7 of us again today.
As the work at Riverside, Burpham has been completed for the moment, we headed the other way to Shalford. Guildford Borough Council advised that they were not quite ready yet for us to do some repairs on the wooden steps at the top of the path from the river to the back of the village, but we agreed we’d go and have a look and feed back any helpful suggestions. Without going into detail, it would seem the ideal solution would be to have steps on one side of the path, and a ‘desire line’ slope alongside, but how to achieve that safely, effectively and affordably is still in debate.
We took the opportunity of checking out the other places where we have moored up and worked in the past. I can report that the balsam is up to 3 or occasionally 4 feet high, so visible and pullable. There’s some in the vicinity of the ‘golden sands’ bridge, alongside the path to Shalford park, and by the path going upstream, but much reduced thanks to previous efforts.
The wetland pasture where we cut down a lot of willows and alders in the last couple of years is looking as it should. However, if we need to go there, a tree too big for us to clear has blocked the channel leading off the Navigation, preventing access to our old mooring point.
We also managed to find the hidden lake again, with some difficulty, because of more fallen trees and branches, and vigorous new growth. If you have sharp eyes, there is still a patch of blue paint on the tree where we tie up. If we are looking for work, the raised path all around the lake needs clearing. There were 3 white little egrets flying around there.
We looked out for overhanging branches, but did not seem much of a problem. All of that manoeuvring and mooring made excellent helm training and refreshment for the crew.
Cheers, A
You can find out more about our Swingbridge Community Boats here.
