Monday 22nd July 2013 Abv Anderten KP175 to Jnc Salgitter arm MLK. 38.4kms 1 lock

Bolzum lock at the start of the Hlidesheim branch

Very hot and sunny. Dredging work started around seven directly opposite the boats which made the water bouncy. Our big ball fender that keeps the stern end off walls had broken loose and was floating by Snail. It was wrecked and useless as the eye had been ripped through. That’s something else for the shopping list. We set off at 9.45 am leaving the Snails to set off when they were ready. Traffic on the canal was busy already and the motorway bridge not far from where we were moored was busy too. 

Another mountain of salt MLK

Noticed there was a camera for the lock on the first bend so it had a good view up the long straight. More biting bugs, on with the Deet. One managed to start biting Mike’s forearm before he slapped it dead. A loaded 80m tanker called Naima went past at KP177. We were overtaken by a former Bromberger barge (Polish, now German registered) at KP183. Just before the junction with the Hildesheim branch, we spotted another pile of grey stuff that might be salt, a pan moored close by was full of the stuff. 

Unloading coal for the power station at Mehrum. MLK

At the junction with the MLK there is a lock on the Hildeheim canal at Bolzum which was 80m long with an 8m lift, now they’d built a new one alongside it which looked like it was already in use. There was a WSA yard just beyond the junction then the haven of the Sehnde Yacht Club where a fat narrowboat called Razzle Dazzle was moored on the outside of their quay. The couple on it were German (it had a huge full-sized German flag on the stern) and said they were the best boats in the world and they’d bought theirs in the UK.

Cruiser overtaking CZ boat Beatrice
with coal boat coming from opposite direction

I started making a new fly net for the bedroom door as Mike had wrecked the one for the front door so I’d replaced that with the one from the bedroom, as it was white voile and non-see through. The new one was black mossie netting, which can easily be seen through but, obviously, stops mossies. Coal boats were unloading at the power station at Mehrum KP194.5. I could swear I heard crickets in the woods. It reached a scorching 38.3°C. I made some tea as a loaded old Czech boat called Beatrice (79.4m x 8.2m 1,010 tonnes) went thump-thump-thumping past us, 

2,600 tonnes of coal in a push-towed pair

overtaking us slowly. A cruiser with a Brandenburg flag overtook us as loaded boat called Elbe went past at KP208. We went under the road bridge at Wolftor and found shade on the right hand bank and gratefully went closer to the bank to get full benefit for the next few kilometres. The cruiser went right up behind Beatrice before it overtook it, also keeping in the shade as long as possible. More coal went past. 2,600 tonnes in a push towed pair of 80m boats called Neidersachsen 1. It was followed by Alm from Haselt (Belgian!) 86m x 9m 1,600 tonnes. It was 3.50 pm when we moored in the corner of the big layby at the junction with the Salzgitter arm.