It’s always a little bit sad when you reach the end of a waterway and have to turn around to come back, so we Bears all had rather sad ears when it was time to leave Bishop’s Stortford and head home. But we shouldn’t have been sad, as there were still plenty of great adventures ahead of us on our journey back to Kidsgrove.
On our way back down the Lee Navigation, we stopped at Waltham Abbey and our human guardians took us to explore the town, which we thought was very nice. The last Saxon king of England, King Harold, is supposed to be buried there. Polar liked the ancient abbey, Hanley Bear was delighted to find vintage Staffordshire china in the café where we had our lunch, and we all enjoyed some excellent cake.
Back in London, we ran into some very stormy weather. It rained so hard that, when we got to Islington Tunnel and started travelling through it, we found that the water had got into the tunnel light’s electrical circuit and it hadn’t lit up! Fortunately, Grizzly had a big torch so he could shine that out of the cratch, so any boats coming the other way could see there was already a boat in the tunnel.
We moored at the London Canal Museum again and, this time, we were able to visit. We learnt all about how huge blocks of ice were brought in by boat from the arctic and stored there, as it had been belonged to an ice-cream company. But the best thing about our visit was meeting our new Bear Buddy, Charlie. He had been living in the museum for a little while, watching the trip boats and visitors like Uppie coming and going through the window, so when we asked if he would like to come boating with us, he was very keen.
We weren’t leaving London straight away as Polar had booked us a mooring in Paddington Basin for six nights. She and Grizzly went home for a couple of days to check the house and garden, taking Hanley Bear with them for a little while at home, as he had been pining for Stoke-on-Trent.
That still left us several days for adventures in London. Endon and I went to the Natural History Museum, I went with Polar and one of her friends to see an art exhibition at the Tate Gallery, while Hanley and Huddlesford had a super day out to Greenwich with our human guardians - and we met a big group of our Bear friends at Paddington Station.
We enjoyed our time in London but then it was time to go home. Our human guardians had thought of going via the River Thames, but I remembered travelling down the tidal section to Brentford in 2017 and was glad when they decided to stick with the Grand Union. Because we didn’t have a deadline to get home again, our humans decided we could take our time and visit some friends on the way, both human and bear, and explore some more places along the way, including Berkhamstead and Milton Keynes.
We were almost back to Staffordshire when a very scary thing happened. Towards the bottom of the locks through Atherstone, Grizzly fell in the canal! Polar was filling a lock ready for Uppie to go in and Grizzly was steering. He decided to pull in to the bank while he waited and to step off and hold the boat on a rope, but a gust of wind moved the boat back out just as he was stepping off. Because we were in a short pound between locks, it was deeper than usual, so it was lucky that Grizzly was wearing his life jacket. This inflated as soon as he hit the water; without it, he might have sunk or gone under the boat. But, with his clothes full of water and unable to put his feet down to push himself up, Polar couldn’t get him out of the water on her own.
Fortunately, another boater from below the lock saw they were in trouble and helped get Grizzly ashore. After a shower and change of clothes he was back on the tiller and ready to get through the lock to a safe place to moor overnight, but it had been a very close thing and we all gave Grizzly an extra hug before bedtime.
A couple of days later, we arrived back at Huddlesford Junction just in time to see The Flying Scotsman pass over the railway viaduct. We guessed something interesting was happening because there were lots of people on the canal bridge, and several of them asked us to keep going so they could get our boat in their photo too!
We stopped at Shugborough on Polar’s birthday and celebrated with a cream tea in the café in the grounds and mini cakes for small bears back on the boat.
From there, we were back on very familiar waters and, a few days later, we were home again. We had enjoyed a marvellous adventure and brought home a new friend, but the best thing was knowing that our human guardian Grizzly was safe and sound.
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