40 Zł - cheaper than what we thought the rate was. Give up. We went in the internet café, checked e-mails (got none), had printouts of the WWT phone bill and wrote down details from the bank statements as there hadn’t been many transactions. Mike didn’t notice that Bill had come in and was sitting behind us on the far

E7 road bridge in Elblag - Wikimedis photo by Aktron

side of the room – he went to look for him while I did a bit of surfing. He got the guy from the Tourist Info Office looking for him when he was already in the café! Paid 5 Zl for the hour plus and 1 Zł (there were 6 Zł  to the pound) for the two printouts. Next stop a top-up for the ‘phone, which will expire next week when the two months from when we bought it are up. We found the Idea shop. What a setup. A smart young man stood at a small reception desk. He spoke a little English, so he told us to go to the cash desk (a window at the back of the room) and he would tell the young lady what we wanted. We bought a top-up, valid for a month, for 25 Zł and took it back to him and he charged our ‘phone with it for us as we couldn’t understand the Polish instructions. I asked if he could change the language to English, he tried but couldn’t. There were lots of people in the shop, sitting on chairs waiting for someone who was at a desk behind screens. The only ‘phones on display were behind locked glass panels on the one wall. We went back to the other end of the main street to a small supermarket

Tram in Elblag - Wikimedia photo by Francuz-el

and bought a few more groceries: milk, coffee, eggs, butter, coffee-creamer, cheese, Mike asked for some boiled ham this time, lettuce and a treat - a packet of chocolate coated biscuits and a bottle of Fanta orangeade!  Loaded up the rucksacks as armed guards (Polish version of Securicor) were collecting or delivering cash. Walked back to the boats through a park (where the U-boats dry docks were?). I unloaded the groceries. Bill had got some decaff coffee that he doesn’t drink anymore. I said it was a pity he didn’t drink tea any more either (he drinks beer or bottled water) as I could do him a swop. He said he really could do with some Bonjella as he had a sore gum, which looked like an abcess. I thought we had some, but after a fruitless search the only thing I could think of to ease the pain of a gumboil was Veganin tablets. He said he’d try nitric acid if it took the pain away! I started making a salad for lunch as we cruised on to the yacht club to get some drinking water. They knew we were coming as the purple hosepipe was out along the wooden landing stage and there were no other boats moored there, which made life easier. Two teenage girls were sitting on the grass at the end of the landing, so I asked them if we could have some water. They giggled and said tak (yes) and one of them went off to the tap to turn it on for me. Bill brought Rosy alongside and he topped up too. The hydrofoil went past and instead of coming up the canal at a slow cruising pace, the steerer kept bringing it up on to the plane and then slowing off, which was sending big waves up the cut. Prat, he knew what he was doing. It was 2 p.m. before we finished filling up and set off again, waving bye, bye to the few locals who were by the basin. We turned left into the Jagielloński canal, if we’d taken the route straight on it goes out on to the lagoon – the way the hydrofoil goes to Kaliningrad in Russia. It was getting hotter. For the first time this year I made some ice cubes and we had cold drinks instead of tea. At 3 p.m. a small yacht went past heading for Elblag, followed by a lone paddler. Just before we got to the junction with the Nogat, the wind picked up and turned over the front section of our big blue sun canopy. Mike had to put it on the front deck and sort its bent legs out later. It was 3.30 p.m. as we arrived at the junction, where we had moored in the pouring rain on the 17^th, the weather couldn’t have been more extreme (apart

Brewery in Elblag - Wikimedia photo by  Michiel1972

from a blizzard!) We moored in front of Rosy on the piling. Crowds of local kids wearing knickers and vests (no posh cossies here) were swimming in the canal (which was a murky shade of khaki) or the river by the bridge. A woman was washing clothes in the cut at a set of steps by the house on the opposite bank. The kids decided because we didn’t speak Polish we must be German and kept saying Guten tag! Dumpkofs! Mike went back to taking the 35mm camera apart. I did the callback phone bill calculations. Our rate per minute had gone up because we’re in Poland. It was 38$c (20p) a minute in Germany, now it’s 42$c (22p) a minute (fixed ‘phone rate). Someone swimming in the cut knocked on our boat hull and said hello in English. It was an Irishman! Originally from near Athlone, he was an English teacher and had been living in Elblag for twelve years, running his own private English school (called Speak Easy) he was married to a Polish lady and they had a young daughter. He said he was very happy to live here, Poland is a wonderful country. He warned us to be careful as this was a very poor area, as there is no form of social security some people would steal anything to sell it that wasn’t nailed down. He told Bill to keep a close eye on Fanny, they’d steal the dog and sell it to the local Chinese restaurant! Remind me never to try Chinese food in Poland. We chatted for about twenty minutes while he trod water – he must be a good swimmer. This was the first time he’d been to his favourite swimming place this year and had been astounded to find us moored there. I did egg and chips for dinner (with all the chatting I’d forgotten to defrost any meat from the freezer!). Watched “Corrie” and the weather. Another fine day tomorrow. Bill came round to check on the route on his maps for where we were going over the next few days. I had the PC on again, still three days behind with the log entries. Will I ever catch up? Mike carried on working on the 35mm camera and lost a tiny, tiny screw which had flicked out of the container he was using to keep them in and gone into hiding. He searched the floor, the cushions, his clothing and still couldn’t find it. He asked Bill if he had any old clocks he could steal a tiny screw from. Bill told him that Rosy was a modern boat and there were no clockwork items on board! And this is a bloke with a collection of hurricane lamps in his engine room?! 

Wednesday 18th May 2005 jnc Kanal Jagielloński to below lift 3, Oleśnica.

Click here for a Google map of today's route

2º C overnight. A beautiful sunny day – how did the TV weather forecast get it so wrong, were they a day out? We left at 8.00 a.m. The breeze was chilly and there was a slight flow on the canal, the same way as we were going - towards Elblag. More black terns were catching flies. The reedy banks were full of loud warblers. The dykes were some 20m back from the canal and covered with stunted goat willow. We could see tall blocks of flats and factory chimneys in the distance. We passed a fishing party, four young men with two cars, a rowing boat and a

speedboat, plus a tent. They looked too gob-smacked to acknowledge our greetings. In front of them, were two wooden posts in the canal bed with red rags fluttering from them. We slowed down and crawled past in case they marked nets we couldn’t see. In Elblag the banks were lined with factories – then we spotted a boat harbour and did a quick right turn to go and search for water. An old chap was working on a yacht. He spoke no

English but we managed to ask for water which he went off to organise while we tied up – well the front half anyway – to a long wooden landing stage, part of which was occupied by small yachts. A purple hosepipe supplied the necessary and we both filled up. A large older bloke arrived and came to chat. He also spoke no English, but he brought his digital camera with him and picked on me to photograph. A younger guy with a long haired German shepherd dog at his heels came to speak about mooring. We said we only wanted water as we were pushing on to

Ostroda. They didn’t want any money for the water, which was very nice of them. As we turned back on to the main canal we spotted another boat yard on the far side – no signs of boating life at all for ages and now we were spoiled for choice! On the left bank we passed a very large factory with Alstom in large letters on its roof. Two very large propellors stood on the grass between the factory and the canal bank as decoration. On the right bank there was a police station

with two police boats moored in an arm (which looked like former GDR boats). Four very large trip boats were moored by a footbridge across the canal.  Later we realised that these boats did not continue any further in the same direction we were going but probably went down the other canal (Szkarpawa) and out into the big lagoon. Beyond the bridge there was a nice quay for mooring by a tall church tower.  Just before a railway bridge there was a junction, we took the left turn and went under the bridge – looking closely at the map later

the right turn was called Fiszewka. A bit further on we were faced with another junction and turned left again – on our right was another un-navigable canal called Kanal Tjna. There were lots of fishermen on the banks as we left Elblag behind. The first lake we came to was just a wide area off to our right covered with weed and occupied by swans, geese and seagulls. The first big lake was called Druzno and was wide, edged with lily pads and reeds. As I started

making lunch Mike called me to look at a big bird of prey. It was all dark brown with just a

whitish top of its head and neck. The only thing like it in my field guide book was an Imperial eagle. It was flying low over the reeds, dived down to catch something, then it took off to land out of sight in a tree. The canal leaving the lake was bordered on the left bank by a low dyke backed with wide empty meadows and the right bank was lined with goat willow trees, which were teeming with fluffy seeds. I photographed the first trip boat coming towards us. A modest size, 25m long by about 3.3m wide, the passengers all waved as we passed by them quite closely as the navigation was narrow. At 1.30 p.m. we arrived at the first boat lift,

number five Całuny Nowe (in German Neu Kußfeld), a 13m lift spread over a slope of 450m. We went up first while Bill waited in the narrows by the winding gear. It was quite an experience. All that was visible of the right hand trolley was two sets of wooden walkways with handrails. There was a shed bythe space where the other, descending trolley came to rest on the left side of the cut, but there was no one around. There was another hut on the crest of the slope, so Mike went a walk to find someone. The guy he found said OK he would be ready in a couple of minutes. We took the boat into the trolley and strung two ropes out from either side of the bows and the same from the stern to keep the boat in the centre of the flat bed when the water disappeared. We’d seen pictures of the trolley out of the water with trip boats in it, so we knew it was flat. There was a gong (Really!) on the left hand walkway to beat when we were ready to go. As the cables pulled the trolley up the bank the boat settled on to the timbers which ran horizontally across the bed of the trolley, sloping metal girders supported the wooden walkways and their handrails on either side of the boat. It was faster that we’d

imagined and in no time we were at the top of the 450m slope and running down the much shorter slope into the pound between lifts five and four. I moored the boat by the winding gear house, while Mike went off back down the slope on foot to give Bill a hand to come up with Rosy. He’d left me with all the Polish change we’d got and instructions to pay for the two boats. I put fenders down and tied rather precariously to a short section of wooden fendering with the bows pointing to the middle of the cut. Lots of books had fallen off the top of the bookcase, so I stacked them a bit more neatly on the floor and removed those that were left, placing those that could fall off down on the floor. Absent-mindedly, I collected the change off the roof and dropped it into my jeans pocket, completely forgetting they were a very old pair with a hole in the right hand pocket (normally I never put things in my jeans pockets) – the change went plink, plink, plink on the gunwale and bounced into the canal. Wonderful. Too deep to reach the bottom and, I found when I checked the depth with a short shaft,

the bottom was covered with rocks anyway so I had no chance of recovering the 15 Złotys I’d just lost. As Rosy came up to the top of the slope I went to pay the man with 30 Złotys in notes, securely in my other pocket. The winchman was sitting on a bench on canal level, so I asked if I had to pay him, he said “tak” (yes) and indicated I should follow him and went off down a long flight of wooden stairs down the bank to the winch house. No

English again and I had a job to understand – all five lifts were to be paid for at the same price as the locks, 5,68 each, making a total of 28,40 Złotys (£4.50) for each boat. He had no change – his cashbox was empty. Bill arrived – he wanted his own ticket as a keepsake – and he’d only got a 50 Złoty note. The man gave Bill my twenty, so we ended up paying 30 Złotys each. (A cunning way of getting a tip and they all do it, or try to!) As we set off to the next lift, I had Bill’s

camera plus our 35mm and got off to walk the slope on the next one, lift number four Jelenie (Hirshfeld in German) a 22.5m lift on a slope of 510m, taking photos of the two boats. There was no path on the side we were on, so Mike and I trudged up the corn field, Mike went off through the undergrowth to get to Rosy and I walked on until I got to the rail tracks. Mike went up on Rosy to help Bill, then the two of them walked back down the slope and brought Temujin up. Back on board the boat, we went on along the canal to lift number three, Oleśnica. There were woods on our left and fields of yellow colza on our right. We moored in the gap at the side of the big cable drums, while Bill got Rosy settled on the trolley. Mike went to help as before. They donged the gong and waited. No one appeared, it was 5.30 p.m. work must have stopped for the day. Bill reversed Rosy to the winding gear and we dropped ropes on the bollards by the cable drums and a bit of metal sticking up out of the bank. Bill moored Rosy in the gap with his bows on the winding gear island and his stern in the narrows. It was 5.45 p.m. by the

time we’d tied up. I cooked a stir-fry for dinner. Mike lit the coal fire as it started getting chilly and when we went to bed at midnight it was still alight.  

Tuesday 17th May 2005 Malbork to jnc Kanal Jagielloński.

2.2º C Mild with hazy sunshine at first. Rain, windy and cold later. Bill went to the Post Office first thing, still no sign of his package from Hans. We set off downstream on the placid little river Nogat just after 9.00 a.m. At ten to ten we arrived at the first lock, Rakowiec. It was empty, the keeper filled it and we went in. Mike paid for the two boats 11,36 Zł (back to the old price) and then we descended. Surprised to see the Dutch boat, Uhuru, waiting below the lock as we left it. The German skipper said he’d been to Ostroda and the moorings were better at Iława, he’d also managed to get to Gdansk. He said he’d gone straight down the Wisła first and crossed the Szkarpawa canal to get to Elblag. He had been pushing on as he has to be home by 1^st June. We noted his home port on the stern of the boat was Lingen (on the Ems

– almost in Holland!). We wished him well and said we’d meet again no doubt. Below the lock the river was narrow with

Map of location courtesy of Wikimedia

broken topped dykes on either bank. Nesting black terns were hovering over the lily pads catching insects. We had an SMS from Hans, he told us that in Germany they keep Poste Restante mail for two weeks and asked what they do in Poland. We sent one back to say that EU regulations say post should be kept for one month, but there is no guarantee of that anywhere. It began to rain. We arrived at Mikałowo lock just after midday. A lady keeper had just arrived on her bike, with two dogs trailing her every move, and opened a gate for us. She'd come from a farm house two hundred metres further back up the river – the lock house was unoccupied and slowly rotting away. We asked about water. She replied OK, we could have some in containers from her house. No, but thanks a lot, we needed our tanks filling, we need a tap near enough for a hosepipe. The bottom lock gate looked really heavy, shame I couldn’t get off to help her. The paddles had looked hard work too. It was now pouring with rain and getting colder. We pushed on. Lunch under the brolly. We were really cheesed off with the weather by the time we reached the junction with the Jagielloński kanal. We turned right, under a bridge with stop gate and moored next to some piling beyond the bridge. It was 2.45 p.m. and I was soaked and cold. Mike put the satellite dish up and we got changed into dry clothes. We watched the weather forecast, rain was indicated for the next day all over Poland again. We had the central heating on, which Mike switched off last thing, but left the coal fire burning all night.