Thursday 9th June 2005 Bydgoszcz to summit above lock 6 Osowa Góra.

Statue of a high wire artist above the canal in Bydgoszcz

Cold 4.4º C overnight. Clear blue skies, sunny although cold with the north wind blowing, clouding over after lunch. Mike was up at 6.30 a.m. having had more thoughts on repairing the video camera. We left at 8 a.m. A four man rowing skiff came through the railway bridge at the end of the regatta lake. It followed us through the bridge and overtook us. Crossed the next small 

Rosy. River Brda old granary in Bydgoszcz 

lake and went under a pipe bridge and another rail bridge. Two men came running down to the river’s edge, one of them fending off a dog. They ran along the bank under the trees, up to no good we were sure. Minutes later a man appeared with the dog, chasing after them. We wondered what they’d done. The water in the river Brda was so clear we could see all the weeds on the bottom. Six 

Double railway bridge

goosanders, all in a row, were swimming along the edge under the overhanging trees. As we drew level with them they dived under the water one after the other, like synchronised swimmers. The tower blocks of the city centre came into view at 9.10 a.m. A crocodile of schoolkids crossing the road bridge by Tesco’s depot were mouthy and impolite. Even though they spoke no English

Power station Bydgoszcz

we could be sure they were being rude, especially as one stuck up two fingers. Not the British two fingered salute, this was index and little finger. We motored on, still going against the flow, on into the city centre. Took photos of the boats and statues. A tightrope walker balanced above the river made a pretty picture, an unusual statue. The barge Bill 

Lock 3 Okole Bydgoski kanal

had seen go through the lock was moored in the centre, it was a Belgian flagged Dutch tjalk called Archimedes. On board were lots of bikes and a few passengers, it appeared to be a hotel boat that did cycling tours. We wondered whether it had come up or down the Wisła. Lock 2, Bydgoszcz, was ready for us. We went in and put ropes on bollards in the wall, while Bill brought Rosy in alongside. Ground 

Lock 4 Czyzkowko Bydgoski kanal

paddles kept the boats glued to the wall. There was not much need for ropes and the fenders were in danger of being pancaked. When the lock was full we refilled our water tanks and Bill paid for the lock plus the next one. A trip boat was waiting below for the lock as we left the top. This lock and the next two are all modern locks, electrically powered, which replaced five old locks dating back to upgrading of the canal

Old lock house lock 5 Prady Bydgoski kanal

by the Prussians in the 1870s. Up the first deep lock, no 3 Okole, on the right hand wall, flattening the poor fenders again. No need to pay, money collected at the next lock. A short pound, with rocks along both banks which showed that filling the deep lock had drawn off about half a metre’s depth of water, and we were at lock 4, Czyżkówko, where the lock cabin was on the left. We set up the ropes 

Temujin & Rosy  lock 5 Prady Bydgoski kanal

to go on the left hand wall and were sent on to the right hand wall by the keeper. The boat pulled off the wall to start off with, but was OK when the second side pond started filling the lock. Bill gave me a hand with the rope, putting a loop of the rope on to the bollard higher up the wall, ready for when we reached it. Mike paid the middle aged couple who were running the lock. It was midday as we went along the mucky pound to the last two locks up on to the summit. Bill stayed back until we

Moored above lock 6 Osowa Gora Bydgoski kanal

were a couple of hundred metres in front. He said he could see all the bubbles and muck our prop had thrown up off the bottom starting to subside. We said we’d go along the right hand side of the pound and if he kept to the left of the channel he should miss most of the rubbish. The last two locks were old locks, manually operated, but with drop down top end gates. Lock Prądy was ready with both gates open. We were directed by the keeper to go up to the front of the lock on the left hand wall. Not too happy about being so close to the gate but, after a bit of a strain on the rope to

A visitor on the mooring

start off with, it was OK. And we rose another 3.4m. A man with a little yacht was waiting to descend. We motored on to the last lock No 6, Osowa Góra, where a middle aged couple worked the lock and took the money. Bill paid. This time we stayed at the back of the chamber and it was much better, no strain on the ropes. The keepers came to ask questions about the boats, but with no English or German it was difficult to understand what they were asking. We asked if we could moor above the lock, yes OK on the left. We’d been hoping we could stay on the nice concrete quay on the right, but the path along the bank lead to a house, while

A very strange looking scarecrow goat?

the old sloping concrete bank on the left backed on to a field where a tractor was working and two cows were grazing. Bill moored under the trees. I’d walked up from the lock, so I caught a rope for him. Mike brought our boat along the bank further on and tied to a stump in the canal at the stern, threw a pole out at the bows as we were on the bottom and a plank out for me to get back on. It was 1.30 p.m. the earliest we’d stopped for ages. Made a salad for lunch. Mike went to sort out why air was getting into the cooling water system when he turned the engine off. He re-sealed a 

Trip boat heading for lock 6 Osowa Gora

pipe. Bill came round to say that he’d had a text from our friend Hans to say the maps he’d sent to us poste restante at Malbork had finally come back to him from Poland, marked unclaimed!! Bill had a look at our new Kodak digital camera. He said his was getting old and hadn’t enough pixel power. Mike went to look at “the big red thing in the engine room” (a note to that effect had been written on the whiteboard in the cabin for ages as a reminder for one of his jobs to do). There was water in the air accumulator where there should be air, so maybe the membrane has a leak. Further investigation needed. I made a chicken stirfry for dinner. The night was very dark and starry. Getting cold again.

Wednesday 8th June 2005 Bydgoszcz.

Leaving Brda lock on the 9th

9.3º C Cloudy, sunny spells, cold and windy. Bill went shopping and bought a new TFT computer monitor from Auchan. He said there was a special offer on, buy one and get a voucher to spend in the store giving 30% of the value of the purchase off your next lot of shopping. Bill said he couldn’t use it, so he gave it to the salesman, who almost had tears in his eyes when he told Bill it was equivalent to a week’s money for him. We had lunch then borrowed Bill’s bike (to carry our groceries back on)

Crossing Regata lake on the Brda on the 9th

and went to Auchan to restock the cupboards and the freezer for the trip back to Germany. As we went through the garden area around the lock Mike got on the bike and rode it. He stopped and fell over, landing full length on the tarmac. He must have misjudged the distance to the floor (Bill is taller) and his foot didn’t reach. He had an audience too. The security guard had just gone to meet a group of schoolkids who were on a visit to the lock! At Auchan, Mike finally got his

Log rafts on the river Brda

new varilux specs from Vision Express. Then he posted our last print film off to the UK. Then, besides the normal groceries, I bought a couple of tee-shirts (19Zł and 11 Zł) and Mike had two packs of 10 CD-RWs for 20 Złotys each. It was 4.30 p.m. when we got back, luckily the gate was still unlocked. It took ages to pack everything away, put the washer on and do two loads of washing and cook chops for dinner. My legs were aching. Bill called to say he’d lost his Nationwide card and the security guard on duty wouldn’t let him out. Mike went with

4 man rowing skiff going into Bydgoszcz

him to tell the guy it was important for Bill to get back to Auchan as he’d lost his credit card in the shop. He’d already cancelled it by ‘phone. They had got it in Auchan. Mike had almost done the same thing in Vision Express - went away leaving his card in the machine! Bill said a new one was already on its way to his address in Britain. 

Bydgoscz or Bromberg as the Prussians called the city

Tuesday 7th June 2005 Chełmno to Bydgoszcz.

Moored on the quay at Chelmno with the river rushing past

9º C Sunny at first with a mackerel sky, soon changing to grey flying clouds, cold and windy. We set off early at 7.10 am, with our coats and scarves on, to do the 35 kms to Bydgoszcz. The water level had risen overnight by 7cms. We passed the first exposed tip of a sandbank by KP 803 and the next at KP 804, the latter was bigger and covered with birds and extended underwater quite a way up river. Groynes on the right bank made the water speed up and made us slow down to a complete stop. The boat was doing great speed

Bill and Fanny, moored at Chelmno

through the water, but making no forward progress over the bed for a few minutes. Extra revs were applied for a few minutes until the boat started to move again, there weren’t many revs left to add on. Over to the left again at KP 802 and our speed through the water picked up again so we could lower the engine revs a little. We went through a cloud of swallows, hundreds of them, diving and darting over the river eating flies. I went in to make us a warming cup of soup and some toast to go with it. At

Lashed securely to the quay at Chelmno

11.10 am we passed KP 792, 20kms to go. Back and forth, zig-zagging across the river. Another fast flowing patch in the river caused Mike to increase revs to almost full throttle to get the boat moving. Lunch at 12.45 pm was sandwiches, taken in turns as steering was not easy with the engine running at such high speed. Mike had increased the revs to see if we could improve on the average speed for the day. At 1.25 pm we passed KP 782, 10kms left to do. One side of the river to other, searching through binoculars for marker posts hidden in the trees, not visible until the last second. Under Bydgoszcz bridge at 3 pm, taking photos of all the old tugs and pans moored in the small basin downstream of the bridge and the sandbanks piling up behind each pier of the road bridge. As we passed under the right hand arch, I spotted an old dredger moored on the left side of the river, anchored in the middle. Beyond the bridge close to the left bank there was a large sandbank, where upwards of fifty swans (the only ones we’d seen on the river) were

Sand barges at Bydgoszcz

competing for standing room. Another sand dredger was moored in the middle of the river not far upstream of the right turn into the Brda, no signs of life on board. We left the Wisła at 3.45 pm. Our speed increased to 9 kph as we entered the slack water of the lock cut, stopped to moor next to a twenty foot high dolphin. Mike climbed the ladder, forcing his way past a dozen or more years’ accumulation of spider webs only to find there was no walkway across to the bank. We moved upriver to a

Sandbanks under the bridge at Bydgoszcz

set of dolphins closer to the lock and this time there was a passarelle to the bank. Mike went up to see the keeper. The lock started emptying as he climbed back down the ladder. The 4m rise was easily accomplished with the aid of floating bollards to tie to. The water level of the Wisła had gone down 1.5m since we were here last. Bill went in the lock office to pay for the lock. The charges had doubled as we were beyond normal working hours, i.e. after 3 p.m. We tied up to the piling above the lock.

Digging out the sand

Glad to be out of the fast flowing water and the force of the wind. It was 4.30 pm. The average speed had risen from 3.7 kph to 4.2 kph by increasing the engine revs, even though the speed had varied wildly during the day. As soon as we’d tied up and packed all the gear away we both went to sleep, absolutely shattered. So glad that was over.

How many swans can you get on one sandbank??

4th - 12th May 2005 Waiting above Brda lock for better weather........

No photos as this posting consists of just some details from my diary of the daily problems of life on a narrowboat in Poland!

Wednesday 4th May 2005 Brda lock.

Grey and overcast, heavy rain started mid-morning. 12.4ºC overnight. Up at eight. Bill asked Mike if the chandlers did spare seats for Elsans as his had splits in each side which pinch both the cheeks of his bum! Mike sent a text to Peter to get him to ask about it in the chandlers. A trip boat with a happy, cheery party of guests on board, playing loud gypsy-style music, went down the lock for a trip on the Wisła. Mike decided to take our boat back upriver to the lake to test the echo sounder. It started to rain as we set off. Brolly up. As soon as we left the short lock cut the display began to show the depth, so it was the bad bottom by the lock which had been refusing to give a signal. Mike was very relieved to know that there was nothing wrong with the echo sounder - we will really need it when going down the river. Back to the mooring. Bill had moved Rosy a bit further along the mooring towards the lock, so we moored where we’d set off from - on the end of the dolphins. Once we were tied up Mike changed the engine oil. The trip boat came back up the lock in the late afternoon with a very happy, merry group of folks on board. Then Mike did a classic when he was getting the petrol can out of the front hatch to fill up the generator in the pouring rain – he took a dive off the bows into the river. It was deep, almost 5m and he said he opened his eyes underwater to find out which way was up and it was all green. He was OK except for being very wet – but he’d lost his glasses - again! Finished off the Polish stuff for dinner, stuffed pancakes and pierogi with chips and beans.

 Thursday 5th May 2005  Brda lock.

More bad weather predicted. Grey day with damp air, but little of the predicted rain turned up. Transbode-6 left just after dawn. In an attempt to recover his new varifocal specs, Mike attached my fishing landing net (not used for donkey’s years) to a length of copper tube which was attached to the end of the long pole for the HF mast. He used this to try trawling the bottom to retrieve his glasses. First the wooden pole at the end of the HF mast broke – it had several joins in it which came apart. We cobbled it back together with whipping cord and duct tape. It came apart at another joint. He found another length of copper tube to replace the wooden pole and we had a working dredging tool. He paused to go with Bill to see the lock keeper. They told him that they don’t work weekends so it looks like we’re stuck until Monday. Mike asked the keeper if we could have some electricity (after he’d spied the day before that Transbode-6 had been connected to an electricity supply under a plate on the the lockside) and we got a cable connected up for a donation of 20 Złotys. Not enough current to run the washing machine, but enough for the TV, ‘fridge and computer. Back to the search for his glasses. After about an hour of fetching up oozing, black, stinking mud and no sign of his specs we gave up, had some lunch and then ‘phoned Vision Express UK. Mike spoke to the manageress. She’d got all the details of his last pair and said she would try and locate the same frames and ring back. She rang back later to say they’d had no luck, they couldn’t locate the same frames so they couldn’t do him some new varifocals as they needrd to be measured very accurately. His only option now was to try to get some here in Bydgoszcz. He had also been in process of repairing Bill’s TV, which had stopped working on 240v but was OK on 12v. He’d found a dry joint and re-soldered it for him, but the TV still wasn’t working. Bill came over to see if he could help with doing the repairs. We got our ‘photos out to look at the mooring possibilities at the junction with the Nogat while Bill was on board, there were dolphins for big boats but not much else. So there was not much point going there until Monday otherwise we would be stuck on the river without a reasonable place for mooring. Mike puzzled over Bill’s TV. He gave up and returned it to Bill so he could watch TV for the evening – he’d have it back to have another look at it later. I cooked pork steaks for dinner with an apricot omelette for desert.

Friday 6th May 2005  Brda lock.

Grey, showery and cold. 6.7º C overnight. Mike ‘phoned Vision Express in the UK again and told the girl what had happened and asked if they would try looking to see if they had frames like the ones he had twelve months ago. She said she would ring back. He ‘phoned her again an hour later. She said she would call him back, she hadn’t found any yet. When she called back it was bad news, they hadn’t any of the older frames either. Nothing else for it than to get some here in Bydgoszcz. He went to talk to the lock keepers. There were three of them in the office (good jobs these guys have got - there has been nothing through the lock since we’ve been here but that one trip boat which went down and back) and one of them spoke a little English. Mike asked if there was an opticians at the local supermarket complex. Yes, three kilometres away and he would take him in his car. Saves getting the moped off, getting it up and over the piling on to the walkway would not be impossible but certainly wouldn’t be easy. He came back shortly after. A disaster had occurred. A lens had fallen out of his old glasses and smashed on the floor while he was in Vision Express (which was in the Auchan mall less than 2 kms away) and he could get varifocals, but it would take ten days. He had to go back in an hour to get his old specs back as he was having to have new plastic lenses in his old frames. I was finishing off the chores. He made himself some lunch then went back to Auchan with the lock keeper. He’d decided that we would pick up his new specs on the return journey, he’d toyed with the idea of asking to have them sent to Ostroda but it’s not very far to there and we could be back here in less than two weeks. Mike came back to the boat and went out again – he said the Polish were up to another scam. I had just sat down to eat my lunch. A guy had asked if we wanted some diesel. He said he’d got 20 litres. He wanted 120 Złotys for it. No way, Mike told them – that’s far too expensive – at 2,50 Złotys a litre (like we paid the barge skipper) that’s 50 Złotys. OK, he said. Then he carried the can down to the landing. Mike said there’s never twenty litres in there! Bill measured it, there was 15 litres. Bill gave him 40 Zlotys for it. (Hoped it would burn OK!) Mike came in to tell me all about it and show me his new lenses, 90 Złotys (£15) not bad! The bill for his new varifocals was 1,140 Złotys (£190 only slightly dearer than the ones he’d just lost which had cost £186 last year) he’d paid a deposit of 500 Złotys using his Abbey card, which got stuck in the machine and there was a right performance to free it! He will pay the balance when we come back to collect them. Sorted out the coal store – we’d got very little left, just egg coal and briquettes, plus he shifted the anchor to the stern, ready for going downstream on the Wisła.

Saturday 7th May 2005  Brda lock.

7.2º C overnight. Sunny spells and very heavy downpours of rain. Three small power boats came up the lock, they were emergency services and they went past our mooring at quite high speed making a lot of wash. A Dutch boat, a 15m Westlander called Uhuhru, turned up and moored behind us on the dolphins where the barge Transbode-6 had been. Mike went for a quick few words with the skipper. We’d met before in Havelberg. The skipper was German and was working single handed. He had spent the winter in Szczecin and was on his way to the same place as us, Elblag, then Ostroda. He planned to go straight down the Wisła to the Nogat in one go. It’s 115 kms, but he expected to do 10 kph with the flow. He said he would leave the boat in Ostroda with a friend boat-sitting, while he went back on his motorcycle to pick up his wife and then they would go to explore Iceland. We got ready to go and do some shopping in Auchan, which was about a mile away. The German guy’s boat was in the lock ready to go down as we set off on foot. We had a few words with him as the gate lifted behind his boat and wished him “a hands breadth under the keel” as he left. (We thought the keepers here said they didn’t work on weekends?) It was a pleasant walk past the old lock and out through a gate by the old German lock house (the navigation was built by the Prussians) - once we’d sussed out that the main gate wasn’t actually locked – no one answered our knocks on the door, although we could hear voices. Past lots of small houses surrounded by scruffy plots or neat vegetable gardens, with lots of lilac starting to bloom. The road was bordered by some ancient acacia thorn trees. Crossed the busy main road into Bydgoszcz and we were in the hypermarket. Next door was a Leroy Merlin DIY store and there were lots of little shops (the usual clothes boutiques, sports shops, etc, even a Flunch - all French!) in the small, double-allied mall in front of Auchan. It was pretty quiet when we got there at around 10.30 a.m. but gradually became crowded with Saturday shoppers. It wasn’t much like its French parent, the goods on sale were subtly different – the French would have been surprised to see a complete double row of hundreds of types of smoked sausages on sale and the aisles had shelves reaching up some four metres making it feel like shopping in a warehouse or cash and carry. However, we found most of the stuff we wanted and more. I restocked the freezer with meat at half the price I’d been paying in Germany; chicken and pork chops, tenderloin and diced meat for a stew; some spuds, salad and cooked meat; a new broom handle to replace the one we broke fishing for Mike’s specs; pan scourers and Chinese noodles and we were spoiled for choice for fresh bread. We spent 150 Złotys (37,50€ or £25!) Mike dropped a card with our ‘phone number in at Vision Express (same size shop as any small British opticians, not a huge optical lab as in GB) while I packed the groceries into our two rucksacks. We almost made it back to the boat before it started to pour with rain and a strong wind blew it almost horizontal. We headed for shelter behind a large storage shed. The rain was pouring off its roof and we were still getting soaked. We ran for the bridge over the tail end of the lock chamber and Mike started to fish for the boat keys which he had left in the bottom of one of the bags. A security guard had seen us and came sprinting over, under cover of a large black brolly. He realised we were from the boats moored above the lock. He spoke no English and used the word “barka” for boat, which means barge according to our dictionary. Once back on the boat (not easy getting down off the horizontal sloping piling, especially in the wet) I changed most of my clothes and hung them up to dry. Emptied the rucksacks, which were also very wet, and hung them up to dry too. The boat looked like a Chinese laundry. I set about stowing all the food. Mike made himself a salad and I had a slice of wholemeal baguette with tuna and real Hellman’s mayo (I bought a huge jar – German mayo is not to my taste, it’s not even like British salad cream). Had trouble getting the analogue satellite to work later when Mike set it up ready for the F1 Grand Prix racing from Spain next day. The three small power boats went back down the lock. They sat in the chamber for ages before the lock gate lifted and the chamber emptied. Mike scanned a booklet which the German guy off Uhuru had given to Bill, a canoe guide to the Wisła. I cooked Chinese fried rice with pork for dinner.

Sunday 8th May 2005   Brda lock.

6.2º C Pouring with rain when we got up – it rained heavily up until late evening. Mike watched the Spanish Grand Prix. Bill came over for a chat. Gave him the recipe books I’d just scanned. The forecast for Monday’s weather was just as grim – more heavy rain – not the weather for following bank markers through binoculars. Another day off.

 

Monday 9th May 2005   Brda lock.

3.2º C overnight. Bright sunny morning turning showery later – the showers were heavy. Mike printed Bill a copy of the translation we did the night before of the Wisła canoe guide. He asked Bill if he would post our two 35mm films off to Doubleprint as he was going to the post office by Auchan. When he returned he said the woman in the post office wouldn’t accept the envelope as the address wasn’t the right size (admittedly it was only a little square in the corner) and so he put it in an envelope (he said he had to get some envelopes for himself anyway) and had to pay 3,90 Złotys to post it – so much for Europewide freepost! Three tugs from Gdansk came up the lock with a pan on which there were several large steel constructions. Two of the tugs sped off in front while the largest pushed the pan up the Brda heading for Bydoszcz. Bill knocked – he hadn’t even noticed the tugs! – he wanted to know if a keyboard he’d given us came with a disc as he was looking for a file which might be on it. We couldn’t find the file he was looking for. Put the central heating on again as the temperature took a plunge.

Tuesday 10th May 2005   Brda lock.

Down to 3º C again overnight. Chilly, sunny with heavy showers. Mike ran the engine for an hour while I did the ironing which had been hanging about for a week plus. The washing pile keeps growing, but that will have to wait until we get to somewhere where we can get a supply of water. Bill called to ask if we’d seen the weather forecast – no – more showers tomorrow. All we can do is wait it out. Lunch. Mike brought the HF antenna mast in the cabin and made the new broom handle fit once he’d removed the stub of the old one. I had the PC on to do the log and more scanning - while we have electricity we might as well do some work on it. Tandoori chicken nuggets and chips for dinner.

Wednesday 11th May 2005  Brda lock.

3.8º C Sunshine and showers with a nasty hailstorm in the afternoon. Chores in the morning and then after lunch we went on foot to get some groceries from Auchan. I bought a nice new salmon pink cotton tee shirt top for 9,99 Zł (£1.59!) but Nivea deodorant was more expensive than German prices at 10,06Zł (£1.60). Spent a total of 167,17 Zł (£26.50) The gate by the old lock house was locked. An old lady came out of the house, so Mike called hello and she turned to speak to us, but didn’t understand that we needed the gate unlocking. A middle aged man (her son?) appeared and he understood. He checked, the gates were locked. In German, he said follow him and we could go through his garage. He had a car in there being repaired which he showed us. It was a Fiesta which had had an accident in Germany. He’d bought it to repair it and was making a good job of it, replacing the damaged passenger side doors, then all it will need is a coat of paint. He said the engine was good. His son was working in England and was coming home for a five week holiday starting Sunday. We thanked him for letting us through his garage and we crossed the old lock, pausing to have a look at all the gear which was still in place for opening and closing the gates. As we went to look at the water level marker (pegel) by the new lock – it had risen from 3.83m to 4.45m (at one point it had gone down as far as 3.4m) it started to rain, so we made tracks back to the boat but the rain turned to hail as we said “Hello we’re back” to Bill. So we all disappeared inside rather quickly. Mike had been searching through the rucksack to find the keys and couldn’t find them, he thought he had locked them in the boat. Fortunately he hadn’t snapped the lock on the front door. I put the groceries away, made a cuppa and had a sit down. Mike and Bill decided to set off downriver in the morning and so he set the alarm clock for 5.30 a.m.

Yr. 12 Day 361 Thursday 12th May 2005  Brda lock.

4.2º C overnight, sunny spells and heavy showers. Mike got up at 5.30 a.m. and got the boat ready to move. As he and Bill were standing watching the grey skies turning blacker as it got closer to lock opening time of 7.00 a.m. it started to pour with rain. Brolly up. It rained for half an hour. The lock staff emptied the lock and brought work boats into the chamber. At that point we gave up. Mike reconnected the electricity cable and put the satellite dish back up, then he collected Bill’s TV to have another look at it to see if he can find out why it was only working on 12 volts and not on 240v. I made a buttered chicken curry for dinner. We’ll try again tomorrow to start the long trip down the Vistula.

Tuesday 3rd May 2005 Junc Noteç canal to above Brda lock. 21.3kms 4 locks

Below lock 6 Osowa Góra.

12.1º C overnight. Warm sunny day. Up at seven, away at eight and in the top lock, No 6, Osowa Góra, twenty minutes later. No one around. Mike went to see if there was anyone at the house by the lock. Nope, nor the house a little way down the sandy lane. Bill tried ‘phoning the number for the lock that was in our German book. The man who answered didn’t understand. Mike suggested there might be someone at the next lock which was a kilometre away. Bill rode down on his bike. The people there got the next lock ready - he wasn’t sure if they understood that

Below lock 5 Prądy

there was no one to work the top lock. A bloke appeared from the house in the lane, he would ‘phone to get us a lock keeper. A woman arrived, not looking very pleased, at 9.45 a.m. after we’d been waiting for an hour and a half. She closed the top gate behind us and did the paperwork, charging Bill for two locks. We dropped down 3.4m in the top lock chamber of No 6, Osowa Góra, with a crowd of gongoozlers watching who’d gathered on the bridge over the tail of the lock. A man went past driving a loaded cart pulled by two white horses. The sharp right turn on a steep slope l

Old lock above lock 4 Czyżkówo

eaving the left side of the bridge looked very tricky, they did it at high speed making it look like something from the chariot race in Ben Hur! We trundled on down the short pound to the next lock and I made tea and toast whilst vacuuming the carpet. At lock 5, Prądy, another sullen faced woman worked the lock for us. She didn’t even want to see the previous lock receipts. Lock 4, Czyżkówo, was the first deep, modernised lock, worked by a keeper pressing buttons in a high cabin on the lockside. A young man came out to have all the details and relieve us of

Below lock 4 Czyżkówo

22,72 Złotys for the two boats for two locks. We hadn’t got the right change, we were 5 grosny short - he said forget the grosny - 22 Złotys was OK. An old chap accompanied him who was keen to know where we’d come from and where we were going. We’d moored as usual on the right hand side of the chamber where two paddles, counterbalanced with huge weights in an open tube, let water out into two economiser side pounds before the gate paddles in the bottom end mitre gates let out the remaining water into the short pound below. We descended 7.8m, fast, with recessed bollards set into the lock wall to hang the centre rope on. Just one

Below lock 3 Okole

kilometre to the next lock, No 3 Okole, where an elderly couple were out on the lockside to welcome us and call us over on to the left hand side. All the ropes, etc, were set up to use the right hand wall, but never mind - we have to be adaptable! Mike asked the old lady if there was drinking water available, she misunderstood him and said we had to move the boat down two more bollards towards the tail end of the lock chamber - Mike thought this was to get to a tap in the control cabin - no it was something to do with the suction from the paddles, which were on the left wall this time. I'd just about managed to get Bill’s rope attached to our bows

Electricity works on the river Brda

when the old chap had pulled the plug and we were descending. Mike had got the centre rope which he left to me and went to help Bill sort out his stern rope. Then he was moaning at me about not controlling the ropes properly and the wind was blowing the boats off the lock wall, so he had to restart our engine and bring us back on to the wall so I could change the rope over on to the next bollard down! What a fiasco! The old couple had retreated into the lock cabin. Below the deep lock - we’d gone down a further 7.4m - we were on the river Brda, following Rosy into Bydgoszcz. The flowing water was clear - we could see sandbanks below the surface! Two bridges

Rail bridges - very battered wooden baulks

very close together caused some consternation when Bill went through the middle arch of the old (and surrounded by very battered wooden baulks) three-arched, high, brick railway bridge. Too late to change our minds we spotted the navigation sign way up above us attached to the railings on the more modern road bridge, indicating we should have been over on the left. Fortunately there were two navigation arches – we’d gone through the one for uphill traffic, luckily there was none around! (There had been no sign of any “change over to the left bank” sign either!) Below the railway bridge we could see more sandbanks on a big left

Double railway bridge

hand bend as we went past a park full of people enjoying what must be a holiday. There was a fun run going on, lots of people in shorts with numbers on their vests were racing towards us along the path on the left hand bank. People in the park waved cheerily and there were lots of young people in rowing skiffs heading upriver being guided and coached by the usual guys in small speedboats with a megaphone. A red, white and blue painted tug coming towards us, stopped by a landing near the park just before the next bridge. It was a trip boat or water taxi, unloading passengers and picking up more. We carried on downriver into lock 2,

Bydgoszcz, where a pleasant young man came to take details and requested more cash. Mike asked if he had drinking water and we were glad to find he said yes, swop over to the left side of the lock again. We were down to half a tank. Our yellow hose and one of Bill’s short green ones did the trick and the tank was soon full. Meanwhile Mike went in the cabin to pay up –the guy got his sums wrong and tried to charge us for two locks, his and the one we’d just come down – we’d already paid for that one! We hadn’t got enough change still – Mike paid him 10 Złotys plus all the change we’d got - another 45 grosny - instead of the 11,36 Złotys that it should have cost us. I spotted some graffitti on the wall of

The water taxi in Bydgoszcz

the building behind the lock cabin, which was all smartly painted yellow, where someone had scrawled the word “Druid” - I took a photo (for our old friend JD) of Mike on the top steps of the lock cabin stairs with JD’s boat’s name written on the wall behind him! The trip boat arrived and came into the lock behind us just as I handed the hose over to Bill to refill Rosy’s water tank. A mere ten minutes later we were descending another 3.5m. The phone rang as the keeper started letting the water out - Mike had to hang on to the lock ladder with a boat shaft in one hand and ‘phone in the other, as the wind threatened to force the boats off the wall again. As soon as the lock was empty and Bill had moved out, the trip

Church and old granaries in Bydgoszcz

boat roared off to drop passengers at a landing in the city centre and overtook us again ten minutes later as we were passing a restaurant boat, called Melody, a converted 80m former commercial boat. There was a kid’s party going on on the right bank with loud pop music and a bouncy castle. More rowers were coming upriver, dodging the trip boat as it overtook us. I made lunch which we ate on the stern. We gauged that the Brda was gently flowing at around 1.5 kph. Out of the city centre and into a series of lakes. There were fishermen everywhere and posts either side of the channel

Modern building on banks of Brda

through the lakes. Judging by the ducks standing on the bottom several metres from the edges the lake was pretty shallow by the banks. Among the trees surrounding the lakes old factories were visible, with ancient brick chimneys extended upwards with concrete tubes, a hotch-potch of buildings and houses. We passed an old wharf with cranes and a few old boats still moored there and evidence of the days of log rafting remained where loads of logs had been strung together with thinner poles atop them and grouped together. Several dozens of these were located along the edges of a couple of small lakes next to a big woodyard where

Church on banks of Brda river

huge piles of timber were being kept damp by rotating sprinklers. There were lots of ancient dolphins for long-gone boats to tie to, now occupied by birds - cormorants, terns and gulls. A chorus of three gulls, sitting facing each other on top of three posts close very together, made us smile - they almost seemed to be singing in close harmony as the squawking changed note and key! Under a railway bridge we turned sharp left to face an enormous regatta site. The whole of the lake seemed to be occupied by strings of small yellow marker buoys for rowing lanes. At first we couldn’t make out which way to get around it, we couldn’t see any signs or

Statue of high wire artiste over the river Brda in Bydgoszcz

channel markers. Then, through binoculars, we spotted a small green cone on top of one of the starting gates for the racing course, way over on the far right hand bank. We didn’t think there was enough space between that and the bank until we got closer and could see there was a sizeable channel which lead to the lock. On the left bank an old commercial boat, about 100m long, was moored bows to the bank and beyond it was a small sailing club where a handful of little dinghies were enjoying the light breeze. By the lock there were dolphins linked by gangways with bank access which was occupied by a lone commercial, an 80m empty called

More statues in Bydgoszcz

Transbode-6 from Wrocław. Beyond it there was also mooring space on the left where another length of linked dolphins with a gangway on top of them, fronted with horizontal piling, lead to the lockside. We moored there and Rosy came alongside. Mike and Bill went to investigate. Bill carried Fanny as the gangways were made of open metal grids, which the dog hated walking on as it hurt her feet.  There was no one at the lock except a security guard, who told them that the lock opened at seven in a morning. Mike took the echo sounder out of its tube as he thought it was losing sensitivity and suspected the end of the transducer would be covered with molluscs. Bill sorted out a length of 22mm dia copper tube for him and soldered a fitting on to it to extend it with a piece of 28mm pipe with a copper to compression converter and a polypropylene nut glued in with araldite to make an extractor to pull the echo sounder transducer out of its tube, as it had become stuck and couldn’t be pulled out with the co-ax.

Log rafts on river Brda close to junction with  river Wisla (Vistula)

Bill (remember he is a diver) had baulked at the idea of freeing it by pushing from underneath! Although he did offer to lend Mike his diving mask - who quickly retorted - thanks, Bill, but it won’t fit me! Meanwhile a very drunken man staggered down the path towards the commercial moored behind us. He had two plastic bags with vodka bottles in each of them and the bottom fell out of one as he was passing our boats. He stopped to retrieve the bottle, which had fallen in the grass, and keeled over. He sat there for a while wondering which way was up and how to get there! Mike hid in the cabin - coward! A little later the skipper from the boat came to chat. Mike and Bill asked where they could obtain cheap diesel and he said look no further - he could sell them some of his. We moved the boats to moor alongside the battered old barge and he filled our containers from his tank. Mike was surprised to find it was white diesel, not red. He charged us 2,50 Złotys a litre (€0,62.5) and we each had 80 litres before he said no more. He’d just been showing Mike an advert in the paper for the local naughty ladies – he pointed to one advert and made a ‘phone call, got changed and then set off into town on the back of his friend’s motorcycle - we guessed where the profits from his diesel selling were going to be spent. We moved the boats back to the mooring and Mike continued trying to sort out the echo sounder which he had cleaned (it had been covered with mussels) but wouldn’t register any depth. He hung it overboard while I watched the display in the engine room and it showed a depth of 4m, but the display kept going off and wouldn’t register anything when he put the transducer back in its tube. Eventually he gave up and said it must be the grotty state of the bottom of the river under the boat causing the lack of return signal. Transducers either work or they don’t. I made a chicken five spice stir fry for dinner. Later we watched the European weather forecast on Sky News and saw a huge belt of heavy rain forecast for northern Poland and Germany for the next day. Mike told Bill he thought it would be a good idea if we stayed put until the bad weather cleared up. We couldn’t get any information from the barge skipper about moorings down the river Wisla towards Gdansk and we knew it would take us at least eleven hours to get to the Nogat where we knew there was a mooring below the lock. The mighty Vistula is a very difficult navigation at the best of times, so it would be advisable not to go if it’s pouring with rain as good visibility for chasing the channel markers is vital on a river full of shifting sandbanks.