BIKES

HEADS UP
An easy, traffic-free, outand-back
route to the
recently reopened
Queen Elizabeth
Olympic Park
Distance: 27 miles
Big hills: 0
Challenge:
Cafe stops: 2
27
miles
The Lee Navigation and nearby
River Lea link Hertford to the River
Thames at Limehouse. The Lee is not a
canal in the purest sense, but a
canalised river. Remains of Viking
longships have been found on
Walthamstow Marshes near the
Olympic site, suggesting that the Norse
invaders sailed the river more than
1,000 years ago. Most of the Lee’s locks
were built in the 18th century and, as
the country industrialised, the
waterway became important for trade.
As cargo such as copper, grain and coal
was increasingly carried by road from
the 1960s, the commercial use of the
Lee declined.
Today the Lee must form one of the
prettiest and most secluded routes into
London. Maggie and I join it in
Cheshunt, the home town of serial
champion Laura Trott and the starting
point for the penultimate stage of this
year’s Friend’s Life Women’s Tour. We
are just 13 miles from central London
— the town lies on Ermine Street, the
Roman road that heads north from the
capital — but you’d never know. Just
steps from the well-used train station is
the Lee Valley Regional Park, a long,
lean 26-mile stretch of wood and
parkland, running from the Thames
into Hertfordshire and Essex, much of it
explored by snaking trails. From
Cheshunt they wind to the water’s edge.
We have an early and irresistible
first stop — the Lee Valley White
Water Centre, now fully operational
after reopening for slalom canoeing
and white water rafting. It was here in
2012 that Brits Tim Baillie and Etienne
Stott pipped their compatriots David
Florence and Richard Hounslow to
GB’s first ever canoe slalom gold.
Amazingly, you can cycle into the site
for free and skirt the gushing white
water course, stopping anywhere you
like to watch. There’s a cafe too with
loads of outdoor seating. We save its
refreshments for our return.
We slip beneath the rumbling M25
and cross the Lee at Enfield Island
Village. The village is enclosed by the
Lee Navigation, the River Lea, a flood
relief channel and a weir, and was built
on the site of a small arms factory. A
narrow pathway beyond Enfield Lock
takes us past colourful canal boats.
Behind, the ugly buildings of industry
intrude on the scene, but we are largely
spared the sound of commerce.
Walk on the wild side
Instead, blackcaps and chiffchaffs,
birds that migrate each year from
southern Europe, are tuning up for
spring. Resident wrens, tiny birds that
quiver with the effort of their piercing
song, trill boldly from the tops of
blackthorn hedgerows. These birds and
much other wildlife will find homes on
Tottenham Marshes, which edges
Stonebridge Lock where we re-cross
the Lee. The 100-acre Marshes were
originally a River Lea floodplain and in
the 18th and 19th centuries were used
for waste disposal. In 1882, the Hotspur
Cricket Club formed Hotspur Football
Club so that club members had a sport
to play in winter. The team played on
the Marshes and two years later were
renamed Tottenham Hotspur. By 1905
waters were sufficiently clean for an
open-air swimming pool to be built.
The Marshes were quarried in the
mid-20th Century and the Lee Valley
Regional Park took over in 1972.
Beyond a set of 10 small reservoirs
are Walthamstow Marshes where in
1909 Sir Alliott Verdon-Roe became
the first man to fly a plane built entirely
in Britain. He turned two railway
arches on the Marsh into a workshop,
where he constructed his pioneering
aircraft. During World War One, more
than 8,000 of his Avro 504 planes were
built. The area is now a Site of Special
Scientific Interest having been
safeguarded from development. It has
a range of wildlife habitats; a water
vole would be a lucky sight.
SEPTEMBER 2014 CYCLING ACTIVE 125