Tuesday 30th July 2013 Rothensee to Parey KP349 Elbe-Havel kanal (EHK). 29.1kms 2 locks

View of the Elbe from the aqueduct

Heavy rain overnight, grey clouds, breezy and much cooler. Sunny later for a while. We’d spotted some frogs living in the back of the lower timber fendering the day before, this morning the Snail had froggie visitors on board! Mike got up at 6.30 am, recorded Corrie (as torrential rain had blocked the satellite reception the night before) then checked the online pegels (water levels) in the Elbe. His instincts kicked in and he decided that discretion was the better part and that we weren’t going with only 18” of water under the bottom on a fast flowing river with moving sandbanks.

Mike holding the string. Hohenwarthe

 We set off at 10.30 am and moved around the corner to the waiting place for private boats to cross the aqueduct (which must be done in convoy with commercials). Oll called on the intercom and Mike went to help listen for the answer. Follow the fahrgästschiff, about half an hour. OK. The Elbe Käiser went past at 11.10 am and we followed, but couldn’t keep up with his speed – must be twice ours and we’d gone to 8kph! Another tripper, Stadt Wolfsburg, also overtook us and sped off across the aqueduct. Not much to see from the aqueduct as the walls were far too high to see over and look down at the river, so Mike stood on the roof to take some photos while I steered. Bunkership Spree came up from the lock followed by three private boats - one small DB and two cruisers. The two trippers were in Hohenwarthe lock and we were surprised that the lock keeper kept the gates open for us. Snail went towards the left wall as usual, but there were no floaters along that wall and a guy in a lifejacket called them over behind the trippers and helped them with their ropes. 

Below Hohenwarthe lock on EHK

They were lucky, they had fore and aft floaters at just the right spacing. We reversed to the pair we’d just passed at the top end of the lock and put our centre rope round the forward one as they were too close together for fore and aft. Mike held the string and I did photos as we descended 18.5m with several pauses as each side pound equalised and went on to the next. Out on to the Elbe-Havel kanal (EHK) at 12.15 pm. 

Damaged dolphin above Zerben lock

The Elbe Käiser winded and went back up the lock, the Stadt Wolfsburg went through Niegripp lock on to the Elbe, presumably to do the circuit - back under the aqueduct and up the other new lock which is alongside Rothensee lift. A tug called Argos was winding down by Niegripp lock. The EHK was newly widened and deep at 4.3m, although the water marks along the banks would suggest that the levels were down a bit. There were no obvious signs of the recent flooding that put the lock we’d just descended out of action and closed the route into Berlin less than two months ago. As I made lunch a loaded 85m Dutch boat called Fehar went past, followed by several cruisers. 

Following Koningstein into Zerben lock EHK

There was a waterways police boat moored at Burg. An empty 80m boat called Ruth from Senden went past followed by three cruisers as we went past the mooring at KP333 in Burg and another smaller cruiser followed shortly after. There was also a boat club in Burg on both sides of the navigation. On the bend at KP335 a tug pushing two empty pans was going sideways due to the wind. All along the right hand bank there were wooden posts with cross pieces on top that had been put up as perches from birds of prey (we’d seen one red kite circling over some woods) and all were empty except for one being used by a yellowhammer as a song post. 

Mooring at Parey EHK

Two more cruisers went by at the new bridge to Parchau, followed by another tug pushing three empty pans as we passed under the new road bridge. Another perch was occupied, this time by (I think) a female bullfinch. The canal had not been widened any further than the road bridge to Ihleburg, but the bridge had been replaced by a new one – each new bridge has the centre marked, this one was over the edge of the bank that was soon to be removed! Widening work was going on beyond the bridge. Paused at the Startplatz above Zerben lock (which we couldn’t see as it was around a left hand bend) and there was no intercom just a board with two phone numbers. Mike tried calling on channel 20 and didn’t understand the lady keeper. She rattled on even though he said he couldn’t understand, so he phoned the number and he was sure he was then talking to the same woman. Oll had hung back to get to a passerelle from a mooring dolphin for commercials to let Woody off (there was no land access from the pontoon Startplatz) and was having great difficulty trying to get alongside us due to the wind. However, a loaded boat called Köningstein arrived and we followed him into the lock. 

Moored at Parey EHK

The lock had been transformed, no lock house just a building site where they must be building a new lock. A red haired lady was by the top end gate and pressed buttons in the control cabin to close the gate then cycled back to the cabin at the tail end gates. I asked if she was the one that Mike had phoned, she smiled and pointed towards the lock cabin (? Still don’t know what that meant either!) Mike held the rope and swopped it down the bollards as we dropped down about 6m. I made a cuppa. We just about had time to drink it before we arrived at the mooring in Parey. Glad to see it was still there after all the bank scraping we’d seen. There were two cruisers moored there, one Dutch one German, and more than enough space for us and Snail before the end of the mooring, where a loaded commercial was tied up. It was 4.20pm. As we’d never moored there before Mike went off on foot to see if he could find somewhere to park the car. There were houses alongside the track leading from the quay to the road into the town and he asked if it would be OK to park opposite. No problem. Set the TV up and unloaded the moped. He left, at 5.30 pm, hoping that there was still a ferry at Rogätz so he could cross the Elbe, if not he would have to backtrack into Burg and then find a crossing in Magdeburg.