The volunteers assembled once more in the Hidden Lock site and assessed the weather forecast. Although the day was reasonably bright and breezy, there was rain expected so we decided to not lay any more of the wall in the by-wash for fear of rain washing mortar over the stones, thereby staining them. But we soon found lots to do!

Bob continued to fettle our large boat that is currently kept by the canoe store in Coed Gwilym park.

The heavy mob walked upstream almost to Trebanos locks, heaving out logs as they went. It seems that the Canal and River Trust may have recently removed a large tree from the cut, leaving the logs stacked on the bank. “Pranksters” then decided it would be fun to chuck them back into the water. It must have been quite a task, or there were lots of them, as some of the logs were so heavy that the volunteers had great difficulty pulling them out again. Anna did what she could to help.

In the Hidden Lock site, Martin was hard at work in the garden. He set out a new bed and planted the first plant. He was soon helped with the planting by John and Andrew cut a set of steps, taking care to preserve the integrity of the barrier over the lightly contaminated waste.

Sue and John Grav continued to point the dry dock. After tea, they were joined by Alan T, Chris and Sharon.

Tea was taken with cakes baked by Chris. Her brownies were beyond magnificent!

After tea, pointing continued and Mike and Ronnie laid out stones ready to be added to the wall next week.

As things turned out, the rain held off so we could probably have built more wall. However, removing the logs was an important task as they represented a real hazard to boaters. All-in-all, another great day’s work in pleasant conditions.