Grand Union canal

Two weeks ago my mum and I went to England to go on my grandparents canal boat. The boat is called the Celtic Kiwi and it is 56 feet (17 meters) long. The boat is green and inside there is a bathroom, a kitchen with no toaster, a dining room which can turn into a double bed, two comfy seats which can turn into two single beds in the lounge, a TV and a main bedroom at the back of the boat. There is also central heating and a fireplace for the cold and frosty nights. It is cool to walk along the roof and along the sides. But when you walk along the sides you have to be careful not to fall in. And when you are on the roof you have to make sure you don't hit your head on any bridges.

The first canal that we went on was called the Grand Union canal which goes from Birmingham to Little Venice in London which is on the Paddington Arm. My mum and I went from the Pear Tree Inn Bridge in Milton Keynes to Little Venice. After that we went on the tidal Thames but I'll write more about that in tomorrow's post.

The things I did on the boat was steer sometimes, help moor, push the canal boat off the tow-path (foot path that follows the side of the canal) when the boat got stuck on mud and help open and close the locks. Locks are structures that help the canal boats move gradually up or down the canal because the canals aren't level. If you want to know more about locks go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canal_locks.

There are a lot of different birds along the canal. Here is a list of the ones that we saw:

Heron

Swan
Ducks

Pigeons

Kingfishers

Robin

Canadian Geese

Coots

Seagulls

Here are some pictures of the boat and the surroundings of the canal: