Berg to Borenberg and Motala, the cradle of the Göta Kanal and Swedish industrial revolution…

waiting in the queue

...could, of course, not be reached without many more locking efforts. After four double locks and a single lock to reach Borenberg and crossing the tiny lake of Boren, we were expecting another sequential lock with five chambers with a total elevation of 15.3 m and, closer to Motala, another single one.

First we had to get there. On Thursday, once the bad weather had passed, we got up and for once we thought we would not rush to get away too quickly. That meant that at 8:30 we were already in 7^th place (for 3 locks) in the queue attempting to get to Borenberg!

It was not that bad after all (‘patience is the mother of virtues’ after all) and after one and a half hours we were on our way. Apart from the locks we also had to wait for 4 road and 2 railway bridges to open and we were fascinated when we crossed 2 main roads on aqueducts.

It’s behind you...!

waiting for ER to rise

On Friday we left Borenberg refreshed after a good night’s sleep and crossed Boren lake in gorgeous sunshine. We arrived at the bottom of the Borenshult (the five chamber lock) all ready for the strenuous climb. Finding only two boats ahead of us we were happy thinking that we were the next group to lock in… until a lock assistant came to tell us that there was a three and a half hour wait until we could go up! Not only were there 17 boats at the top, waiting to come down, but also there were three passenger ships coming down and they always have priority over pleasure craft. So, finally, after a four hours wait we were on our way up to continue up to Motala.

Motala Werkstad Museum

When we finally reached Motala (37 locks up from Mem) we were exhausted but happy to have arrived. Now we only have another one lock ahead of us and we will have reached the highest point (92 m above sea level) of our journey across Sweden.

We spent the day yesterday finding out about this extraordinary place, which is Motala. It grew very fast with the construction of the canal. It became the construction headquarters of this huge enterprise.

We visited the Industry Museum at the Motala Werkstad, an extraordinary place where so much innovation began during the industrial revolution starting from every aspect of the canal construction. It included bridges, engines, Electrolux fridges, neurosurgical gamma knives and more recently torpedoes and high speed trains!   

taking your dog for a walk 'canal style'

The Canal Museum gave some fascinating insight into the magnitude of this gigantic enterprise. It was good to be reminded that the Göta Canal, which is also called Sweden’s Blue Ribbon and is exclusively used by pleasure boats today, was, for the most part, dug by hand using metal-covered spades! It took 7 million working days, digging up 8 million cubic meters of earth and blasting away 2 million cubic meters of rock.

“ They were horny, sinewy, bony paws,

On horny, sinewy, bony men.

Patiently they gnawed holes in their country’s shell,

The hands that dug the Göta Canal”

Tage Danielsson (1982)

During the whole of the 19th century, the canal had huge significance as a transport route, both for goods and passengers. However the canal lost its importance as the railway and, above all, lorry traffic gradually took over.

Today is Sunday and the weather, although not really bad, is windy and overcast. We got so spoilt during this sailing trip with wonderful sunshine that we decided to stay in Motala and do some maintenance on Easy Rider before we continue this afternoon.

in Motala harbour