This year's touring trip (June 2-7, 2024) truly deserved the promising title "In Brandenburg's Amazon"! For six days, we explored the river and lake landscape around Königs Wusterhausen in gig boats built in the proud years of 1890 and 1891.
This year, too, an illustrious group of first-timers and repeat “offenders” came together: a strong Mainz faction consisting of Andrea and chief organizer Wolfgang Litzenburger, Dagmar and Jochen Blum, Raimund Casser, Simone and Michael Emmelius, Anne and Hartmut Jaeger, Gudrun Hebling and Christof Orning.
Berlin was represented by Maria Hafner-Althammer, the beautiful Hunsrück was represented by Gudrun and Wolfgang Tenhaef, and our Romanian friends Ionela and Valer Crisan and Mihaela Ligia Ionas had undertaken the longest journey.
We were accommodated in comfortable holiday apartments plus a sauna at the Hotel Waldhaus Prieros, with a beautiful terrace located directly on Lake Streganzer, once the home and workplace of Wilhelm Pieck. And at least the service still evoked a bit of the spirit of bygone times.
No matter, the cheerful welcome aperitif alone was a foretaste of the mood for the coming days and was also enthusiastically celebrated on the following days.
Day 2 (June 3): The following morning, the rowboats were picked up from the Königs Wusterhausen Rowing Club, which had been renting them out in 1906. Its lovely boathouse likely dates from the same period. The beautifully crafted clinker boats had obviously not seen the water in some time; one had even housed a family of birds, but, freed from the dust of the past few years (and decades), they made a decent displacement run through the water.
Our first destination was Krüpelsee, Dahme and Dolgensee and from there directly to the hotel jetty in Streganzer See. One of the daily highlights of our tours was the unavoidable locks, which keep the water level even throughout the river and lake area and obviously keep the floods we are all too familiar with in check. Designed purely for pleasure craft, including the numerous houseboats that can be hired for holidays, these locks are less frightening than the local ones - the brave crew are rewarded with sweets by the lock keeper and entertained with all sorts of interesting facts and a few quirky tidbits during the lock process.
Day 3 (June 4): Tuesday already gave the Landdienst (Anne, Dagmar, Iolana, Michael, and Gudrun T.) every opportunity to demonstrate their unparalleled catering skills. Destinations were Lake Langer See, Lake Wolziger See, and the Storkow Canal, and ultimately, we had set our sights on nothing less than reaching Philadelphia via the Amazon. To our surprise, the local piranhas had wings and could be successfully kept at bay with Autan or AntiBrumm.
The real challenge of the day turned out to be the Storkow lock, which was already marked as “self-service” on the map.
It offered a unique opportunity, especially for the men of the world, to put the knowledge they had acquired over years of railway construction into practice on a large scale. Even violin making proved to be an important foundation for the repair of a traction engine, which was to be used to transport the rowboats up the mountain on rail cars. After successfully transporting a boat several meters, we left it at the triumph of a successful repair. On the way back, we wanted to pay a visit to the legendary "fisherman's hut" on Lake Wolzig and, last but not least, to reach the lock keeper, who had become familiar to us by now, before the gates closed, to gain access to "our lake."
Day 4 (June 5): Wednesday's focus was on navigating the Dahme River, the veritable "Amazon of Brandenburg." And indeed, we enthusiastic rowers were treated to enchanting, seemingly untouched nature for long stretches, combined with a complete dead zone. Pure idyll. Here and there, a friendly houseboat, also enjoying the solitude, and, just to prevent the effects of habituation, the occasional pleasure boat captain with a sense of overconfidence—what the heck, we can row!
We dedicated the evening to two people in particular, without whom neither the hiking trips nor our Fellowship would exist. For many years now, Wolfgang has organized our annual hiking trips with unparalleled precision, a sense of affordability, and a great variety. They have thus become not only an integral part of our Fellowship, but also a fundamental part of it.
A Fellowship that wouldn't exist without Hartmut's initiative, his many years of Rotary experience, and his friendly networks. Now that he's decided to hand over leadership to his successors Simone and Maria, they'll have to grow quite a bit to fill the shoes he's left behind! In his short address, Hartmut himself highlighted the particular challenge compared to other Fellowships: Rowing is inherently a team sport, practiced with like-minded individuals – making it much more challenging to inspire people to become Fellows. With his amiable and engaging manner, Hartmut has succeeded in doing this in an exemplary and global manner over the years – once he hooked someone, they wouldn't let go!
Day 5 (June 6): Thursday was lake day. From the Hotel Waldhaus Prieros in Groß Köris to the Sparta Klein Köris rowing club, or rather to the renovated drawbridge on Schulzensee, and back again.
After saying goodbye to Simone and her husband Michael after breakfast, we went to the jetty in front of the hotel. Two teams climbed into the venerable, over-century-old wooden boats—the "Noeck" and the "Clothar"—again in sunshine and calm waters, and set off. The shore party, consisting of Dagmar, Anne, Gudrun, Ionela, and Maria, drove to Klein Köris to the Sparta Rowing Club to prepare a lunch picnic. We found a group of young people from Halberstadt camped there and, within three days (!!), had learned the art of rowing and how to handle the oars in no time. Next to them, young girls performed acrobatic handstands on stand-up paddleboards without slipping into the water.
Our two rowing boats were already in sight and we helped to bring them to shore in an inclined position so that we could drain the water from the boats after loosening the stern screw. What a relief! The sluggishness of the antique boats was not due to our age, but rather to the old planks, which had not been used for years and were therefore drawing a lot of water into the boat.
The boat carrying Hartmut, Wolfgang L., Jochen, Wolfgang T., and Christof then sailed a short distance further to the drawbridge at the Groß Köris'schen Graben, which connects the Schulzensee with the Großer Moddersee. They enthusiastically reported on the renovated, Dutch-style drawbridge.
Well-fortified by the picnic – thanks to our reliable shore service (thank you!) – we then set off on the return journey. The two boats, newly distributed and without any sloshing, slowing water, floated swiftly through Klein Köriser See, Hölzerner See, and Schmöldesee back to Prieros, where we were once again greeted by the friendly lock keeper. He provided us with candy reminiscent of Carnival. Shortly afterward, we disembarked at our hotel dock around 4 p.m. Time for a nap or a sauna followed by a swim in the refreshing lake – it was wonderful! Little by little, everyone gathered for a leisurely final aperitif on the terrace, where we were served by a young Ukrainian woman who already spoke good German and was in her second year of training there. We also had an entire room inside the building to ourselves, so we could chat and enjoy dinner in complete privacy.
Day 6 (June 7): Farewell day with last rowing round from Hotel Waldhaus Prieros back to Königs Wusterhausen
We said goodbye to Gudrun H. after breakfast and to Anne and Hartmut Jaeger at the dock; they accompanied us on our last boat trip. Gudrun T. drove with Ionela and all her luggage to the rowing club in Königs Wusterhausen, our final destination of this trip. We passed the lock in Prieros six times in total; the candy box must have been lighter.
On Lake Dolgen, we circumnavigated a spooky, nature-protected island; the cries of cormorants could be heard from afar. The nests are in the treetops, and "No Parking" signs are posted around the island (not that we wanted to dock there!). We returned across Lake Krüpel, seeing more and more houses and estates, and approaching civilization again. We passed the lock at the Neue Mühle with ease and practice.
At the Königs Wusterhausen rowing club, we were warmly welcomed by the boat caretaker, and the venerable boats were returned to their berths, beautifully cleaned, for an indefinite period of time.
At the Königs Wusterhausen Rowing Club, we were warmly welcomed by the boat caretaker, and the venerable boats were returned, beautifully polished, to their moorings for an indefinite period. Ionela provided us with rolls she had brought with her—how quickly the days flew by! We said goodbye to Wolfgang and Andrea L., who continued on to Berlin by car. Gudrun and Wolfgang T. kindly drove the luggage for the train passengers to Königs Wusterhausen station, where we said our goodbyes.
A very big thank you to Wolfgang Litzenburger for the excellent organization of the trip – we all had a great time! He obviously did too, because we already have mail for next year, true to the motto
After the rowing trip 2024 is again before the rowing trip 2025
Maria Hafner-Althammer and Simone Emmelius