Friday, February 22, 2008

London's Waterfall

When you think of waterfall's you don't often think of London. But they are there - sometimes.

Like this one where the Wandle meets the Thames, which is only there when they raise the weir, which they did last week.

Ok its not Niagara, but its a shame its hidden away where no one can see it unless they, like I did, venture out at low tide onto the Thames with its very smelly mud.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Still confused by the IALA bouyage on the water way. I see the red, starboard hand marker and a green port - but they are reversed for the Uk , no ? Secondly why lights on what look light traffic poles. If one was a boater what would you make of the bouyage?

49 North

JP said...

My understanding (which could be completely wrong) is the lights are there to warn about the weir itself.

At high tide the weir top is well under water so boaters need to know whether the weir is up or down to determine the depth under keel and hence whether they can navigate up the Wandle

In this case the weir is up so both lights are red to show its not navigatable except for very shallow draft vessels.