That Sinking Feeling

As Eddie said the other day, the lock gates are a little too big for some of us smaller bears to manage. Sometimes we add our paws worth of help to the other bears' efforts, but often we stay on board to make cups of tea for the locking crew and to perform some vital boat in the lock checks. For instance we check that the front of the boat doesn't get flooded when the gate paddles are opened and, at the back, we check that the stern doesn't get caught on the rear cill as the lock empties causing it to go into a nose dive.


There were two lock flights on our trip that we particularly enjoyed: the famous Foxton locks with their double staircase and the Watford flight, also a staircase. The Watford locks were particularly deep ones. We sat at the back of the boat to give an idea of scale and you have to agree it was a very deep lock. It felt like we were descending into Hades and even though it was a hot day it got very cold.


The other advantage of having some paws free as we go through the locks, is that we can fulfil the role of crew photographers. We hope you like this photo we took of Eddie and Erik at one of the Watford locks and also the one below of Erik emerging from one of the Foxton staircases.


Lots of love George, Yorkie & all the crew xxx

The Hares & the Tortoise

After emerging from the gloom of the tunnels we needed to put our sunglasses on while our eyes adjusted to the bright sunshine. Later that morning we passed under the A14, a busy road that we frequently travel along when we go to visit the Midlands Branch, and we always look out for the canal when in the Bearmobile. We love it when our our travel experience is the other way round and we are in the fresh air, sedately chugging and completely relaxed. We don't envy the people rushing along on their tin cans and wouldn't swap for anything. 3 m.p.h. is infinitely preferably to us and we could get very used to this pace of life.

We tried to capture the lorries thundering along on our photo of us passing under the A14 but strangely enough there aren't any in our picture.


We had a similar problem when we passed under the main railway line. A train crossed just after we'd taken our photo.

Another set of travellers we didn't envy were the visitors to Watford Gap services on the M1. We don't suppose many of the travellers who pull in to these services realise that the Grand Union canal passes right beside the parking area. We like the section in one of the canal guides which said that if you were running low on supplies and needed refreshment a visit to the services could be considered, but you'd need to be desperate. Fortunately we weren't!

Lots of love, the crew of Erik xxx