I don't believe it - but its true

Amazing. I've just calculated our mileage and locks for our current trip and it seems we have done 478 miles and 249 locks so far. On top of that we still have to get from Buckby back down to GU to Iver. No wonder we need a break.


This week I'll catch up on some things I forgot to tell you whilst we were travelling.


You know we've seen a lot of wildlife - a seal (3 times), 4 barn owls, a few marsh harriers, about a dozen red kites, 3 snakes, a mink, thousands of fish, ten thousand damsel flies etc. We've also spotted a couple of real rarities. First shoveller ducks at Wicken fen, and then most surprising of all last week at Wellingborough a Bewick's Swan. If you don't know what one looks like, here's a link. Doesn't he know he's supposed to be in Siberia at this time of the year? No mistake though, the people on the boat behind us spotted it too.

We also did a little bit of sight seeing, and one nice surprise was the little Church in Outwell on the Middle Levels. It has this wonderful set of carved angels (very very old) in the roof vaults. Unusually it also has a kind of mezzanine set of pews above the normal ones. This was to accommodate folk from a neighbouring village who used to arrive by boat each Sunday. Kath seems to attract the attentions of local cognoscenti and this was no exception. We got a long talk from a passing historian, not only about the church, but about Well Creek, the tiny river which we were navigating and which runs past the church. Apparently it was once a lot bigger and sea going ships used to come right up to Outwell. Even plastic cruisers are too big for that these days.