Day 83...

So the tradition of Sunday as “long walk day” continues. Just under 11 miles this afternoon  on an “out and back” route along the River Stort. The Stort is our local river, running through the bottom edge of the town. It’s the river I love to run along, we often walk the town section of it,and just a few weeks ago we passed by its joining point to the Lee Navigation when we walked a stretch of the Lee Walk. 

It was a stunning day for a walk - warm but not uncomfortably so, and with some gorgeous clouds in the sky breaking up the blue. Dragonflies and Damselflies were everywhere - brilliant little flashes of bright blue catching the eye. Butterflies too - mostly Small Tortoiseshell. On the bird front the highlights were Red Kites - beginning to get more common locally - and a lovely grey wagtail. Also. A Grey Heron sitting in the middle of a field - no idea why he wanted to be there as he was quite some way away from the water! 

We walked along to the junction with the Lee - consciously crossing over to where we passed on the other towpath so we had “joined up” the two walks. Feildes Weir (below) is quite dramatic - a bridge runs along above the rushing water - where I took the photo from - and you can see the foam left on the water.

Where the drama on the Lee Walk was a fire in an old outbuilding, needing a visit from the local Fire Service, this time round it was one of a rather more watery nature. Passing by a set of sluice gates we were surprised to realise that they were seemingly fully open - not least as neither of us could remember them being so as we had passed the other way. Shortly after we noticed that the water level in the canal appeared to be dropping (although the Stort is referred to as a river it is in fact a canal at this point) and a little while after that a chap walked briskly past us carrying what was quite clearly a key for the sluice gates...then we started noticing narrow boats beginning to heel over sideways... it turned out that a couple of kids had got access to the gates and had opened them in mischief - oh dear! Thankfully the problem was spotted - and addressed - swiftly, but thank goodness what had happened came to light quickly before any real damage was done.

Robyn