Marooned in Enfield!

Thursday 23 September

We weren't up late this morning as Tom was catching the train into London.  I walked down the boat and felt a little uneasy, it was tilting ever so slightly portside and when I looked out of the window I was rather concerned to note that there was a brisk flow to the river.   Barry soon jumped on his bike to check out the lock at Enfield.  Meanwhile, I went outside to investigate and was mortified to see how much the boat was tilting so grabbed Barry's camera and took a couple of shots ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Northern Pride looking a little precariously balanced! 'Beached as Bro' 

The poor rudder was actually on the bed of the river so we weren't going anywhere.  Eventually Barry came back with an incredulous expression - he'd found some bloke at the lock with all the paddles open saying that the pound he was in was low due to a boat during the night leaving the paddles open on the next lock - aaargh!  The ridiculous part of it was that his pound was about three miles long, whereas the one we were moored in was less than a mile - it doesn't take a genius to work out that he was never going to make a difference to his pound while he drained ours!  Amazing! 

Barry strongly requested that he stopped draining the water and cycled up to the next lock to let a bit of water in, but the pound above that was only half a mile long so wasn't going to make a lot of difference.  We contacted British Waterways to be put through to an answer-phone, but after a few attempts eventually got through to someone and told them of our predicament.  After the call we noticed the water rushing away and the tilt getting worse again, so Barry was back on his bike - it was just the boat and crew who'd been emptying the pound coming up the lock.  At least they had the decency as they came past us to stop and help us to get floated by revving his engine and increasing the flow around the stern.  Thankfully we were able to move into the middle of the river and travel a short way to moor temporarily in deeper water not far from the lock. 

Barry then managed to get Tom to the station to go to Tottenham Hale (where we'd meet up with him later) and then catch the underground to London for the day, and as he'd spotted a launderette not far away Barry took a couple of loads of washing there.

Our plan was to get to Tottenham Hale mid-afternoon where Freddie was going to be, little did we know what lay ahead ...

 

Descending Enfield Lock and thinking we'd have plenty of time to get to our day's destination, we saw the devastation that a selfish boater had left from his antics the night before.  Beached boats were everywhere, it wasn't looking promising!  Turning a corner we happened upon a boat anchored in the middle of the river - NBHobo.  He said he was sitting waiting for the levels to rise, having been apparently informed by 'the man in the Marina' to leave the paddles open on the previous lock as BW wanted them open as they were doing some work and would then be refilling the pound. 

This seemed a bizarre and somewhat unbelievable tale so I called the chap from BW who we'd spoken with earlier - "No way," he said "it's nothing to do with BW, someone's having a laugh and we'll investigate."  When he returned the call he said that someone else had left the paddles open, since the boater the night before, but it had nothing to do with BW and they'd now have to get someone to travel miles up the river to re-fill the pounds so we could be stranded for a while.  It's a surreal feeling to be stranded in the middle of the river in the mud, unable to move ...

We're beached again bro!

Not only were we stuck, but Barry had to clear a wedge of plastic from the prop as well

 

 

 

 

 

The water level's dropped by a couple of feet or more compared to the photo from last week

Of course by this time Freddie had arrived at Tottenham Hale and was now on his way up to Enfield as we weren't sure how long we'd be stuck.  Eventually Barry managed to get us to the side so he could get off and pull the boat along by the ropes which freed us after a lot of pulling and tugging.

 

 

Fred got to Enfield 1634hrs and Barry managed to get to the station and bring him back to the boat while I sat on board wondering what other calamities were coming our way!  

 

 

 

 

 

Somehow we subsequently managed to negotiate the remainder of the pound, very carefully, en route to Tottenham Hale.  We'd calculated it would only take us a couple of hours, but of course today all the locks were against us and when we moored up it was just before 2000hrs, very dark, and Tom was already waiting on the towpath bless him, after an exhausting day walking the streets of London.

 At least the weather wasn't too bad along the way

  Spectacular cloud formations ... 

... and an abundance of power lines

 Dusk descends bringing a glorious light - a great shot for the Pylon Appreciation Society

 Gas towers dominate the skyline competing with the pylons

Something for the 'Pylon and Gas Tower Appreciation Society' - if there's such a thing??

Now with four people on board we had hardly any provisions and needed to visit the nearby Lidl's but the day's events hadn't quite finished - the store was normally open till 2100hrs but for one night only was closed at 2000hrs due to work taking place in the shop!  Typical!  Ah well, unfazed we had no choice but to visit one of the many fast food places around the bustling roundabout of Tottenham Hale and settled on a couple of pizzas! 

Moored back at Tottenham Hale for the night

Exhausted after our day's events, we had a quiet night on the boat - pizza washed down by copious amounts of boat brew.

Barry, Freddie and Tom still smiling after a long and eventful day

A delightful journey from Harlow to Enfield

Wednesday 22 September

Today was another beautiful, warm, sunny late September day and although we travelled about 12 miles and negotiated 15 locks, it didn't seem like a chore in such mild conditions.  We left the River Stort and rejoined the River Lee, and along the way were the delights of nature reserves, folks out boating on the river and adjacent lakes, the occasional companion narrowboat and generally an abundance of people out and about enjoying the scenery and weather.

Parndon Mill and Parndon Lock, just outside Harlow

A very arty looking footbridge at Parndon Lock - made of copper and recycled glass - I think!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Very unusual, not quite sure what it's all about though?

Tom lines up for a perfect entry into the lock

We caught up with Pete again just north of Roydon, not far from where we'd left him a few days ago and had what we thought was a last chat before saying our goodbyes for 2010.

The railway bridge at Roydon - it's very low so the flag gets another serious bending

  Roydon Station ahead, but no reason to stop today

Passing the lock cottage for sale at Brick Lock once again

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back onto the Lee Navigation at the junction through Feilde's Weir Lock

This lock cottage is also on the market - what a quaint place to live, very rural but close to towns

Exiting Dobb's Weir Lock

We stopped briefly for lunch at Broxbourne, but Barry didn't take any photos for some reason!  It was very busy here with people milling around in the water and towpaths, with a great pub across the river and also near to a leisure centre and swimming pool.

From here it was literally 'straight' sailing to our mooring for the night, just short of Enfield Lock. Although our Nicolson's Guide had shown water points along the way, we didn't find any that were in working order so Barry got on his bike and cycled off in search of a tap to replenish our drinking water container. Bless him, having gone all the way to the next 'alleged' water point two miles away and finding it dry, he then had to cycle all the way back to Enfield.  Along the way he met some kids walking their dog and asked if they knew where any water was and eventually he was successful.

When he returned to the boat he told us he'd biked through the converted Enfield 'Royal Small Arms Factory' and found a restored narrowboat moored in the old basin, so managed to persuade Tom to go back and get some shots with him ...

The 'Harold Turpin' moored in the basin of the 'Enfield Island Village'

  A mock lock gate forms a weir at the entrance to the basin

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was quite late at this stage, so Tom took advantage of his tripod

Such a beautiful setting and very well looked after 

No 93 'Harold Turpin' - looks fascinating, does anyone know the history?

 Apparently Harold J Turpin was one of the designers of the sten gun - but what about the narrowboat?

 A good photographer can shoot in any position!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                       Full on reflections                                           and brightly coloured brickwork

The desolate looking Enfield Lock buildings in the late evening light ...

... and the old-world lock cottage - I wonder whose life ring this is as Enfield Lock's is at Roydon?

It's been so tranquil on the river that Tom's getting a little restless so he's going to take a train from Enfield into London tomorrow - having seen his fill of English countryside for now he's itching to get back into 'civilisation' again, and wants to check out some galleries.  It'll also be much more exciting to explore 'The Big Smoke' alone - we'll meet him back at Tottenham Hale tomorrow evening when we should've also scooped up Freddie somewhere along the way ...

Back to reality and leaving Bishop's Stortford

It was a long trip back to Gisborne, via Sydney and Auckland, but we arrived home on Friday 5 November.  Since then we've been unpacking, retrieving our belongings from under the house, tidying up the garden from the winter and getting our phone and internet back - it took Telecom five days before we were back on line!

Sandra's returned to work as a 'casual' midwife, and Barry is working on getting the blog up to date as well as numerous other projects.

No news to report on selling Northern Pride as yet, for details of the specification on the New and Used Boat Company site, click here.

Hopefully we'll soon catch up on and publish the last six weeks or so of our time in England ...

Tuesday 21 September

The day began bright and sunny, though being moored in Bishop's Stortford Basin it was difficult to tell as the boat was under so many trees.  We had a more comprehensive stroll around the town before setting off, gaining some local knowledge initially from the Information Centre.  It's a lovely little town ...

 

 

 

 

St Michael's Church in Bishop's Stortford

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The graveyard with the Boar's Head pub and the interior of St Michael's Church

Lovely carved pews

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Plenty of black and white buildings around the town

 The Black Lion pub on Bridge Street

One of our aims was to visit the remains of Waytemore Castle and Motte so we headed that way but found the gate locked.  As luck would have it a council worker drove by just as we were walking away and let us in, giving us strict instructions to re-attach the padlock when we were finished.  While we were up in the motte though another council worker came by and called us to come back down saying that the other one shouldn't have let us in as previously someone had fallen down the hill and injured themselves so they didn't want the responsibility! 

You can access the motte by requesting a key from the Information Centre, but of course you then have to return it to them as well.  The stupid part is that the hedge around the motte has many gaps in it where anyone can walk in and climb up, so basically it doesn't matter if the grounds are a hazard and someone goes through hedge and then falls down, that's their responsibility, but if council have let them in then the fear is that someone will sue them - what a shame that Britain follows America in such circumstances, suing for compensation at the drop of a hat!

  The remaining motte from the original Waytemore Castle allegedly built by the Normans and destroyed after 1545 

  The limit of navigation on the Stort

The winding hole with the end of the canal to the right 

Unusual footbridge crossing the canal - probably one of the UK's many "millennium bridges"

We departed from Bishop's Stortford just after midday, travelling for two and a half hours to the affluent town of Sawbridgeworth (or 'Sawbo' as current residents affectionately call it!) where we stopped for lunch and another walk about. 

 

 

 

An inventive way of recycling an old boat

 

 

 

  Another shot of Little Hallingbury Mill at Tednambury 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tom's back on lock duty, while Sandra manages the helm

Around the time of the Norman Conquest, Sawbridgeworth's rich farming land was as fully developed for cultivation as possible and became the richest village community in the country.  It's reportedly now the 'best kept town in the country' and unsurprisingly boasts amongst their residents Posh and Becks.

Much of the town centre is a conservation area, with many of the buildings dating from the Tudor, Stuart and Georgian periods that are now mixed sensitively with modern buildings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We passed the 'active' bowling club on the way into the village of Sawbridgeworth

Tom and Sandra checking out Christine's cakes in search of custard doughnuts!

A selection of some of the varied architecture around Sawbridgeworth

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once we'd had our fill of the town we set off again and soon came upon glimpses of the mansion Beckingham Palace peeking above the tree tops.  Of course they spend most of their time in Los Angeles now, and apparently are considering remaining there indefinitely - maybe they rent it out for an extortionate sum?

Blissfully the locks were all in our favour again  which saves so much time, and of course having three people on board makes a difference too so we managed to go a fair distance despite also mooching around the towns today.

 A fine day for cruising the river

A glimpse of Posh and Becks' little bungalow 'Beckingham Palace', just outside Sawbridgeworth 

 Approaching Harlow Lock and the A1184 bridge

Tom managed to get a bit of reading in between locks

 Looking spookily similar to a certain Harry Potter character

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Very rural stretch of canal passing Harlow but not actually touching the town 

What a great spot for fishing - though I suspect it was a bit smelly in the boat with all the rubbish that had been thrown into it

We moored for the night near to Harlow, having managed to negotiate around eight miles and ten locks.