This is the Lower Oder Valley National Park, the only floodplain national park in Germany, and one of the wildest corners of the country. In spring the river floods the meadows, turning them into a shallow, glittering lake, and the dykes become islands. Birds arrive in huge numbers: cranes, geese, white-tailed eagles, black storks and corncrakes, whose rasping call is heard on summer nights, and beavers have returned to the channels.
The old town of Gartz, on the western bank, has a medieval gate and a church with a tall tower, and a quiet, unspoilt air. A few kilometres south, Schwedt, a larger town of about thirty-eight thousand people, has a more industrial story. It grew in the 1960s around an oil refinery at the end of the Druzhba pipeline, which supplied much of eastern Germany with fuel, and its wide boulevards and tall blocks are a legacy of that period. Before that, Schwedt was a centre of tobacco growing, thanks to Huguenot refugees who planted tobacco in the Uckermark in the seventeenth century, and some old drying barns still stand in the villages.
The riding here is gentle and spacious. The roads run along the dykes and through the polders, with long, open views of the river and Poland beyond, and the atmosphere is calm. The surface varies from smooth asphalt to old, bumpy brick and patchy repairs, and in places the road narrows and becomes a single track. Wind from the east can be strong, and mist often hangs over the meadows in the morning and evening. The border with Poland is open, and a bridge or ferry crossing is easy, with a different landscape on the other side, though you should carry your papers.
Schwedt has fuel, supermarkets, cafes and everything else a rider might need, and it is the best place to fill the tank, because the villages along the river are small and have few services. Gartz has a bakery and a couple of simple places to eat. Try a plate of smoked fish or a serving of local potato dishes, and give yourself time for a stop at one of the dyke-top viewpoints in the evening, when the cranes come in to roost.