“The Havel, to say it again, is quite an unusual river;
you could call it the North German or the lowland
Neckar according to its shape.”  Theodor Fontane

Early in the morning on the banks of the Havel

In September 2020 (during the unfortunate coronavirus period), we devoted ourselves to more nearby beauty, as traveling to other countries was very difficult these days. And so we also went on a canoe trip on the old Havel north of Berlin between Zehdenick and Mildenberg. And we also came to the conclusion that the nearby obvious is often overlooked because people only want to get to know the wide world around the whole globe. That’s a shame, when there are small paradises just around the corner here with us in the vast Mark Brandenburg.

Feeling your way through a wild and overgrown side arm; my wife is at the top on her beloved SUP

The meandering main stream winds its way through an original countryside

The German writer Theodor Fontane can be regarded as a true forerunner of contemporary outdooring, as he spent three decades walking through Brandenburg in the 19th century, when it was not yet fashionable to do so, and wrote about it in his famous “Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg” in a total of five volumes. And at that time this was generally still something rather crazy, because people usually went into the great outdoors only to collect wood, graze their cattle or simply just to hunt.

We are in flow at a wide point of the primordial current

Water lilies also thrive here very well, an obvious sign of very clean water

And as you can see, the beautiful Havel here is once again a very pristine river, which was not always the case, as the area here was long dominated by the brick industry, which had to provide supplies for the rapidly growing Berlin not far away. And so there are really many clay pits in the area, but now these pits are only beautiful small lakes. But the renaturation of the Havel has been underway for many years now.

Dense shield belts everywhere along the natural river

An old decaying technical construction by the wayside

The next stage of this major renaturation project of the Havel began in 2024. Over the next few years, 15 oxbow lakes along 90 kilometers of the Lower Havel between Plau and the mouth of the Elbe will be restored to flow. In addition, dykes will be dismantled and 71 revetments will be removed along 29 kilometers, alluvial forests will be created and much more. Of course, this will not happen so quickly and will be a complex process over the coming years. But these pictures here show clearly, it really is worth all the effort.

An illustrious resting place for the night was also hidden in the vast green jungle

And with these varied and colorful impressions, I wish everyone a wonderful summertime and vacation whereever it may be.