Thursday 8th May 2014 Bülstringen to Bergfriede. 26.1kms no locksPassing pusher pair Charly

A breasted up pusher-pair taking on water towering over Temujin

8.5°C Overnight rain. Hazy grey clouds, windy and showery. We moved the boat back along the quay to the water point and filled our tank up, taking on about 400 litres. (On the water point there was a notice stating prices. A red key comes charged with 50€ credit, a green one 25€ and a blue one 10€ - there are also returnable deposits to be paid. Water costs 3€/tonne (1,000 litres which equals 30c per 100 litres not one Euro as some places charge sport boats) and electricity is 30c/Kw hour) An 80m empty was passing as we untied and winded, left at 8.55 am. We spotted a camera on one of the lamp posts a bit further down the

Passing pusher pair Charly

moorings. It was not aimed at the water point - it was lined up on the dustbins! Did some washing and ironing as we travelled using our own generated power. Two small sailing yachts with their masts down were moored at KP284 and beyond them was an unusual old Czech boat with a central cabin and wheelhouse; it had more crew quarters at the stern. An empty Czech boat went past heading for Magdeburg as we reached the end of the moorings in Calvorde. Noticed there was evidence of more beaver

The buzzard who sat still long enough for a photo

damage to the trees. The banks were very colourful with lilac in bloom and broom (yellow), blackthorn (white) and lupins (purple) plus masses of small white flowers too small to identify with binoculars! A loaded Dutch tanker called Hayley went past at KP282, followed by Martha from Berlin-D, also loaded and beautifully painted with red oxide coamings and forecabin. Two kilometres further on the little town of Mannhausen was visible through a gap in the trees; there was a stork nesting on top of an old chimney.  KP280 – 100kms done, 280 more to go before we reach the Ems. House martins were nesting under most of the new suspension bridges that span the widened canal. Ox-eye daisies were growing along the banks where they had added nature habitats along the banks when the canal widening here was done ten years ago, so there are lengths of marshland with reed beds parallel to the canal. In an old tree next to one of these reed beds there was a buzzard perched. To Mike’s surprise it didn’t take off when he picked up the camera, so he did a U-turn and we both took photos of it. It only took flight when a bright orange maintenance lorry drove down the

Wild lupins and broom

road beyond the marsh. Did another U-turn and continued on our long trek westwards. The countryside becomes wilder as you get closer to the old East/West border and sandpipers were flying across the canal as well as the forever-present ducks. A small cruiser went past keeping close to the left bank. Via, a loaded boat (67mx7m 700T) went past as we neared our destination of the day, Bergfriede. A Dutch cruiser went past at the start of the commercial moorings. There are 41 mooring dolphins,

Forty one mooring dolphins 1.150kms

the first 340m are reserved for highly inflammable cargo carrying vessels (tankers) the next section of 810m is for all other commercial craft and the end 35m is reserved for kleinfahrzeug under 35m, in other words - us. It was 1 pm when we arrived at our allotted 35m of mooring. We got a move on with the tying up as traffic was busy, there was a constant stream of boats in either direction, most of them loaded and pulling quite a bit of water as they passed us. Long lines out at either end, springs and tyres attached to the landing to prevent our gunwales from going under the edge. Had to use

And this is our 35m long mooring

a plank to get get the bike off the roof (first time in a long time) as the landing was just a few cms below gunwale level. Laid the plank on the steps to the passerelle (gangway) to the bank so Mike could run the bike up them more easily. A mass of blue flowers further down the mooring turned out to be meadow sage – they looked like more lupins from a distance. Mike went to move the car on to Edesbüttel, our next stopping place.