Underneath the arches

I had to go to the council offices today to prepare the follow-up correspondence which are needed after the finance committee meeting on Tuesday. On my way home I decided to walk down to the river at Capel's Mill to see if there were any kingfishers ready to pose for my camera. I thought that the fall of leaves might allow more light to reach the river which normally flows through a tunnel of trees at that place.

To get there I walked along the new canal path that was constructed this year as part of the re-opening of the canal under the railway viaduct. I have blipped this area quite regularly and this was the last time when a steam train ran across the viaduct.

I passed a group of the Canal Trust Volunteers, a group that has been doing amazing work on large areas of the canal, including clearing the silted up cuts and the canal banks, rebuilding locks and establishing new towpaths along its whole length. Today they were adding the top surface which need flattening to make it completely accessible to all users including wheelchairs. I don't think they will be using horses or donkeys to pull barges anymore.

At the river's side the water was fast flowing after the regular rain of recent days. The light was much brighter than when I last visited in late summer, but no kingfishers appeared. However I did see a Dipper, a rather lovely small bird which loves to feed in the water, using small stones and branches to stand looking for food which might be passing by.

Then it started raining and I went to shelter under the huge arches of Capel's Mill viaduct under which both the river and the canal pass. As I stood looking up stream and towards the slopes of the hills on either side of the valley bottom, three wet and bedraggled people appeared beside me and joked about the rain. They asked for directions to get back to the town centre, which is actually only a few hundred yards from this spot. It turned out that they were visitors from Wakefield in Yorkshire in the north of England, and were on holiday. They said how very impressed they were with the new section of the canal which we were standing right beside. This proves the point that the regeneration of the canal is attracting people to the area and when it will be be finished, sadly still some years ahead, it will invigorate the tourism potential of the Stroud valleys.

On my way back to my car, I crossed over to the other side of the canal and passed some of the other arches on the north bank. For years they have been completely over grown and rather a seedy area, but I rather liked the view here towards the arch where the canal is routed under the viaduct above here. It is the view you get when standing on the ground directly under the rear of the steam train, as seen in the other picture, looking forward to the area under the steam engine.

A view of the river under the viaduct where I saw the Dipper.