The thought of visiting a very long, deep, scary tunnel wasn't the best thing to wake up to on our second day in Stalybridge, although we do love railway journeys and the one from Stalybridge to Marsden was very nice. We had a nice table for our bear bag, big windows to see out and good views of the valley and the canal.
'This will get us to the tunnel a lot quicker than working up all those locks,' said Polar. We bears weren't sure whether to be pleased about this or not!
We went through a long railway tunnel and came out at a place called Marsden, which Grizzly told us was in Yorkshire. This was our first visit to Yorkshire and we thought this part of it looked a lot like the Staffordshire Moorlands, so would be very good Bear Country. Polar and Grizzly carried us along the canal towpath towards the Visitor Centre and the tunnel's northern entrance. It looked very dark and scary.
Suddenly, Hanley Bear cheered. He had found one of his special red transport history signs.
'If it's got one of these, it must be alright!' he said confidently.
Endon and I were still quite nervous about going into the tunnel, even just a little way on the trip boat, but we felt much better after we had tucked into some chocolate cake and seen Grizzly chatting cheerfully with the man who steers the boat.
Once all the human passengers were aboard, including a very small human cub, we set off. The trip boat is electric, so there is no engine noise or nasty fumes, but the tiny human cub started crying so little Endon Bear went to give him hugs. This was very brave of Endon, as he was quite frightened by the tunnel himself.
We were close to the front of the boat so we had a very good view forward, into the gloom. Polar and Grizzly remembered going all the way through on their friends' boat, well before they were bear guardians, when the electric boats towed the other boats through. These days, you steer your own boat but have a Canal and River Trust Pilot to help you stay safe in the very low and twisty parts.
Before we reversed out again, Hanley Bear went right to the front of the boat for a proper look. 'It goes on forever!' he cried.
That's not actually true, as the nice man on the boat told us it was three-and-a-quarter miles long, but that is twice as long as our Harecastle Tunnel so you can see why Hanley was impressed.
It was interesting, learning all about the Standedge Tunnel from the very nice C&RT man, but I was a happier small bear when I was back out in the sunshine, feeling the breeze on my fur and looking at the trees and flowers.
We found a lovely little garden to explore with two benches that were perfect for small bears and had pictures on them designed by human cubs, although their seats had got rather mossy. Polar said it was because it's very rainy up on top of the Pennines, just as it is in Stoke, so the wood gets damp in the winter.
On our way back to the station, we dropped into the Visitor Centre which was a super old building and so nice that it is used for weddings. There was going to be one later that day and the bride would be arriving on a little boat, which was decorated specially. We thought that was a lovely thing to do.
When we got back to Stalybridge, Polar and Grizzly decided there was still time to go back down the locks to Portland Basin that afternoon. It was easier than coming up and soon the historic wooden boats around the junction were back in view.
Polar said we had another busy day coming up, with lots more going-down locks (which we don't mind too much), so we should have an early bedtime. She read us a story to settle us down and we slept very soundly indeed.
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