TRIP REPORTS

THE RIVERS LEE & STORT

June & July 2006

Part 1 : Paddington to Broxbourne

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After returning from Brookwood, we spent a few days in London before heading for the Lee and Stort. We start the story at Paddington Basin.

Before we set off, Wendy dealt with various nasties round the blade, in the course of which she bruised her breast and hurt her ribs. We started at 11:47 and passed through Browning's Pool onto the Regent's Canal. Wendy assumed the pain would wear off, so worked the locks. At St Pancras, Dereck 'phoned from the London Canal Museum to say that nobody had relieved him as arranged, so we had to rush on to get to the museum as soon as possible so that I could take over. We arrived at Battlebridge Basin at 14:35. When we moored the wind was determined to blow us away from the wharf, which made things quite tricky. By that time Wendy's pain had spread to her shoulders and back, making it painful to cough or yawn. Later in the day we had a long chat with David Adams & Fiona from Benbow.

We overslept and had to move off in a hurry at 10:30 to make way for the boats running trips from the museum. I steered through the tunnel, then swapped over to work the locks, as Wendy was still suffering. Near the end of the tunnel we met Chris Reay steering Lady Mildmay, who was very embarrassed at having mistaken our headlight for a reflection of the sun, and had come into the tunnel. We tied up at Bonner Hall Bridge (by Victoria Park) at 12:30, with the thought of moving on again in the course of the evening when it was cooler, but Wendy was tired from the pain, so we didn't. We had a long chat in the evening with a pleasant couple from the boat in front of us, who had a very polite American Bulldog called Molly.

We set off at 7:14 . I worked the locks, as Wendy was still in pain. We passed through the Hertford Union Canal (a.k.a. Duckett's Cut), getting badly weeded in the middle lock, so lost the advantage of our early start. When we joined the Lee Navigation the day had become very hot. We stopped at the Stonebridge facilities point and took on water. We tied up for the night above Enfield Lock at 14:31. We both lolled around and tried to recover from dehydration. Then I tried the Greyhound - not at all bad, even though the Public Bar was very devoted to the World Cup.

I was due to do the judging of the lock & length competitions on the Lee on the Tuesday, but there was some mix-up of dates and I ended up doing the both Lee & Stort on the Wednesday. I went back to London for an IWA central London social on the Thursday evening and was at the museum all day on the Friday, returning to the boat on Friday evening.

We started at 11:00 and shared Rammey Marsh lock with Frensham. Almost immediately afterwards we stopped for me to go back and collect my camera that I'd left at the lock! Frensham stopped for water below Waltham Town lock. Because they'd said they were nearly empty, we assumed they'd be a long time and went on singly. The pound between Cheshunt and Aqueduct locks was over a foot down, and we picked up a heavy bladeful, but decided to limp on to the next lock (Aqueduct Lock). Having stopped here to clear the blade (nearly all the grot was blanket weed), we then ran out of energy and stopped for a rest.

Later we continued as far as Broxbourne, which we reached at 16:30. We tied up round the bend by The Crown, having failed to find a water point, except the one at the boating centre which was totally surrounded by a melée of open day-boats. Wendy went exploring on foot and still failed to find one. According to the books, the next one was at Fielde's Weir. Eventually we decided to stay the night, and went for a meal (good steaks) at The Crown, which we were pleased to find had declared itself a football-free zone. The garden was teeming with people but there was plenty of room inside. Wendy managed to dump the Guardian's give-away football postcards on somebody in the bar queue.