Sunday 28th June 2009

We have had poor signal for the last two days so haven't been able to post. Since we last wrote we left the River Lee and joined the River Stort. This river is much more narrow and reminded us very much of the Nene in parts.

The River Stort just below Harlow

It was very hot over the last two days and was very tiring getting through the locks. We shared some of our journey with some young men going to a music festival in Harlow, but the locks are not wide enough to take two boats so it was slow going.

We moored up just outside Harlow on Friday night and saw a helicopter leave from a nearby house. Tom thought it must belong to the Beckhams as we knew their house was in this area. The following morning he asked a woman who was jogging past the boat if it was "Beckingham Palace" and she said yes and she was just going home there and invited us for a cup of tea. We think it was Victoria's mum but we didn't take her up on her offer and carried on with our journey.

Our riverside view of "Beckingham Palace"

The actual name is Rowneybury

On Saturday we made our way to Bishops Stortford arriving about 1600hrs. We passed "Joanie M" on the way and we slipped into her mooring place. We just had time to have a quick look around the town before the rain threatened. By the time we got back to our boat, it was pouring and continued for the rest of the evening.

Joanie 'M Pete and Jeanette heading for Hertford

This morning we set off, and as it was another hot day, we decided to have a break in the afternoon and visited Sawbridgeworth. It is a pretty town with lots of attractive buildings and we spent a couple of ours exploring.

A couple of views of Sawbridgeworth

By the time we got back to the boat, the heat had gone out of the day and we then spent the next three hours making our way to Roydon. It was so peaceful on the river and such a nice temperature, we really enjoyed it and the river looked beautiful as the light faded. We can relax a bit now as we have broken the back of our journey back to Limehouse.

Unusual swan nest near Bishops Stortford