Small Bears at a Steam Fair

Reading Hanley Bear's post about the Etruria Museum reminded me that I didn't tell you about some of our adventures earlier this year.  One super event was the Steam Weekend at the Anderton Boat Lift, which we went to back in May.

It was particularly interesting for us, as there were steam traction engines to see, many different types of boat and, of course, the marvellous boat lift itself.

It's always nice to see heritage narrowboats together.  They are usually lined up along the bank of a canal but here, on the River Weaver, they could be moored six abreast, which looked very impressive!

And one of our favourite boats was there too - the Daniel Adamson.  The Danny was about to set off down the river on a cruise, so we all peered out from the Bear Bag to see her off. 

We all jumped when the whistle sounded and she steamed away!  We were glad to see there were plenty of passengers aboard and hoped they would have a nice cruise.  Although the scenery doesn't look very pretty right beside the lift, you are soon into woods and green fields as you go down the river.

Polar and Grizzly carried us along the towpath to see the other moored boats.  There were several other steam boats as well as the narrow boats and some very handsome broad beam river boats.

Huddlesford Bear and I were very happy just watching the boats but Hanley was keen to have a look at the steam engines and lorries too, so Polar and Grizzly carried us up the bank to where they were all gathered.

We loved this little steam lorry and Huddlesford was allowed to sit on the driver's seat.  He couldn't reach the steering wheel, so couldn't actually take it for a drive anywhere, but it was fun to pretend he could.

Several of the engines towed little waggons for their drivers to live in.  We thought they looked liked ideal homes for small bears.  Some of the nice people who lived in one of them let us sit on the steps and we imagined were were travelling bears looking after one of the engines.

While we were there, the boat lift was carrying boats up and down from the river, including the trip boat that runs up to Northwich.  When everything is running properly again, it would be great to have a day out with our bear friends on there.

We had a marvellous day looking at all the boats and engines but, as you will appreciate, scurrying around finding things out and having fun uses a lot of energy, so we were very pleased when our human guardians said it was time for tea and cake.

We knew there was a great cafe at the visitor centre, as we have had snacks there before, and even breakfast when we have been on the boat.  That afternoon we had some delicious cake, which was the perfect way to end the day.

We had some other great days out during the early summer that I still need to do you about, so look out for more posts soon.