A Big Boating Adventure - Part One

We Bears are having a super boating adventure right now, which makes it tricky to write posts for my blog, but Polar and I have come home for a quick check of everything here which means I can put a little post on.

Earlier this month, the adventure began with Grizzly and Polar taking our narrowboat, Uplander II, through the Harecastle Tunnel to Longport Boatyard, where the hull was going to be cleaned and blacked.  Hanley Bear volunteered to go too, so he could look after Grizzly while they were going through the Harecastle Tunnel.

With Hanley's help, Grizzly steered "Uppie" through the tunnel in record time and soon they were moored safely at the boatyard.

It was only a short walk from there to Westport Lake and the brilliant green visitor centre, so Hanley and our human guardians decided to get a snack there before getting a taxi home.

Hanley enjoyed a big cup of tea and then a choice of cakes; being a kind bear, he saved some for the rest of us too.

A few days later, Uppie's hull was repainted, and we were ready to set off on our journey.  Four of us were going with our human guardians on a very long trip, all the way to London for a boat festival called Canalway Cavalcade, which is held at Little Venice near Paddington over the May Day weekend.

We were going to start our journey at quite a brisk pace, so we could travel part of the way with another boat, but Hanley Bear insisted that he wanted to go to a final game at Stoke City, as he would be missing the end of the season.  We moored near the stadium and Polar took him to the match, but Stoke lost, so he and Grizzly were both quite sad.

We had an evening cruise after the game, with two of Polar and Grizzly's friends coming along for a short trip on the boat as far as Trentham lock.  We cruised on to Barlaston for a pub dinner.

The next morning, we got off to an early start and cruised right through Stone, down to Great Haywood and on to the outskirts of Rugeley, mooring near the aqueduct over the River Trent. 

When it wasn't too breezy, we too it in turn to sit on the roof in Polar's painted watering can (which leaks, luckily, so it isn't full of water!).  This is a very pretty section of the Trent and Mersey Canal, with a few locks spaced well apart from each other, so Polar and Grizzly could take it in turn to steer the boat.

  

At Great Haywood, a floating market was taking place, with lots of trading boats including the Oatcake Boat, which had travelled down through the evening before, after the football game.  We couldn't stop to look around, because we were on a long journey, but maybe another year we will make a special visit.

  

We had hot crossed buns for Easter the next morning, and cruised from Rugeley to Fradley Junction, and then onto the Coventry Canal.  Huddlesford sat on the roof for this part of the journey, as we were approaching a very special place.

 

A little way down this canal we came to Huddlesford Junction, which is, of course, where we found Huddlesford Bear, and is also where the Lichfield Canal used to join the Coventry - and will again, when Huddlesford's friends at the Lichfield and Hatherton Canal's Restoration Trust have completed their project.

Huddlesford gave us all hugs when he remembered what a sad and muddy bear he was when we found him, and sat back on the post where he was sitting when Polar saw him for a few moments to think about what a lucky bear he had been to be rescued.  Then we all went for Sunday Lunch at the pub with Polar and Grizzly.

Hanley and Huddlesford decided they had to check Grizzly's beer, to make sure it was good enough for him.  After several sips of the bubbles, they decided it was.

 

When we got to Fazeley Junction, we didn't take the turning for Birmingham, but went north-east with the Coventry Canal, which was exciting for us as none of us bears had been that way before.  We moored for the night after going through two locks at Tamworth and, because we had been good bears, Polar gave us an Easter egg to share.  It was full of chocolate buttons!  We gave our human guardians the egg to eat, and we ate the buttons.

 

The next day we had many more locks to work up, at the town of Atherstone in Warwickshire.  Hanley Bear was sad to be leaving Staffordshire and kept saying that things like the scenery and the villages were not as nice now, but eventually he settled down.  

 

It was a pretty flight of locks, with primroses in the banks beside, although our human guardians got rather soggy as there were heavy April showers.  But there was a long section with no locks after that, so after lunch we cruised on through Warwickshire, eventually mooring near Hawkesbury Junction.

It was my turn to sit in the watering can the following morning, and I stayed there even when we went through a short tunnel at Newbold on the outskirts of Rugby.

 

After another long, lock-free section, we then had our last locks before Braunston to work through at Hilmorton.  There are a great team of volunteers here, who we follow on Twitter, so I made sure I was on the roof in the watering can to wave to them, at least at the first lock.  

 

But then Grizzly decided the rain was too heavy and my fur would get too wet if I stayed out, so I went back into the boat to warm up.  All of us stayed inside the rest of the afternoon as Polar and Grizzly steered us along the last part of the journey to meet our friends at Braunston - and we made it!

There is still a long journey ahead of us, but I will tell you all about that in future posts.

The Great Central Railway

After our visit to Calke Abbey, Polar navigated Grizzly on to the town of Loughborough, where we were staying overnight before a special day out.  

 

Polar and Grizzly had booked a room in an old manor house in the town that had an Italian Restaurant downstairs, so while they had dinner, we did some bed bouncing before settling down to have our sleeps.

   

After breakfast the next morning, it was time to go to the Great Central Railway station in the town.  The Great Central is one of Grizzly's favourite steam railways, as it has a long stretch of double track main line, so it's just like being on a proper main line in the days when he was young.  Grizzly's sister Hazel had sent him a voucher for a whole day's travel for him, Polar and an unlimited number of small bears.

We arrived just as the locomotive that was going to pull the first train arrived at the platform.  Grizzly told us that it was a Stanier 8F, which meant it was a very powerful locomotive.

  

We had time for a walk down to the yard and sheds where most of the rest of the locomotives are kept before our train was due out, so Polar carried us there in the Bear Bag.  There were locomotives that used to work all over the country there, steam locos and diesels.  Polar told us that films and TV shows set in the 20th century are often filmed there, so they should be able to make sure they use one that's right for the time and place.

  

Some of them were being cleaned and repaired and there were pieces of engines everywhere!  Polar made sure we stayed in our bag, as there was oil on the ground which would be very difficult to get out of our fur if we stepped or fell in it.

When we got back to the station, Polar said we could have a little run around before we caught our train, so we did some exploring and Hanley and Huddlesford chose their favourite posters to have their photos taken beside.  Then it was time to get aboard our train to Leicester.

On the way, we stopped at some lovely little stations, all restored as if they were set in different eras, and we went across a long causeway across a huge reservoir.

On the way back, we moved into the Griddle Car, where they serve a really tasty all day breakfast.  Grizzly decided we had been such good bears that we could share some beer bubbles while we waited for our dinner.

Polar and Grizzly had the veggie breakfasts, so there were plenty of tasty treats for us bears to enjoy, like hash browns, veggie sausages and mushrooms, plus lots of buttered toast.

Then Grizzly showed us a little book her had found for sale in the bookstall at Loughborough Station, all about the railway lines that used to run around the area where we live.  Hanley Bear was thrilled, as there were photographs of the old railway stations that used to exist around the Stoke-on-Trent Loop Line.

 

When we got back to Loughborough, after another look around the station, we decided to catch the little diesel unit back down the line.  We realised that, if we sat right at the front, we could get a driver's-eye view of the journey.

It was absolutely super fun!  We took it in turn to sit at the front of our bag and pretend to drive the train, watching the real driver and second man as they applied the brake or accelerator coming into and out of stations.

On the way back, we didn't rush to the other end of the train to do the same again, as some human cubs got on and we thought it would be nice for them to play at driving the train instead.  We found good places to sit where we could see out, and spotted the steam loco on another journey down to Leicester.

Back at Loughborough, we had a final play on the station before Polar and Grizzly said it was time we ought to set off home.  We had been enjoying ourselves so much that it was sad to leave, but Grizzly said we would definitely come again - in fact, we might even come back by narrow boat.

There was just time to see the steam loco one last time, when it brought the dining train back in and went to refill its water tank.  Grizzly looked after us while Polar took some more photographs, then they took us to let us have a look through the window at the dining carriages.

       

Grizzly said that one day we might be able to have a posh dinner on the train, but we would have to put our smartest clothes on and be very good bears indeed.

  

As we were leaving the road the station was in, Grizzly spotted a huge mural at the end of a row of houses with a spitfire and a pilot on it.  Grizzly told us that he was Jonnie Johnson, a famous Second World War pilot who was born nearby and educated in the town.  Isn't it fantastic!

We do hope we will visit again one day, and we will be very, very good bears if we get the chance to have a special dinner in the dining car!