The Start of an Adventure

One afternoon, early in June, we set off on Polar and Grizzly's narrowboat, for a big city called Manchester.

Once Polar had carried us onto the boat, we scrambled out of our travelling bag.  We put on our life-jackets and Grizzly lifted us up onto the roof, where we sat in the lifebelt looking at where we were going. 

Although the first part of the journey, along the Macclesfield Canal to the Bosley Locks, was one we had made before, we noticed new things - like the folly  castle on the hilltop at Mow Cop, and these grooves in the bridges made many years ago by the tow-ropes of horse-drawn boats.

We waved to the other boaters we saw and to human cubs on the towpath or playing in gardens that backed onto the canal, and watched the birds and animals.  There were swallows skimming low over the water, catching flies or drinking.  We thought they were very clever.

When we got to Bosley Locks, we had a small bear conference, and decided that we would go back inside the boat while Polar and Grizzly went up the locks, in case any of us were accidently knocked overboard by a rope or pole when all the tricky lock things were happening.

Polar sat us in the saloon with some of our small bear books from the 'Libeary' and we tried not to worry about what was happening outside.   

There are twelve locks at Bosley and they are all narrow ones.  Unusually, they have two gates top and bottom, rather than a single top gate.  There are great views of the big hill near Congleton humans call The Cloud as you work your way up.

 

Polar and Grizzly took it in turns to steer the boat or work the locks and, with boats coming down as well, which always helps, we reached the top of the flight in good time.  We bears scrambled back out to our vantage point on the roof.  We had never visited this part of the canal before and we very much wanted to see what it was like.

On our way into Macclesfield, we saw a big heron who wasn't frightened of the boat and didn't fly away, even when we passed right by him.  We are not sure if we can trust herons not to eat us, so we huddled together in the lifebelt and gave it very hard stares.

We liked the countryside we passed through, which was lush pastureland, but with the Peak District hill rising up behind it, and we liked the canal buildings we saw.  We went over a high aqueduct at Gurnett and passed a great big mill in the middle of Macclesfield, which has been turned into smart apartments.

Unfortunately, it started to rain soon after Macclesfield and Grizzly took us back to the saloon to keep us dry, where we fell asleep.  When it was morning, we woke up to find we were moored at Bollington, where there are more big mills turned into homes, offices and even a nice café, and that we had all just missed a boat festival.  Boooo! 

That day was wet too, so we had to watch from the windows as we went on up the canal to Marple, then on to the Peak Forest Canal.

 We could see the Peak District across the valley from where the canal snaked along the side of the hills.  There were no nasty locks but there were some lift bridges and swing bridges.

Finally, after lots more rainy boating for Polar and Grizzly, we arrived at a place called Bugsworth Basin.  We bears could see lots of interesting buildings and notices from the window, but had to wait until the next morning to explore.

And you will have to wait until my next blog post to find out all about it!