Farty's Fortunes

Saturday 19 July 2008

Wheel of Falkirk Part 2

So where were we? Oh, yes. At the end of the yellow brick road. But the wizard of Oz was out, so on we went...

Suddenly, everything went dark.
Light at the end of the tunnel

It turned out that the light at the end of the tunnel was an oncoming boat.
Canal boat

When we emerged from the other end, it appeared that we weren't in Kansas anymore.
Hoops

At first glance, it looked as if we'd run out of canal.
End of canal?

In a sense, we had. For we had reached [cue dramatic music] The Wheel Of Falkirk!!!
Union Canal ends

Better known as The Falkirk Wheel.
The Falkirk Wheel

"Well, that was nice", said Mrs Farty. "Now where's the café?"

Just as we were sitting down with our tea and scones, I glanced out of the window.

"Holy crap, a flying boat!!!"
Flying boat

"The brochure said something about gondolas," said Mrs Farty without batting an eyelid, as another behemoth dropped past us.
Gondolas

<science bit>
"Yes, apparently that's what they call the buckets that carry the boats. As one gondola goes up with its cargo, another comes down. It's all so finely balanced that it only takes the power of an electric kettle to drive it. And at five minutes from start to finish, it's much faster than the eleven locks that used to connect the Union Canal to the Forth and Clyde Canal, which leads to nothing of interest except maybe Glasgow."
</science bit>

What do you want, a 25-second video? *sigh* Very well...


Then we went for a poke around the shop before heading home. Luckily, we didn't get caught in a traffic jam.
Traffic Jam

8 comments:

Laurie said...

Cool! I've seen photos of it before, but never a 25 second video! I've been told that Glasgow isn't that interesting, either.

Mr Farty said...

Laurie - It was pretty damned impressive! (The Wheel, not Glasgow)

josetteplank.com said...

HOLY SCHOMLY!

That's wicked weird and cool!

Will show up in my dreams tonight.

Unknown said...

Good that, check out the first version, a few miles from us.

www.fipt.org.uk

Mr Farty said...

J@H - I know, I know!

John - Good to know people are still interested in proper civil engineering projects, innit?

1st Lady said...

I was there last year.. took a great photo of a group of swan bottoms, bought myself a stuffed parrot in the wee shop, and basically found the Falkirk wheel very interesting and worth the visit.

Mr Farty said...

1st Lady - *bows* Welcome to my blog. Cup of tea?
I missed the swan bottoms, but the shop was no bad.

Brom said...

I've always wanted a go on that thing. One day!