Five weeks of stunningly constant sunny and warm, if not extremely hot and ennervating, weather with barely even the slightest rain shower, and then in Heining near Passau on Monday the 3rd of August it began... rain, rain, rain through the night and into the day, a very welcome and refreshing change.
The forecast predicts continuous rain till Tuesday. Driving in the rain is no fun with a little click on--click off windscreen wiper giving only very limited visibility. Will we have to spend another night here? But against all odds the rain stops just after noon and we set out.
Past Passau, we see the grey-green Inn join its mighty swirling waters to the Danube and we zip along the now broad river up to 17 km/h, stopping briefly at Obernzell and then for the night by 'Kohlbachmühle'.
We hope to leave early in the morning, but alas, again it rains throughout the night and the morning. At 2pm it finally stops and we are off, into Austria! But the water level had risen by more than 2 metres and we were racing along, at times up to 21 km/h. That meant an incredible 13 km/h flow rate! The river was littered with flotsam, branches and tree trunks swirling by.
We decided to stop at Schlögen for a few hours, as it had started to drizzle again. We asked the harbour master if he had a guest place for us, for some hours or perhaps overnight and he answered us cryptically, 'Yes, until October.' His meaning would become clear later.
We all hiked up to the 'Schlögen Blick', a viewpoint on top of the mountain, revealing the famous 'Schlögener Schlinge', the river making two 180° turns in close succession, squeezed between the steep forest clad granite slopes, under a still heavy sky, floating mysterious rags of mist.
The next morning, the harbour master informed us that because of the high water, all shipping is suspended and all Austrian locks are closed, UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. We are stuck in Schlögen...
What do you do when you're stuck in Schlögen?
Well, Liz and Johannes went for a walk, checking out other people's boats, chatting to the Hungarian Bela by his boat 'Liberty', and watching the fishermen.
Sophia and Clovis went fitness-mad, jogging/running up the mountain and down again, recuperating afterwards with a cold beer by the pool.
Sulina got her tank topped up with diesel at the super convenient petrol station on a pontoon in the harbour. Her consumption of 2 litres diesel per hour sounded extremely economical when we learned in conversation with our neighbours that their boat can use up to 60 litres fuel per hour!
Johannes walked up to the 'Schlögen blick' again and painted the 'Schlögener Schlinge'.
And we all marvelled at the menacing murky flood ripping past, carrying with it all kinds of debris from whole areas of bits of straw and small sticks to entire trees, roots and all.
We could only agree that there are many worse things that could have happened than being 'stuck in Schlögen'! We gratefully spent the second night there and cast off in the morning under a misty but gradually brightening sky.
Commenti