5th May - The first moving day of this month. We have spent the previous 14 days getting prepared for Sue to go off to Spain for her St James Way walk and my passage (with help from pal Mark) through London and up to Bishop’s Stortford. The location was chosen because there was a pub and a twenty-minute frequency bus service into Berkhamsted town centre. As reported in last month's blog, we didn't know that the pub was closed, had been for some years, and the bus service was appalling.
When Mark arrived we were just moving a couple of miles into Berkhamsted town. Sue took the car, parked it in the town centre car park, did some last-minute shopping, and then walked back up the canal to meet Mark and me (her last bit of walking training).
We were lucky enough to get a mooring very close to the car and the following morning, 6th May Sue took Mark's car and drove to meet her walk companions (FOR DETAILS OF THEIR SPANISH WALKING HOLIDAY CLICK HERE) while Mark and I set off for the smoke.
The first four days went very well. We were moving quite swiftly south and moored in some very pleasant spots although it was clear that despite the distance we still were from London mooring was becoming more of an issue every night. We had also discovered that there was a bookable Canal and River Trust mooring in Islington and booked it for the two nights of the 12th and 13th.
Unfortunately, the weather for the next two days was forecast as absolutely awful with high winds and almost continuous rain. It did not turn out quite that bad but we were moored directly outside a pub so we decided to enjoy the beer and pub grub for two days then get up at silly o’clock on the 12th and make Islington in one hit.
Canalplan AC lists the passage as being 22.29 miles long and transiting 5 locks, this it suggests would take around 10 hours and 10 minutes. The actual time was 9 hours and 30 minutes, we were surprised at how many long stretches of Grand Union Canal were completely empty of boats so we were able to crank on through those sections and when we got to Camden Locks there were a group of voluntary lock keepers who were extremely helpful in getting us speedily through the three lock flight. It probably helped that one of them keeps his boat at Calcutt marina just one pontoon from where we had moored ours while there and we knew him.
Our reserved berth was vacant when we arrived after the 9.5-hour passage and we were soon moored. Exploring the immediate area we discovered that the beer in local pubs was unbelievably expensive, even the Pizza boat, which sold pizzas at a not unreasonable price, was charging £6.50 for what looked like less than a pint, we were told it was even dearer in the local pubs and having been given that intelligence decided we would go without.
Our two days at Islington were soon over and we were once again on our way. First, we continued along the Regents Canal, then along the entire one-mile length of the Hertford Union Canal, apparently the shortest on the entire system, also known as Ducketts Cut. The locks along this section of the canal were not easy with stiff paddle mechanisms not made any easier sharing them with a boat where the owner's girlfriend refused to have anything to do with moving the boat, she would not steer nor would she help operate the locks, she just sat sullenly cuddling the dog and refusing to make eye contact with anyone. We left them as we turned onto the Lee Navigation.
Turning onto the Lee Navigation was something of a shock, the river was wide and both banks were lined with pubs and other places of entertainment which on such a beautiful, warm sunny day was thronged with people enjoying themselves. The Lee Navigation runs pretty well north/south and approaching the first lock saw that the gates were open and another boat was inside waiting for us, this was fortunate as we were able to transit the remaining locks of the day with the other boat, which was being taken to a selling spot by a broker.
We moored that night on a section with no other boats. The reason was at this point the river sides were very shallow. We managed to get within 0.5m of the bank and spent the night aground.
The following morning was a bit of a faff getting off the putty (mud) and into deep water but we managed and were on our way.
Late that afternoon we had a conversation with another boater while transiting a lock who said we would be pushing our luck to get to Hertford and onto Bishop’s Stortford in the time available, after a long “con-flab” we decided to try. That evening we moored at Stansted Abbots Visitor Moorings. It was outside The Jolly Fisherman so we ate dinner there that evening, Mark had the last of the Sunday roasts while I had a very acceptable fish and chips.
The following day we pushed on to the end of the navigation at Hertford and spun Fantasma around to retrace our steps to the confluence of the Stort and Lee Navigations. As we returned we spotted a vacant mooring outside The Old Barge pub and stopped for lunch - very tasty
That evening we moored just beyond Roydon Village Marina, we had been looking for the visitor moorings but concluded (rightly) that they would be full so pulled up a short way before and moored with pins to a very slopey and soft bank, which gave the mooring a slightly insecure feeling, despite which we had a good nights sleep and set off bright and early towards the navigation end at Bishop’s Stortford.
All went well till we arrived at Harlow Lock, there were a couple of C&RT guys there trying to free one of the gates that had something jammed under it. They had been struggling for several hours before we arrived and asked if we would give the gate a shove with Fantasma’s 17 tons. It worked a treat the gate lifted over the obstruction and was free to operate but they still could not find the obstruction, waterlogged log, rock or whatever and until they did and then removed it the same thing would happen again. We made them a cup of tea and they let us through the lock and continued with their game of “hunt the obstruction”.
It turned out at the next lock to be our lucky day, there were two “vollie lockies” on duty who ranged between six locks. They operated five of those six locks for us - magic!! They would have done all six but we had decided to moor before the sixth and cruise the last lock and mile or so into Bishop’s Stortford the following day.
18th May, Sue returns from Spain today, we get up bright and early and cruise the final lock and mile of the Stort Navigation, fill with water at the services point go to the end of the navigation turn Fantasma around and settle ourselves on a visitor mooring our 277-mile journey complete.
The 277mils took in 198 locks and 6 tunnels with a combined length of 3.3/4 miles underground, 188 engine hours, travelling an average of 5.37 hours on 35 days, an average of 1.47 miles per hour. All we have to do now is reverse most of it to get back t’north but before we set off we planned to spend two weeks here and do some visiting.
While Mark was still with us we visited a couple of the local tourist hotspots first Saffron Walden with its medieval houses many with superb pargeting the castle built between1125 and 1141 and Audley End House. After he left for home we visited our favourite caravan site at Little Henham to see the Muskett family who have been so good to us over the years. We hired a van for a couple of days and visited sister Pam, sadly it was a flying visit but still lovely to see her and we managed to collect our meds of which we were starting to get very short.
Friends of many years, Margret and Jesse, came to visit. It was super to see them and we hope we will be able to meet up at a later date and take them for a cruise.
There were several other pals who rang to arrange visits but we were unable to fit them in. The last visitors were nephew James and his wife Hannah who were staying with us a couple of days, but that's a story for the June blog.