Low Water on the way to Leicester

Hanley Bear has his paws and claws crossed today, because Stoke City are playing this afternoon.  When he went to the stadium with Grizzly, to renew his season ticket, he met a whole family of small, red bears. 

They support Stoke too and, like Hanley, they are worried that their team might get relegated.  I am not as keen on football as Hanley Bear but I hope his team don't lose again, as it makes him very sad.

On my travels on Uppie during the summer, I cruised by another famous football stadium, in Leicester.  This stands right by a huge weir on the River Soar.  I enjoyed my visit to Leicester but getting there was quite troublesome!

Our first problem was getting from Foxton Locks to Market Harborough, where Grizzly and I were to spend a couple of days as Polar had to go home to work.  Unfortunately, we were trapped outside the marina for almost a whole day by a tree that had fallen across the canal.  Polar and Grizzly walked into the nice little market town while they were waiting for the tree to be cleared, had afternoon tea and came back with a new bear-sized book for my library, to thank me for looking after the boat.

While Polar was back at home, I enjoyed some lazy days sitting in my bear bunk, reading my new book about Peter Rabbit and watching the boats coming in and out of the marina, while Grizzly went exploring on his own, visiting the local museum and then walking miles and miles to see the site of a famous battle at a place called Naseby.  I have learnt a lot about human history from Grizzly.  It seems to involve rather a lot of battles and wars. 

The morning after Polar came back, we set off for Leicester, going back past the foot of the Foxton Locks and away into the Leicestershire countryside.  There were more locks - double ones again, which we could share with other boats - and another tunnel. We had another lovely day afloat. 

I was too small to help at the big locks so I watched the countryside, birds and animals from the cratch or read my book, although it got quite frightening when Mr McGregor nearly caught Peter Rabbit.  Although Peter was a naughty rabbit, he was a fellow small animal, so I had to take his side!

On the second day, about half way along our journey, there suddenly wasn't enough water.  Grizzly had trouble moving Uppie out of one lock, because we had grounded on the bottom and, when we finally got out, I could see nasty, slimy mud along the sides of the canal.  After the next lock, we couldn't get close enough to pick Polar up from the bank, which was possibly a good thing, as the pound between this lock and the next was so low we would have grounded even with someone as small as Hanley Bear on board.  Polar had to walk all the way to the next lock.  In places, I could just see the top of her hat above the reeds along the edge of the canal!

It was a very hot day and, because he was on his own at the tiller, Grizzly started to get very thirsty.  I tried to take a drink out to him, rolling a bottle of water through the boat from the galley to the steps leading up to the stern, but I wasn't strong enough to lift it up the steep steps, which are taller than me.  Grizzly felt quite poorly by the time we reached the next lock, so we stopped for lunch after Polar and her friends from another boat had worked us through that.  

Strangely, all the locks and pounds after that had plenty of water in them and soon we were in the City of Leicester.

Polar, Grizzly and I spent two days here, visiting the Cathedral, a museum about a king of England who was buried under a car park, an industrial museum and the National Space Centre, and we ate lots of interesting spicy food.  There are lots of good places to eat in Leicester because people came to live there from far-away countries, like India and Pakistan.  I asked Polar if I could learn to cook curry but she said that might not be a good idea, as the spices would turn my fur orange if I got them on my paws.  

I liked the Space Centre best and, after reading all about space travel, decided that bears would make excellent astronauts, as we could hibernate on long journeys to other planets, so would need fewer supplies and less oxygen than humans.  After all my travelling on Uppie, I feel adventurous enough to go to Mars!

I asked Hanley Bear what he thought but he isn't very keen on being a space bear, as he doesn't think they make oatcakes on other planets.  He likes astronauts, however, because Major Tim Peake took a Stoke City flag with him when he went up to the International Space Station.

Polar says there are constellations in the night sky called the Great Bear and the Little Bear.  I wonder if they look like me and Hanley?