More than Locks at Marple

After our visit to Bugsworth Basin, Polar and Grizzly took it in turns to steer our boat back towards the junction at Marple.  We went through a place called New Mills, which actually has old mills and a sweet factory, and moored for the night near a pretty village called Disley.

Grizzly made us toast with our breakfast the next morning, as we had a busy day ahead - or at least the humans did!

'There are sixteen locks through Marple,' he explained to me.  'Polar and I will share the steering and working the locks between us and it won't be bumpy, like going up can be, but it might be best if you bears stay inside.'

We bears agreed that this was the safest thing to do and we settled down in the cratch where we could watch without getting in the way and where we would be dry if it rained - which it did!

You can see that some of the locks are quite deep.  Going down in locks, you have to be careful to keep well away from the 'cill' the top gate sits on, so the back of your boat doesn't get stuck, as that can make you sink.

Sometimes, the top gate is leaky and water pours in behind you, which is another reason to stay clear of it if you can.

It took 3 hours for Polar and Grizzly to work through all sixteen locks.  Sometimes we were lucky and a boat coming up had filled the lock ahead of us, sometimes there was no other boat and we had to fill it up and then empty it again.

Not far from the last lock, the canal turns a sharp corner and goes across a really spectacular aqueduct, with a railway viaduct to one side and a very steep valley below.

We bears were very excited when Polar and Grizzly found a place to moor a little way further on and said we were going to walk back for a proper look.

We had to be very careful bears exploring the aqueduct, because it was very high above the valley.  I made sure that the smaller bears held my paws and didn't run about on the parapet.  There was a good, safe path down into the valley, where we see how the aqueduct was cleverly designed with big holes in it, to keep it as light as possible without losing strength.

When Polar and Grizzly carried us back up the path and across the aqueduct, Hanley Bear was delighted to find another one of those round, red transport heritage plaques. 

'Do we have any in Stoke?' he asked Grizzly, but Grizzly didn't know.  Hanley Bear said he would find out when he got home and visit them if we did.

Then we set off again, through the rain, although we bears were nice and dry.  We went through a tunnel and some nice parks and it was hard to believe we were passing through the outskirts of a very big city.

Suddenly, just as the rain started to clear, we saw a big building right ahead, which looked as if it was blocking our way, and some very old wooden boats.

'Is this the end of the canal?' asked Endon.

It was the end of the Peak Forest Canal but not the end of our journey.  We had reached Portland Basin on the Ashton Canal and still had lots of adventures to come.