Visibility was poor at best (maybe 18 inches), non-existent at worst! The torch helped some, but really the only way to locate Peter if I lost touch was to pop my head above the surface to see the tips of his fins flapping away as he dipped his mask into the bottom! In spite of all of the above, don't misunderstand me, I was having fun! It gave me a chance to fine-tune some sorely neglected navigation skills, but really I was just having great fun rooting around on the bottom of the canal.

Away from the lock the canal bed was awash with a profusion of some sort of freshwater mollusc shells. Out of the water they were really pretty, almost mother-of-pearl. Didn't find any live ones, just empty halves - this must be their off-season. In the ooze (which best described the muck that constitutes the canal bed) we both found the usual detritus of human carelessness - empty beer bottles, beer cans, ice-cream cartons cigarette packets. I found a white plastic garden chair almost hidden in the ooze. It amazes me that this chair, which was perfect in every way, should have been thrown in. I guess some fisherman couldn't be bothered to take it back to the car and then some kids found it and did the obvious.

Once we entered the lock, the visibility and the quality of the rubbish improved, although there was less light. The walls of the lock are black with weed and and lock is probably only about 15' wide so the torches were a definite boon. Soon my incessant rooting in the bottom uncovered an unchipped ceramic mug, a baby's dummy, a teaspoon, a table spoon, a tent pole, a yellow traffic warning lamp, a Ford hub cap and... wait for it.. a watch!