Day 55 - February 24th

Last night the council were out gritting the roads and this morning we woke to a very heavy frost. But we decided to brave the cold and go for a walk and were glad we did because later it warmed up and the sun came out. We chose another route from the app we have been using and drove to Cheshunt to start our walk.

The walk took us into the Lee Valley Country Park where we discovered a sculpture trail set up in 2012 for the 2012 Olympic Games. The sculpture trail is 6 miles long and has 15 hand crafted sculptures by different artists made from different materials - wood, stone and metal. The wooden Giants Chair was huge and towered over me

Other sculptures were smaller (but still quiet large!) and carved from tree trunks.

This group of sculpted seats were called The Shrine which were inspired by The Green Man.

The back of The Green Man had a seat carved into it for storytellers to use and listeners were provided with two beautifully carved benches.

Unsurprisingly The River Lee Navigation runs through the park and where there were no statues to see. there was still plenty more to see in the 1000 acre park.

Because the Lee Valley Park is the home of the Lee Valley White Water Centre where the 2012 Olympic Canoe events were held, there are lots of hints to the Olympics in the park including various 'placements' created in 2022 to mark the 10th Anniversary.

About an hour or so into our walk we reached the White Water Centre and decided to stop off at the café for a drink and something to eat and to watch the canoes. tackle the rapids.

It was fascinating to watch. In 2012 we actually applied for tickets to watch the Olympic canoe events but were unsuccessful so today was a nice opportunity to see what we missed. It certainly is a spectacular facility and lots of canoeists were out on the course.

After watching for a while, we continued on our walk back through the park, but not before spotting this Egyptian Goose on the bank of one of the lakes.

Some of our route was alongside the river and in places narrowboats were moored for the winter.

We spotted this cormorant on the other side of the water and he happily sat still long enough for me to photograph.

At Waltham Common Lock we crossed and headed back along the other side of the water.

We passed the Lee Valley Wildlife Discovery Centre - a state of the art bird hide and discovery room, but unfortunately we didn't have time to stop and look inside today.