Simply Special

By now we were really into our boating stride and the days started to pass far too quickly. There is always so much to see and do. A simple job, like stopping to fill up your water tank, can be so much fun when you make such amazing discoveries as this old lock paddle, close to the watering point.

I was able to use it to give my apprentice Louis a lecture on lock mechanics. However, he's such a bright spark that he'd already worked it all out, without seeing below the murky canal water. It's great to have someone as enthusiastic about boats as me, to talk over the finer points of boating.

George and Yorkie were more interested in the wildlife that abounds on the canals. Boating in April is great as you get to see so many baby ducks ...

... although you have to keep your paws crossed at all times, that they won't get snatched by a hungry pike for dinner.

Not this family, but another, did live very dangerously by going for a swim in an empty lock. They could easily have got crushed by tonnes of hard steel, as there is not a lot of spare room in a lock. Fortunately, with our careful supervision, they made it safely out, family intact.

This mooring near Greensforge was one of my favourites. It was simply idyllic and very quiet. At dusk, and again in the early morning, it was very atmospheric, with mist over the water. And the great thing was, there was a pleasant pub, with good food, just 5 minutes walk down the towpath.

Have we sold canal boat holidays to you yet?

Love Eddie and crew xxx

To Kidderminster and Beyond

We paused in Stourport to enjoy a well earned beer in the sunshine, then we were all eager to start our trip up the Staff & Worcs canal. The Severn is great, but can be stressful, so it was lovely to be back on a conventional canal, even though we we did get caught in a few heavy showers. After the Severn, the canal felt very narrow, but there were few other boats around so we had as much space as we wanted ...


That night, we moored at one of George & Yorkie's favourite spots, just below the church in Kidderminster. Last time they moored there, I, Eddie, wasn't even born. I agreed though, It was a great spot, not only because it was scenic, but also because of the canal memorabilia, left over from the industrial past. To a canal anorak like me, it was fascinating ...


... I inspected closely while the other chaps crossed the canal at the nearby lock to visit the big Sainsbury's we were moored opposite. This mission was an important one to replenish the ship's stores.

The next morning we had planned to take some time out to travel on the Severn Valley Railway, but even though it was late April, trains were only running at weekends ... and it was a Monday. This was disappointing, and not as good as our local Norfolk Poppy line's service.

Taking time to explore the canal at the leisurely pace we could now afford, was just as exciting though. In places we were travelling through sandstone gorges. The rock was quite soft fortunately, so room for the lock beams could be made, by chiselling away at the rock ....


... luckily we didn't have to do this as it had been done, many years earlier, by the hard working canal builders.

Lots of love, Eddie, George, Yorkie and crew xxx

We try a Salmon Run

Bear flag safely aboard, we made our way into the overflowing lock without further incident. As the bottom lock gates onto the Severn were opened, there was a tense moment as we made the turn to go upstream. Would we be able to make headway or would we be carried backwards by the current?

As Eddie inched us further away from the canal, Yorkie and I looked back to see the junction with the canal (marked by the pontoons) rapidly disappearing; there was no going back now.


Although we had the tough task of forging our way upstream, against a river virtually in flood, looking back at the junction, we couldn't help thinking that had we been going the other way, we might have been travelling so fast, that negotiating the turn into the canal, and not shooting past, might have been quite difficult. If anyone could do it though we felt sure that Eddie could. However, on this occasion we didn't need to put him to the test.


After the narrow canal, the amount of water in the river and the speed with which it was moving was quite awesome. However, once we were pointing in the right direction, there was no doubt that we were making progress. It wasn't fast and no doubt our fuel economy wasn't very good, but we were all happy and relieved, especially Eddie.

We began to relax and take in our surroundings. There was no other boats around and we had the river all to ourselves. When we phoned the lock-keeper at the first lock he told us it would take us a while to reach him. It was nice to be expected though and we had the bonus of having the lock ready for us as we approached it. As we got close, the lock gates started to open and the traffic lights changed to green. This made us feel very special.


The lock- keepers on the Severn are very helpful and very patient, so they get our paw of approval. After the first lock there was a very noticeable drop in the speed of the current so we began to enjoy ourselves even more, especially in the intervals between showers.

It wasn't long before Stourport on Severn hoved into sight and it was time to turn off onto the Staffordshire and Worcestershire canal.

The next stage of our journey was about to begin - how exciting!

Lots of love, George, Yorkie, Eddie and crew xxx

Time to take to the Ark?

The next morning everyone was in good spirits as we set off in the sunshine on our first full day of boating. The M5 motorway seemed a long way behind us as we rounded an early bend and saw this delightful stretch of rural canal.


It had much more of the feel of a river rather than a canal and the best thing was we had it all to ourselves. It was a real treat to all our finely tuned bear senses.

The relaxed feel of the day started to fade when 2 things happened that caused us all some anxiety, especially skipper Eddie who was responsible for us all and for our boat.

Our first anxious moment came when we saw the lock at the junction with the River Severn. This signified the end of the Droitwich canal, which was sad in itself, but what caused us consternation was the water level at the lock. It was very high and water was flowing over the lock gates and almost over the sides of the lock.


Memories of being flood bound on the River Avon a few years ago came flooding back. The thing about rivers is that they are only navigable by boat when not in flood. As water levels rise, the current becomes too strong for a relatively small narrow boat engine to contend with. The Severn was the only stretch of river, rather than canal, on this trip, but we couldn't complete the Stourport ring without navigating the stretch between Worcester and Stourport.

Although, at this stage we hadn't seen the Severn, the high canal level looked ominous. The most important job for the advance party, put shore to open the lock, was to check the colour coded water level gauge to see if it was safe to proceed onto the Severn. We'd have liked the level to be green, but it was in the amber zone which meant 'proceed with caution'. It was better than seeing it red, which would have stopped us in our tracks, but there were certainly no grounds for relaxing yet.

At this point, those of us ashore heard a cry of alarm from on board Maria. We ran back up the towpath to see what had happened. It was serious! No-one had fallen in, but ... the bear flag had got caught in a tree and parted company with the boat.


It was time to do a quick reverse and try and retrieve it. As Maria inched backwards, guided by Eddie, Fred's Mum gamely inched along the outside edge of the boat and managed to reach up ad retrieve the precious flag. We'd have lost our identity without it so were very grateful for Fred's Mum's minder length arms and gave her 3 cheers.

It was then time to deal with the lock and hopefully after that the river. Find out how we got on next time.

Lots of love, George, Yorkie, Eddie and the crew of Maria xxx

Canal Quiz

As I said last time, we like locks and we are very efficient at working them. We work as a well oiled team, as oiled as most of the locks are, thanks to the efficient services of the Canal & River Trust (formerly British Waterways) teams.

Even so, there is still a bit of idle time at a lock as we wait for it to empty and/or fill. This is good as it gives us a chance to relax and take in our surroundings. The first few locks of the Droitwich Canal were particularly interesting as they had lots of posts with information plaques for us to study. There were also trendy metal decorations which made them quite artistic and easy to climb.


On one side was a question, and on the other the answer. You won't be able to see the text, so I'll tell you that the first question was 'What are these locks built from?'

Being a bit of a canal anorak I thought I knew all there was to know about the canal system, then I realised that I wasn't sure of the answer. I had a hunch but I needed to check, so all I had to do was swing round to the other side of the post and ...


... I was right the answer was bricks.

There were several locks fairly close together, so while I steered Maria between them, Louis explored the tow path. It was a lovely rural stretch and Louis was thrilled to find a beautiful clump of cowslips beside the reeds at the waters edge.


It was all very pleasant and the rain which threatened at times didn't come, so we were all very happy and glad we had chosen to travel via the Droitwich.

Lots of love Eddie, Loius and crew xxx

We're Back Afloat

A number of us have recently returned from one of our favourite types of adventure, a holiday afloat on the English canals. We've reported on canal adventures several times previously, but every trip is different, with unique sights and experiences, so we don't think we'll be boring you by sharing our latest adventure.


We travelled the Stourport ring on our latest trip. Ungi, Fred and Jimmy had actually done this trip before, but it was 11 years ago, and our blog is not that old, nor indeed am I, Boating Bear, Eddie, as I'm only 7. I'd heard how good it was so volunteered to arrange it and, as usual there were plenty of takers.

One of the attractions of a holiday on a narrow boat is that there is plenty of space aboard. A length of 55+ feet, with all facilities, including a well-equipped kitchen and 2 bathrooms, means that our minders don't mind sharing with quite few bears and size is no object, which pleases Ungi no end, as it means he can come along too. As I'm Chief boating bear I need to go as Skipper, (and I wouldn't have it otherwise) and this year, my apprentice, Able Seabear Louis, naturally had to come too. As it was his first time on a canal boat, he spent a lot of time under instruction. Could you have a better classroom than this ...?


One of the attractions of the Stourport ring was that we could travel along the newly restored Droitwich Canal. This was very exciting for us all, and I've got lots to tell you about it. We joined this new canal little more than an hour after casting off on our voyage. There was no mistaking that we were going the right way ...


... and this is what a lock gate looks like by the way.

I'm still very excited about this marvellous trip and hope you'll find it interesting reading.

Lots of love Eddie and the crew of Maria xxx