Locals baffled as Alton Towers log flume boat washes up 40 miles away from theme park

We all know that log flumes go very fast, but who knew they had the potential to travel almost 40 miles?

No one, apparently - which is why a load of walkers were left completely baffled one morning when they spotted one of Alton Towers infamous boats had washed up next to the River Sheaf in Sheffield.

You know the ones were talking about - red, white and usually swamped with water from the previous riders' trip down The Flume.

Brits had plenty of fun on the bath-themed attraction at the UK theme park, which was the longest flume attraction in the world when it opened all the way back in 1981.

But sadly, Alton Towers broke all of our hearts nearly a decade ago and got rid of the legendary log flume and replaced it with the £16 million rollercoaster, Wicker Man.

However, The Flume isn't ready for us to forget it just yet - and it's now become an unlikely celebrity after one of its boats managed to make its way 37 miles from the theme park in Staffordshire and into Sheffield's waterways.

It washed up on the banks of the River Sheaf, leaving passersby pretty stunned.

People began sharing snaps of the clearly disoriented vessel on social media, joking that it must have 'travelled some distance', while hoping to inform someone who could get it shifted.

Mick Foster

On top of those reasons, locals were also just pretty baffled by seeing an Alton Towers icon roaming about in the wild.

One laughed: "What a ride!"

Another chuckled: "I bet that’s a good pub story how it got there"

And a third added: "I never got that option when going on the Log Flume at Alton Towers. A ride and a lift home all in one."

A bloke called Mick Foster then laid claim to the lost boat, explaining that he had purchased it for £350 in wake of the ride's closure... and after 'a few drinks'.

Let's have it right, you'd have to be half cut to consider buying one of those things.

The Flume's boats were all auctioned off to collectors and those who are Alton Towers obsessed, but Mick bought his from a reseller a short time later.

Speaking of his bizarre buy, he hilariously told the BBC: "I thought, I'll have one of those. An absolute bargain."

Mick Foster

Discussing the fact it washed up on the river banks, Mick said: "Someone messaged me to say they had seen it down the back of the railway tracks.

"I put a photo on and the responses were crazy. Who has a log flume boat in their back garden?"

He said had been storing it on the patio in his garden, which is situated around 800m upstream, but it had somehow been swept away after a spate of heavy rain and flooding back in October.

Mick added: "A friend said I should tie it up, but I told her it was really heavy. Twenty minutes later, it's gone."

Now he's found it, he has got to deal with getting it back into his garden - but luckily, he knows a few arm wrestlers from Derbyshire who he reckons have the muscle to move the fibreglass boat once the weather improves.

It's not what you know, eh.

Mick explained: "Luckily, I've got a good friend who's an ex-power lifter. He said his lads at the arm-wrestling club in Chesterfield, they're going to get together and give me a hand. We just need the weather to get better."

He then quipped: "I'll certainly tie it up this time."