April 23,24

We left Lamb’s marina  at 9:05 and continued up the Pasquotank River for over ten miles and then took  Turner Cut.  The scenery was amazing,

and because the water was so calm, I got some neat pictures of waves from our wake, combined with reflections from the sky and trees.

We reached mile marker 35 at 10:41.    We had to hustle a bit at the end in order to make South Mills lock for it’s 11:00 opening.    We followed  Glorious Dei into the lock and were through  by 11:30.

After the lock, the channel became narrower.

We passed through the West Channel pedestrian  swing bridge at 12:15, and tied up to the dock at the Dismal Swamp Visitor’s Centre.

 

We went and registered at the Welcome centre and then crossed on the pedestrian bridge to the dismal swamp state park.    We toured the display building and watched the video on the park.  Here’s some of what we saw…

There was information on the animals, birds  and ecology of the swamp and how it has evolved– Andy made friends with this fellow 🙂  There was also information on the slaves that built the canal and the underground railway.  In the beginning  George Washington  played a part in the  dismal swamp.

We then took one of the trails and found an old still in the bush.  We returned to the boat as it looked like rain clouds were approaching.

Sunday  morning, we went back to the state park to walk down some of the other trails and saw this sign. We saw this tree that looked dead but had more than a dozen  branches that  looked like trees.

Also  saw this blue butterfly.

We left the visitors centre at 9:55, and entered the state of Virginia after passing mile  marker 25 at 10:24.

We saw a number of branches, logs  “snags”, coming out of the water, some of them had turtles  on them  sunning themselves.

There were also branches with these nest/ cocoons – not sure what will emerge from them.

We continued down the canal going about 5-6 miles per hour and the captain seemed quite content at this pace.

 

We arrived at the Deep Creek bridge 12:50 and had to wait until 1:30 for it to open

and then proceeded to the Deep Creek Lock.

We departed the lock at 2:05 and then continued for a few miles before turning south into the Chesapeake canal.

We made  the 3:20 opening of the Great Bridge lock and the 4:00 opening of the Great Bridge bridge.

 This bridge opens extremely quickly because of the suspended  counterweights.  We arrived at Atlantic Yacht Basin at 4:10, as it is located by the bridge.  We will be staying here in Chesapeake Virginia for a couple of days in order to get some window repairs done.  We encountered  Rafe in the marina, who we had first met in Belhaven.  He came for a visit and later took us shopping in his rental car.  Across the canal, we saw another boat that we had met in Belhaven as well.

We spent over 3 weeks in North Carolina, and met some of the nicest people in small towns, and the two days just spent going through the wilderness of the dismal swamp was so peaceful and enjoyable.  We’ll miss the south!    Greatest Hospitality in NC !