Three Bears and Four Counties. Part Five - Curry and Oatcakes!

'We're almost home, little bears,' Polar said on Saturday morning.  'We'll be in Stoke this morning.'

We started to feel slightly sad, because our boat adventure was nearly over, but then she added, 'I'm going to treat us to a nice curry for lunch from Shug's stall in the market.' 

We all cheered.  Mrs Shug's curries from her Tiffin and Chai stall are so good that they have won awards - lucky Hanley Bear used to have curry on his way to football with Grizzly sometimes.

So after breakfast we were on our way, past the big Wedgwood factory and heading for Trentham Lock.

We sat in the cratch while Polar and Grizzly steered the boat.  Although it was a bright day, there was a cold wind so we couldn't sit on the roof.

We moored close to the Civic Offices in Stoke, well before the big lock by the station, where there are a couple of odd mooring rings beside the towpath.  Polar took her mask and went to get the curry and we helped Grizzly set the table.  Then we all tucked in to chicken biryani and dhal, naan bread and our favourite veggie samosas, followed by some luxurious chocolate brownies. 

That gave Polar and Grizzly the energy they needed to work Uppie through the five locks up to Etruria, where they filled the water tank and disposed of our rubbish.  Then Polar turned Uppie around and we carried on up the Trent and Mersey Canal towards Westport Lake.

On the way, we stopped at Longport boatyard to get the toilet pumped out (poo!) and Grizzly bought a new fender for the stern, because the old one had got very squished and wasn't doing a very good job of protecting the rudder.

We wondered where we were going to stop overnight.  'I think it'll be Westport Lake,' I said to Hanley and Endon.  

And I was right!  There was just room for Uppie to squeeze in between two boats - and the one behind was The Oatcake Boat.  Hanley wanted to go and get oatcakes from Mrs Kay straight away.

'We'll have oatcakes tomorrow,' said Polar.  'We had a big lunch, so we'll just have sandwiches and cake for tea.'

We did have oatcakes on Sunday, but we had them for lunch.  Grizzly did a long walk in the morning, back to our house to collect the car, so Polar could use it to take a lot of our luggage and laundry home, then she walked back to Uppie.

While we were waiting on the boat, a pair of working boats arrived with supplies for the boat moored in front of us.  Hanley looked out of the side hatch to see what they had aboard.

'I like seeing proper working boats,' he said.  'It's what the canals were built for!'

'That's right,' I said.  'Mrs Kay and the other boat traders are what make it a living waterway, not just a tourist attraction.'

There were too many people about on Sunday for us to run around the lake on our own, so we stayed aboard Uppie until Polar was back, and could take us out in our Bear Bag.  

We were just going to ask to jump out for a run on our own, when we spotted a big rat eating crumbs and seeds, so we stayed in our bag after all!

In the morning, it was time to say goodbye to Mrs Kay and Mr Steve on the Oatcake Boat, and set off for Harecastle Tunnel and our mooring at Kidsgrove.  There were quite a few boats gathering to go north through the tunnel and, as we got closer, we met some of the boats who had come south.

Grizzly has steered Uppie through the tunnel more than thirty times now, but he always wears his life-jacket and pays very careful attention to what he is doing, as it can be very dangerous, especially if you are tall, like Polar.

Polar is usually doing boat-tidying chores while we are in the tunnel, but she and Grizzly had spent some of the time at Westport Lake doing those this time, so she could sit and look out with us.  We were almost at the back of a line of boats going through.

We were all being very brave, until we caught sight of a scary skeleton painted on the wall!

'Don't worry, little bears,' said Polar.  'There are stories about there being a spooky boggart in the tunnel, but it's rather too busy in here for anything like that today.'

Our mooring is very close to the north portal of the tunnel so, after letting the other boats pass us, Polar took over on the tiller and eventually reversed Uppie into place.  It took some time, because lots of silt had built up where Uppie had been away for so long, and Polar had to use the propeller to swish it out of the way.  The nice people from the next boat along helped to pull the bows in as close as possible to the bank.

Then it was time to go back to the house.  We put our life jackets away and closed the lid of our boat basket but we weren't sad, because Uppie was home again, and that meant we would have more journeys soon.