Peterborough to March

15 August

Just for the record, Stephen saw a kingfisher on Monday.

Other bird jottings - yesterday evening the swans and geese were all milling together near our mooring by the Grain Barge. This morning there were only swans around us. We found the geese further down the river.

Back to today's travels – about 8.15 we moved down the embankment a little way to the ‘facilities’ where we took on water, got rid of the rubbish and did a pump out. All for free, though you did have to find the control panel a little way away behind a thorny bush (berberis?) interwoven with brambles. We then hung around for a little while until it was time to head to Stanground for our 10.00 booking through the lock.

The two friendly lockkeepers worked us through and there we were on the Middle Levels. 

The morning cloud cleared and we then had a lovely day, sunny and warm without being too hot.

The only other lock we had to do today was Ashline which is unmanned so back to working it ourselves. This lock was very, very slow to fill and not very quick to empty, added to which, these locks need a special windlass and we only have one, so we can only work one paddle at a time. (Usually Steve hops off the boat to come and work one side of a lock.)  But entertainment was provided in the shape of two dogs swimming in the river below the lock. They were supposed to be retrieving a ball thrown by their owner, but just swimming back and forth seemed more fun. (She ended up retrieving the ball herself with a branch!)

At about 1.15, we passed a sign marking the Greenwich Meridian, so we are now officially in the East. The countryside of this leg of our trip was not very exciting, but as the sun was shining and we were pootling along happily, the scenery didn’t really matter.

We are now moored in March on a pleasant mooring near the Town Hall, having shuffled along a bit to accommodate first one and then another boat behind us. With boats in front and behind, this mooring is now full. 

Before the other boats arrived

We have had a walk around March which has a good variety of shops; we were able to buy local OS Maps at WH Smiths which had a buy one get one half price offer.