After our trip to Stalybridge, it was time for Uppie to head along the Ashton Canal to the centre of Manchester. It was quite a long cruise to the first lock, passing more big mills but also lots of houses and flats. We could tell we were heading into a big city.
Polar and Grizzly told us that there were eighteen locks we had to go down through to get to our mooring for the night, so we bears would be safest sitting inside, where we could see what was happening but not fall overboard or be left behind anywhere.
Polar rigged us up a hammock, so we could see out of the saloon window and wave to any human cubs walking along the towpath. It was still a little bit frightening when we dropped down into a lock but the ones on the Ashton Canal weren't too deep and we were going down, so there was no bumping about, except for in one pound between locks where the wind blew Grizzly aground and some nice men doing jogging had to help lever Uppie afloat again.
Hanley Bear was excited to find out that the canal ran very close to the Etihad Stadium, home of Manchester City FC and that we would see Manchester's busy little yellow trams too. He said there was lots to see and do there, according to Grizzly, but first we had all the locks to work through and a safe mooring to find.
Endon Bear and I thought we wouldn't enjoy the journey as much, as there wouldn't be very much nature to enjoy in the heart of a big city, but we were wrong. There were still plenty of trees and birds, and beside one lock there was a big patch of wild orchids.
Manchester is famous for football and its history, but it is also famous for being a very rainy city. Before we reached the last of the locks, it turned very wet. We wished we were big enough to work the cooker and boil a kettle, so we could make tea for Grizzly and Polar, but we knew it would be too dangerous to try.
Outside, we started to see some very clever art on the walls. We didn't know if all of it was supposed to be there but it made the dull walls and empty buildings much brighter and more cheerful.
Suddenly, there weren't any empty buildings - just lots of very big, new buildings. Some of them were very shiny, with lots of glass and metal, and others were very strange shapes and colours. We were very surprised when we got close enough to see that they were for people to live in! We bears didn't think we would like to live so high up, especially without a garden to play in.
Imagine how surprised we were then to spot a very old house right by the canal, tucked in between all the funny-shaped apartments, with lovely ox-eye daisies growing alongside. When the clouds broke and the sun shone on an old mill which was being turned into more apartments, we bears thought it might be a nice place to stay for a few days and explore, even if we didn't really think we'd like to live here all the time.
By the time we had gone through the last of the locks, we were in Piccadilly Village, where there are some very nice houses and low-rise apartments. Polar and Grizzly saw there were mooring rings in a little basin just off the canal and decided this looked like a safe place to stop for the night.
Even here, there were new tall buildings going up behind the houses. We felt quite sorry for the people who lived there, as their nice houses and little gardens would soon be overshadowed by all the new towers.
We bears were almost too excited to sleep when Grizzly and Polar told us we had a day out on the trams to look forward to, but after rice pudding and strawberry jam for tea, followed by a bedtime story, we soon settled down It was very peaceful in the little canal basin we had found and hard to believe we were right in the heart of a very big city.
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