At the Regatta

I've been busy showing you my boat bear outfits and introducing you to my little friend but now it's time for me to tell you more about my journey.  When Uplander II left Sonning (the village - not me!) we cruised down the Thames towards London.  I didn't know that was where we were going.  All I knew was that we were heading downstream, with the current.  This, in Polar's words, is what happened when we got to Henley-on-Thames... 

Henley-on-Thames - not to be mistaken for Hanley!

   The little beige bear found that his new seat, in a snug corner of a room with roll-up walls right at the front of the boat, was the best place to watch the river go by.  He wasn’t very much higher up than the surface of the water itself.
  ‘We seem to be going very fast now!’ Sonning said to Polar, but she was busy making a black box with a tube at the front go click! at things, so she didn’t hear him.  

   There were plenty of other boats of all shapes and sizes floating about on this stretch of the river.  Some were about the same length as Uplander II but a different shape; pointier at the front, wider and taller, with many more people on board.  They looked as if they were made of polished wood with very shiny metal trimmings and their engines made nice, steady dub, dub, dub, dub noises.  Polar Clicked her black box at these boats.  There were also a lot of big white boats, which Sonning didn’t think looked or sounded anything like as nice.  Polar seemed to think differently about them too, as she didn’t click her box at them.
   ‘Don’t you look cute, Sonning?’ she said, suddenly.  ‘It looks as if you’re watching the boats!’
   Before Sonning could move, she pointed the black box’s tube at him and pressed something on top of it.  Click!  Sonning expected to feel something unpleasant happen to him.  He screwed up his little black eyes and clenched his paws, but nothing felt any different after the click than it did before.  Polar looked at the back of the box and smiled.

  ‘You really are a sweet little bear!’ she said.
  Sonning wondered why she was calling the black box a sweet little bear.  ‘Perhaps humans have very limited eyesight as well as poor hearing, by animal standards,’ he thought.  ‘Although, if she thinks it’s a bear, why does she keep pointing it at things and making it click?  And, if she can’t see very well, how can she see to steer the boat and handle the ropes at locks?’
   He had just started worrying that one day a short-sighted Polar might confuse him with a rope, or something else, and accidently throw him overboard, when their boat went under another bridge. 
   ‘Keep left from here, love!’ Polar shouted back to Grizzly.
   ‘I know, sweetheart!’ he shouted back.
   Sonning saw that the river in front of them was divided in two down the middle by a row of big orange floating things held together with rope or cable.  Uplander II was travelling with the stream on the left-hand side of the river, which was unusual because they generally stayed on the right-hand side.  On the other side of the barrier were some of the very shiny boats, tied to the land with ropes.
   ‘Ooh!  There’s Gloriana!’ gasped Polar.  She came to sit beside him, picked up her black box and made it click at something.

   Next to them was a very beautiful red and gold boat.  That must belong to someone very special,’ thought the little bear. 
   Sonning studied the scene before him.  Everyone seemed to be wearing funny, impractical clothes that didn’t look at all suitable for doing river things like jumping on and off boats, catching ropes or hammering in little metal posts.  The men had very light-coloured trousers, crisp white shirts and smart jackets, some with brightly-coloured stripes. 
   ‘Those clothes will show the dirt far too easily when they have to do their boat jobs,’ said Sonning.  Although it would be nice to have some trousers, the little bear thought he would choose tougher, darker fabric, so it wouldn’t wear out or look grubby if he had work to do.
   Many of the men on shore wore light-coloured hats too, which appeared to be made from straw.  Sonning laughed when he saw them.  ‘How silly!’ said the little bear.  ‘Those definitely won’t stay on if it gets windy and, if it rains, they’ll get all soggy and mushy, then fall to pieces!’

 It would be nice to have a hat to keep the sun and the rain off his furry head, but Sonning didn’t want a fragile straw one.  He liked Grizzly’s sturdy flat cap, although he wasn’t sure how he would fit a hat like that around his bear ears.
  The women on the shiny boats were wearing flowery, floaty dresses and either wore wide-brimmed hats or had feathery things in their hair.  They also had the oddest shoes on their feet, with pointy toes and long, thin tapering heels.  They didn’t look anything like Polar’s big boots.  Sonning wondered if they had been designed for pushing into the ground to secure mooring ropes if you didn't have a metal stick.  None of the shiny boats seemed to be held in place by them, so he guessed this theory must be wrong.
   ‘What funny people!’ he laughed.
   Out of the corner of his left eye, Sonning saw something on the other side of the floating barrier, coming towards them very, very quickly, despite having the current against it.  He heard Polar’s black box going click! click! click! and a thin boat full of men wearing vests and shorts, all facing backwards and splashing long sticks in the water, shot past, followed very closely by another.  On shore, the smartly-dressed people started shouting and waving.   Sonning waved back, until he realised they were waving at the men facing backwards. 

   Then another boat with an engine, full of men in striped jackets and straw hats went past, chasing the thin boats.  Uppie rocked about in its wake.
   'Maybe they’re trying to get their attention, so they turn to face the right way and don’t crash their skinny boats,’ Sonning thought.  ‘Or perhaps they’ve found the rest of those men’s clothes.  They must be very cold dressed like that!’
   Further along, they passed more thin boats full of backwards-facing people, hurtling upstream, still on the other side of the barrier.

   'Look where you’re going, you silly people in underwear!’ the little bear shouted, leaning as far out from Uppie as he dared.  ‘Turn around, please!  Look out for the bridge and the other boats!’
   But, as they all had normal human ears, nobody heard him.
   ‘Oh no!  There’s going to be a terrible crash now!’ sighed Sonning.  He kept leaning over the side of the boat, trying to think of some way he could save the backwards-facing boaters.
   Suddenly, Sonning felt Polar lifting him up.
   ‘Watch you don’t fall out when the judges’ boat goes past!’ she said, sitting him safely back in his corner.  ‘I know the rowing races are very exciting but we don’t want a bear overboard to rescue while we’re dodging the traffic.  You stay right there, while I get us some lunch.’
   Now he looked properly at them, Sonning could see that the backwards-facing men weren’t hitting the water with their long sticks - they were using the flattened ends of the sticks to push water behind them and to propel their boats along the river as fast as they could.  It looked very hard work; even though they were only wearing underwear, the men in the boats looked hot and sweaty.
   ‘I wonder why they’re doing that, when they could put an engine on their boats and go even faster?’ said Sonning.  ‘I feel exhausted just watching them!’
   Then Sonning remembered that Polar had said something about lunch.  He knew that lunch was a human word for food in the middle of the day.  He liked the idea of lunch.  He was suddenly feeling quite hungry.