Friday 10th June 2005 Osowa Góra to below lock 9, Nakło Zachód.

Summit level of Bydgoski canal

Really chilly night 1.3º C, we should have lit the fire! Sunny day, but with a cold wind blowing. Mike had to get up at 4.30 a.m. as the smoke detector started giving low beeps indicating the battery was on its way out. Bill set off on the dot at 8 a.m. We had a few extra items to sort out, pole and plank had to be brought back on board first. We set off at 8.10 a.m. along the 16 kms long summit pound of the canal Bydgoski. It was elevated on a small embankment to start off with, taking a more or less

Hrse drawn hay turner

straight course through farmland and meadows. The surface of the water was covered in a light layer of foam. We passed the junction with the canal which leads to the Warta via Posnan at 8.30 a.m. I had to take a photo of a young man driving a horse powered hay-turner in the field on our left. My mother used to drive one of those when she was in the Land Army during the war! Further on there were lots of men fishing around several pools on the left near the village of Gorzen. In the far distance

Below lock 7 Josefinki

we could see a low down band of cloud. The weather forecast of the previous night showed rain to the west of us and also a band of rain to the east, while we were in a corridor of cloud-free space. How long before we get wet? The top lock, No 7 Jósefinki, was ready for us, full with top end gate open. We went in, Bill brought Rosy alongside and Mike held the string. A pleasant quiet young man worked the lock. A man with two small yappy dogs worked lock 8, Nakło Wschód lock. This time Bill had gone in first, so we tied on the outside

The town of Naklo nad Notecia

of Rosy while we descended. Three workmen off the waterways tug and pan moored below the lock came to chat to Bill. They wanted to know where we’d come from and where we were going. We motored down the river (now on the Notec) to the waterways yard at Nakło. No one around, it was midday. Tied to one of the old boats moored there. Bill brought Rosy alongside and we had some lunch. Mike got a list together of things he needed to do at the Internet café and took two birthday cards to post.

Below lock 8 Naklo Wschod

Then he almost forgot to take his carefully written out list with him. The gate was locked, so they had to find the alternative way out. The Belgian hotel boat, tjalk “Archimedes”, went past heading downhill (same way as us) at 2.20 p.m. When the men returned from their expedition into Nakło, we set off again at 2.50 p.m. following Rosy down to lock 9, Nakło Zachód, which was empty when we got there. Strange as a trip boat had not long come uphill. The keeper, today a young man dressed in

Junction with the River Notec

camouflage gear, came from the house on the far side of the weir on the right hand bank and refilled the lock for us to go down. The top end gate lowered and we went in. We paid but Bill stepped off to give them the cash, 56,80 Zł, for the five locks (7 to 11). He said there were two other blokes in the little lock cabin and they had already got the paperwork done and ready for him. He’d also asked them if we could moor on the quay below the lock again for the weekend. It was 3.50 p.m. when we tied up alongside Rosy

Trip boat above lk 9

on the quay. During the evening it rained, heavily at times. A very smart looking cruiser arrived and anchored in the middle, where it stayed all night although there was enough room behind us on the quay for it to moor. There was nothing to tie to - we had had to improvise (what’s new?).

Above lock 9 Naklo Zachod

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.

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. 

Monday 2nd May 2005 Nakło Zachód to Jnc Notec canal. 19.4km 3 locks

Naklo nad Notecia town form the river

Up at seven. 5.9º C overnight sunny. The lock keeper at lock 9, Nakło Zachód, was dressed in his best uniform when we entered his lock at 8.00 a.m. Mike paid him for five locks and we rose 2.8m. Mike told him we would be pausing for shopping in Nakło, but he didn’t want to know. We moved on into the town and found a mooring at the waterways yard, next to a red painted inspection boat with our bows on the bottom by the bank. A very helpful man came out to take a rope, etc. He even found us a gangplank! OK to stay a couple of hours while we go shopping? Tak! Yes. It was 9.30 a.m. In front of our boat was a Bison tug boat and an accommodation

Fuzzy photo - moored in waterways yard
at Naklo to go shopping

boat for the dredging gang who were working a couple of hundred metres further upstream. Mike liberated our old trolley off the boat roof and gave Bill a hand to get his bike off, I found our rucksacks and we all went into Nakło. Bill went off on his bike to find an Internet café (which was by the Post Office) and we went to post some letters. We went the wrong way to start off with, turning left when we reached the town. I asked

Junc Notec (right) and Bydgoski kanal (left)
Cheating as this pic is from on the way back
Rosy is going downstream

a young man where the Post Office was, using my phrase book - which he read - then told us it was back the way we’d come, fourth turning on the left. We found it and queued to post our letters. It cost 9,50 Złotys to send two envelopes (about £1.60 which was very expensive). Back into the town for groceries, which we bought from a very small and very crowded supermarket. The choice was extremely limited. Most of the vegetables on offer were looking sad, there was no lettuce and the

Josefinki lock 7

spuds were tiny and shrivelled, but the tomatoes, mushrooms, bananas and broccoli were not too bad so we bought some. We added some cartons of longlife skimmed milk and a big bottle of pop, some pasta sauce and a jar of jam to the trolley and I also bought some Polish stuff, smetana (like cream) kroketi (stuffed pancakes) pierogi (meat stuffed ravioli) and a big pack of dumplings as we hadn’t found any decent spuds. Mike asked for some cheese at the deli

counter and got some, no idea what it was. Bread looked OK and I found some toasting bread too. A scruffy bloke who was stood behind us in the queue really stank very bad as if he’d poohed his pants. Spent 82 Złotys (approx £13.50). Loaded it all into two rucksacks, which Mike strapped on the trolley and wheeled it back the 700m to the boat. It was 11.15 a.m. when we got back. Bill returned about ten minutes after us, having spent two Złotys (33p) for an hour in a crowded internet café, but he had also bought very little from an equally rough Netto supermarket. We set off after Bill had eaten his lunch at 12.10 p.m. A bald man wearing a vest, shorts and wellies worked lock 8, Nakło Wschód (east), for us while two women sat on the 

Rubbish minicam pic - moored with plank to bank
Bydgoski kanal summit

lock edge chatting and laughing while the lock filled. His two small dogs yapped at Fanny. We rose 2m on to the kanał Bydgoski. Not far to the last lock before the summit, lock No 7, Jósefinki, where there were good quays both above and below the lock. Two men worked the lock and we rose 2m in the chamber. Noting that there was no lock house by the lock and wondering how we should get a keeper to work the lock when we return, we set off on the summit level which was on a low embankment to start off with, a couple of metres above the surrounding countryside. It was 1.00 p.m and we had 16 kms, almost all of it dead straight, before the first downhill lock. We told the keepers as we left that we would go into Bydgoszcz the next day - jutro - 

Looking down Notecki kanal at jnc with Bydgoski kanal

tomorrow. Six locks left to go down to the Wisła. A boat was coming towards us, which we thought at first look through binoculars was a loaded boat, but when it got closer we could see it was a crane boat being pushed by a small tug. The left bank was covered with silver birch woods, while on the right there were open fields leading to low hills. We concluded that the population must be on holiday when the banks were lined with fishermen and there were lots of small kids playing. I made some lunch and a cuppa. Mike discovered he’d got a job to do when we stopped. The rudder was loose, the welds holding the swan’s neck to the rudder post must have broken. We’d have to get the welder out. Bill had got a broken pulley for his alternator which needed welding too. We moored on the left bank, just before the junction where the Notec canal goes off to the right. Bill had explored the right bank and had ground to a stop some way from the edge. The left bank was shallow and we grounded on a hard sandy, gravelly bottom. It’ll have to do, so we slung the plank out and Mike banged four stakes in the edge of a grassy field. He set to work welding Bill’s pulley first. It had fallen apart, cracked off its boss, so he welded it on. Then he ground off the old welds on our rudder and re-welded that. Three young lads came and made a nuisance of themselves, running up the gangplank on to the back deck and pulling on the mooring ropes while Mike was grinding the weld. I brought the camera out to try and stop that. The ringleader pulled his coat over his head and ran away. Then he came back and lifted both ropes off the two mooring pins by our bows. Luckily there was no flow (as we were on a canal) and the boat was sitting on the bottom anyway. Bill went after them, but they ran away down to the footbridge over the canal beyond the junction. Not being able to talk to them was a strong disadvantage so we decided we’d be better off on the other bank. We fetched all the ropes in and the plank, moved over to the right bank under the trees and Bill put ropes around the trees. It would be a long walk round for them to reach us, as the first lock on the Notec canal was about a kilometre away and the last bridge across was a long, long way back up the Bydgoszcz canal. We had no more trouble with them. I made a Polish dinner, dumplings, stuffed pancakes and pierogi with broccoli - and some leftover curry sauce. Different and very tasty.