Banjo Adrift: An Unusual Day

Today started like most others - up early to walk the dogs in brilliant sunshine. The marshes looked fresh and a little misty this morning, but the sun was burning the mist off rapidly. We decided to set off early with the aim of mooring early again and enjoying a peaceful afternoon - how wrong we were!

Angela modelling a damsel fly on her hat

It seems damsel flies are attracted to flowers

We pushed off carefully since the river around the boat this morning was a mass of weed. We drifted through the weed until we were in clear water and then accelerated up to 3mph rapidly! Almost immediately we had weed around the prop, but reversing to and fro freed us and we started moving reasonably. As we passed through Tottenham, the river started to clear and we were making good progress. We arrived at Stonebridge lock where we intended to use the facilities to empty and fill the boat as appropriate. The automatic lock had been broken when we came down this way 3 weeks ago, but was planned to be fixed in 2 weeks so we were hopeful. Alas, they were still working on it and so it would be the manual lock which is a nightmare to operate. However, we knew that Canal and River Trust personnel were on hand to help, and they have a big adapted drill to wind the hydraulic pumps. Wrong again, their drill had been stolen, but thankfully two guys did all of the winding for us and after about half an hour, we were through and heading for the facilities block. We met a guy (Dave) working on his boat, and who moved a mates boat to make room for us to land. We started to fill the tank using the incredibly feeble tap - it was going to take a long time since our tank was getting pretty low. Dave turned out to be a tree surgeon, and we have his number for future reference. His boat was really unusual but interesting with beautifully carved woodwork and handmade coloured glass windows. We gave up with filling the tank after about an hour and decided that we probably had enough to see us through the next couple of days. We moved off but after only a short distance, we were flagged down by two policemen who asked us to look out for someone floating in the water! A short distance further, and we were flagged down on the other side of the river by another policeman, and asked to stop. We could see activity on the bridge up ahead, and it didn't look good.

Police had just pulled someone out of the river.

We tied up and just ahead of us, there was police tape across the towpath and nobody was allowed to pass. A pair of boats which were tied together pulled in behind us, and we gathered round the policeman who had stopped us to ask what was going to happen. He was unable to tell us anything other than someone had been pulled from the river and was receiving medical treatment. More and more police, firemen and ambulance teams arrived, followed by an air ambulance. A number of people came along the towpath and met the news that they could not continue with a variety of reactions! We decided to settle down for the duration since there was nothing else we could do.

Air ambulance departing empty

Tea party

Distant sad scene

It became apparent that the battle to save the poor soul who had been pulled out of the water was over and he had died. Slowly the fire and ambulance services departed leaving the police and a succession of specialists photographing and examining the scene and the body. Finally he was taken away, the police cleared up and after thanking us for our patience, told us we were free to go on our way. It was a sad business and from what we could gather from various people who came along, it seems that the casualty who was thought to be east European, had been in the water with 2 others when they lost sight of him. We said goodbye to the people we had come to know quite well (Maxine, Dominic, Laura and Kai), and set off again.

Crows practising for a parade

Birds with a love for this particular pylon

Geese sitting just outside Pickets Lock, where signs ask you not to let the geese into the lock

We teamed up with another boat heading upstream which reduced the time and effort to pass through the locks, and even though we had lost a lot of time, we ended up well ahead of our tentative schedule and are moored tonight in Waltham Abbey.