Wednesday 25th May to Saturday 11th June

As soon as we went under the M25 we left behind the more industrial and boring bit and things improved a lot so we decided to keep going rather than turn as we had discussed. So by Friday 27th we had reached the end of the River Lee Navigation. We had been following the Lea Valley and it was really lovely. Years ago there had been loads of gravel extraction and so now there were a whole series of beautiful lakes and nature reserves with bird hides as well. Also a lot of marshes that were well laid out with footpaths and with the actual River Lee cris crossing. We made a mental note to come back to this area when we have our camper van. On the way we had passed through Waltham Abbey, Cheshunt, Broxbourne, Stanstead Abbots, Ware and finally Hertford. We went into Hertford for a few bits of shopping and the obligatory Fish & Chips then we set off back down the Lee to where the River Stort Navigation branches off to the East. From the start the Stort was lovely, much nicer than the Lee it meandered a lot and the locks were easier although they were not as wide so you could not get 2 boats side by side. We made up for this by not having to close the lock gates on exit as is the practice on rivers. That's fine unless there's been a boat going the same way then the first thing you have to do is close the gates. There was an interesting reason for the narrower locks. This region was a prime grain growing area and the wide Dutch barges on the Lee had a monopoly on transporting the grain to London. Before the Stort was navigable the grain was transported to the Lee by horse and cart and not a lot made it because of loses on route and theft. The navigators decided to make the locks too small for the Dutch barges so that they couldn't steal their trade. The Stort took us through Roydon, Harlow, Sawbridgeworth and finally Bishop's Stortford which is the end of the line. We got there about 5pm on Sunday 29th and from the canal it looked really dreary so we turned round and started back. We had to get back to Roydon by Tuesday night as on the Wednesday I was going back to Reading to collect the car ready for our trip to the New Forest for our family camp. It took me 5 hrs by train and bus and road to reunite boat and car and as soon as we'd had a cuppa we moved the boat into Roydon Marina for a week while we camped. A good time was had by all and by Sunday lunch time they had all gone but we stayed on until Wednesday 8th June as our friends Lyndsay & Chris had joined us on the Sunday. Monday we had a visit from Lin & Mike and by Tuesday tea time 2 other friends had arrived. We went back via Sam's for a birthday BBQ for Luke who was going to be 13 the next day, and eventually got back to the boat at 11.30pm.

We didn't leave the marina until 4pm as we had loads to sort out and washing to do etc.

On Friday we stopped off at the Lea Valley White Water Centre just by Waltham Abbey. It only opened in February and has been built for the Olympic Games, we wondered all round and watched rafts with 10 people in riding the rapids. We wanted to do the Abbey as well but a wedding and time prevented. It's now Saturday 11th and we are almost back to the Thames. We are expecting rain all day Sunday if the forecast is right so we shall probably move on Monday down to Limehouse Basin ready for our return trip on the tidal section on Tuesday. High tide at London Bridge is 1.18pm so we have to leave Limehouse at about 9.45am to go back on the tide. We have notched up 129 locks and 121 hours on the engine which equates to about 181 miles (at 1.5 mph) give or take a few.