A Small Bear at Foxton Locks

The day after we went up the Watford Staircase, Polar, Grizzly and I cruised through some of the loveliest scenery we had seen so far.  With no sign of any big birds of prey, I could sit on the roof in the sunshine and enjoy the journey.  

We took a little canal arm down to a little village called Welford, where there are huge reservoirs to feed the canal.

I would soon see why so much water was needed, as the following day we were going down the famous Foxton Locks.  From our map, I could see that this was like a double version of the Watford Locks - one five lock staircase immediately after another!

'I hope Polar and Grizzly can remember whether they open the red paddles or the white paddles first!' I thought.  'Or do we open them the other way going down?'

We had more very pretty countryside to travel through to get to the ten locks.  As we cruised along, I tried to think of what I could do to help when we got there.

We had to wait for several boats to come up before we could start down the first staircase.  Luckily, there were lots of helpers.  Polar and I stayed on the boat and Grizzly went to help with the locks.  Soon we were in the first chamber and dropping down with the falling water level.

'Can I help with anything?' I asked Polar.

'You could hold the tiller while I take some photographs of us moving into the next lock,' she said.  'Don't worry - I'll be controlling the engine.' 

I felt very important, holding the tiller and steering Uppie from the first lock into the next one.

'Can I do that again?' I asked, feeling quite proud of myself.

'Of course you can!' said Polar.

Polar let me steer us into each of the linked locks but, when we got to the big middle pound, she stopped Uppie by the towpath and swapped places with Grizzly.  Grizzly wasn't taking photographs so he put me back in my favourite place on the roof.

'Did you see me steering the boat, Grizzly?' I asked him.

'You did very well, Sonning,' he said.

We went down through the next five locks with the volunteer helpers and Polar working the locks.  At the bottom, we took the turn towards Market Harborough, which meant Polar had to work a swing bridge for us.

Polar and Grizzly went to look around the site and to talk to a nice family from Leicester who had come down through the locks behind us.  At first, I stayed on Uppie, deciding that I could take my life-jacket off now I had finished my boating duties for the day.

Then I decided to go and explore for myself.  I ran up to the top of the big hill the locks came down, and sneaked up onto one of the little bridges over the locks to see the view.  It was only then that I realised that I hadn't really had to steer the boat at all when we moved from lock to lock, because the locks were so narrow, there was nowhere else to go but backwards or forwards!

'You are a silly little bear, Sonning!' I said to myself.  But I still think I look quite professional in the photos Polar took of me.

 

 

Onto the Leicester Arm

Hanley Bear and I had some exciting news yesterday.  Polar and Grizzly told us that Uplander II is having its hull blacked this week and soon, we will be able to go on boat journeys again.

'In that case, I had better finish writing about the journey I made last year,' I said to Hanley.  'Otherwise, it will get very confusing for people reading my blog.'

After the long tunnel at Blisworth, we enjoyed cruising through some more very pretty scenery around Weedon, although we were very close to the West Coat Main Line sometimes, and the very fast trains speeding along it often made me jump. 

Then we had another flight of seven big locks to climb through at Long Buckby.  We were very grateful when a nice couple on a boat called Fever to the Form waited for us to catch them up and we could share the locks, as it meant we could get to the top before it got dark.  They had a baby human cub with them, sound asleep in a sling around his dad as he steered through the locks!

When we got to the junction at the top of the locks, Grizzly and Polar steered us to the right, onto the Leicester Arm of the Grand Union Canal.  They hadn't been this way before but showed me on the map that we had more locks and a tunnel to go through in the morning.

'These are different to the locks we've been through so far,' Grizzly explained.  'They are narrow, so they only hold one boat at a time, and they are arranged as a staircase of five!'

When we reached the Watford Locks, Polar took me with her on a walk right to the top, to see what we had to do and check with the lock-keeper if we could start coming up.  

'Not yet,' he said.  'I'm sending two boats down first.'

While we waiting, Polar explained how there were different paddles to let water in and out of the locks and the side pounds, to save as much water as possible going up and down.  I can't remember which one we had to open first, but fortunately she took a photograph of the notice.

Polar worked the locks, with the lock-keeper and his helpers, and Grizzly steered Uppie, and soon we had reached the top of all five.  I was too small to be much help but I could remind Polar whether it was the white paddle or the red paddle that she needed to open!

Then we set off through very pretty countryside again, until we came to a hill in the way of the canal at a place called Crick.  There was another tunnel here and this time, there were boats coming the other way!

As you can see, it is a tight squeeze to pass another boat, but it can be done, although I did have my paws over my eyes when the boats got level with each other.

We stopped for lunch at Crick and then carried on through the pretty countryside throughout the afternoon, dodging big stormy showers.  I was very much enjoying the view from my usual vantage point on top of the hatch cover, when there was a strange, mewing cry overhead and a huge bird swooped over us.  It was a buzzard, quite big enough to eat a small bear!  I knew that Polar and Grizzly would do their best to protect me but decided I would feel much safer watching the world go by from my hammock in the window, so Grizzly carried a trembling little bear back into the cabin and sat me in my bed.

   Of course I felt much better after tea!

A Long Climb to a Long Tunnel!

After a whole day with just one strange, tiny lock, our journey north from Milton Keynes included lots more.  I could see from our map that, to get to the village of Stoke Bruerne, Polar and Grizzly would have to work through seven big locks.

It was a busy day on the Grand Union Canal and, when we reached the bottom lock, there was a queue of boats waiting to go up and just as many boats making their way down.

'Oh dear!' I thought.  'I hope we don't run out of water!'

I had a good view from my place on the roof of all the boats on the move and I couldn't imagine how there could be enough water at the top to keep the locks working.  Polar explained that, when this section of the canal is busy, water gets pumped back up to the reservoir.

'It's still important to share locks and save water,' she said.  'They say these big locks hold enough water to fill a thousand baths!'

At some of the locks, there were volunteer lock-keepers trying to organise the boats.  Even where there weren't lock-keepers, most of the boaters shared sensibly and passed each other carefully in the pounds between the locks.  I tried to give any thoughtless boat crews a Paddington-style hard stare, but I'm not sure that worked.

After slowly working up through the locks, we reached Stoke Bruerne.  The waterfront here is very pretty and busy with visitors to the canal, as there is a wonderful Waterways Museum.  We were lucky to find a mooring here, just big enough for Uppie, and we found some friends too, as the kind people who had travelled with us along the tidal Thames were here. 

While Polar and Grizzly went to have a drink with them at the pub, I decided to look around the museum.  Because I am very small, I couldn't make the lady at the ticket desk see or hear me, so I wasn't able to pay to go in, but I was also too short to read most of the notices which explained what the things in the museum where, so didn't learn as much as I wanted to.  I liked looking at the brightly-coloured painted ware, covered in Roses and Castles art, and decided that, when I got back to the boat, I would ask Polar if she would teach me to paint too. 

That evening, however, I had a more important job to do.  I was going to be the captain of a Pub Quiz team called 'Sonnings Pals', made up of Polar, Grizzly, Bob from Zodiak and another boating friend of his.  I thought that because the pub was beside the canal, there would be lots of questions about boats and canals, and maybe even a few about wildlife and plants, which I had been reading about in Polar's little old Observer's books, which are a perfect size for small bears to read.  

'I'm sure we'll win!' I said to myself.  'I have some very clever friends and I'm a studious little bear.'

Unfortunately, there were no questions about nature or canals - or bears.  Most of the questions were about human things rather than bear things, human history and people from films and television programmes.  As I hadn't even seen a television or been to a film, I was not a lot of help to my team-mates and we did not win. 

As well as doing quizzes, people in pubs often drink something called 'beer'.  I noticed that, after several glasses of this, they seemed to talk more loudly but less clearly, and walk less steadily.  I sniffed the beer in Grizzly's glass and decided it probably wasn't good for small bears, so I didn't drink any.

Polar and Grizzly didn't drink very much beer either, because they wanted to be up early the next day.  Our journey was going to start in a very long tunnel!  I had never been into a canal tunnel before and I was surprised when Polar said I should put my raincoat on.

  

'You get lots of drips from the roof,' she explained.  'And you'll see little calcite stalactites where the drips have been dripping for hundreds of years!'

Polar doesn't really like tunnels, as she finds it difficult to steer the boat in them and worries about bumping her head if the roof is low, but I thought the tunnel was amazing.  Uppie has a big headlight which lit up the tunnel ahead of us very well.  It was like a huge bear cave and, sure enough, there were streaks of different colours down the walls where the water droplets had deposited different minerals and thousands of tiny stalactites on the roof.

Suddenly, I had a very worrying thought.  'What happens if there is a boat coming the other way?' I asked Grizzly.

'The tunnel is just wide enough for two boats to pass,' he explained.  'But we do have to slow down and be careful not to bump into each other!'

I was quite glad there were no boats coming the other way.  Soon, we were back out in the sunshine but my raincoat was very wet and so were my ears and paws.  I was glad it was another sunny, breezy day, as I would soon be dry and fluffy again!

   

A Small Bear in Milton Keynes

Although I am enjoying my adventures in Stoke-on-Trent with my little bear buddy Hanley, I am starting to miss being a boat bear.  There is something very special about looking at the countryside across a canal, listening to the birds and enjoying the sunshine. from the roof of a boat.   

When Uplander II got back to the Grand Union main line from our adventure to Aylesbury, we carried on north towards Milton Keynes.  On the way, I saw how canals have to be dredged to keep them deep enough for boats to use and how the mud can be used to make the banks stronger.

Because there are some big boats on the Grand Union, it probably needs more dredging than smaller canals!

At a place called Fenny Stratford, I saw a very funny lock.  It was only shallow, but it had a swing bridge across it, so we had to open the bridge before we could put the boat into the lock and work through it, then we had to close the bridge again.  I thought this was a very complicated arrangement - bears wouldn't build something so silly! 

Fortunately, we had help to do everything we had to do with this funny lock and bridge, because there was another boat with us, crewed by a very nice lady and her two clever human cubs who were on holiday from the United States.  The little girl seemed as strong as a superhero, as she could open and close the lock gates as easily as Polar and her brother could play the violin beautifully.  If you ever read my blog, Sterling and Ridley, "Hi!" from Sonning the Boat Bear!

Then we were in Milton Keynes.  I thought going through a New Town might be dull but there was lots of green space in between the roads and houses, people walking along the towpath, human cubs to wave to, and it really was a lovely sunny day.  I found a new place to sit, in front of the lifebelt, as I watched the world go by.

At a place called Wolverton, just as we came out from under a railway bridge, there was a fantastic mural of a train with all kinds of things in and around the wagons.  I tried to count them but I'm only a small bear and got confused after the first ten.  

Then things got even more exciting as we went over a huge, long aqueduct, with a big river underneath. 

By now, it was late in the afternoon and Polar and Grizzly were looking for somewhere to moor.  I was very pleased when we stopped right under an apple tree, but I couldn't eat the apples fresh as they were sharp little crab apples.  Instead, I helped to pick some to make jam later.

We had reached a town called Cosgrove.  I think humans do live there, although it seemed to be entirely full of geese that evening, wandering around the fields honking at each other and the boats before flying away over the river.  There were hundreds of them and they were very noisy, but I had enjoyed such a busy day that they didn't keep me awake, and I was soon tucked up in my cosy little bear bunk.