TRIP REPORTS

THE RIVERS LEE & STORT

June & July 2006

Part 2 : Broxbourne to Bishop's Stortford.

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We resume the story at Broxbourne on the Lee Navigation.

We started early (at 07:21) in the hope of avoiding the heat - but it was still pretty warm. The cats weren't too reluctant to stay inside, although we'd found a dead shrew when we got up. The upper Lee valley is very pretty although there are quite a few pounds where the towpath would be impossible for mooring. We took on water & disposed of rubbish at the facilities point below Fielde's Weir lock. then turned left up the upper part of the Lee, reaching Ware at 11:02. There are official 48-hour moorings but they aren't very good. There's also a 4-hour "stop & shop" mooring. The BW guide mentions a 14-day visitor mooring, but before we found it, we saw a perfectly acceptable bit of unmarked bank, in good condition and near the railway station, so we tied up there. I caught a train back to London at lunchtime.

I was in London all day - Mikron Theatre were at the Museum on Sunday and Monday evenings.

I'd intended to come back in the morning, but woke up with my bad ankle playing up again, so didn't come until the evening.

No boating because we were both in pain.

I went to London for the museum early on Thursday morning and returned on Friday evening.

It was a hot day as we set off at 10:22. We found space to wind just past the footbridge to the High Street, so just escaped getting entangled in a dragon-boat race. We stopped at Stanstead Abbots marina for a pump-out, then went on to Fieldes Weir junction. We'd planned to stop here to use the rubbish bins, but there was so much traffic around that we decided not to bother and turned into the Stort Navigation We did find a BW rubbish lighter at Roydon, so got rid of our rubbish bags there. At 14:50 we moored in a nice rural spot just above the upper lock-mooring at Hunsdon, where there were bollards, but it was shallow enough that we needed the plank.

We both woke very early, went back to sleep and then slept too long, still dozy, and made a slow start at 11.47. It was a hot day. There were a lot of boats ahead of us so we had a bad road until above Tednambury Lock - it seems that the other boats were going back to the Club moorings at Little Hallingbury. We reached Bishop's Stortford, winded and moored at 18:00. There was a lot of building work taking place on both sides of the cut but there was plenty of space on the generous visitor moorings (with rings), although we did have to put up with cries of "Rosie & Jim" from teenagers. Wendy found recycling bins in the car park.