We went to Kew Gardens today, not by boat but by a combination of tube and bus. Andrew was in charge of travel arrangements. Getting there was simple enough – District line, change at Earl’s Court. Except that whilst we were on tne train they changed it’s destination. So we actually changed at Turnham Green.
Andrew had been contacted by waterways author Steve Haywood who lives in Greenwich. He suggested that we all go over there and he would ‘show us around’. There was an exhibition on in the Maritime Museum that Sheila wanted to see so we all set off. The first part of the journey was the tube
An early morning start, we were away by 6:05. The bookable moorings at Rembrandt Gardens are available from 1:00pm. So the early start was to get us there by early afternoon. We came down the lower Lee fairly quickly. The last two locks are hydraulic and electrically operated, so we didnt have to do any
We had a stowaway today. We had been going for about 30 mins when I noticed a little mouse running around on the roof. He must have climbed up the foliage alongside yesterday and climbed aboard. He started running back and forth trying to find a way off. We were trying to think of ways
We haven’t moved today. The plan was to move down to The Hertford Union canal tomorrow, but we have changed our minds and will now go to Stonebridge lock instead and then go from there to Rembrant Gardens in one go. A very late start for us, we hadn’t finished breakfast until 9:30. Then we
A new experience for us today. We’ve been to Essex. We are moored up just above Waltham Town lock. We are a little ahead of our schedule to get to Rembrant Gardens for the 9th. So we only did a short trip this morning, stopped for lunch then decided to stay here for a couple
Coots, lots of them. Both the River Lee and the Stort are well supplied with coots. In places there are nests every hundred yards or so. At this time of the year most of them have young cootlets. Both of the parents help in feeding the youngsters The locks on the Stort are 13ft wide.
We had planned to stop tonight at Spellbrook lock and go to the Three Horseshoes for a meal. But there wasn’t any suitable mooring space, and also it’s right under the flightpath approach for Stanstead airport. The planes were coming over only a few hundred feet up about every two minutes. So we decided to
12 miles and 10 locks. The river Stort is lovely. Very peaceful, very rural and windy and twisty. The only problem is moorings. Most of the banks have high reeds and foliage so it’s difficult to find anywhere, and the places that are suitable are already taken with more or less permenant moored boats. We