In the remote village of Lehde, postal delivery restarts with the seasons. During warmer months, Andrea Bunar takes a yellow barge to reach homes and farms tucked along the narrow waterways of the Spreewald Forest delta southeast of Berlin, dropping mail into mailboxes residents have placed along the riverbanks. The barge runs as weather allows, while winter delivery shifts to roads, when Bunar brings mail by car but often faces icy conditions.
On Wednesday, Bunar—55—stood at the back of her boat again, using one long oar to row, steer and navigate through shallow waters as she began the spring route. She said, “The start of the season is always special for me,” and added that after the long winter break she enjoys being in nature and back on the water.
Bunar has delivered mail and packages to Lehde for 14 years. She makes deliveries from April through October, and, according to her routine, works Monday through Saturday by leaving items in the village’s riverfront mailboxes. The route is about 8 kilometers, and Bunar typically needs about two hours to steer the barge through the canals.
The Spreewald, where the barge route passes through a dense network of canals and wetlands, is known for its waterways. The region’s water system spans about 300 kilometers and includes hundreds of small canals branching off the Spree River, which also flows through Berlin. The Spreewald has also been designated a UNESCO biosphere, with the goal of protecting its ecosystem, including its diverse fauna and flora.
Lehde’s approach to delivery is also long-standing. The village is the only place in Germany where mail is delivered by boat, and it has been receiving mail by boat for 129 years. Bunar said the service grew as more people moved from rural areas to cities and demand for longer-distance communication increased, leading the German postal service to deliver more often—while in Lehde, it has remained water-based.
Each week, Bunar delivers around 600 letters and 80 packages, and delivery has shifted in recent seasons toward more parcels. She told the Associated Press that she has already carried items such as an e-scooter, a lawnmower and a fridge, saying that “sometimes my barge feels like a little container ship.” On Wednesday, her first day of the spring season, she also had to bring a resident a big saw as well as bills, registered mail and letters.
Bunar described the work as a long-held aspiration. “This is and has been my dream job all along,” she said, adding that “Being on the water is just so relaxing — it slows down life.”