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| Painted house facade in Beeskow |
2.8°C Sunny, but cold with a strong
breeze. It was 9°C outside but felt more like 4°C. We got up early and set off
at 8.20 am after Mike had heaved the little anchors back on board and cleaned
the mud off and I undid the bow rope from around our sturdy dead tree. Mike
said he saw three large dark coloured animals suddenly dive for cover in the
reeds by where we moored last time; we came to the conclusion that they must
have been wild piggies. On downriver into Beeskow. The marina berths were
almost empty, as were the rest of the moorings for small
boats on the way to
the lock. The concrete quay where we moored when we first came here in 1999 was
occupied by a single story café, so the moorings there were no longer free. We
wondered how anyone could stop to shop in the town. Mike rotated the blue pole
and the lock gates opened. We dropped down 1m to the river level below. Noted
that the new offline marina was also empty as we flew past at 8kph (revs for
6kph assisted by a 2kph flow) and on past the large factory which makes wooden
panels, it had two chimneys belching out great clouds of steam. A buzzard sat
on a milepost as we went past and didn’t move. I took two photos but
the new
camera wouldn’t focus. At the end of the kilometre long straight between KP112
and 111 there was a newly built house with windows facing downriver – it looked
empty. A stork flew over. Through the last lake, Wergensee, and we waited below
Neuhaus lock while Mike found the keeper. Another young man (a different one to
last week’s and the one from last year) worked the lock from the booths at
either end of the chamber. Two young ladies in full combat gear were mowing the
lockside grass. We hung on fore and aft ropes round the vertical bars in the
brick wall while the boat rose a metre. The lad pressed the buttons to drop the
road barriers
and lift the wooden liftbridge whilst opening the top end gates.
We bid him tschüs and set off on the Spiesekanal at 11 am. I made tea and
buttered currant buns. Half an hour later we were turning right on the Oder
Spree Kanal. More sheltered from the wind by tall trees and banks either side
of the canal it felt pleasanter although the scenery was not quite so
magnificent as the Spree. A pair of goldeneye ducks flew up the old section of
canal at KP102. Shortly after a white-tailed eagle flew over, too fast to get
the camera turned on. The WSA were still working on the bank protection at
KP103 just before the start of the houses at Müllrose. Crane boat Jaguar was
offloading rocks from a pan and dumping them along the edge of the bank, with
WSA tug Seeotter being used as a pusher. (Noted that the tug had
Wasserschutspolitzei on it. Being re-used as a work tug?) Two young men from
the canoe club came on to the quay at Müllrose to lend a hand with ropes. It
was 12.40 pm as we tied up. Made some lunch then, after we’d eaten, I gave Mike
a hand to unload the moped off
the roof. He went to collect the car from EHS. When
he came back he was very annoyed as the woman in the Tabak had told him they do
not have postlagernd deliveries and our post had been sent back. We went
shopping in Frankfurt at Real. Laid out differently to the one in EHS we had to
search for things but got everything (except I forgot to get any eggs) and went
home. Mike was still seething. He’d seen Christian when he collected the car
and he said the first letter from France hadn’t turned up either. Is it DHL
losing stuff? I beat Mike at cribbage in two straight games. Just before
bedtime he lit the central heating as the temperature was dropping and he
hadn’t relit the coal fire earlier.
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| New marina - no boats yet |
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| Factory at Beeskow busy making wooden panels |
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| Needle weir and tiny (12mx3m) Wergensee lock |
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| Below Neuhaus lock |
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| Spiesekanal. Tree protected from attack by beaver |
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