In Waren we were moored next to Axel from Denmark and had a good time over drinks, it was nice change to be speaking English with a fellow traveller. Maybe later in the season when Penny and Russel come this way there will be more English speaking travellers, though we do have fun talking to anyone who ventures the question, are we Australian, and then ask if we came in the boat. Depending on their sense of humour and grasp of English, we say yes or no.
We are often reminded of what a small world it is by having conversations with people we meet by chance.
In Domitz, a lady came on her bicycle in the morning and called out. She had heard us speaking English in the harbour restaurant the evening before. Her English was very good and she said she had learnt it in 1972 when she had visited her family in Australia. Her mother with her new husband had migrated to Australia and she now has 5 sisters living in Sydney or Brisbane and a brother who is in the navy in Perth. She had hardly spoken English since then but it was amazing how as we talked, she started to remember more and more. She said her family had taken her outback to Wagga Wagga, we said she was probably the only person living in East Germany who had been there. She used to live in what was West Germany but had retired to what was East Germany as she said the people were more relaxed and friendly.
While we were in the hotel opposite the port using the internet and we were inquiring about the town, a German man using a computer asked us if we were Australians. He had just finished an email to his sister in Brisbane and thought it an amazing coincidence that Australians were in town. We got some good tips of what to see around the town and surrounding areas.
After stocking up with groceries as we havn’t found many supermarkets close to the canal so far, we left the harbour in Waren at the northern end of the Muritz to cruise to the southern end, about a 20 kilometres trip.
The Muritz is about 90 square kilometres and when we were out there looking for the direction for where we should be heading it was a bit daunting as we have learnt that the chart is not always he same as reality. We had to keep to the middle of the lake and somewhere way down there was a group of safe water directional markers and an isolated danger marker we had to go between.
Due to my excellent skipper we ended up in the right place. If anyone knows what I am like going to Rottnest you would know how I was performing as it was quite windy and large waves, thankfully there is no swell as in the ocean.
Safe water at last and we came into the canal
And the usual lake side houses.
And down what we thought was a nice quiet canal.
However, it must have been university holidays and for the next few kilometres the canal was full of young people, some kept Kevin amused as we passed by.As you can see the European summer has arrived.
On we cruised down the canal and into the next lake.
The lakes are smaller now and we are passing a lot of canoes.
We came into the Zotensee and decided to stay the night here. The weather had been fine all day and not a lot of wind. The lake is bordered by forest and reeds.
The idea is to pick a spot and put the anchor down. This lake is between 7 and 16 metres deep, some lakes earlier had been up to 40 metres deep.
The anchor is down and now for a swim. The water is very cold in the lakes and said to be the cleanest water in Europe. Now we have a bit of a problem as to how to get back on the boat, when we remembered we had bought an emergency ladder in France, after Sandra fell in the lock when the family came to stay with us ( the water was certainly not clean then).
It worked a treat, I kept watch to see no Zotensee monsters got the Skipper who had a lovely swim though he said it was enough to freeze the ………..
Next morning we set off again. We are seeing some cute little hire boats on pontoons ranging from 3 star to one star.
We are cruising from canals then into lakes all day sharing them with many canoes with paddlers of all ages.
It is getting busier now and the locks are shorter so quite a bit of time is spent waiting for our turn in the locks. The locks here in Germany are very calm so it takes a while for each turn. It took three changes at this lock with many boats behind us waiting their turn. The topic of conversation as usual when we had Germans who could speak a little English was to ask us if we had come from Australia in our boat.
Since leaving Diane and Arthur in the Netherlands the only English speaking people we have spoken to is Peter, a New Zealander we met while on the Mitterland Canal and an English boat owner in Lauenberg on the Elbe, we saw another English boat by the side of the canal as we were passing. We met Axel from Denmark again here and another Danish couple on a yacht. We meet a few who have a smattering of English and everyone we have met so far in this part of the country has been very helpful and friendly.
We anchored our last night on the lake near Furstenburg and caught this lovely sunset.
Next day we called into Furstenburg. There is a nice marina at Stad park with a restaurant and good facilities. Across the lake about a kilometre from town is Ravensbruck the site of a large concentration camp for women during the World War 2. Only a few buildings are left but there is a museum and a monument to the women and children who lost their lives there. A very sad place.
From Furstenburg the canals are much narrower and wind through the forest as we leave the lakes behind us.
Our next major stop is Oranienburg before heading to Berlin.
As we neared Oranienburg we joined the large barges again, the most since leaving the Elbe River at Domitz.
At the schleuse we had to wait about 2 and a half hours. The schleuse is 126 metres long, 10 metres wide and the lift is 6.2 metres, the first time it was filled with a barge and pleasure boats, then just as it as our turn a huge barge 121 metres long came and went in next, he filled the whole lock.
Next then it was our turn, with a 65 metre barge, 1 canoe and 8 boats.
We were stacked 3 abreast.
ORANIENBURG
We arrived in Oranienburg which is 35k from Berlin around 5pm and planned to set off for Berlin in the morning.
Our mooring was on the town jetty and opposite a park on the Oranienburg-Havel canal along with several dutch boats moored there also. We took a bike ride into the town and managed to find some young people who spoke a little English and got directions to a computer shop as we were looking for extension speakers for the laptop so we could watch a DVD. In the evening we had fun watching a beaver hunting for fish right opposite our boat. He was more successful than most fishermen we have seen along the river. We planned to set off early next morning for Berlin, but what a surprise we got in the morning.
We woke to the sound of a boat right behind us and looking out Kevin saw a police boat pulling out. We had breakfast and just as we were preparing to leave he noticed there were two barrier buoys across the canal. Down to the other boats he went and came back with a grin, they told him the police came to tell us all we had to stay where we were as a World War 2 bomb had been found just along the side of the canal and they were evacuating people from all the apartments down the canal.
We had a good time socialising with Thomas and Trudi from Drenthe in the Netherlands while we waited for news of the bomb. Around 2.30pm we heard a siren sounding the all clear, just like we have heard in the movies after an air raid. Then the water authorities and the police boat came back to remove the barriers. 
It was too late to leave for Berlin so we had a few drinks with Thomas and Trudi in the evening and left just after them in the morning.
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