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| Bootsschleppe below Furstenwalde locks |
1.3°C Cold night again. Clear
blue skies, sunny, but still a cold SE wind. Reversed out of the Mugglespree
weirstream and winded on the main line (which is now the canalised Spree until
Kersdorf) to set off heading East at 9.35 am. I got on with chores while Mike
steered until we got to Fürstenwalde locks. The lock lights were on red, so we
went into the sport boat area on the left in a small basin behind the dolphins
that formed a lead-in to the left chamber (which was no longer in use). There
was no intercom and so Mike walked up the rail track for the bootsschleppe on
to the lockside and went to find the lock keeper. He said to use the right hand
chamber after the commercial that was due to arrive shortly came down and
cleared the lock. While Mike was turning the boat round to face out of the
little basin a loaded Bromberger (with German flag) came down the lock.
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| Below Furstenwalde locks |
Into
the chamber and lifted 0.9m. With surprise we noted that the elevated rail
along the right hand side of the lock was still used, the wheels were bright
and shiny on the electrically-operated trolley used for winching pans in and
out of the lock. The answer to that was to be found a short distance further
upriver where there was a long commercial quay in front of a huge silo complex.
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| Rails and trolley for winching pans. |
Phönix (that passed us the day before) and a Polish boat called Agra were both
loading grain, while a Berlin tug was having three pans filled with scrap metal
by a crane with a peeled onion grab. The driver used the grab to compact the
scrap, tamping it down to get more into the pan. As the locks at Fürstenwalde
were only 68m long and the one in use was the widest at 9.4m, the tug crew
would have to split the convoy to get it through the lock as each pan was 32.5m
long.
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| Loading grain at Furstenwalde silo |
Wished we’d had time to stop and watch them do this manoeuvre as it’s
very interesting to watch, but it would be some time yet before all three pans
were filled and the pushtow set off. We pushed on upriver passing some grand
houses and gardens around KP81 – 82, just before the A12 autobahn bridge and
the access (forbidden to motor boats) into the little Dehmsee lake. There were
a few fishermen about in small boats and we also noted evidence of beaver
activity where small trees had been chewed off.
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| Silos and scrap loading |
For the next 4kms there were
lots of small branches off the river that lead nowhere,
ancient loops. Where the forest receded there were fields with stands of
maize, now brown and crispy-leaved and rolls of bailed hay. Around KP89 the
Spree entered the canal on our right and there was an inn called the Forest
House opposite, offering camping or accommodation for walkers and cyclists.
Under a long wooden footbridge spanning the river and passing the entrance to
the Kersdorfersee (again no access for motor boats) then we arrived at Kersdorf
locks.
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| Below Kersdorf locks |
At last, here was the new lock we’d heard about. The left hand chamber
had been extended. No signs of life, nowhere to tie up and wait and no
Intercom. Mike risked it and called on VHF, twice, and got no reply. Nothing
else for it but to resort to using the horn. A couple of loud toots brought a
lock keeper out from the house on the right hand side. He walked across to the
new lock (which still had a crane alongside and piles of building material) and
pressed the buttons to open the gates for us. The lower end of the chamber was
concrete-sided (and still beautifully clean and white) while the upper end was
steel-piled, both with recessed bollards.
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| New longer lock chamber at Kersdorf |
A pair of gongoozlers (on bikes)
stopped on the tail end bridge to watch and shout hello. Then the bottom end
gates wouldn’t fully close. The keeper had to open them and close them again,
and then they closed properly. He had to walk the length of the chamber (looked
like 110m) to the control panel by the top end gates to open the paddles. The
lock filled very gently from the front and we rose 2.9m. Between the old and
new lock there was a sunken area with a Japanese-style garden at one end, then
a big anchor in contrasting coloured grey brick,
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| Paving between the lock chambers. Kersdorf |
and finally at the top end of
the chamber there were interesting looking barrel-shaped objects. Above the new
lock there was a newly built length of mooring for commercials to wait for the
lock and an overnight mooring – but nothing for sport boats. It was completely
empty. The waiting area to go down for sport boats was a very short pontoon on
the far side above the old lock. A long line of WSA boats were moored all along
the right hand side. The wind in our faces was cold. I made a cuppa to warm us
up as we went back into the forest. Both banks had been edged with stones to
minimise the effect of wash.
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| Going down Neuhaus lock |
Around KP94 a medium-sized, black-hulled cruiser,
called Cassiopeia, was tied up at a loading area where a ten metre wide piled
bit stuck out a short way into the canal (usually this type of construction is
used to load boats from tipper-lorries, but this hadn’t yet been used by the
look of it). At KP96 we turned right into the Spieskanal-Neuhaus. Narrower and
still in the forest, it was sheltered from the wind and very quiet. We noted
more signs of beaver activity and took photos of some of the trees they’d
started work on, then we spotted that all the trees along both edges of the
canal had wire mesh cages around the lower 2m to keep them safe from being
felled into the canal by the rodents.
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| Keeper at his controls. Neuhaus |
We’d started to wind just as the first
boat we’d seen moving all day came round the tight bend
from the lock. We’d started, so we had to finish – we were blocking the
canal. The cruiser was full of fishing rods and booze – as soon as it turned
the next bend it was up on the plane and wall-to-wall water. What 8kph limit?
Tried to find a mooring by the reeds but the WSA had put rocks all along both
edges since we were last here so we decided to try the mooring we used (when
Bill was with us) below the lock. Winded again and tied on the waiting area, (a
floating pontoon about 16m long) and Mike went to find the keeper. About ten
minutes, he said, there was another boat coming. Cassiopeia arrived, with a
crew who spoke a little English, and tied alongside to wait for the lock – he’d
phoned ahead to get the lock ready. The keeper, a young man, lowered the
barriers for the Llangollen style wooden liftbridge that carries the road into
Neubrück, lifted the bridge by pressing buttons, and then we followed the
cruiser into the lock.
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| Lock chamber Neuhaus |
The lock had a wide chamber and offset gates (much like
the Dutch ones used to be on the Suid Willemsvaart) First boat in goes to the
right so it is facing the exit gates, then the next boat comes in on the other
side (in this case left) and moves over once the lock is empty and the other
boat has left the chamber. This method was used so working boats kept the same
order - first one in, first one out. Nowadays the lock only used for pleasure
boats. The guy on the cruiser had got a small motorboat hanging on davits and
said they were going to explore the Drahendorfer Spree with it the next day to
see the wildlife.
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| Going back up Neuhaus lock |
They went to anchor in the Wergensee, a lovely little round
lake below the lock. We turned right into the Spree, intending to moor by the
tiny Wergensee lock (12m x 3m) where there used to be a wooden staging (for
tying to, to work the self-operated
lock) and a row of stumps in the river bed extending beyond it to accommodate a
queue. To our dismay the stumps had gone, a new ramp had been built just before
the landing stage and the fire brigade were just in the act of launching an
inflatable boat down it. Someone had also installed a private pontoon (looked
like it was for fishing) alongside the bank before
that, so that scuppered our plans completely.
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| Moored next to the reeds above Neuhaus lock |
We did try to lie alongside the
reed beds but the distance to the bank was too far. Back
to the lock. My turn to find the keeper. I explained that the mooring had gone
and we’d have to find somewhere above his lock to moor for the weekend (Mike
had already arranged to leave our car next to his). He said we could moor on
the other side below his lock where there was a short pontoon then a piled
section. Great. Mike said no, it was too short and we wouldn’t be able to tie
up to it well enough – the bank beyond it wouldn’t take stakes for the stern
either and we couldn’t tie to the wire mesh fencing. OK, nice try. Another
cruiser (more fishermen) was waiting for the lock too so we came up together.
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| View of the boat from Neuhaus lock |
Gave the keeper a couple of bottles of beer and apologised that it was only
Radler (shandy). No other method would work other than to
moor next to the reeds and rocks– bring out the quant poles! It’s been a few
years since we used them. It was 5.15 pm. There was a small gap in the reeds
that we used to put a plank out (roughly amidships so we could get the bike off
next day), Mike threw the ropes out, ran down the plank before the boat could
move out and banged the stakes in, we then put
the poles out fore and aft and I tightened up the ropes to keep the boat far
enough out from the bank to keep from banging and scraping on the cobble-sized
rocks that were under the bottom. Very little traffic passed us and it turned
out to be a very quiet, peaceful mooring.
