The Mayor of London Boris Johnson has received the Olympic flag in Beijing as the focus now turns to the Lee Valley for 2012.

A London Olympic flag was due to be raised on the flagpole at the Lee Valley Ice Centre alongside Lea Bridge this afternoon.

The Olympic venues are beside the Lea Valley Walk at Waltham Abbey and between Hackney Marshes and Bow where walkers can look forward to following progress over the next four years.

Interesting to see that the Lee Valley features in the list of the top twenty Secret Britain wildlife sites.

The locations are in today’s Independent on Sunday and Rye Meads, the Rye House Nature Reserve, is placed 14th in the list which starts with Ireland’s Slievenacloy Nature Reserve and Scotland’s Loch of the Lowes.

“Ancient flood meadow, marshes, reedbeds, wet woodland, old gravel pits and lagoons in the Lea Valley wetlands complex that stretches from the Thames way up into rural Herts” says the introduction. (Interesting choice of spelling for Lee/Lea.)

Rye Meads is said to have “thriving populations of water voles, water shrews and harvest mice” and be “a stronghold of the otters that have re-colonised the Lea Valley recently”.

There is also Rye Gatehouse and the lovely Rye House pub. All easily reached by train as well as the Lea Valley Walk.

See pages 76-80.