 |
| Skewed road bridge before Haren |
Warmer overnight, heavy rain most
of the day, sunny spells around midday. Set off at 7.50 am to be at the first
German lock for 8 am. The lock started emptying on the dot of 8 am. Gates opened,
then the road bridge swung open causing long queues of traffic. Locks on the
Rütenbrock are 28m long by 6m wide and all five locks plus lift and swing
bridges are remotely operated by the keeper at lock five in Haren. The first
one, lock two (the open flood lock at the beginning of the canal is counted as
lock one) was the only uphill lock, we attached to bollards along the wooden
edges and only rose by 0.1m.
 |
| Museum boats at Haren |
Rain started pouring down as we continued 2 kms to
the next liftbridge, which opened as we approached. Another couple of
kilometres to the next bridge and lock three, again all worked perfectly by the
controller in the office in Haren. Down 0.8m. Another couple of kilometres to
the next liftbridge on the outskirts of the town of Erika. A longer pound took
us to lock four, which used to be operated by a resident, very elegant lady
lock keeper, her house now hidden by a thicket of pine trees. We dropped down
1.9m. The rest of the canal was only obstructed by moveable bridges. Under the
7m high road bridge of road number 31 then the liftbridge that caused us to
have to wait ten days for the canal to reopen while they finished rebuilding it
when Bill came with us to Poland. Today a mobile keeper operated it. Took
photos of the strangely angled skewed
lifting roadbridge. Under a fixed footbridge, past the museum where the
boats all looked newly repainted and into the last lock, number five; the lock
keeper came out to collect our toll of 2€ for the navigation (same as last
time, nine years earlier).
 |
| Old sloping sided lock chamber at Huntel |
We’d seen a notice by lock two that said something
about a 20€ charge, but the keeper said this was for call out during the
“closed” season, which has to be booked a week in advance. There was nothing
moving on the river Ems as we left the lock (the keeper swung the bridge over
the tail end of the lock so that Oll didn’t have to dismantle his mast) and
turned right heading upstream. Strangely quiet, nothing moving. At Huntel the
main lock (on the left) was closed and under reconstruction.
 |
| Below Meppen lock |
We tied to the
sportboat waiting area and the Snail hovered. Mike had called the keeper on VHF
but didn’t understand his reply. The right hand chamber emptied and we went in.
It was the first time we’d been in the right hand chamber and were surprised
that it was sloping-sided with metal posts faced with well-battered wood the
full length of the lock. The keeper wanted us to stay at the tail end, where
there were piled walls each side – fine, except they were only about ten metres
long so our bow ropes had to be slung around the first posts. The lock filled
at the front so we felt little effect at the tail end.
 |
| In Meppen lock chamber |
The keeper had a cabin
by each set of gates and paddles and had gone to the top end. When the gates
opened we motored out and said thanks as we passed him. Took photos of the two
tall cranes that were working on the rebuilding work. A bit further upriver
Mike spotted a new tennis ball in the river and called the Snails to rescue it
for Woody. I made sandwiches for lunch as we wound our way through Meppen.
There was a new landing stage for mooring in the town. A small cruiser occupied
half of it! We just had time to eat lunch before we arrived at Meppen lock. As
we arrived the right hand guillotine gate began to rise and we got a green
light. 7.5m lift with bollards set in the steel piled walls. Mike estimated
that the lock took 14.4 million litres of water to fill it. We had no idea
where the keeper controlling the lock was situated; there were many cameras
around the lock so he could have been anywhere. The top end gate lowered and we
were on our way again. A 5 kms straight canal section lead to Varloh lock. We
passed a pusher tug called MB Haren, heading downriver, the first traffic we’d
seen.
 |
| Below Varloh locks |
That soon changed as an empty 80m commercial called Corroda came down the
lock and another was coming upriver behind us. We attached to the sportboat
waiting area and Mike went to have a look at the mooring above the lock. In no
time the empty 85m commercial Fiducia went into the lock, waving us to come in
behind him. A Swedish cruiser had been following him, his wash caught up a few
minutes later and bounced the Snail around as Olly followed them into the lock.
I hooted for Mike to hurry up. When he got back he said the mooring above was
occupied by a tankership and there was no way we could get past it to moor on
the sportboat area.
 |
| In Varloh lock chamber |
We followed the Snail in (surprised that the keeper kept
the gates open for us). More threading ropes round bollards up the wall for a
further 2.9m rise. Nope, there was no way we could get on the mooring we’d been
aiming for, so no other choice than to push on to Lingen. Another long straight
section of canalised river, past the site of an old lock, then under the road
bridge of the 70, which was busy with traffic at 5.15 pm. Past a huge chemical
plant with a wide section where there were loads of moored commercials at the
loading/unloading wharves and several berths with lines of bubbles to contain
any spillages.
 |
| In Varloh lock chamber |
Round the right hand bend back into the narrower canal section
and met an 85m tanker coming the other way called Bea from Duisburg, its radar
rotating and its hydraulic wheelhouse lowered to pass under a road bridge.
Entering the outskirts of Lingen we were overtaken by two cruisers, a very
large Dutch one called Aquamarin and a smaller German cruiser. We passed a new
length of piled quay designated a mooring area with one small cruiser tucked up
at the upstream end.
 |
| Chemical works North of Lingen |
The large Dutch cruiser had come to a stop under a low
bridge and had to back off to the quay, as his satellite dome and VHF antenna
wouldn’t pass under the bridge. Four rowing skiffs came downstream followed by
a loaded 85m called Capella from Hamburg and a tiny German yacht was following
that. We turned left into the old basin at Lingen and moored between the
cruisers on the long cabin-high wall in the pouring rain. It was 6.30 pm.
No comments:
Post a Comment