You just don't expect to see an elephant lumbering off on his morning stroll on a sunny morning in London. Plainly the German tourists didn't either.

"Elefant! Elefant!!" they shouted, pointing to the bridge that spanned the canal. Sure enough there was an elephant, slowly being led by his keeper from one part of the zoo to the other. For this was Regents Park Zoo, and I was lazily swanning along amongst the swans and drifting leaves down Regents Canal. It was spring and all around was leafily, drowsily pretty.

I had begun my trip at Little Venice, which sounds a good deal more romantic than the name of the nearest tube station - Warwick Avenue. The canal itself was opened in 1820 to join the Grand Union Canal at Paddington Basin with the River Thames at Limehouse. Today it is the street address of dozens of red and green and yellow narrow boats used as houseboats, that are moored along its banks. On one, a man was busily scrubbing the black roof with a broom as we passed, others waved, and at Browning's Island a swan nesting there fluffed her feathers in reproof.

The canal passes through several tunnels on its way to Camden Lock. The Maida Hill Tunnel at around 250 metres is the longest, and the German tourists and I shivered until we reappeared into bright sunshine at the other end. At some points grand houses back right onto the canal and gliding along a few inches above the green water, we were just centimetres from bobbing dinghies moored at wisteria-covered back gates.

As we passed the zoo we had a great view of the huge wire-netting draped aviary, and across the way an ibex glared at us from his perch high on a rocky mound. It all seemed a little bizarre to realise that, as the crow flies (if they could have escaped the aviary, that is) the teeming rush of the city was just two or three kilometres away. From my vantage point at eye-level with the ducks on the mooring path, I could have been in a country village instead of the middle of one of the world's largest cities.

Flowering chestnuts hung over the water, and somewhere from them came birdsong. I pretended it was a nightingale. Or perhaps a lark. Then, after about 45 minutes we came to an incongruous floating Chinese restaurnat, did a sharp turn and landed up at Camden Lock. At weekends this place is noisy and bustling with markets and craft stalls, but I was here mid-week, unjetlagging after arriving that morning, and the place was almost deserted, save for a family devouring icecreams in the sunshine.

If you want, I was told, you can get off here and walk around, and return on a later boat - there are trips every couple of hours, but I was too lazy even for that. I stayed on board instead and did the whole lovely loitering trip again. That was when we saw the elephant of course, and my German companions found a talking point for weeks: "Ja, ve saw ein Elefant. Ja! In London. On eine bridge."

Places with fantasy names - the Pirate's Castle, Primrose Hill and Blow-Up Bridge - lined the canal, then a mosque and the long cool Maida Hill tunnel, emerging to find the man was still scrubbing his boat's roof. The children reappeared to wave again, but the swan disdained to spare us a glance this time. Little Venice, which of course is nothing at all like Venice itself, sharing only water and boats in common, still snoozed in the noon light.

Next time I am in London, stressed to screaming point with traffic and tension, I know where I am heading. Lovely Regent's Canal, a quiet backwater where I can regroup and wind down. I may not see an elephant again, but I wouldn't mind betting that man will still be scrubbing his boat!

- Sally Hammond

Tours are available from Jason's Trip departing from Jason's Wharf opposite No 60 Bloomfield Road, Little Venice. There are usually at least three trips a day at 10.30am, 12.30pm and 2.30pm and the return trip takes 45 minutes. The nearest tube station is Warwick Avenue, and there is a restaurant at the wharf.

Sally Hammond flew to London courtesy of Qantas.