This place is so nice, I’ve done this tour twice 😉 The Mecklenburgische Klein Seenplatte (or Mecklenburg Little Lake District) is approximately an hour and a half north of Berlin, just over the state border of Brandenburg. The cool thing about the lakes here is that many of them are connected by streams or locks, allowing you to visit several lakes in a day or connect a bunch of them to make a multi-day round trip journey.
Day 1 – Kanu-Mühle, Wesenberg
Our excursion began on the Thursday morning of Ascension (a long holiday weekend all over Germany) in a tightly packed train making its way to Rostock. Slightly delayed, we jumped out in Neustrelitz and made our connection on an older, local train called the Hans to Wesenberg. From there we walked about 3 kilometers through the seemingly empty town. Luckily we had already reserved our kayaks at the Kanu-Mühle in Wesenberg or we might have been without a paddle! It seemed like everyone was out this weekend for a water adventure.
With our two kayaks stuffed to the gills with dry bags full of camping gear, we hit the road! (uhmmm… the river?) Just barely 300 meters from the start, we already got to go through our first set of locks (Schleusen). All large boats get to go in first and then the paddlers (of canoes and kayaks alike) get to pile on in.
Many boats and Floß (floats) can be rented in the Seenplatte without a boat license or with a partial boat license. While a cool thing to do for a weekend, this also means many people don’t exactly know what they’re doing out there. We experienced this first hand when going through the locks near Wesenberg. The boat in front of us tied themselves securely to the side of the locks at one end of the boat and not at all at the other end. When the water level began to decrease, the back end of the boat didn’t go down with it. The front end was hanging free and started to drift out to where the paddlers were. The rope at the rear began to break strand by strand (as if in a cartoon!) with the captain holding on for dear life. The Schleusenmeister (master of the locks) came to the rescue by getting hold of the front rope and reeling it back in. Luckily, the man holding the rope tightly at the back gave up and the boat plopped into the water. It was an unnecessarily exciting beginning to our weekend on the water.
From here, we kayaked down the Havel (river), heading southward. A lot of floats, rental boats, and Männertag parties passed by. Ascension is not only a holy weekend in Germany, but also Father’s Day and Men’s day rolled into one. Approximately 4 out of 5 boats were happy, drunken bro-fests ready for four days of fishing, drinking, and floating.
Our boats took us under a beautiful wooden covered bridge as we passed by a popular spot for Fischbrötchen. The docks were so full of motor and paddler boats that we kept on to Drewensee. Here we began to see TONS of birds. This tour and season is definitely for bird-lovers. Not only are the lakes and streams full of birds, but at the end of May all of the babies have been hatched and are out swimming with mama. I made some duck calls and two mallards nearby came and swam a circle around my kayak. I’d like to think my call was so good they were looking for another feathered friend.
After another stretch of the Havel, the Wangnitzsee spit us into Großer Priepertsee. Although we had felt the wind before, this time it was really against us. We fought with every stroke for 2 kilometers and were grateful to reach the thin Havel connecting Priepertsee to Ellbogensee.
On Ellbogensee, we reached our campsite, the Havelperle. Getting out of a kayak on a dock is no easy feat if you’ve never done it, but C and I successfully scuttled out of the boats getting neither ourselves nor our camping gear wet. We set up our tent and went for a walk, curious about the loud music we could hear. Without going very far, we found the Männertag party at the restaurant next to the campsite and then continued on with our walk through town. We walked by an old church and the “hitchhiker bench” in Priepert before going back to cook dinner.
Back at camp, we heard the sound of a rooster. But the noise became more unusual, and never stopped kickerikie-ing (how German roosters cock-a-doodle-do). It was the Hähnchenman! Yes, the chicken man. The meaty version of the ice cream truck was coming to bring you roast chicken on this special Männertag day. Strange? Indeed. We didn’t get any chicken, but instead happily chowed down on our vegetarian pasta, pesto, and feta dinner.
Day 2 – The Hecht
The day began with paddling down the Ellbogensee to the Strasen Schleuse. Today, we would pass through two sets of locks. Before getting to the final one, we spent a long time on the Großer und Kleiner Pälitzsee. At the Canower Schleuse, we helped explain to a family how to go through the locks as a paddler. We saw them again a day later going around the lakes in the opposite direction as us.
Reaching the Labussee, I decided I immediately liked it. Compared to the previous few lakes, there are no homes or other structures here. It’s just water and trees. The Labussee was more circular in shape to the earlier lakes, making it some how cozier than the lakes we had seen earlier. This was where we’d call it a day and camp at BiberTours.
The BiberTours campsite is on the rustic side. It would be really great on hot days because the entire campsite is completely covered in trees. But shortly after we arrived, it rained briefly, which turned the sandy ground muddy and sticky under the pine trees. As with all campsites this weekend, it was FULL. We searched for a less busy site to pitch our tent and avoid mosquitoes (inevitable).
While cooking our lentils and rice, a commotion bust out by the campsites near the water. Some boys had caught an ENORMOUS Hecht (pike) while fishing from the docks. After dinner, we visited the campsite’s Floßbar, a bar on a Floß docked out on the lake. The boys with the giant fish had cooked it and came around to share a bite of their feast with everyone.
If you’re enjoying our trip through the Seenplatte, be sure to check out the rest of the weekend here.
Looking to plan your own paddling weekend? Look no further! Here’s everything you need to know about planning one day to one week in the Mecklenburgische Seenplatte.