Monday 8th July 2013 Verden KP113.5 to Rethem KP82 R. Aller. 30.9 kms, no locks

Mooring for passing boats on R.Aller at Verden

Hot and sunny with a light breeze. Mike went on foot to the supermarket to get some bread and lemonade, then he took the key for the water back to the guy in the workshop and asked him if he could dispose of some used engine oil, which he did. We set off at 10.05 am following Snail back out into the flow, heading upriver on the Aller. 

Sunbathing cows. Westen

We passed a medium sized cruiser going the opposite way (but decided that he must have set out from the yacht club, gone upriver then turned round and we’d seen him on his way back to the club). I made tea and toast then mended two tears in the canopy of our sunshade. Mike was glad when I’d finished as his arms had started to burn and he’d had to roll his shirtsleeves down. He put the sunshade up and the echo sounder out on the roof so we could see how deep it was – or wasn’t! And he set the GPS to give us our speed. When I sat out there was 1.7m of water under our bows (where the echo sounder’s transponder is) and we were travelling with engine revs set for 8 kph in still water and were doing around 

Muddy marks indicate flood height.

4 kph against the flow of the river. Lots of bends and lots of birds. A stork flapped lazily over the river behind us. A couple paddling a canoe downriver looked amazed to see us. As the numbers dropped below 100 (KP99) just before the town of Westen, there was a herd of cows sunbathing on a sandy beach. In the town there was a little offline harbour with several small boats moored and a little further on there was a ferry, which was either used rarely or out of use. Just around the next bend was an old wagon on the bank with a high water muddy mark halfway up it, which indicated that they have some serious floods here of between two and three metres over the current levels. I made some lunch. 

Oystercatcher searching the sand between groynes

Mike killed a picture-winged bloodsucker, so out came the heavy duty insect repellent with deet. I’d already got two bites on my arm and Mike had one on his back. Oll called on the radio to get Mike to take a look at some large grey animals in a field with his super binos, as he couldn’t make out what they were. They looked like large sheep with curly horns, white with black legs (some were entirely black) and they had been recently shorn. Egyptian geese were grazing the edge of a meadow and then a few Canada geese (we hadn’t seen any before in Germany) as we came into the town of Hülsen. Around the big bend the speed dropped to 2.7 kph – the river was flowing at 5.3 kph.

Two storks in a nest at Donnerhorst

 There were chalets on top of a high tree-covered bank on our right before we came into the middle of the town and there were stone groynes sticking out into the river from the left hand bank. An oystercatcher was busily feeding along the sandy beach between two groynes around KP92. A big flock of Egyptian geese were grazing with a herd of cows at KP91 and one goose had a new brood of about half a dozen little goslings. Around the bend we met five young lads with three inflatable boats tied together, paddling gently downriver. Between KP91 and KP85 the river flows around bends that resemble a letter N on the map. Travelling West then East the first 180° bend really knocked the speed down and we kept seeing a distant wind farm from different angles. Not long before the next 180° bend and we were travelling West again. Two youths were fishing on the apex of the bend, sheltered from the sun by a huge tree. 

Moored in the WSA haven at Rethem

Our first exposed sandbank came into view around KP 85.5, at first we thought it was wind blown debris then we could see where the wind had formed little ridges in the sand. It extended out halfway across the river! Note that one on the map, to avoid when coming back downstream. A tractor towing a hay turner was kicking up clouds of dust that drifted across the river like fog. The first road bridge across the river since Verden came into view. Snail had already turned into the WSA haven at Rethem and moored to some vertical posts along the bank edge and we turned right into the basin and moored alongside them. There was one small WSA inspection launch called Aue moored in the haven – and us. It was 5.55 pm.