Our Journey Home

 

It was time to make our way home from the Caldon Canal and the Churnet Valley, which made us sad, although we knew we would be having more adventures soon.  

All of us bears - and Horsey - woke up early and had a look at some interesting things near the Hollybush pub, commemorating restoration of the canal.  

We started our journey in sunny weather, going back up the Hazelhurst locks then down the Stockton Brook flight.  There are some interesting sculptures here because it's the border between the Staffordshire Moorlands and Stoke-on-Trent.

Hanley Bear is always interested to see this old water-works, but was sad to see more signs of vandalism than last time he cruised past.  It makes us all sad to see such a fine, old building deteriorating and we hope it will get repaired one day soon.

So Hanley Bear was grumpy about the waterworks when we stopped for lunch below the locks, but cheered up when Waverley told him we had oatcakes.   

Then he saw what type of oatcakes they were.  "Those aren't proper oatcakes!" he snapped, giving Waverley quite a hard stare.

"Oh yes they are!" cried Waverley, staring back.  "They're as good as your sort, if not better!"

Hanley was sure they would be horrible and took a bite of one, just so he could tell Waverley how nasty it was - except he discovered it wasn't nasty at all!

"It's not as good as a real oatcake," said Hanley.  "But it is very tasty and very, very crunchy."

Hanley and Waverley hugged each other.  We were all pleased to see them both happy and friends again.

Hanley was even more cheerful when we officially crossed back into Stoke-on-Trent, especially as it was still sunny, although it wasn't very warm so we stayed inside the boat.

Because the forecast for the following day was for wet and windy weather, our humans kept cruising well into the evening, all the way back through the centre of the city, finally mooring up at Etruria Basin, just behind the oatcake boat, before lighting our stove again.  

The following morning was wet and windy, as expected.  Hanley Bear hoped there would be 'real' oatcakes for breakfast, but Mrs Kay's boat was still poorly so she wasn't cooking.

"Booo!" said Hanley.

Grizzly steered the boat towards Westport Lake while Polar did some more painting.  Grizzly wanted to get a new front fender for Uppie so we stopped at the Longport boatyard, with Polar manoeuvring Uppie into the workshop out of the rain, and as far up the slipway as was safe.  

We thought this was a very clever way for the fitter to get to the bow without getting wet feet!

Westport Lake was close by and we moored there for the afternoon and that night.  Polar had a busy afternoon painting new things, including some small tins and notebooks and a big tin for Uppie's kitchen to use as a bread bin.  We bears helped by painting the little stamens in the roses.

In the morning, we finished our journey with another cruise through the Harecastle Tunnel.  We were almost out of the tunnel when Grizzly noticed that the light had gone out and all the gauges had failed.  At first, we thought there was a major electrical fault - then he realised he had just knocked the ignition key into the wrong position!

Horsey had very much enjoyed his first ever narrowboat journey.  We hope he will be able to join us again, after he goes back to live with Nearly-doctor Rachael, as Polar and Grizzly are hoping to do some boating around the West Midlands this summer, near where he lives.

And we might manage another adventure with him before he goes home...