We
motored up the Göta Älv River for 2 or 3 hours against a 1½ knot current –
mostly it was pleasant green countryside with an occasional old fortress …
… or industrial
site …
The edges
of the channel are marked with yellow (starboard) and white (port) structures,
each of which seems to have its own resident seagull …
We spent
the night in the small ‘guest harbour’ at Lille Edet …
The
following day we continued up river in perfect weather again …
This is
the view from inside the first lock, looking up at the lock gates of the second
lock – the top of the gates is about 15 metres above us …
This is
looking back down on the first and second locks from the third lock - it's really impressive and quite an experience to go through these locks …
Here we
are about to leave the third lock …
Here we’re
about to enter one more lock at Trollhättan itself about 200 metres further on …
… which
attracted quite an audience as we came out …
Then we
were out into the river again – you can just see a cable car crossing in the
distance …
There was
another rail bridge which had to be raised for us …
… and an
elegant road bridge which was high enough for us to get under …
We then
turned down a narrower canal …
… and had
one more lock to negotiate …
… before
entering the small lake of Vassbotten …
… and
tying up in the marina in Vänersborg in the South West corner of Lake Vänern …
Becca and
I went for a jog and cycle ride (she jogged, I cycled!) through Vänersborg and
along the shore of Lake Vänern, which was very pretty …
… and stopped
for a swim from these rocks – lovely and really quite warm, about 20°C.
The "old fortress" is the Bohus: I visited it last year. From the top of the walls there are spectacular views of the valley you sailed up. I arrived just before closing time and was let in by a blonde lady attendant who showed me a secret little door, with a handle on the inside only, in case she locked me in. Makes you wonder whether students hide and let their friends in for illicit after-hours parties.
ReplyDeleteThe locks at Trollhättan look amazing. Telford built the Göta Canal from the east coast to Lake Vänern and then stopped: the challenge of getting down the west side to Gothenburg was probably too much. The canal you went through was built later, presumably with newer and better technology (including dynamite).
The cable car seems to be a bizarrely elaborate way of connecting the old railway works on one side of the canal to the power station on the other, which seems a bit of a luxury when there's a perfectly good bridge a bit further up. But I suppose it's a bit of fun.
Looking forward to you crossing Vänern and getting to Telford's canal at Sjötorp!