Victoria Park to Bishops Stortford

Our visit to London came to an end and we travelled a short distance before turning off the Regents Canal and onto the short Hertford Union Canal.  1 mile and 4 locks later we joined the River Lee and turned north.  The banks of the River Lee proved to be as congested with moored boats as the canals we'd just left.  We were surprised to see several lifeboats moored up and given a new use.  

One of the lifeboats moored up on the River Lee

I was pleased to find Tottenham Lock was electrically operated but the next day discovered this didn't apply to all of the locks; some had an unusual combination of an electric operation of the heavier bottom gates but manual top gates and the rest were all manual.

We stopped at Waltham Abbey where the abbey church dominates the small town and the peaceful grounds of the former abbey make a good stroll. 

The church at Waltham Abbey

At Hoddesdon we turned onto the River Stort, a narrow, winding navigation with natural banks and low bridges. 

Bridge 7, a railway bridge, is luckily the lowest bridge on the River Stort.  Our chimney was laid down in readiness.  

The locks on the Stort are only 13 feet wide so can only take one narrowboat at a time, it also means we have to open both gates but handily they can be left open as we leave.  Interesting sculptures are a feature at some of the locks.  

3 carved balls at Burnt Mills Lock, Harlow

When we spotted a rare stretch of pilings we pulled over and moored up.  It was only later we realised how many trains were running to Stansted on the rail track which was about 10 yards from the canal.

On Saturday we sailed through Sawbridgeworth which has an interesting complex of new residences on the river side. 

New buildings line the river at Sawbridgeworth

We continued on to Bishops Stortford where the navigable river ends.   We were a bit miffed to find there were only 8 mooring spaces and they were all taken.  We were able to leave Brent III near the water point to go shopping and then had to sail back the way we had just come.  Shortly after leaving the town we found a place to stop but it had one drawback; we were under the flight path for Standsted.  

Ryanair coming in to land at Stansted

Our journey from Victoria Park to Bishops Stortford