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| Following a police launch up Seddingsee |
Clear blue skies all day, sunny
but with a very chilly SE wind. Set off at 9.40 am ten minutes after the
cruiser behind us set off down the lake. We went under the road
bridge and into the end of the Langer Dahme lake, turning right into the
Seddinsee following a WSP launch. The police boat went on up the lake while we
turned right on to the start of the Oder-Spree-Kanal (OSK) through the forest.
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| Weir between lock chambers at Werndorf |
Mike though it would be warmer sheltered by the trees but no, the wind was in
our faces and blowing hard, making it very cold. Two and half kilometres to the
lock at Werndorf where the canal crosses the Werndorfersee with access back to
Schmöckwitz via the Krossinsee to our right and the rest of the Werndorfersee
to our left is blocked off to boat traffic. We tied to another horizontal
tubular mooring for lock waiting and Mike called the keeper on the intercom.
OK, ready in ten minutes. Wow, an answer straight away and they understood one
another!
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| Empty barge Phonix overtaking on OSK |
The left hand chamber of the pair started to empty (nordkammer 57.5m x
9.5m, the sudkammer was longer at 67.5m but narrower at 8.5m) and when the
lights changed to green we went in and I attached our centre line to a bollard
recessed in the wall. The lock filled through the floor and pushed the boat
hard against the wall, squashing our fenders, so I hadn’t got enough room to
move and I stood by the ladder recess and Mike stood on the roof to move the
rope up to the higher bollards as we rose 4.6m.
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| Bird of prey near Spreenhagen |
The keeper was in his cabin
right next to where we surfaced and Mike had a chat with him about the new lock
(still don’t know where it is or even if they’ve actually built it yet). He
told us as it was a National holiday today the locks would close at 6 pm. The
top end gate lowered to the bed of the canal and we left at 10.55 am. Back into
the forest with the wind howling through the flag ropes on the mast at our fore
end. Under the A10 Berliner ring road and noted there was a communications mast
with a car park next to it where at least a dozen cars were parked. We’d
noticed there were a few people walking dogs down the towpath towards the lock
but now there were people coming back to their cars from the other direction
with baskets – mushrooming in the forest, a good occupation for a holiday.
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| The double floodlock at Grosse Tranke is no more! All that remains is one lock wall (left of pic) |
They
all waved and said hello as we passed. At KP55 there were several fishermen.
Around KP58 an empty 67m barge called Phönix caught up and overtook as a
cruiser went past in the opposite direction. The barge skipper had his
wheelhouse down and was wrapped up like us due to the cold wind. He waved and
shouted hello. Through the village of Spreenhagen tucked away in the forest. Around KP65 a cruiser went past (a Birchwood, which are British made) then at
KP66 near Braunsdorf a small open fishing boat went past also in the opposite
direction to us.
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| Muggelspree weir, pegel and bootsgasse. |
Mike took photos of a bird of prey, which landed on an old
bridge abutment and stayed there – they usually fly off as soon as a camera is
pointed in their direction! The twin flood locks at Grosse Tränke had gone, all
that remained was one lock wall on the left hand side. We turned left into the
end of the Muggelspree just after the lock as two women in their thirties in
kayaks paddled past us. The leading one asked where we were going. Mike replied
“Here”.
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| Moored between the pegel station and the bootsgasse, Muggelspree at Grosse Tranke |
We think she thought we were aiming for the low metal landing stage for
the bootsgässe (trolley for hauling small boats out up the slope, past the weir
and back down the rails into the water beyond the weir), which they were about
to use. We moored between the steps to a pegel (water level marker) and the end
of the metal staging. There were crowds of people milling around and lots of
cyclists as there was a small car park on the opposite bank of the little river.
It was 2.45 pm. Once we were securely moored above the weir we packed up and
went indoors, glad to be out of the wind.
All looks lovely and agree with you about the chilling wind, we have had it too for several days altho has stopped now. Think the bird looks like a buzzard, too big for a harrier?
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