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River at Meiningen
To plan
the trip, we downloaded a river map from the Werra
valley tourist association site. The map shows getting in
and getting out places and the weirs.
We
referred to the DKV river description which says that the
river is canoeable all year from Meiningen
downwards.
We also purchased from amazon.de for 10 Eur
a book describing the cycle route along the Werra. The book
has 1:50000 detailed maps of the complete route and
information about what is worth visiting in the area.
In
February when we started thinking about paddling the river
Werra in April, I only imagined it would be cold and wet. In
fact it turned out to be the best weather we have ever had
during a holiday. I have been close to the area previously at
the beginning of May and it has always been extremely cold.
While making plans we discovered that most of the camping
sites, especially in the upper river only open from May.
However there are many guest houses and hotels relatively
close to the river and inexpensive and so we decided to make
our first HOTEL canoe trekking trip.
There are numerous weirs
along the river so it also did not seem a bad idea to take
less luggage and make the portaging easier. Facilities for
portaging in Germany and generally good and this river was no
exception. At each weir, there were canoe landing stages,
information boards
showing
not only the portage path,
but telling us about the local area.
We
started in Meiningen and paddled to Eschwege, a distance of
170 km. We portaged past 19 weirs and 1 fallen tree blocking
the river. In Eschwege, by the final weir of our trip, there
was also a lock which we used for
fun. It actually took longer to operate the lock than
portage. Staying at hotels meant that we had plenty of time
for tourist activities and late afternoon walks in the wooded
areas surrounding the river.
The
river starts small with many bends and you cannot see much of
the surrounding landscape while on the river. After Bad
Salzungen the river bed broadens and you get distant views of
the surrounding hills while paddling. There was a major flood
in January this year which meant that for the first few days
we saw lots of plastic rubbish in the trees high above the
river. Fortunately as the river got broader, the rubbish
vanished from view.
The first few days you are aware of the
industry in the river valley, mainly the potash mine. We
visited
the mine which was
interesting. Besides having a cave with the largest salt
crystals I have ever seen, there is another cave where the
Nazis hid their gold reserves during WW II. The cave was
visited by General Eisenhower in 1945 when the gold was
uncovered by
Allied forces in
1945.
We also visited a mining museum which
gave more insight into the development of the area.
Further downstream as the river broadens,
the industry is left behind and the area is rural with rolling
hills.
The reeds growing along the river looked
as if they had salt on them, and this was confirmed by
canoeists and fishermen we talked to, who are not happy that
so much salt from the potash industry finds its way into the
river.
Day 4 of our trip was hard going as we
had to carry past 5 weirs. This was the center of the potash
mining area and at the beginning of the last century when the
mines were developed, each mine had to generate its own
electricity – hence the large number of weirs in such a short
distance.
Dotted along the river are many small
towns and villages with timber frame houses – all very
picturesque.
We paddled for 6 days without seeing
another boat on the river. On days 7 and 8, Easter Saturday
and Sunday, we encountered a group of Germans all paddling
double kayaks. The canoe rental companies were all closed
despite the sunny weather and temperatures of 25 C so we
enjoyed the river alone.
In the town of Vacha, while wheeling the
canoe thru the streets to the hotel, we bumped into a
television crew making a documentary “Round and
about in Thuringen”. They asked us
if they could film us the following morning leaving the
hotel, and walking the boat back down to the river. The
program will be shown shortly on German television!< /span
>
In conclusion we really enjoyed our first
HOTEL canoe trek. All the hotels were
friendly and in 4 hotels we were offered a garage for storing
the boat. At other hotels, we left the boat in the beer
garden.
There are good train connections in the
area. Before starting the trip, after unloading everything at
the start, we drove to the finish, and took trains back to the
start. We left the car in the hotel car park of our final
night’s stay.
Further, the river continues for another
60 km until it joins the river Weser in Han-Munden. We had
wanted to do this as well but had not enough
time.
The
most popular part of the river for canoeists is the stretch
from Creuzburg to Han-Munden. However I am glad we paddled
also the industrial area and experienced more aspects of the
river. |
