Day 39 - February 8th

Deciding where to go for a walk at this time of year is tricky. We try to avoid muddy routes, which means that a lot of the field walks are a no-no. We are always drawn to waterside walks so this morning we repeated a walk we last did in March last year. We parked at Rye House and walked to Broxbourne, a 6.6 mile circular walk along the River Lee Navigation and New River Path.

We parked at the Rye House Gatehouse and headed alongside the River Lee Navigation towards Broxbourne.

Several times whilst out walking we have noticed these orange objects on the water and wondered what they were. Today we discovered that they are disused Oil Rig Lifeboats. Sometimes the disused lifeboats are repurposed as tiny floating homes. It wasn't clear whether this one had been converted into a useable space.

We followed the water and came across two swans who instantly swam over to us in the hope that we would feed them. They weren't in luck as we had nothing to give them.

Soon we passed by the Fish & Eels pub and then arrived at Dobbs Weir.

We continued following the water and whilst most of the paths were fairly dry and mud-free, some where a little challenging.

We passed the Carthagena Lock which was originally built to mark the defeat of the British Navy when they retired from the siege of Cartagena in Spanish Columbia on April 1741. 

Eventually we reached Broxbourne and retired to the Old Mill Retreat Café for a bite to eat and a hot drink.

We then headed back towards Hoddesdon along the New River Path.

We saw several Little Egrets along this stretch of water. They were once quite a rare sight in the UK but now are quite often seen.

We also spotted some Tufted Ducks which we've not seen before on our walks.

I also spotted the first Crocus flower this year.

Our walk took us through an underpass and past the beautiful murals we had seen previously. Unfortunately since last seeing them they have been the spoiled with graffiti.