Working My Passage

Canal boating can be a great way to relax and watch the world go by. However, for the real enthusiast, and I (Eddie) count myself one, the real fun comes in working your passage. I am hard pressed to decide whether I like locking or steering the boat best.

I guess that as I can steer at any time, and locks come up only intermittently, there is always a great excitement about winding the paddles to work the boat through a lock.


Fortunately I'm a big enough bear to manage a lock gate on my own, even though they are quite heavy and I usually have to have a rest after opening or shutting a gate. Some of the smaller bears have to work together to combine enough strength to manage a lock gate.

Steering, however, is also great fun as it is quite a challenge. The boats are long (50 feet on average) and the canals are narrow so sometimes you have to be really accurate in your steering to pass other boats, bridges, get into locks etc. And of course a narrow boat is nothing like these plastic tubs (as you can tell, I disapprove) that you see all too many of in our part of the world. These cabin cruisers, have a wheel, which is cheating, rather than a traditional tiller, which you always get on a narrow boat.


As you can see from my picture, sometimes in my excitement I forget my extra high stool for bear steering, required becasue of my short legs, and I have to beg some assistance from a minder while one of the other bears goes to find the stool.

I'm guessing that short legs wouldn't have been very good for legging through tunnels as they had to do when boats were horse drawn. Perhaps it's as well boats have engines now, but it would have been fun to meet a few working horses on the tow path.

Lots of love, Eddie & crew xxx

Will it Float ... Eventually?

After passing through the big lock flight at Foxton we looked out for Debdale Wharf marina as we have friends who live there on board on narrow boat called Drake. We think it is a very romantic idea, living on a narrow boat and we were keen to look round and see the difference between a hire boat such as Erik and a live aboard boat.

We found Drake in the marina and her owners were at home. Drake is the fine blue boat with the red front moored next to the restoration project (not yet one of ours, but it could be a good way of keeping in touch with our friends).


We had a thorough look round and were very impressed by the imaginative use of space. There was even a bath and a full size double bed - much better than the 4ft doubles on hire boats - not that that is a problem for bears, just their minders.

While we were looking round the marina we found a very interesting boat that seemed to have forgotten something, basically it's other half.


George & Yorkie were very intrigued and climbed aboard. They wondered if they should search round for the missing parts. They thought they might have to wait around a long time if they were to be present at the launch party!

Lots of love, the boating bears 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

Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head

Well actually it was drips from the roof of the tunnel that kept falling on our fur, particularly in the Crick tunnel which was a very wet one. We're not sufficiently well up on beauty treatments to know if the minerals contained in roof drips are good for your fur, but we'll hope they are as we each got a good shower. The positive side about all the roof drips was that there were some great stalactite formations which showed up in Erik's headlight ( we think we've got that the right way round).

That Sunday morning we travelled through well over 4 kilometres of tunnels so we're tunnel veterans now and well practised at seeing in the dark. Mindful of the saying that there's always light at the end of the tunnel we kept focussing on the speck of light in the distance and this stopped us going tunnel crazy.

Here you see Eddie taking a break from steering and getting excited about seeing the tunnel exit approaching.


As we've said before, although we all love boating, Eddie simply lives for it. We think it must be the most important thing in his life (after Bears Unlimited). We therefore couldn't resist including a picture of Eddie's 'I'm very happy to be boating face'. What a great picture of contentment!



Lots of love, the crew of Erik xxx

Going Underground!

Hello everybody, sorry we've kept you in the dark about how our boating adventures were going, but we've yet to find an internet cafe alongside a canal or a wi-fi enabled narrow boat (could this be yet another Bears Unlimited business venture?)

We're now safely home having had a marvellous holiday, and we're eager to share our holiday pics and experiences with you.

We last blogged from a Golden Wedding party we left our boat to attend. It was a great party with good company and lots to eat and drink. It was held at the Midlands Branch office which is how we had access to a computer to make our first report.

The next morning we were up with the sun (actually you'll see from Eddie's photo that it was still misty) and cast off before breakfast - the great thing about boating is that as your house goes with you, you can do all these mundane things whilst underway.


This was Sunday, and it was tunnel day. We went through three really long, dark and sometimes wet tunnels. The longest, Braunston tunnel was 2,042 yards (that's long!) and the shortest, Bosworth Tunnel was 1,166 yards (that's still long!). The Braunston tunnel is challenging as it has several kinks in it and we had to pass a boat coming ther other way. Fortunately Eddie, our most experienced boater, was at the helm and his nerve held and we passed without the slightest touch. We all looked out for the ghost which inhabits the tunnel but we didn't see anything - perhaps it was too early in the morning. Here's our, 'about to enter the tunnel' picture.



Tomorrow we'll show you our 'in tunnel' picture.

Lots of love, the crew of Erik xxx

Afloat Aboard Erik

This afternoon our eagerly anticipated adventure began when we picked up our narrow boat from a wharf near Rugby. We are very pleased with our boat and think it has a great name. It is called Erik, which when you understand it is a Vikings Afloat boat, is a most appropriate name we think and we are proud to sail aboard her.

Boating is a very popular bear activity so there is always a big contingent of Bears Unlimited members wanting to come along. Being chief boating bear I, Eddie, am always present. Chelmer is still eager to give his brother Spike and friends a great stay so has brought them all along. You will hear from others here as the week goes on, and as we are so close to the Midlands branch home base, we will be having visitors throughout the week.

We were very pleased to set off in sunshine and, paws crossed, the forecast is good for the next few days. We got into a bit of a traffic jam at the first set of locks when we got stuck behind a couple of boats which were just leaving their hire bases and lacked the locking experience of our Bears Unlimited crew. However, relaxing in the sunshine was no hardship and we had time to take in a few natural sightings such as this swan nesting in some lovely bullrushes. We chugged until 7.00 p.m. and then were lucky to get one of the last moorings in the popular canal village of Braunston. We are just back from a visit to a pub in the village where the food was very good and so was the beer. We happily downed a pint or two of Black Sheep bitter.


There is no doubt about it, we are very contented bears tonight.
(We're posting the next day when we found an internet connection).

Lots of love, Eddie and friends xxx

Shiver Me Timbers ...

Today a number of us are very, very excited as we are about to go off on an exciting new adventure.

The picture below, of me, Eddie, doing some research ready for our latest travels, provides a clue.

Can you guess what type of adventure it is?

I will tell you lots more as our trip unfolds.

Lots of love Eddie xxx