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| In Dorverden lock with five cruiser. |
Grey skies, but no rain, light
breeze. Mike unloaded the bike from the car and, after yesterday's soaking, started work on it to make it
more waterproof by adding self-amalgamating tape round the plug cap end of the H.T.
lead. I made some lunch. After lunch a cruiser arrived and tied alongside
Snail. Mike had plans to do further maintenance but we
had a visit from a WSP (Waterways police) officer in a plain 4x4. Not allowed
to stop here, this pontoon is only for boats waiting for the lock. OK. We’ll
continue to Verden. He wanted to see our Führerscheins (boat driving licences)
so we found ours out, so did Anne and Oll.
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| Waterways (WSA) boat hurrying downstream. R.Weser |
We told him we’d called the
controller via the intercom the day before while there was a thunderstorm and
didn’t think the intercom had worked, he checked it – it worked OK now. He told
us there was a quay provided by the town in Verden, which was only for tourists
like us. We said we had trouble finding moorings because the boats were too
long. While he was making phone calls another cruiser arrived following a
commercial, the latter went down the lock and the cruiser tied alongside Snail
behind the first one, then another three cruisers arrived and moored along the
quay wall. The policeman said we could go to the WSA haven and moor in there
until Monday, but we must move from the pontoon.
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| Verden from the R. Aller |
OK. He called the controller
and they said we must wait. Fine. He left. A string of commercials came up and
went down and there was no room for us in the 85m long chamber – they wouldn’t
let us go alongside any of them even though there was plenty of room. Two young
girls in a canoe arrived; they tied to the pontoon and joined the wait. We told
them there was a trolley to transport small boats around the lock, but they
declined. Several hours later they changed their minds. One of the girls and
Oll went to get the trolley from by the lock, we all helped to carry their canoe up to the top of the bank and put
it on the trolley for them.
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| WSA basin, slipway workshops and offices. Verden. |
Mike, Anne and Oll went with them to the other side
of the lock to relaunch it and Oll brought the trolley back. Mike took our
rubbish to the bin and still we waited. The old guy off the first cruiser to arrive used the
intercom several times, but each time they said we must wait. Eventually at 4.35
pm the controller called on the intercom, the old guy scuttled over the two
boats to answer them, they said we could go down when the boat that was coming up
cleared the lock. The skipper of the commercial leaving the lock shouted (in German) hurry up, hurry
up, there’s another working boat waiting to come up. The cruisers piled into
the lock and left big spaces between them, so there was no space for us on the
right hand side and we ended up tying alongside the Snail.
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| Temporary mooring overnight. WSA haven Verden. |
We dropped down 4.6m
and all the cruisers went off at high speed. A loaded 80m boat called Matthias
Oelrich, loaded with smelly cut scrap metal (995 tonnes) was just arriving to
go up the lock. As soon as he reached the next bend the old guy with the little cruiser Eire III
went up on the plane – max speed on here is 35kph! At KP317 an 80m empty called
Atlantis went past. We caught up with the two girls in the canoe, they were
looking for somewhere to camp. We all waved. At KP320 a family with a small
speedboat moored by a sandy beach was having a BBQ, more waving. Two
kilometres further downstream another empty went past, Berlemar-S.
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| Temporary mooring overnight. WSA haven Verden. |
On the next
bend, where the echo sounder registered 8m depth, there was a whirlpool in the
middle of the river. At KP323 Liane was unloading sand at a cement works on the
right hand side before a road bridge, the crane driver hooted so we hooted and
waved. An 80m empty called Johanna was moored on the left before the bridge.
Shortly after that we were overtaken slowly by two men in an inflatable. After they
passed us they wound up the power and raced off downriver. At KP324.5 we met
Polish tug Fabico 4 from Wroclaw again, pushing an empty pan upriver. It was
6.20 pm when we turned right at KP326.5 on the Weser into the flow of the river
Aller heading upriver (KP117 is the start of the Aller).
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| Temporary mooring overnight. WSA haven Verden. |
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| Oystercatcher on banks of R. Aller |
With revs for 6.5kph
on still water we’d been travelling downstream on the Weser at 9 kph (2.5 kph
flow-assisted) but on the Aller our speed dropped by half down to 4.5 kph, so
the flow rate was 2 kph, but after a couple of kilometres the flow had
increased to 3 kph. It seemed like crawling along after flying down the Weser.
Pleased to note that the banks of the river Aller were not lined with rocks like the
Weser, a good sign that there would be little commercial traffic, other than
trip boats. We passed the Verdener Motorboot Verein where we
stayed for several days last time we were here, (the old guy’s boat Eire III
was now moored there) then we were into new waters as we’d never been any further
upstream on the Aller. Two black kites circled looked for a fish supper but
didn’t find any. Oystercatchers went wheeling overhead making their distinctive
cries. The turn into the WSA basin reminded us of the turn off the flowing
tidal Trent into the lock at West Stockwith, slowing down until the bows were
stationary in the flowing water opposite the gap we’d got to turn into, then
putting on enough power to swing hard left into the still water of the haven.
On our right was a boat slip with trolleys for lifting the work boats and tugs
out for cleaning and painting, in front were two workboats next to the bank and
on our left there were a couple of floating boxes, so we winded and moored
alongside the latter. Snail took one of the workboats opposite the entrance.
Glad to tie up. It was 7.25 pm. Mike went off to see if anyone was still around
to say “Hello, we’ve landed”. Nope, all gone home. Hope the policeman left a
message with them to tell them we were coming.
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