More pleasant to Upwell

Today – March to Upwell, Middle Levels, 8.5 miles 1 lock

It was cold this morning… there might have been a bit of a frost overnight, but the strawberries looked OK.  After taking Lucy for a walk in the lovely park here, collecting bread and milk, a visit to the Post Office to send cards to daughter and granddaughter (costly month May is!  ) and a reverse back to use the services, we let the ropes go hoping for a better day than Saturday to our intended destination of Upwell.

The townsfolk of March, who live with the waterway at the bottom of their gardens, have done it proud, and this time of year their efforts are rewarded with lovely gardens viewed from the water.  As soon as we cleared March however, the banks rose up again to protect whatever was behind them from the water below….

But today was different .  No more the high wind, cloudy and sunny.. Yes! .. much more pleasurable, eventually arriving at Marmont Lock around late lunch time.  Here the lock keeper, a lady, had been locking people through for the last 40 years she tells me.  On arrival you are instructed to ‘ring the bell’…. to be honest there is no real reason to have a lock keeper, it’s just a lock like any other lock… but it give time for chatter and rumours to be exchanged.

Then so to Upwell… lots of memories for me, well of Outwell actually, and since we aren’t quite there yet, maybe I will write about those later.  The ‘Old Nene’ turns into the lovely name of ‘Well Creek’ around here.. it sounds like something in rural USA, but it’s all English!  Much narrower now…..

Not only has the Middle Levels shrunk, but the bridges have also!  We were just about to go under the main road bridge when I put the breaks on rapidly… this one certainly looked as if we would have to strip the paint from the roof!

Even the guy in the landrover passing over had to take a look… probably giggling to himself and wondering if any plant pots would be left behind for him to pick up!

Vic has got used to this now over the last few days, and decided that we would not have to take anything else off the roof for this one… we squeezed through…

JUST!!

Well his decision, I only drive! .  Our mooring for the evening was just beyond, you can see the visitor moorings the other side of the bridge in the pic… Tonight we nipped over to the The Five Bells for a pint, and a bar meal… great prices, great night, and with that ends my blog for today.  All I need now is a quick nightcap to end a perfect day.