Hertford

It was another bright and sunny day -warm enough for at least one fewer layer of clothes! Mike popped into town for a paper and to post a CD. There was a small market in the town square but nothing particularly interesting. The only greengrocery stall was rather ordinary - and no specialist bread or cheese stall either!

Climbing Wall at Outdoor Centre

By now the countryside was opening out - the main area to our right is formed of a series of worked out gravel pits.

Gravel Pit Lake

Close to our overnight mooring is the white water sports centre, proudly proclaiming itself as an Olympic venue but also already open to the public. we also saw an artificial climbing wall - although we could not see anyone actually one it.

Aqueduct at Aqueduct Lock

Aqueduct

Aqueduct lock was a bit of a disappointment: or at least the aqueduct itself. From the canal it looks better then from below as the watercourse seems to be permanently almost dried up.

Carthagene Lock

Carthagene Lock has an unusual additional decoration the the footbridge.

Feilde's Weir Lock

Lunchtime we arrived at Feilde's Weir Lock where we stopped for the usual services - at least elsan and water but no rubbish disposal. We had thought that it might take as long to fill with water as yesterday and, as Christine's re-extended soup was ready we took that at the same time. However, the water supply was a much better pressure and quickly filled the tank. Since there were few boats on the move we thought we would be OK to stay on the lock landing until we were ready to leave.

Start of River Stort Navigation

Just above the lock, the River Stort joins in but that is for another day. We continued up the Rover Lee Navigation, aiming to moor somewhere close to Hertford tonight.

Rye House Kart Centre

Just after the junction we passed a kart centre where five drivers seemed to be going round at an incredible speed! (You will have to look very closely to spot the helmets!) The centre is called Rye House - there is also a speedway alongside - but we were almost to late to spot the original Rye House(only the gatehouse remains) which looks most splendid. Perhaps we will take a clearer picture on the way back.

Rye House - almost!

We shared the next two locks with a friendly single hander who moors just below Ware Lock. Standstead lock is a little more work as it has a swing bridge across the middle as well as gate paddled that need careful operation.

Stanstead Lock Swingbridge

Hardmead Lock

We were by now keeping a close eye on possible moorings just in case the 'allotment visitor moorings' in Hertford were not possible. The final lock into Hertford was quite hard work but just a little earlier than scheduled we were slowly finding our way into the town centre.

Folly Bridge, Hertford

We had been warned that the last full length winding point was immediately after Folly bridge - and indeed it is. However, forewarned meant that we were ready to make the turn as we came under the low bridge and, in fact there is quite enough space to turn without touching the banks.

Terrace Cottages, Hertford

A short distance back and we pulled in, almost on the end of the visitor moorings. Several pretty terraces of cottages are very close to the water's edge.

12.6 miles - 10 locks