I woke about 6AM and the sun was shining but by 7 it was raining, we hung around until it eased off at 11AM and made a move, thankfully I had put all the wet gear on because about 10 minutes latter it just fell down. A boat had only just closed the top gate on Swanley top Lock when we came into sight but Diana still needed to lift both paddles to get the gate open again. looking over the bottom gates the water was shooting out of the wing wall. Swanley Bottom Lock was empty so had to be filled before we could use it, once we were down as you can see, yet again the water is flowing round the gate to come out of the lock wall, how long before the wall blows with the weight of water behind it. The wooden cill buffer is also broken away which means that boats going uphill will start to damage the Cill, maybe CRT have forgotten they were put in for a reason.
After this the rain eased and then died away. We stopped to fill with water at the top of the Hurleston flight, The toilet block is still out of order with a notice saying that the Contractors have been called. A passing boater said it was like this when they came up. We had a dry run down the Hurleston flight waiting in the top chamber for a boat to come up the next lock, after that we were following one down. Back on the Shropshire Union we turned right for Nantwich and disposed of our rubbish at the services as they have recycling facilities there. We had to go quite a way on the embankment passed the aqueduct before we could find a spot to moor for the night.
Today's Journey
5½ miles, 6 Locks, 1 Junction, 2 Canals in 3½ Hours.
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