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| Tripper moored below Templin lock where we moored in 1999 when the lock was derelict. |
Overcast and raining first thing,
more rain later. Several boats had gone past heading downhill before we set off
at 9 am. Five minutes later we were on the lock waiting area below Templin
lock, which was derelict when we were there in
1999 and hadn’t been restored by 2004 either. Turned the green bar and the
electronic sign said “Wait for next locking”.
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| Below Templin lock |
We expected the lock to be empty,
but someone had beaten us to it and turned the bar above the lock to fill it!
At 9.15 am it started to empty, one cruiser came out ten minutes later, then we
had to wait until we got a green light before entering the chamber. The rods
were halfway along the chamber on the right hand wall. I had a vertical bar to
thread my side rope around and Mike had bollards recessed into the concrete
wall for his stern rope. I turned the green bar in the wall and we started the
lock sequence off. Slowly the boat rose 4m in the refurbished lock. At 25m long
x 4.9m wide there wasn’t much room left. Two WSV workmen were cutting the grass
around the lock and one stopped to chat to Mike as the lock was filling.
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| In Templin's new lock chamber. |
Didn’t
have much time for talking as the gates opened, we got a green light and had to
leave. There were three cruisers waiting for the lock. There were lots of boat
club moorings above the lock and more as we went on towards the lake, all
designed for the smaller boat nothing suitable for anything over 10m! We went
under a covered wooden bridge and past more boathouses before entering the
Templinersee. We hadn’t gone far when the familiar shape of a Free Camper
appeared behind us – we were being followed again! Another deep lake, over 8m,
dropping down to 6m as we reached the narrows turning southeast into a much
smaller lake called the Bruchsee.
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| Boats waiting above to go down Templin |
The exit was at a sharp angle to the left
under two bridges, a disused railway and a road bridge, and then suddenly there
was only 1.8m depth of water under the boat. Metal posts either side of the
access to the channel under the bridges made sure boats that were too wide
couldn’t try to pass. On the other side was a restaurant with empty moorings at
the start of the Fährsee, a long, wide S-shaped lake, which seemed deserted
except for one floating shed that was anchored, fishing, and a cruiser anchored
in a gap in the reed beds.
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| Covered wooden bridge. Templin |
No signs of the campervan afloat. The shed started
moving, slowly in the same direction as us. Our echo sounder started giving
readings of 0.7m in the middle of a lake that was supposed to be on average 8m
deep. Mike attached a rope to a windlass to check it. It was 6m deep – must be
something the echo sounder doesn’t like, usually it’s what’s called a “foul”
bottom. Continuing southeast to the end of the lake there was a large island
covered with trees. We went to the left of it.
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| Bridges between Templinersee and Fahrsee |
Behind it there were big reed
beds and water lilies then more open water with and some moored boats in the
distance at the village of Seehof. There was a channel between the water lilies
and reeds to get back into the big lake via the other side of the island. We
went through it slowly in case the depth changed suddenly, it didn’t (but it
was only 0.8m under the bottom) and we were back in the Fährsee. Heading
northwest the wind was now in our faces and getting chilly.
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| Between the island and bank at south end of Fahrsee |
The trip boat,
Uckerperle, that had been moored below Templin lock was now heading down the
lake towards us loaded with passengers. There was a little cruiser coming
through the bridges when we got there, he cleared and we headed North up the
Bruchsee then Northeast under a little footbridge into the pretty Gleuensee
lake, bordered with trees but fewer reed beds.
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| The other direction, in the narrow channel at the end of Fahrsee |
At the end there was a little
beach with bench seats and several moored boats, small ones with covers over
them. We winded and set off back south down the lake. I made some lunch. Turned
right back into Templinersee. Another Free Camper was moored by the trip boat
stop at the top end of the lake. Mike went round the island then under the
wooden footbridge and we waited for the lock behind a large hireboat cruiser.
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| Boathouses in Templin |
No room in the lock for both of us, so we had to wait. One boat came up, the
hireboat went down. Nothing else to come up, the lock refilled and we went
down. No one else waiting to go down, but there wasn’t much spare room anyway.
It started to rain. Below the lock the yellow Bungalow Boat we’d seen in
Wentowsee was waiting to go up the lock. On down the canal, emerging into the
Röddlinsee, meeting one cruiser coming the other way by the last bridge.
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| Sloping side lock chamber. Kannenburg |
Noted
the moorings halfway along the left hand side of the lake at the village of
Hindenburg contained a whole row of floating sheds, must be one of their bases.
The tripper went past again followed by another Kuhnle hireboat. Two more
cruisers went past before we went into the channel leading to the Lankensee. As
we entered the lake a canoe went by, filled with camping gear, paddled by a
young couple with a small blonde-haired daughter sitting at the front and not
looking too impressed with the voyage so far. Two cruisers were anchored in the
small round lake.
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| Canoe stop at KP31 River Havel. |
As we headed for the empty lock waiting area above Kanneburg
lock two cruisers appeared from out of the reeds and moored there! Where did
they come from! A Free Camper came up the lock and the keeper called us in
behind the two cruisers. We didn’t think there was enough room and the guy on
the cruiser in front started shouting “Stop, stop!” but there was just enough
room. The keeper knows his lock better than us! Today he had no helper and had
to walk all around the chamber to shut the gates but when the lock was empty he
kicked the far side gate open (just like I used to do with UK bottom end gates
– in a former life).
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| Moored at KP31 R. Havel |
Out on to the Grosser Kuhwallsee and Mike counted
seventeen cruisers anchored around the edges of the little lake. On into the
narrow winding channel leading back to the Havel and we met two boats on the
first bend, neither of which slowed down, the second was a large Locaboat. A
couple of bends before the junction we went past the two boats that we’d locked
down Kannenburg with. The first one had stopped to do some fishing and the
second one was drifting along waiting for the other to catch up. At the
junction with the Havel we saw two roe deer right by the water’s edge in the
forest. Magic! First deer we’ve seen in Germany. Nothing moving on the river until
we needed to wind to moor then a large (new futuristic design) Kuhnle hireboat
went upriver followed by another cruiser, we winded and I’d just got a rope on
one of the log stumps when a procession of eight boats went past heading
downriver towards Burgwall. It was 4.45 pm. Mike got off and knocked four pins
into the bank and we tied up in a canoe stopping place where they haul their
boats out and camp out in the forest.
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