On my lunchtime walk today I saw something I have never seen before. In fact, I got all rather excited about it. And though I was strolling down Tickford Street in Newport Pagnell, it wasn’t an Aston Martin. It wasn’t even a flashy motorbike.
Nope, the vehicle I saw was …
…well I didn’t know what it was to be frank. I had to look it up on the internet when I got back to the office.
But before the reveal, let me first set the scene.
When traversing the walkway to the left of the bridge spanning the River Ouzel, I could hear this noisy vessel in the water. Bearing in mind that that the Ouzel is rather shallow and, other than traffic cones, I have never seen anything in it before, I was intrigued and waited for it to come into view.
I even got down on my haunches so that I could see it sooner - the thing turned out to be a cross between a paddle boat and a sit on lawn mower.
It was a mini dredger of some sort and it was being employed to chew up the foliage in the river. The front had cutters and spinning blades, the back featured a horizontal paddle/spinner that spanned the width of the vessel.
Sat on top was a driver controlling the action with joysticks in each hand. He saw me taking an obvious interest and smiled at me as he sailed by.
The smile conveyed to me that he knew his machine was cool, and that he knew that I really wanted to have a go on it too.
And I did, I would have loved to have climbed aboard and got to grips with the controls. I bet any bloke with an appreciation of mechanical things would have felt the same.
Once back in the office, I determined that the river mower was a Catfish. I attach a photo.
Nope, the vehicle I saw was …
…well I didn’t know what it was to be frank. I had to look it up on the internet when I got back to the office.
But before the reveal, let me first set the scene.
When traversing the walkway to the left of the bridge spanning the River Ouzel, I could hear this noisy vessel in the water. Bearing in mind that that the Ouzel is rather shallow and, other than traffic cones, I have never seen anything in it before, I was intrigued and waited for it to come into view.
I even got down on my haunches so that I could see it sooner - the thing turned out to be a cross between a paddle boat and a sit on lawn mower.
It was a mini dredger of some sort and it was being employed to chew up the foliage in the river. The front had cutters and spinning blades, the back featured a horizontal paddle/spinner that spanned the width of the vessel.
Sat on top was a driver controlling the action with joysticks in each hand. He saw me taking an obvious interest and smiled at me as he sailed by.
The smile conveyed to me that he knew his machine was cool, and that he knew that I really wanted to have a go on it too.
And I did, I would have loved to have climbed aboard and got to grips with the controls. I bet any bloke with an appreciation of mechanical things would have felt the same.
Once back in the office, I determined that the river mower was a Catfish. I attach a photo.
Bearing in mind that later on in the day it rained hard enough to flood the roads, the dredging could have been a rather timely intervention.
Blog Home
Blog Library
Home
Blog Home
Blog Library
Home
RSS Feed
