A lot going on. Down by Pont John bridge we continued clearing up the invasive weeds which are choking the canal and making it look like  a marsh rather than a waterway. Nature never sleeps and we should always try to work with her, but given that a canal is a man-made artifice, it rather places a responsibilty on man to maintain it. That is what the SCS does on a voluntary basis and, of course, what the Canal and River Trust attempts to do full-time with all of their 2,000 miles of  UK canals. And that is the very reason that they were  with us today. Water has been seeping out of the canal into the Mond Golf Course. They arrived with heavy plant to try to discover the source of the leak.

Malcolm of the CRT at the helm of the partially obscured dumper. Note the essential roll-over bar safety feature.

And here is the CRT digger.

The pesky leak is proving elusive.  There was no trace of it by lunchtime. I have not got an afternoon update but if they found it I will let you know.

The school holidays started for most local schools this Tuesday so we opened the canoe store from 10.00 to 12.30. We will do this each Tuesday until the schools reopen for the autumn term. We would love to open for longer but we can only ask so much from our wonderful volunteers. A canoe out of water is a heavy load.

Cleaning the boats beforethey are put back in the canoe store.

Meanwhile Toby and his daughter were up at the southern end of the canal with a petrol mower tidying up the stone barge monument. It is a full size replica of a Swansea Day Boat and deserves more attention than it gets.

At tea break we were joined by the new Regional Director of the Wales and South West region of the Canal and River Trust, Richard Thomas. Richard has just taken up this post. We were delighted to see him and his assistant Emily Lewis. Kevin Phillips, the Waterways Manager for the Swansea Canal at CRT took them both for a tour of the canal.

Left to right: Emily Lewis, Kevin Phillips, Richard Thomas, Malcolm and the digger driver (whose full names escape me at present. So sorry), Gordon Walker, and Rhodri Bowen.

As you can see this work we do on our waterway  is a partnership. Together we can restore this canal.