A Very Small Bear on a Very Big River

The village of Sonning, where Polar and Grizzly found me, is next to the River Thames.  That is why they were there.  They had used canals, then the river, to bring Uplander II south from Stoke-on-Trent, which is quite close to the middle of England. 

Sonning is a long way south from Stoke-on-Trent, near a big town called Reading (pronounced 'Redding' not 'Reeding', by the way), where a canal called the Kennet and Avon Canal starts.  If Polar and Grizzly had gone that way, they would have found themselves in the city of Bristol - but without a bear in their crew!

On the way to Sonning, Polar and Grizzly visited  many nice towns and cities, including Coventry, Banbury and Oxford, but they found no bears to rescue in any of these places. 

At Oxford, they joined the Thames.  Polar and Grizzly were very nervous about that, because the Thames is a very big river, while Uppie is not a very big boat.  They always wear life jackets when steering the boat on rivers, in case they fall in the water, because the river can be very deep.  

The Thames has big locks and weirs too.  When I first heard my human friends talking about weirs and locks, and how you had to be very careful around them, I thought they must be monsters!

Once they had stopped to rescue me, Polar and Grizzly set off downstream again.  Because I was sitting in the red and white ring on the roof, I could see clearly where we were going. 

I could also see other boats out on the river and lots of different animals and birds.  Most of them weren't on boats and, although I met some boat dogs and even saw one or two boat cats, there were no other boat bears!

On a sunny summer day, the Thames is a lovely place to be.  It is, however, very big!  We had lots of adventures together on the Thames and I am looking forward to telling you more about those another day, but my next post might be about a very, very small friend of mine.