Peter Kimpton normally cycles to the Guardian office through heavy traffic, but inspired by a Canal and River Trust campaign to use Britain's waterways more, he undertakes an eight-mile journey from Springfield Park in Hackney to King's Cross. Negotiating the River Lea, the Hertford & Union and Regent's Canals, he encounters wildlife, narrowboats, locks and pollution, and then comes to the Islington tunnel. How will it go?Archive stills courtesy of London Canal Museum Map illustration by Matthew Olczak