Thursday 16 May 2019

Back to the Macc

The last of our Easter adventures was a journey on Uppie the Narrowboat along the Macclesfield Canal, where we went at Christmas and again in the early spring.
We all jumped excitedly into one of Polar and Grizzly's bags, as we were only going to be away for a couple of days, so didn't need to take our bear basket.

While Grizzly and Polar got Uppie ready to set off, we played in the bluebells on the bank next to Uppie's mooring.  Polar says she will make a proper little garden there one day, with some of the spare plants from the garden.

Soon, we had our life-jackets on and were ready to go.  Hanley Bear asked if we could sit on the roof again, if we were good bears.

'As you were such good bears last time and it isn't windy, I'm sure you can,' said Grizzly.   He lifted us up to sit in the lifebelt, where we had wonderful views of the countryside. 

We saw a beautiful wood full of bluebells, which we would have liked to explore, but it was private land.  We bears could have slipped under the gate but our human guardians wouldn't have been able to go with us.

'Let's just enjoy the views from the boat, then,' said Endon.

After we had been on the move for an hour or so, sitting in the sunshine, listening to the birds singing and even having small bear naps, Polar brought us some cake.  Boating is hungry work for small bears, even when all you are doing is watching humans steering boats and working through locks.

Actually, the Macclesfield Canal isn't very hard work for our humans either, if they just cruise the lower section from our mooring at Kidsgrove to the foot of the Bosley Locks, as there is just one funny little stop-lock to go through at Hall Green.  Sometimes, there is a very helpful human cub there, but we didn't see him that day.
Later in the afternoon, we spotted the big hill called The Cloud.  At Christmas, it had been covered in low cloud and fog but on Easter Day it was warm and sunny and we could see how high it was. 

We moored for the night near an aqueduct over the River Dane with a great view of The Cloud.  Endon said he wanted to climb it.

'We might do that another day, bears,' said Polar.  'The view from the top is fantastic, but it's a long way to the top.'

We were happy to stay on Uppie for now.  The sun was going down and it would soon be tea-time, our favourite time of any day.
Polar had brought a tin of rice pudding for us to enjoy, as it's our favourite, then made us up our little bed on the boat.

'Sleep well, bears!' she said, as she and Grizzly tucked us in.
After breakfast the next morning, we went to have a look down into the valley from the aqueduct.  We were very high up!

Then we helped Polar and Grizzly to give Uppie a good clean along one side, then we went up through the bottom lock of the Bosley flight to turn around, came back down and cleaned the other side.  

We decided to stay inside on the way back.  I had a letter to write to our human cub friend Izzy, telling her about all our adventures.  It took ages to write, because we had done lots of things.
By the time I had finished, we had gone all the back along the long, straight section at Buglawton and were going through Congleton.

'It must be time for another nap!'  I said.  Hanley and Endon agreed.

When we woke up, we were back at the funny little stop-lock and Polar and Grizzly had already worked us through it.

From there, it is only a little way back to our moorings.  We looked out for Mow Cop Castle on top of the hill and all the boats moored at Red Bull, which is where Mr Tony, who does Uppie's annual service and repairs, lives.  Soon after that, we were back at our mooring.

When we got home, Hanley Bear and Grizzly got a shock.  Stoke City had a home game that afternoon, which they had forgotten!  Mr Steve and Mr Andy had come to get them and found no-one at home. 


'Booo!' went Hanley Bear, although I think he prefers boating to going to football really.  I'm sure Grizzly does too!


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