Little Venice to Amwell on the Lee

Mon 17th April   Little Venice to Battlebridge Basin

Although we had a further night booked at Rembrandt Gardens, we decided that we had done enough sightseeing and we wanted to move on.

Our first pause this morning was to the facilities under the Horsebridge.  Another boat had just arrived there, and we knew the tap was slow, so we confined ourselves to emptying two cassettes, and disposing of rubbish. We also managed to find a post box for a card to BCF friend Pam McLellan, whose husband Roger has just passed away very suddenly.

We then reversed out into the Pool, where we could turn, and we cruised through Maida Hill Tunnel. We met one of the trip boats soon after, with our friend Chris at the helm.  Then though Regents Park, with the huge mansions and the zoo. 

Emerging from Maida Hill Tunnel

One of the Regents Park mansions

There were no moorings available at the short length of Camden Visitor Moorings, where a few years ago we managed to get four Canal Ministries Boats moored for an outreach event at Camden Locks a few years ago.

We found no boats moored by Camden Market, so we stopped on the bollards there. We ignored the no mooring sign, as there seemed to be no reason for it, and this has historically been the short term mooring for the market.

We had lunch from one of the many street stalls there – Chicken rending, very tasty.  James went to a guitar shop and bought some finger picks to try and we both went to Morrison’s for some groceries.

As we were making plans to leave, a boat came from the locks and banged into us four times along the length of the boat. He was holding his tiller the wrong way. Shame about our nice recently blacked hull!

There was a volunteer on the Camden locks, which was helpful. There was also a single-handed boater coming up the locks, and he had left a gate open in each of them, which helped us.  We gave out a leaflet to a couple who were watching our progress through the bottom lock.

Camden Locks

Gongoozlers

St Pancras Lock had a widebeam going down very slowly, and they didn’t seem to know what they were doing, being unsure of the mechanisms, and tying the boat with a rope, even though they were going down.  There seem to be a lot of people on boats these days who are not used to boating. They use their boats as a home and move it as little as possible.

As the moorings everywhere seemed really full, we diverted into Battlebridge Basin, and found thankfully that the London Canal Museum had a berth for the evening. We tied alongside Maid of the Locks.

By the London Canal Museum

Hugo wasn’t best pleased, as there was very little to explore, and there was a noisy crow that chased him inside.

4 locks, 3 miles

Tue 18th April   Battlebridge Basin to Victoria Park

The wind and the light made fascinating reflection patterns in the water this morning.

Water Art

By the London Canal Museum

We waited until Maid of the Locks departed, heading for Paddington Basin, and then we took their place and filled the water tank, before setting off ourselves through Islington Tunnel and City Road Lock.

Maid of the Locks departing

Emerging from Islington Tunnel

City Road Lock

We were amazed again at the number of boats moored everywhere, and yet how few of them were moving.

Moored boats everywhere

The last lock of the day was Old Ford Lock, before we turned left into the Hertford Union Canal, or Ducketts Cut as it is sometimes known

Leaving Old Ford Lock

Into the Hertford Union Canal

We found a mooring space by Victoria Park and decided to stop as we didn’t know where the next space would be. There were parakeets in the trees. The railings were just too closely spaced for Hugo, but it was quiet later and he spent a lot of time out.

4 locks, 4 miles

Wed 19th April   Victoria Park to Tottenham Hale

Morning view, Hertford Union Canal

It was sunny this morning as we set off down through the three locks on the Hertford Union, taking us to the junction with the Lee, by the Olympic Park.

Colourful graffiti at Bottom Lock, Hertford Union Canal

Olympic Park

We soon spotted the Alfred Leroy, a boat we have travelled on, as it was once a trip boat based at Guildford, on the Wey Navigation. The name seems to have repainted as Le Roy.

Alfred Leroy

Something else we have seen on the Wey Navigation is the invasive plant floating pennywort, and there were several large rafts of it here.

Pennywort

Last year, when we crossed the Pennines, we saw several Leeds and Liverpool short boats, which filled the 60ft locks. We thought we spotted another one today, called Ironclad, but when we looked it up online, we found it was a 72ft Leeds & Liverpool long boat, built and launched in 1933 by W J Yarwoods and Sons, Northwich. They operated between Liverpool and Wigan and into Manchester, where the locks are longer than the Wigan to Leeds section.

Ironclad

We stopped at Tottenham Hale, because we needed some shopping and we had looked online and found a Lidl there. Then we discovered there was also an Asda Living store, where we bought another frying pan, and some other things. Then we indulged in a Pizza Hut buffet.

3 locks, 4 miles

Thu 20th April   Tottenham Hale to Rammey Marsh Lock

Moored at Tottenham Hale

We passed through Tottenham Lock, where the Elsan point and water tap marked in Nicholson Guide do not exist. Soon after this we spotted a Fox boat, with the characteristic pointing back bows. We took a photo for our friend Peter Ekins, who keeps a register of these boats. This one was called Slow Joe Crow, and we discovered that we had taken a photo of the same boat in 2007 on the Lancaster Canal.

Fox boat Slow Joe Crow

At Stonebridge Lock, we discovered that there is a full range of facilities, even including showers and toilets, as well as an Elsan point.

Stonebridge Lock

Moored boats everywhere

Pickett’s Lock was temporarily re-named Alfie’s Lock in July 2015, in honour of the well-liked lock keeper. It was meant to revert to the name Pickett’s Lock after a month, but the lock seems to be called Alfie’s Lock still.

Notice at Pickett’s (Alfie’s) Lock

We finally left the built up areas after Enfield Lock, and we moored up just before Rammey Marsh Lock.  We then read a text from Simon and Pat on Daedalus to say they were heading back from Hertford, and would be at Waltham Abbey this evening. We replied to say where we were and they walked down to see us.  We agreed to meet for breakfast at the cafe nearby.

5 locks, 7 miles

Fri 21st April   Rammey Marsh Lock to Amwell

Water art

As planned, Daedalus came down two locks and moored up just in front, and we all went to the Narrow Boat Cafe, where we discovered that the menu was quite inventive, with things like eggs Benedict and eggs royale as well as the usual full English and similar.

Narrow Boat Cafe

Simon and Pat then headed off and we probably won’t see them again until this winter in Aylesbury.

Simon on Daedalus

We then had one of our busiest days to get to Amwell. The day was overcast and we hardly took any pictures.

The River Stort meets the River Lee

We went through one more lock, and moored up against some wooden boards at Amwell, opposite the nature reserve.

A 30 minute session with the binoculars revealed quite a range of birds, including widgeon, shoveler, gadwall, tufted duck, pochard, little ringed plover, green sandpiper, oyster catcher, cormorant, little egret, heron, sedge warbler, black headed gull, herring gull, lesser black backed gull, Canada goose, Egyptian goose, greylag goose, sand martin, swallow (the first of the season).

9 locks, 9 miles, 1 swingbridge

Sat 22nd April    Amwell

Moored at Amwell

There was a boat across the canal, but this was very early and they were presumably still asleep on board.

James made an early morning visit to the reserve and there were some baby greylag geese. There was also a brief glimpse of a yellow wagtail.

Amwell Quarry Nature Reserve

A new leaf

Returning to the boat he noticed that the drifting boat was back on its moorings.

We spent some time planning and sorting out a visit to Wales for Ricky Hamburgers funeral on 15^th May. Ultimately we were offered a lift from Adline and Barry who live in Salisbury. By then we will be near Aldermaston.  We will need to make up time to achieve this, so we rescheduled our stops en route from Little Venice to Aldermaston.

We had planned to spend a whole day here to get a bit more ship-shape. A lot of cleaning and sorting out went on. 

Then we had another visit to the bird reserve, and tried to take a photo of an orange tip butterfly, but the wretched things wouldn’t keep still.  We took a walk to Amwell to see the New River. We walked up to the George IV pub and had a drink before returning to the boat.

Amwell Quarry Nature Reserve

New River

No boating today

Next week: a visit to Riverside Church in Hoddesdon, then later in the week, a stop at Springfield Marina for a new shower pump, before getting to Little Venice Cavalcade on Friday evening.