There's no accounting for folks


If I travel any distance on the canal system from my current moorings I have to leave the Aylesbury Arm. At the top of the arm is a two chamber staircase lock. This means, in normal operation, the bottom chamber will be either full, or empty (empty meaning the water level is at the lower, exit level). Also in normal operation, the top chamber will always be either full, or half empty (meaning the water is at the level of the full bottom chamber). This has always been the case every time I have gone through this system.

Until yesterday, that is. I arrived at the bottom of the staircase, and went to ensure it was setup for me to go up. To operate a staircase, the top chamber needs to be full, and the bottom empty. I was gobsmacked to find that the bottom chamber was empty, but so was the top one. It was not just half empty, but had a water level equal to the lower level of the lower chamber. This does beg the question "How on earth did anyone manage to get the lock into this state?"

Then today, I went for a stroll round the junction, crossing each of the arms of the junction. When I arrived at the staircase, a boat was trying to go down it. The operator had never done a staircase lock before, and was finding it very difficult to understand. Looking at the lock, I could understand his confusion. The top lock was full (in a normal fashion), but the bottom chamber was also half full. In this position it was impossible to operate it without first restoring it to a normal state. Again the same question - how had it been got into this state?

So fundamental questions of physics - how are people managing to coerce a mechanical system, designed to manage water over a gradient, and lift boats through a distance of (estimated) 4 metres, to end in a state that is extremely difficult to understand. (I can come up with a plausible scenario to explain the first of these examples, but not the second).

My brain hurts.

The Chilterns

Radio controlled glider over  Beacon Hill, Ivinghoe
Some time ago a friend asked me why I travel so far when I have the Chilterns on my doorstep. Well, after today, and a three hour walk in the Chilterns, I can now answer this question.

While the Chilterns are close, it still takes over half an hours driving to get there. as the road network is basically old estate roads, which don't deal with today's volumes of traffic well. I originally tried to do this walk on Saturday - big mistake. It's August; very good weather; school holidays; a weekend, and, because of the driving, getting to the start point at 10:30 meant that the all the car parks were full; there were hundreds of people about, and I just turned round and came back. Today, while still August, good weather, and school holidays, there were only half a dozen cars in the car park. The first section of my walk was comparatively deserted, with only a couple of people on it.

However, the entire walk was in a landscape that has been changed, managed, maintained, and manicured by humans for over 6000 years, and can hardly be called a natural landscape now. The entire walk was on well way marked paths; all the paths are clear, and well maintained, even to the extend of steps down on slopes. However, while there are hills in the area, including the one from which the photo was taken, they are not very steep - I reckon I climbed about 240 metres in all. So all in all, pretty easy walking; pretty easy navigation; and (especially on Beacon Hill) scores of people out on the route. Most of the walking was on chalk, which while not as hard on the feet as granite, it is still a lot tougher than peat. So pleasant enough but not what I would call proper walking.