Monday 14th April 2014 S of Beeskow to below Kossenblatt. 22.6kms no locks

Storm clouds over Leinitzsee

5.1°C Short sunny spells, windy and heavy showers, thunderstorms and hail later. Spent the morning doing chores, then Mike decided he wanted to move on although we’d had torrential rain in the night and more was forecast for today with high winds and thunderstorms, he said we’d wait a bit and see if it rained. It didn’t so we set off just after midday. I steered while Mike put the two folding anchors away and sluiced off the mud and reed debris with the mop. Ten minutes later we’d got the brolly up and the wind was trying to rip it to pieces. I got

Remains of Trebatsch lock

soaked holding on to the back and side of the brolly as the water ran down the insides of my sleeves soaking my jacket and fleece. Good start. It didn’t get any better. In a lull I made a cuppa and we had some buttered currant buns as we’d had no lunch as Mike had said he would wait until we stopped. Crossing the two lakes (Leissnitz and Glower sees) was rough, the rain poured down and we had a very strong side wind making the boat list hard to port as we followed the buoyed channel, then turned right back into the narrow confines of the Spree. On the

A crane and two herons in a field

lake we saw cormorants and crested grebe fishing, plus gulls and the usual ducks and swans, while overhead several black kites circled, searching for dead fish. Back on the river at 1.45 pm, it was a bit calmer sheltered by the trees. As we passed through the village of Trebasch and bypassed its old lock chamber (out of use for a long, long time) we were sheltered from the wind, but as soon as the river swung round to the West, where the wind was blowing from, we had the full force of it again. Mike had left an old blue Melamine plate on the roof and the wind skimmed it into the canal where it sank like a stone. To our amazement (and theirs) we passed a canoe coming downriver by KP140, a young

Wooden liftbridge at Briescht

man paddling it with two small children in the front. Just after that there was a sign indicating the depth as being 0.5m – it lied as the echo sounder said we had 1.4m under the bottom so that’s 2m+. At 1.75kms left to go before stopping there was a flash of lightening and a very loud peal of thunder then it poured again, then the torrential rain turned to stinging hail. We were both getting very cold by the time the lock at Kossenblatt came into view through the sheeting rain. Astounded! They’d rebuilt the lock! And it was DIY! We gratefully tied up below the lock at the very end of the waiting area. It was 4.30 pm. The new lock had been built in the old weirstream when they rebuilt the weir; a notice said 2006 with an EU flag below it. The old lock, right next to the lock house had been filled in, leaving the masonry in situ. When the rain stopped, or rather when there was another lull, Mike went to take some photos and came back with the news that although they’d rebuilt the lock it wasn’t the same dimensions as the original. He said it looked too short. The Internet was only EDGE, very, very slow, but

Moored below the new lock at Kossenblatt

we managed to find some info about the rebuilding of the lock and it confirmed that the new chamber was 13m long (the original was 43m long) so we won’t be carrying on along  the other 11kms of the Spree to Alte Schadow lock (also restored) and into the Neuendorfersee. (Beyond is a maze of small waterways with 10m long locks.) That was a bit of a let-down.