Once we were down on the River Weaver, we had a proper view of the Anderton Lift.
We started our voyage travelling upstream, south to the town of Northwich, where our human guardians needed to do some food shopping.
We stayed on board Uppie. I rummaged about in Polar's box of scraps and found what was left of the "Bag for Life" that she had used to make my lifejacket.
'I think there's enough here to make you two bears lifejackets too,' I said to Endon and Hanley. 'If we leave this out where Polar can see it, I'm sure she will make them for you.'
Sure enough, after dinner, Polar started making the smaller bears their lifejackets. We were all sitting patiently watching her (while Grizzly washed up the dinner things) when there was a teriible drumming noise on Uppie's roof. Some very bad and stupid human cubs had jumped onto the roof from the quayside, run along it and jumped off again. By the time our humans had got out of the boat to see what was happening, they had disappeared. They were very cross indeed and we were very scared small bears. Fortunately, they didn't come back and we had a very peaceful night, although little Endon decided to sleep in his lifejacket just in case.
In the morning, we turned around to head downstream. From our basket, we could see a bridge across the river. Polar explained that it was a swing bridge and could be turned out of the way if a boat to tall to fit under it wanted to go up river.
'Uppie can fit under all the bridges but, when the river was used for more freight boats, many of the bridges needed to be swung to let them through,' she said. 'You can see the little cabin where the bridge-keeper still works the mechanism for this one, if there's a high-masted yacht or big boat wanting to go through.'
We thought pressing the buttons to open and close the bridges would be a super job for small bears. Soon after we passed the boat lift again and went under another swingable bridge, we saw a big dredger at work, taking mud and silt out of the river.
We were away from the industrial area soon afterwards and cruising along through a wooded valley. The river was very calm but we still all put our lifejackets on, humans and bears alike.
'We're coming up to the first lock,' said Grizzly.
'I wonder if it's as big as the locks on the Thames you've told us about?' Hanley said to me.
'It's even bigger!' I said.
Luckily, there are very helpful lock-keepers at all the Weaver locks to operate the paddles (which are all electronic) and make sure boats use the big locks safely. They give boaters lots of helpful information about the next stage of their journey and let the next lock know when you are on your way. The lock keeper at Saltersford Lock warned us to look out for more dredger boats on the move.
The river wound on through the countryside. There were very few other boats on the move and it was very tranquil. We bears thoroughly enjoyed looking out for the water birds, especially the pretty grebes.
Between Saltersford and the next lock, Dutton, we passed under Acton Bridge. As we passed under the bridge, we saw a very handsome steamboat moored alongside it.
'Wouldn't it be fun to go aboard that boat for a look around?' said Hanley. Endon and I agreed, but Polar and Grizzly were cruising on down the river towards Dutton Locks.
Below Dutton Locks, the valley was even lovelier than it had been above them. There were woods, sometimes with buzzards flying above them - we are quite scared of them - and green fields full of cows and ponies.
Late in the afternoon, we stopped at Sutton Bridge for tea. Polar and Grizzly had bought us some tasty little cakes for our tea in Northwich.
'What a perfect day on the river!' said Endon. 'I wonder if we will have this much fun tomorrow?'
In fact, we had at least as much fun - but I will have to write about that another day.
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