Tootling from Tottenham to French France

Please excuse the time manipulation of the blog today, but if I try to do from the last entry to today it’ll take me days to write and you hours to read and I don’t want us to fall out.  We’ve been in France (should still be, but more on that later) and all things conspired against me to get a blog entry done; slow/non-existent internet, time (too busy enjoying myself doing other things) and Mike’s laptop wouldn’t read the photo card and I can’t do the blog on the iPad – besides which we’d not taken the photocard adaptors for it anyway….. So, that’s my excuse, but here we are, just a little catching up to do.   

We spent the night of 21 August at Tottenham in a long line of London Boaters, pulling out the next morning for a fairly longish stint to Waltham Abbey, our next stop on the River Lee and new territory for us.  It’s a rather uninteresting stretch of the river, a bit industrial really, kind of bland and once we were clear of the London Boaters, the boats were relatively few and far between – especially moving ones.  The locks kept us occupied with heavy gates competing with the ones on the Buckby Flight and we were flying solo so they were quite hard work.  At Enfield there seemed to be an abandoned widebeam on the lock mooring, so I went ahead to see what was going on, finding the owners on the lock taking tips from the two narrowboats coming down.  There was much chat and not much movement but I gleaned that it was only Mrs Widebeam’s second lock in her life and she was very nervous about sinking the boat.  Mr Widebeam had been living aboard for a few months now and seemed pleased to have Mrs to do the locks…..  I don’t know what their circumstances were, I’ve learned not to ask as the stories tend to be awfully long…..  Finally the two boats exited the bottom of the lock and Widebeam made her way in.  Slowly.  Then Mrs Widebeam did two turns of one paddle and waited.  We waited for quite some while and I asked if she’d like me to put a couple of turns on the other paddle.  No.  With the fear of God in her eyes she said she’d been told only to do two turns of a paddle otherwise the flow of water would throw the boat about.  She’s right, it is wise to do this, until you see the lie of the land (or water), what the boat’s doing etc and once you’re within a foot or so of being filled can usually fully open both paddles with no problem.  But no, she was terrified she’d bounce the boat around and sink it – never mind it was a widebeam with only an inch or two either side to bounce off.  Eventually they moved off and we took our turn coming up, helped by a lovely lad who was holidaying with his dad moored nearby.  He chatted away, very well socialised and just a dead nice kid.  We seemed to have been at this lock for hours so were glad to get underway.

Accompanied by pylons much of the way

Cute viking boat sculpture at Waltham Abbey

After getting stuck behind Widebeam at the next lock while we waited for their two turns to fill the lock we were relieved to see them pull in for lunch and we passed them as we came up.  We made good way to Waltham Town lock where there were kids jumping in the lock.  Not really a smart move, especially when a boat coming down was manoeuvring into the lock.  Our turn came and they kept out of the way while we came up, again, quite nice kids, chatty, one of them did a great Scottish accent taking the piss out of me!  There were a couple of spaces in a long line of boats so we pulled in, moored up and went to have a look at the waterpark, which was used in the Olympics.  We’d met a couple coming down who said it was great, worth stopping off to see.  It looked a lot smaller and less exciting than it had in 2012 on the telly……  Until they ran the water – wow!!

Empty and sad

Looking better with some water

Whhhooooooooosh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BBC were there to do a news feature on the end of the Rio Olympics but weren't allowed to stand on the water side of the white fence unless they put life-vests on!!!

In the evening I did a short run, 30 mins, aware that we were going to be toing and froing about for a few weeks quite soon and my running would grind to a halt during that time and we had dinner and watched tv in the evening.  Next morning I was keen to get off as I’d seen Widebeam come up later the previous afternoon and we hoped to get to Hertford today, so didn’t want to get stuck behind her.  They were just having their morning cuppa as we cruised past just after 9am (yes, that’s an early start for us).  As we got more rural, things got prettier and it is a nice river, but when you’ve been spoiled by the Thames any other is only going to take second place at best.

Pretty Riverfront at Ware

 

It was a hot day as we made our way and as we headed through Broxbourne the river became the M25 of the waterways with tons of little rowing boats, day boats all out enjoying the sun.  It was a bit of an obstacle course and we were glad to get through it.  On through Stanstead Abbots and at Stanstead Lock there seemed to be a bit of a queue, and another widebeam sitting on the lock mooring.  I managed to get Mike off by coming alongside a moored boat further back and he climbed across it onto the tow path and went up to the lock to see what was going on.  Someone was going up, a narrowboat, and had only just started filling, so could have waited for us to go with them – boo!  There seemed to be a lot of chat and not much action and I was hovering as there was no room on the lock mooring, until the widebeam owner offered to take a rope from our front and tie it to their back.  This was fine, except they had a wooden platform protruding from their rear holding their bikes.  I was terrified I’d ram the thing and snap it into kindling……  After a lot of apparent palaver, the other boat was up, someone came down and the widebeam entered the lock.  I could see Mike trying to keep calm as there seemed to be more faffing than moving, lots of people around but nobody doing anything but eventually it was our turn and we went up – again, we probably ended up spending over an hour at one lock.  Through Ware, and on to Hertford where on approaching the lock we could see a ton of kids all jumping off the gates into the river below – nightmare.  However, it wasn’t.  As Mike get off at the landing, the oldest lad came to meet him, chatted up to the lock and the next thing had our windlass in his hand and was shouting at the others and getting the lock ready.

As I drove in, a wee lad at the side shouted, “Hello!!!” with a big cheery grin (and there was me thinking we’d be getting stoned to death or wee’d on as we went passed…..) and we exchanged pleasantries about the weather, the water etc.  Mike sat chatting to them as the older lad filled the chamber and Quaintrelle rose up.  When the lock was level, the lad shouts to his pal, “Oi, get the other gate, can’t you see he’s got a bad leg!!”, as Mike was wearing his knee brace – hahahahahahaha!!!!!!!  Brilliant!

Our helpers at Hertford Lock

Nice mooring outside the Old Barge

The moorings at Hertford were rammed so we continued up towards the end of the navigation, where there was one space left in front of The Old Barge pub.  We were hot and knackered as it had been a much longer day than we had anticipated, but were rewarded with Hertford being rather a nice town which had a Waitrose that we made use of.  An early tea and then a quick drink in the pub, then bed.  We wanted to start off quite sharp in the morning again as we wanted to get to our mooring at Roydon Marina on the Stort by lunchtime and although it should only take 3-4 hours, we seemed to have been plagued with hold ups and slow locks so didn’t want to leave anything to chance.  We left at 9am and already the day was roasting.  

Back the way we came!

Lonely locks

New territory as we turn on to the River Stort

We found ourselves going solo again the whole way; it must have been too hot as we didn’t see another single soul on the move until we reached the first lock on the Stort.  Again, there was a boat in the lock, lots of people around but no one seemed to be moving or doing anything, so I climbed across another moored boat (as someone was on the lock mooring) and went to check out what was going on.  There was a dayboat sitting in the lock chamber and it was quickly clear to me why they were sitting in there for so long.  “What way are you going?” I asked.  Blank looks all round……”Are you going this way (pointing up the Stort), or this way? (Pointing down).  “That way” (pointing up).  “Well you need to shut these paddles!!!!” I said, pointing to the bottom gates.  The numpties had all four paddles open, the two on the top gates and the two on the bottom so the water was basically running through the lock and the boat going nowhere……..  They were so busy taking pics and were none the wiser but the two other boaters from other boats looked a bit sheepish and apologised saying they’d thought something wasn’t right but hadn’t noticed what they’d done.  I tried to explain to the day boaters how to do a lock, but they said a fisherman had told them to open all the paddles so the fish could get through!!!!  Once they were up, the next cruiser came down, then it was our turn.  As we rose, a few wee wooden rowing boats arrived and then a narrowboat that just pushed right passed them to the lock entrance, meaning we couldn’t get out!  One of the rowers was doing the lock and silently simmering, “He almost rammed us at the last lock coming out of the marina!”, and proceeded to shout at the driver to reverse so we could come out.  As we passed I said, “The rowing boats are next, you’ll have to wait,” and he just shrugged – nice type.  Anyway, this was the only adventure that day so we made great progress and were at the marina just after 12!!!  We had booked the marina for the next month as we had to go up to York, Fife and then were heading to France for three weeks for a holiday.  We did what organising was left to do for our trips and as the afternoon wore on faded away in the heat.  I spent an hour lying on the floor of the boat as it was coolest place I could find – there was not a breath of air.

Roydon Marina - space on the left under the bridge for Quaintrelle

The next day was still warm as we set off to the station for York for a couple of days, and then on Saturday we headed up to Fife.  We picked up Citty Cate and went on up to Pittenweem on Sunday for the night where my mum and brother John and nephew Alex were spending a week on holiday.  We had a lovely night with them, although it was a bit trying getting there as Citty  Cate seemed to have a dodgy battery, but then it seemed to fix itself after we’d ordered a new one online and it was all a bit stressful…….  On Monday she started off fine and we started off for York, stopping off en route for a very short visit with my very short Aunty Nancy.

Three Scotts and a Queenan at pretty Pittenweem harbour

Hmmmmmm - little did we know this wouldn't be the last time people were standing behind the car in such a manner :(

Me and my FAVOURITE Aunty Nancy xxxxx

An overnight at Norfolk Towers, from where we caught a great view of a balloon, and then it was on down to the marina for a night to get packed for France and load up Cate.

Citty's on the Road Again.....

On Wednesday 31^st, with the car running fine, we headed off down to the Chunnel, quite excited as neither of us had ever done it before.  The sun was shining and everything went to plan (despite leaving a bit later than planned and having to drive a bit faster than planned) and by 1.30pm we were in French France and driving on the right side of the road!!

Down to the train

On the train

Parked up between a mini and a Range Rover!

FRANCE!!!

We drove for a few hours down the motorway to our first stop near Rouen, where we stayed in a gorgeous Chateau and had a lovely meal at the local Auberge.  In the morning we had a quick tour of the 17^th Century cider press, apparently one of the only ones of its age and type left as far as the owners are aware and then headed for our next stop.

The chapel of the Chateau

Chateau

 

17th Century Cider press

The Big Smoke

 

Private Island mooring at Cliveden

Oh dear…..it’s been nearly three weeks since I blogged and not only is this going to be a marathon entry, but I know I’ll forget some of the exciting stuff that’s happened!  It’s been a busy and interesting three weeks which started when we left Henley with Mike’s right knee (it’s been the left up til now) going into meltown rendering him immobile. It was chucking it down that day back in Henley and we sat all morning waiting to see if the weather would improve and if Mike’s knee would ease up.  Neither did, so we set off in the afternoon for the short hop to Marlow with me more or less solo boating, but with the luxury of the locks being manned which helped.  At Marlow all the town moorings were full.  People could have shuffled up to let us in, but didn’t, and nobody stuck a head out to offer to come alongside as we went up and down a couple of times.  We ended up going through the lock accepting that if the moorings below were full, we’d need to continue on for a couple of hours.  We tried to get into a kind of space but the wall had collapsed in and we couldn’t get in close enough for me to jump off and put a pin in.  As we mooched about and considered squeezing into a little space on the end which would involve being partly into the trees, a cruiser moved out.  We quickly (well, as quick as you can in a narrowboat!) moved towards the space but soon realised we were a couple of feet to long for it.  Not to worry, there was lots of space behind the next cruiser so I called to the chap reading his paper onboard and asked if he would mind moving back a couple of feet.  His poor, little torn face as he mulled this over, what an inconvenience for him, “But then I’ll be on a bit of a bend.” !!!!!!!  However, he then offered to move forward onto the long straight space we were heading for and we could go on the bend – yes please, fine, we don’t care, we just want moored!!!  Mike’s knee had kept him awake all night so he was shattered, as was I from also being kept awake by his restlessness, so we chilled out and decided to stay a couple of nights here.  After another awful night, Mike’s knee had swelled up to about twice its size, so I headed into Marlow to get some stronger pain killers and a new support for it.  In the evening I went for a run, then came back and made the tea, cleared up, made the bed up and got Mike’s temporary bed on the sofa, along with support chair and cushions all organised.  This was to become practice for the next week or so……..

On Thursday 4^th August we left Marlow, with Mike yet again not seeing Marlow as he couldn’t leave the boat and headed to Cliveden.  It was a nice day, so we got Mike on the front of the boat and when we went into a lock, I jumped off with the centre rope, went to the front to put the front rope round a bollard and pass it back to Mike to hold, then went to the back to get my rear rope on.  The system worked well although it was a bit of extra work for me.  At Cliveden, we went up and down but all the little spaces were taken.  As we came back past a boat on one of the wee islands, they shouted that they were going to leave in a few minutes if we wanted their space – yes please!!!  We got moored up on our own private little island for the night – very Swallows and Amazons, though I had to explore it myself as Mike still couldn’t get off the boat.

Cheeky bird at Cliveden looking for bread!

Friday 5^th saw us head into Windsor, using the same system to get us roped on at the locks we got there with no trouble, and there was tons of space on the Brocas when we got there, so moored up with a lovely view of the Castle across from us.

Windsor Castle as the sun sets

The amphibious vehicle really is quite a curious thing.

I did some shopping in Windsor and had a few wanders around, but again, poor Mike couldn’t get off the boat for the two days we were there.  Needless to say, we were quaffing quite a bit of wine these evenings to try and cheer him up.  Windsor is lovely, but the constant buzz of the little yellow motor boats that people can hire does eventually get on your nerves and we were not too sorry to say goodbye on Sunday 7^th.  We went back upstream a bit to fill with water then headed off, timing it right as we had a short wait on the lock, but nothing like the 3 hour wait some others were having at other locks – it was sooooo busy!!

Part of the queue waiting to go up

We cruised past Runnymeade and moored up shortly after, the evening spent with me cooking tea, clearing up etc etc etc.  I’m not used to doing all the domestics as Mike does most of the cooking and clears up as he goes along.  He’s a good cook and will try lots of different, exciting dishes, whereas I have a few I tend to always do that are quite basic.  However, we did enjoy my roast chicken and chips one evening when we just wanted some junk food!!

Monday 8^th was much quieter on the waterways, although we found ourselves sharing a lock with a few cruisers, one of which caused a bit of excitement when their rope caught on something and the boat started to hang on the lockside.  We shouted at the lock keeper emptying the lock to stop and then the one at the back started to let water in again.  The boat righted itself, but the rope was still caught and it took a passing cyclist to stop and help the skipper free it.  The skipper was really embarrassed and muttered about having been on boats for 30 years and that had never happened before.  Anything can happen in a lock if you don’t pay attention.

We headed on towards Sunbury with Mike getting quite excited as he would have his first trip on land in 7 days!!  We were meeting an old colleague of his at The Weir just above Sunbury lock and Mike managed to walk the 50 feet to the beer garden and back.  After a couple of pints we continued on through Sunbury locks then turned back up the arm below the lock and into Sunbury where there are lovely visitor moorings and only one boat on them!  I popped into the little supermarket while Mike rested his knee.

Lovely visitor moorings at Sunbury - tons of space!

After another night spent mainly on the sofa but trying to sleep in the bed every now and then we both woke up in poor spirits and, dare I say, a little grumpy, so we left Sunbury in silence and headed for Hampton Court where we were meeting Pete and Jane for lunch.  We’ve moored a few times now at Hampton Court and they’re nice moorings, right next to the palace.  Mike managed to walk to the station to meet Pete and Jane and we then had a nice, long lunch in the Mute Swan.  Back on board Quaintrelle we had a cup of tea while a bottle of wine chilled.  All in all a very nice day and Mike pleased that he’d been able to spend some time on land!!  The next morning, I washed the boat down as she had a thick layer of dust on her and was quite embarrassed to be at the palace in such a state!!  We then went into the palace as we’re members, and I had a wander around the grounds while Mike sat on a bench.  He managed a wee stroll through the kitchen garden and wasn’t sure if his knee was getting a bit better or he was just getting used to the pain, as it was still quite swollen.  We left Hampton Court late afternoon and pootled down to Kingston upon Thames where we squeezed into a really tight space for an hour while I topped up on groceries at Waitrose.  We then continued on to Teddington as we’d go out on the tide on Thursday morning at 8.15am.  We initially moored at the lock with another couple of boats going down in the morning, one of which didn’t realise you had to book to go down with the tide and had just arrived expecting to go there and then…., but they wanted £8.00 for it, so we went back upstream to an empty council mooring and stayed the night there for free.  It was interesting to see that most of the swampy boats moored on the run down to Teddington Lock have been moved since we were here in 2014.

Henry VIII in plants

Kitchen Gardens at Hampton Court

Rose Garden

Hampton Court Palace from the River

Great visitor moorings and very posh neighbours!

In the morning we were up sharp and headed to the lock to go through at 8.15.  As we had done it before, some of the other boats said we could go first and they’d follow us as they hadn’t done it before and were not sure what to expect, but it was a normal tide and there was barely any movement on the water as we headed for Brentford.  By this point we were looking forward to getting away from the flight path as much as we had been looking forward to getting away from the little yellow boats at Windsor.  We agree that we could never live in a flight path no matter how fantastic the house! 

In convoy coming down the Thames

How close??!!??

2000th lock!!!!

At Brentford we continued up the locks with NB Time Goes By going through our 2000^th lock since we started, at the Brentford Gauging lock – woooohoooooo!!!!!!  We made good progress up the Hanwell flight and reached Bull’s Bridge at 12.30 where we stopped for water and some lunch.  We also decided to have another go at getting our broken fuel cap off our front tank, which is our domestic diesel (did I mention it had broken!?!), but we wanted to pump some out into our Gerry cans and then fill up our propulsion diesel in the back tank.  After a lot of brute force we got the cap off – in bits…….did the diesel transfer, then pulled out and turned right onto the Paddington Arm to head into London.  We stopped off at Willow Tree marina for a pump out and managed to buy another cap for the diesel tank – phew!  We then stopped off at a canal-side Sainsbury’s to load up with groceries and finally moored up just after 7pm at Alperton.  Knackered!!  But hoping that being that knackered might mean a good night’s sleep for Mike.

Back on canal again - phew!

Three Bridges where we go over a railway whilst going under a road!

Finally managing a diesel transfer.

Once a gas engineer, always a gas engineer - Mike spots this rare holder.

Swans forming guard of honour for the Bread Man's boat.....

It didn’t.  He was up and about again going from sofa to bed and we were both shattered when it was finally time to get up.  We were keen to get going thinking that the earlier we get into London, the more likely we were to get a mooring.  One boat had passed us heading in at 10am, so we quickly cast off and followed them on.  Yet again, we surprised ourselves with how much of this stretch of canal we didn’t recognise despite having done it only two years ago…….  What we DID notice though, was that the long stretches of moored boats had started much further out than before, but also, more of the boats were nice and clearly being looked after compared to some of the sad heaps we saw last time.  As we made our way towards Paddington, we were getting nervous but noticed that there were a couple of spaces alongside boats at Ha’penny Bridge, so we had a fall-back if the basin at Paddington was full.

You can imagine our surprise when reaching the basin at 12.15 ish we saw three spaces on the pontoons and two alongside boats on the hospital side.  I was so shocked I didn’t know what to do, which one to pick, which side to go on, should we wind and then back in…????  I decided not to fanny about and just pulled into the first space on the pontoons – fantastic!!  That was our mooring sorted for the next 7 days.  The next excitement was the arrival of my brother John and nephew Alex that Friday evening.  They were coming to stay for  the weekend and although John has stayed and cruised with us, Alex hasn’t seen the boat yet so we were looking forward to showing him around.  Unfortunately we wouldn’t be able to take him on a cruise as we’d lose our mooring, so it’s a shame we hadn’t managed to get one of the booked ones at Rembrandt Gardens as we could have come and gone as we pleased knowing the space would be there for us when we got back.  But hey ho……  They arrived at teatime on the Friday and we we had an earlyish night as we were all tired and Mike and I hoping that he would sleep in the bed and his knee not play up as he wouldn’t be able to go through to the sofa as John and Alex were sleeping there.

About to turn into Paddington - will there be space??!!

Yesssssss!!

The Fan Bridge opened up

Paddle boarders making use of the basin

Mike had the best night’s sleep he’d had in weeks!!!  But with his knee still swollen and painful he decided not to overdo things and come out with us for the day.  John, Alex and I headed off for the Transport Museum, but not before waiting for my dear old (not in age, length of friendship!) friend Kathryn, who lives in London with her husband William.  William’s back was playing up, so he had stayed home but Kathryn arrived bearing delicious home-made jam, which was most welcome as Fran the jam man has come empty-handed the last couple of times we’ve seen him!!

Transport Museum

In the evening, John’s friend Hugh came round for some dinner and came bearing gin, tonic, ice, bread and cheese – nice one!  We had a lovely evening, nice to catch up with our childhood friends.

The next day, John, Alex and I took the waterbus from Little Venice to Camden as Alex wanted to go to Camden market and it meant he got a boat ride as well.  Unfortunately we couldn’t hear all the commentary being given, but the bits we did hear were most amusing.  Having pointed out the 7 Day Visitors Moorings at Camden, the skipper then says, “But if you want to stay longer, all you have to do is stick a sign on your boat saying you’ve broken down” and lo….

Camden Lock getting a bit of work done

Alex modelling his new trendy shades purchased at Camden Market

London Skyline

On Monday we all headed off for the train, John and Alex back to Kendal and me and Queenie up to York where he had an appointment at a clinic for his knee.  It was quite a long day, but the knee man was really thorough and we were quite impressed.  His opinion is that it is medical rather than orthopaedic so has referred Mike on to a rheumatologist.  So we’ll have to wait and see what they say once we have that appointment but we came away feeling quite positive that at least we’re on the conveyorbelt now hopefully with some treatment of some sort at the end.

On Tuesday 16^th I had my birthday present from Mike – a break making course at the Waitrose Cookery School in Finchley Road.  It meant an early start for me, but it was a fantastic day and I’d highly recommend it.  There were only 7 of us on the course, compared to the full number of 24, so we got plenty of time to do our own breads and I came home with ciabatta, rye bread and six bagels!!  I was quite pleased with them, not so much with my wet ferment that should have been a starter for sourdough, and seemed to have died on the underground on the way home……..

Wednesday we had a rest day really and I probably should have written this blog, but bizarrely, the internet in Paddington Basin was dreadful.  We couldn’t understand why.  Our phones are both on Three and had great internet signal, but our mobil wifi dongle, which is also on Three, had nothing!  It would sometimes work, but so slowly that the sites were timing out, so I decided not to do the blog because I’d have ended up very angry and frustrated.  We spent some time planning our upcoming trip for France for a holiday for a few weeks - holiday from what???!!!!  Yeah, yeah..........

On Thursday we decided Mike had to do at least one thing while in London, so we headed to the museums.  Mike did the science museum and I scratched the surface of the V&A – what a fantastic place. 

Not far from our mooring at Paddington

Hook up for cars?

The Wonderful V & A

Paddington Basin by night

On Friday our time at Paddington basin was up and we had to move.  Kathryn had a day off work so decided to come and cruise with us as we made our way to the Canal Museum where we had booked the mooring for the night for £10.  It was a wet, coolish day, so all was quiet around the Camden Locks and we had a relatively easy cruise.

Meeting a trip boat as we leave Maida Vale Tunnel

What better place for a gas engineer to live than in a restored holder!!

On Saturday morning we were joined by our friend Elaine and although it was raining when she arrived the gusting winds soon blew the clouds away and there were sunny intervals.  Elaine lived at Shoreditch until she was 7 years old and her grandparents lived there until they died some years ago.  So she’s a Londoner but had never seen it from the canal, and just loved it.  It was nice to see her excitement as she suddenly recognised places and road names as we went under bridges.  We went all the way down to Limehouse and moored on the pontoon mooring there then headed to the pub, The Grapes, owned by Ian McKellan.  On our way to the pub we popped into the lock keeper and booked our passage for a month’s time to go out of Limehouse and up the tidal Thames to Brentford.  Things then got very messy.  We were fine having had our meal and bottle of wine, and the next bottle of wine, and the first ‘one for the road’.  The next two were probably not really necessary and we should have baled out when Francesca arrived!  At some point in the pub, I realised I had a message from my sister-in-law saying she was in London today, were we around later.  She’d sent the message that morning and it was not around 5pm.  I somehow managed to get back to her, tell her where we were and bless her, she made her way to see us.  It was great to see her, tho’ I had to apologize for my drunkenness, and I hope it’s not so long til the next time.  As our session in the pub had started at lunchtime, it felt really late by the time we got back to the boat, but I think we were in bed by 9pm!!!!  I can’t remember………. 

Quaintrelle looks like she's in a grassy lock!

Lots of pond weed and....erm..... another gas holder??

Last lock on the Regents Canal takes us into Limehouse

Real boats in Limehouse basin

This morning we were none to crisp.  In fact, I still feel like shit.  Fran suggested hair of the dog, but that made my throat tighten.  I never want to drink again.  Or til Friday maybe……… We left Limehouse cruising up Limehouse Cut and stopped off near the Olympic Park where we went for a walk around.  Although an organised trip of boats has cruised the waterways through the park, they are not yet open for general navigation, which is a shame as it would have been nice to do it while we were here.

After an ice cream we moved on again and headed onto new territory for us, the River Lee navigation.  We had been told not to expect to get moored at the bottom end of it and there did seem to be a couple of miles of boats so far, but we found a wee space at Tottenham for the night.  I am looking forward to getting this published and having some tea, some telly (Robot Wars!!) and an early night.  Oh, but just before I go, here's the Rolling Bridge at Paddington Basin in action...

Absolutely beautiful piece of engineering