Waverley's First Boat Trip

Last week, Polar and Grizzly had some exciting news for us - we were going to have a little break on Uplander II, our narrowboat.  It cheered us all up, after trying to support Hanley Bear's team through a dull, goalless football match, and Waverley was particularly excited as he hadn't stayed overnight on the boat before.  

'Take your basket of clothes and souvenirs with you,' said Polar, as we started sorting out what we needed for our little holiday.  'We need to swap it for the big basket on the boat, which is slightly too big for the space between the seats.'

On Monday morning, it was bright and sunny as Uppie pulled away from our wharf, heading north to Hardingswood Junction then turning under the bridge for the Macclesfield Canal.  We sat out in the cratch in my old bunk, as it was the safest place for little Waverley, who doesn't have a life-jacket yet.

One of the most interesting places on this canal is where an aqueduct carries us over the top of the Trent and Mersey Canal.  We had shown Waverley this on one of our walks, but it's even more exciting going over a canal on a boat on another canal!

There is only one little lock on the lower section of this canal, but it was hard to work through because the bottom gate wouldn't open fully, and Uppie could only just squeeze in.  

Further along, there were some repairs being made to the towpath.  We cheered the workers, as it's important to boaters, hikers and cyclists for the towpath to be safe, but they couldn't hear us for the noise of their machines.

The canal runs through a town called Congleton, past a lovely old warehouse building that has been turned into flats, over an aqueduct with smart black and white railings, and under the second of two 'turnover' bridges, that allowed the horses of horse-drawn boats to cross the canal when the towpath changed sides, without having to unhitch.

Just north of the town there is another aqueduct and a high embankment, which carries the canal over a tributary of the River Dane.  A superb railway viaduct also spans the valley and there are nice moorings on the embankment which give a good view of it.

As we crossed the embankment, we saw a family of little fluffy baby ducklings.  They were even smaller than Waverley!

By evening, we had reached the Bosley Locks.  We moored below them and we weren't going up the locks; there is a canal 'stoppage' above the locks, so we couldn't go through to Macclesfield even if we wanted to.  Polar and Grizzly took us for a walk part of the way up the lock flight before dinner.

The canal crosses the Dane again here, and there is an even longer railway viaduct across the valley, which we must have been over in the train when we've gone to Manchester.

After our dinner, it was time to swap our bear baskets over.  Waverley, who only has one little onesie to wear, was amazed to see all the clothes we have.  

'We must remind Polar to make you some more things,' Endon said.  'She's supposed to be making some things for some of our bear friends, but you will need some summer clothes first.'

Then we had to take our bedclothes out of the other basket.  While we were doing that, Hanley found the beret he wore when we went to Belgium and tried it on again, while Waverley tried his cap on.

When both baskets were empty, we put all our clothes and keepsakes into the bigger basket and made the smaller one up as a bear bed.

And we still had time before bed for a game of football!

Waverley hadn't played before but he was actually very good and had lots of fun, until Polar told us it was time for bed.

We took off our life jackets, jumpers and hats and soon we were snuggled up in our new bed basket.  Grizzly asked if we would like a story, and read us a few pages of Peter Rabbit, but we were so sleepy we fell asleep before he could finish it.

We woke up before our human guardians the next morning.  We decided we would play quietly until breakfast time.  

Waverley wanted to find out what happened at the end of the Peter Rabbit story, so he sat in the basket with me while I read to him.  

Endon looked out of the window at a high hill called The Cloud, and wondered what it would be like to climb it!

Meanwhile, Hanley practised his football skills, although when I was at the most exciting part of the story, all the other bears climbed back to the basket to listen.

After breakfast, we had to turn Uppie around, which meant going up through the bottom lock to the big 'winding hole', and then coming back down again.  

This would be the first time Waverley had been in a proper lock, so we decided we would all stay inside the boat where he would feel safest, and watch out of the window.

Polar worked the lock, emptying it so Uppie could go in, closing the gate behind us, then letting in some water to raise us up to the level of the next pound.  Waverley was a little nervous at how dark it was down in the lock and relieved to see the sunlight again when we reached the top.

Then Grizzly turned the boat around and came back into the lock, Polar closed the top gates and paddles, then started letting the water out of the lock.  It went dark inside the boat again, but not for long.  Soon Polar had the bottom gates open and Uppie could leave the lock, and start the journey home. 

Endon kept looking at The Cloud and told us he hoped he could climb it one day.  'I bet you could see the Peak District from there,' he said.

Hanley was looking out of the window at the long railway viaduct.  'I'd like to see that close up,' he said.  'I wonder how close Polar and Grizzly could get us in the car?'

There was plenty to see to keep us interested on our journey home.  We stopped for lunch at the aqueduct near Congleton and Polar and Grizzly met some boating friends there, before going back through the town, including the tricky bridges under the railway.

While we were on our way back, Hanley, Endon and I explained more about boating to Waverley.

'You can read about some of our other adventures in the log Grizzly writes of our journeys,' I told him, showing him the log book.

I also showed Waverley our 'Libeary' of Observer's books and Beatrix Potter stories, and he climbed up the china shelf too! 

Soon we were passing Ramsdell Hall, which meant we weren't very far from Polar and Grizzly's favourite pub, although we weren't able to go there for our dinner that day.

It was getting late in the afternoon and light rain was falling when we got back to Kidsgrove, so it was nice to see some of the other boaters looking out for us and ready to help us moor up.

There was a reason why they were looking out for us - a duck has made her nest very close to where Uppie's bow usually comes to rest and, without help, we might have bumped into it!

We hope that, the next time we visit, we'll see little fluffy ducklings swimming all around Uppie!