Back on Our Boat

We Bears have lots of wonderful adventures on land but our first love is being Boating Bears. We have been missing our trips out on nb Uplander II ("Uppie"), as we didn't have our usual Christmas cruise this year, because we went to visit Grandad Polar in Hampshire instead.  

In fact, with lots of work happening at our house as well, poor Uppie hadn't been out on a journey for over four months!

Polar and Grizzly are planning to take us on a very exciting boating adventure in the spring, so need to make sure everything is working properly now.  Polar and Grizzly were worried that there might be problems with the water pipes after the cold weather earlier in the year, or that there the fuel would have condensation in it, or the engine wouldn't want to start. 

As it was a fine, sunny day on Sunday, they decided to do a short journey up to Ramsdell Hall and the winding hole just beyond Scholar Green, and back to our mooring at Kidsgrove.

"We won't take all of you Bears, just in case there is a problem," said Polar.  "Sonning and Huddlesford can come, as they are the Bears with the closest connection to waterways."

We put our overalls and neckerchiefs on and jumped into the Bear Bag.  "Can we bring Hanley Bear too?" I asked.  "He was sad yesterday, because Stoke City lost again, and it would cheer him up."

Polar agreed that Hanley could come too.  He cheered, and jumped into the bag with us. 

Soon we were at the boatyard.  Grizzly took our bag from Polar and carried us into the saloon.  We were pleased that it didn't smell damp or musty, because Polar had put moisture traps with special crystals in the boat, but we were even more pleased when we heard the engine start first time.

Grizzly was delighted!  And our good luck continued, as we were able to float away from our mooring without too much trouble - sometimes, if water levels are a little bit low, we have to have help from some of the other boaters to push us off the mud!

      

Soon we were on our way along the arm to the Macclesfield Canal, through the funny little lock at Hall Green and heading for Scholar Green.  It was a lovely, bright day and we had great views of Mow Cop and the range of hills running towards the Peak District.

       

We arrived at the moorings near the pub in time for lunch.  The pub had been redecorated - we liked the wallpaper, as there were some of Polar's Sarracenia pitcher plants on it.  Hanley Bear was allowed some bubbles from Grizzly's beer and we all had snacks from Polar and Grizzly's dinners. 

Then it was time to go back to Uppie and cruise up to the winding hole at Ramsdell Hall.  Huddlesford and I watched as Grizzly turned the boat around and started steering back towards Kidsgrove.

 

There are some lovely stone bridges over the Macclesfield Canal.  We were sorry to see that bridge on the road to Mow Cop had been damaged and hope it will be repaired soon.

  

A little while later, we were overtaken by another boat - it was a man in a canoe!  We bears waved, but we don't think he saw us.

Polar took over steering the boat while Grizzly had a little nap, and we decided to have naps too.  The duvet is in the main dining room to keep the bed from getting damp, so we snuggled up on it and soon we were all sound asleep.

Polar and Grizzly moored the boat with no trouble, then carefully switched everything off.  Polar woke us up gentle and tucked us into our Bear Bag to take us home for tea, and Grizzly locked up.

Uppie is due to get the hull blacked at the end of this month, then it will be time to set off for our adventure in London.  But I am sure we will have some land adventures before then - and I have some from earlier this year (and from Christmas time) to write up too, so hopefully there will be more blogging from me very soon.