13-14 May 2000

A magnificent run up from London in the minibus meant that we had time to unpack and inspect the Hoyland Scout Hall. It was obviously "undergoing restoration" at the time. The half-built climbing wall might be an improvement, but we didn't think much of the half-demolished Ladies loos. So we headed off with the London WRG Leek branch (Harriet and the Smedleys) to the Furnace pub: although some distance away, it has several certificates praising its toilets. The beer was good too, and the funny drinks with things on sticks in. Aileen said the orange thing-on-a-stick was called physalis.

We had two main worksites.  Firstly, the party at the lock had to check the stone flags making up the top cill and realign and puddle any that were out of place. This involved lowering the pound above so that that the hapless volunteers in the lock had a reduced chance of being swept away by 5,000 tons of water if the planks broke. It also involved JP and a pump: but perhaps most things do these days.

There was also a nearby pyramid of large stones to be measured, numbered and laid out by size to make rebuilding of the lower end of the lock easier. All this was done in tropical heat surrounded by mosquitoes.

Meanwhile a party of boatwomen headed off to the Heritage Centre to paint "Elsa" the trip boat, formerly the "Norwood Packet" on the Chesterfield. She certainly looked in rather a "heritage" state in the bright sunshine. By Sunday, with the added assistance of Rupert, she was covered in shiny blue and white paint with gloss black on as much of the bottom as we could reach. We were also covered in shiny blue and white paint, etc.  We kept off the heat by buying ice-creams from the Heritage Centre and exhausted ourselves  in our attempts to play a simple children's game where you run a large plastic ball up an Archimedes' screw, down a variable slope, up a ratcheted pulley, and down a corkscrew spiral. The secret is to do it slowly or your balls fall off!

Saturday evening was notable for playing with Martin's new mobile phone before eating Alison's excellent moussaka, followed by a rhubarb and orange crumble. A brief trip to the pub for more beer and physalis then helped tranquillise those who found it difficult to sleep due to the noise made by the snoring... or the spiders.

On Sunday by the lock we moved more stones, tidied some old lock gates out of the way and developed insect-bitten sun-tans. A steam train made hourly trips down the Heritage Centre's railway. All was idyllic - no one even panicked when JP had to be called back from his early return to Stockport to bring back the lunch which had been put in his van - this being the first time that Martin's mobile (07779 478629) had been used in anger!