British Waterways Enfield Yard near
Enfield Lock, looking north. |
Mute swans on the Lea river. |
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Narrowboats along Tottenham Marshes
(precise location uncertain). |
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Graffiti mural in the vicinity of
Tottenham Hale. |
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Walthamstow's Riverside Cafe at the
Lea Rowing Club; Lea river looking back towards the bridge at the top
end of Springfield Park, Walthamstow. |
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Lea Valley Marina, Springfield looking towards Horseshoe Bridge
(Walthamstow Marshes). |
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Crossing over Horseshoe Footbridge, Walthamstow Marshes. |
Along the Lea,
somewhere near Hackney Wick, the new Olympic Stadium just visible top
left. |
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Canal-side graffiti approaching
Lea's London industrial heartland, near Hackney Wick. |
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Graffiti adorn the canal-side walls
at Stopping near Hackney Wick; |
It was at this point that we
decided upon a change of plan to cycling to Kings Cross station and taking
the train back to Hertford. Zoltan proposed that we cycle back instead -
perhaps this was also down to cost. I wasn't sure that we would achieve the
distance but agreed that it was worth giving it a go. After enquiring
locally, we picked up the Regents Canal near the DLR bridge and continued
until we reached the junction with the Hertford Union Canal, which I had
never cycled before. This took us past Victoria Park, where Saturday's
line-up for the High Voltage rock festival were in the process of pounding
the airwaves. We could even hear them on the Lea, on the approach to
Limehouse Basin along Limehouse Cut. Soon we reached the junction with the
Lea, at the very spot where the new Olympic Stadium and village is being
constructed. Turning north, we headed up the Lea. We cycled as far as the
M25 before I decided to call a halt to cycling for the day. My posterior
rather than my legs was now feeling the worse for wear. Zoltan was convinced
that we didn't have far to go, until I pointed out to him that we had only
reached the halfway mark on our return journey. We turned off the canal and
cycled in to Waltham Cross station, where we took a train to Hertford North. |
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Clock Mill atThree Mills, one of
several former working mills,
of which only two remain, in Bow, the other being House Mill. |
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Clock Mill atThree Mills. |
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Approaching Bow Lock, the high rise
buildings of Canary Wharf appearing in the background. |
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DLR Railway Bridge
and the A13 East India Dock Road Bridge, along Limehouse Cut (which
joins Limehouse Basin to the Lea River at Bow Bridge). |
Limehouse Basin and the upmarket
apartments lining the basin. |
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Limehouse Basin apartments, Canary
Wharf, as viewed from the entrance to the basin. |
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Swing bridge opens
outside Narrow Street Pub;
The gastro pub owned by Gordon Ramsay, known as The Narrow, at Canary
Wharf. |
Sadly, the day was not to end
on a pleasurable note. As I noted on my Facebook page:
"Saturday I did a 55mile from
Hertford along the Lea river canal into Canary Wharf and back to the M25,
with a friend of mine on a visit from Hungary. On the way back via the
Regent's canal, as we rejoined the Lea Valley canal very close to the
location of the new 2012 Olympic venue, we witnessed a rather unsavoury incident
in broad daylight at four in the afternoon,
further up the canal along a fairly industrial neighbourhood near Edmonton,
just before the Arriva bus depot. It was all the more bizarre as many are
out and about on the canal enjoying the sunshine on what is supposedly a
peaceful weekend. We caught up to a gang of about a ten hoodies, all
similarly dressed in tracksuits and trainers, cycling north in the same direction we were.
The two teenagers at the rear were in the process of smoking a joint, passing it
between them as they pedalled.
As we approached a bridge near the A406,
the group ascended the
embankment towards the bridge, whilst a single cyclist happened to be
heading in the opposite direction at that very moment. In a split second a
violent clash ensued with a guy coming
down off a bridge – it appeared that he had committed the cardinal error of
getting in their way. They turned on him as a pack and viciously began
beating him up. It was an act of wanton violence that beggared belief. The poor victim was a young guy from Latvia and he was a
mess – his leg bled profusely from a deep wound and he may even have been stabbed.
he bled from the mouth too. He
was in pain and severely shocked. It happened so fast and as the gang cycled
off, one of the youngsters picked up the victim's bicycle and spitefully threw it into
the canal, without even a hint of regret.
Zoltan and I considered how best we might help the guy. I
cycled south to where one of the narrowboats we had just passed, was moored, to borrow a long
pole terminated with a hook of sorts, to enable the Latvian to fish the submerged (borrowed)
bicycle from the base of the canal. The narrowboater had in the interim also cycled up to the
bridge and proposed that the Latvian receive basic treatment, as he
happened to have a medical kit on board. In fact we all thought he should
see a doctor as a matter of urgency and we hoped that he would make
arrangements to receive further attention later."
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Along the Hertford Union Canal. |
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Apartments along the Hertford Union
Canal near Victoria Park. |
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The new Olympic Stadium at the
junction of the Lea and Hertford Union Canals. |
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Disturbed by what we had both
witnessed that day, Zoltan and I drove back from Hertford North station in
almost total silence. It was not the way we expected the day to end. So much
for the Towpath Code of Conduct! It was therefore no surprise that we
decided to give the concert on Sunday at Victoria Park a miss, not least
since the desire to attend had drained from us. |
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