Hanley Bear and I hoped there would be enough snow overnight for us to go sledging and make an even bigger snowbear. Unfortunately, there is only a tiny dusting of snow on the ground this morning, not even enough to make small bear snowballs, so I am going to write some more of my blog instead.
As you might remember, Polar, Grizzly and I had a very exciting and rather frightening journey down the Thames to Brentford and I was very relieved when Uppie and Zodiak, our friends' boat, got into the big Thames Lock on the Grand Union Canal. A woman called Annie was in charge, who closed the gates behind us and then let the water in to lift us up to the level they keep the Brent River at above the lock. We went along this, past more big houseboats, to another lock and here there was another team of volunteers to help us.
When we came out of that lock, we were in a basin full of other boats surrounded by a mixture of old dock buildings and new apartments. It was all very interesting but I was so tired after my alarming journey that I fell asleep in the lifebelt, so Polar carried me downstairs into the back cabin, took off my little hat and life jacket and tucked me up in the bed.
'Poor little Sonning!' she said. 'You've had rather too much excitement for a small bear!'
When we stopped for elevenses - or I should say nineses, as it was still early - I saw we were surrounded by trees and green space again, even though we were still in London. The canal was much narrower than the River Thames had been and I was very relieved indeed to see there was not much of a current in it. I was feeling much better by now and enjoyed munching some toast and marmalade.
Grizzly gave me a guide to London's waterways to look at, which Annie the lock lady had given him. 'We have a flight of six locks to go up soon,' Grizzly said, pointing them out on the map. 'But Bob and Lesley will be coming with us, so we can share the big locks, and you can stay here in the cratch and watch.'
These were the Hanwell locks and although they were much smaller than the huge Thames locks, they were still big for canal locks and the gates were heavier than the gates on the River Wey. These had to be opened and closed by pushing, rather than using electric power, and there was nobody around to help. It was hard work for Polar, even though she is a big human, but even harder for Lesley, who is bigger than a small bear but quite a little person. Half way up the six locks they found a couple of volunteers were there to help, although these men wandered about doing things in a funny order and sometimes seemed to make things more confusing rather than helping.
A little way up the flight of locks, I noticed something very odd indeed about the canal. It looked as if instead of being full of water, it was covered in grass! This was because there was a very thick growth of bright green duckweed all over the surface - so thick, it actually slowed our boats down.
I think if Hanley Bear had been with me, he would have tried to play football on it because it looked so neat and level. Because he is such a little bear and the weed was very dense, I don't know whether he would have sunk through it or skipped about on the top. Whatever had happened, he would have got covered in slimy, green weed. By the time we reached the top of the locks, Uppie certainly was!
Here we saw something very unusual. The Grand Union Canal passed over the top of a railway line, on a special type of water bridge called an aqueduct, and a road went over the top of the canal. I had never seen anything like this before. It was quite confusing to be on water and on a bridge at the same time. Grizzly said there would be lots of other aqueducts to see on our journey, so I decided to make a special effort to look out for them, because they are a very clever invention.
At a canal junction we reached after the Three Bridges, I saw a sign to Paddington. I thought that if we went that way we could visit the famous Paddington Bear and I asked Grizzly to turn Uppie in that direction, but he explained that the sign wasn't pointing to the bear but to a district in London with the same name, and he showed me where it was on the map. Bob and Lesley were going to go that way but our route was to the north, up the Grand Union Main Line.
We stopped both boats near the junction so we could say goodbye to our friends. Polar brought me to meet Bob and Lesley, and Millie, their boat dog. Lesley used to run a business helping small bears to find new homes with human families, which was very kind of her. Polar and I had our photo taken with them and then, as it was still light and we had a long way to go, we set off again up the Main Line of the canal. It was very different to being on the Thames, as there were factories and railways and sometimes litter and bad smells, but it was all very interesting.
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