We love to bike in the area between Harpenden, Luton, and Whitwell. It's mostly agricultural, with some small villages. The roads are often only one lane, with occasional pullouts to let cars pass each other. Hedges often run alongside the lanes, hiding whatever is on the other side - usually a field. When there is a break in a hedge, you're often treated to -- what to me is -- an embodiment of what William Blake meant when he wrote of "England's green and pleasant land."

Anyway, to get to this area we have to cross the River Lea. It's a small river here, and is only 42 miles long, but it punches above its weight. It rises in the Chiltern Hills, a chalk escarpment northwest of London. The river's Wikipedia page states that it is a major source of drinking water for London, and its origin in the Chilterns contributes to the extreme hardness (high mineral content) of London tap water (and ours too I'm sure). The river has been used as a political boundary since the Iron Age. It flows into London and joins the Thames, and the two rivers are treated as London's major internal barriers when the powers that be review the boundaries of London's parliamentary constituencies. Izaak Walton, author of the classic The Compleat Angler, fished in the Lea, and the river is featured in the book.

With that introduction, here is the Lea. The video was taken from a bridge in the village of East Hyde, during a bike ride.

Video of the River Lea