March 10th – Again, the barriers around the southern dam works were breached at the basin and to the north end of the compound. I see the dredging has started, but the drying lagoon on Chasewater shore has been razed, so no quite sure what’s happening there. The question, however, as to what you do when your dredger is shafted has been answered. Still out of the water at Ogley Basin, the original machine is clearly still crippled, so it would appear a mini-excavator is lifted onto a workboat, and work continues. Odd that a brand new, seemingly little used dredger amusingly called ‘Hamster’ – has been languishing in Ogley Junction for at least two years. If this is a symbol of the way the newly reorganised British Waterways charity works, we’re in for interesting times…

