Seyella's Journey

Not a good decision, to spend the night still on the river section of the canal! At 07:00, when I took Meg out for her early “constitutional”, the river was up 9” on the day before, and flowing fast. We were moored securely, but I was not prepared to risk the trip back up to Oak Meadowford Lock with the river this high. I’m pleased to say Mags resisted the temptation to say “I told you so”, she wasn’t keen on stopping here, but I particularly wanted to run down to the terminus at Froghall, about 2½ miles away, this morning.

Moored, waiting for the level to drop. The weir is just under the bridge to the left.
A lot of water going over the weir.
The steamers on the Churnett Valley Railway gave me a good photo opportunity.
We monitored the level all morning, and by 15:00, it'd gone down by about 4”. So we took the chance and set off, back upstream.
The trip to the lock took 25 minutes, sometimes barely making headway on the narrow windy sections. I was glad to see the tail gates of the lock, believe me! No pictures, I’m afraid, I had other things to think about!

Up through the lock, where a couple of boats were hanging about waiting for the river to drop, then retraced our route back up to Cheddleton Mill. Stopped just past the mill at around 17:30. After a very wet morning, the afternoon brightened, but we still suffered a couple of showers, short in duration but heavy in intensity.

A large whisky is in order, I think.

Locks 4, miles 3