An Autumn Cruise: Part 2 - the Peak Forest Canal

After making our way up the Macclesfield Canal and having a short visit to Manchester by train, we set off along the Peak Forest Canal on a bright and sunny morning.

Endon and Huddlesford went on the roof and took little Waverley with them, tying a ribbon round his waist to make sure he couldn't slip off and into the water.

We turned right at the junction.  To the left was the first of the locks taking the canal down towards Manchester, but we weren't going that way.  Instead, we were heading for a place called Whaley Bridge.

Polar kept us at the junction for a while, as Grizzly was taking some rubbish to the special skips for boaters to use, so she managed to get some good pictures of the buildings and bridges there.  

We all thought it was very pretty.  Hanley and I climbed up on the back of one of the chairs for a good view out of the window.  We didn't mind the other bears being on the roof, as we had enjoyed our turn.

Soon we started to see higher hills, as the canal wound along above the valley of the River Goyt towards the Peak District.  It was so clear that we could see all the way to Kinder Scout, at the southern end of the Pennine Way.

Not long after our view of Kinder Scout, we went into a wooded section of the canal, then found ourselves on the outskirts of a small town.  Being bears, with very good noses, we could also smell sweeties and soon even the humans could smell them!

We were at New Mills and the smell was coming from the Swizzles factory right beside the canal!  This is where lots of famous sweets - like Love Hearts and Fizzers - are made.  Polar always says she thinks the view of the marina and the mill here is one of her favourite locations on the canal network too.

We had our lunch overlooking the railway viaduct across the river.  New Mills has two different stations as there are railway lines from Manchester on either side of the valley - one going to Sheffield and the other to Buxton.

Hanley and I joined Waverley for the last part of the journey from there into Whaley Bridge.  None of us had been there before as the last time we came along this canal, we had turned left at the junction and moored at the Bugsworth Basin, outside the town.  

There is a long line of boats people live on leading into the town, so we had to go past very slowly.  We waved to the boat people and their pets and some of them waved back.

At the end of the canal arm is a big "winding hole" for turning boats.  A pump was lifting water out of the Goyt and using it to top up the canal, which loses a lot every day down the locks at Bosley and Marple.  

The top-up water used to come from a big reservoir above the town, which you might have heard about in the news a couple of years ago...

After very heavy rain during the summer of 2019 - not long after our last trip along this canal - the retaining wall of the Todbrook Reservoir, up the valley from Whaley Bridge, started to give way!  All the local people had to leave their houses in case it collapsed completely, as the town would have been destroyed.

Luckily, the RAF had some big helicopters they could use to bring in huge bags of ballast to stop the wall giving way, and they rescued the town.  The local people have lots of ways of remembering them - including this big model of a Chinook in the old transhipment warehouse by the canal, which we bears thought was excellent.

While we were at Whaley Bridge, Polar did some sewing and made new clothes for Huddlesford, Endon and Waverley.  Huddles got a smart felt overcoat, Endon got a new sock jumper and hat for climbing in, and little Waverley got a warm winter onesie.

We had a day out in Buxton while we were at Whaley Bridge, which I will write about in another post as there is lots to say about it.  After that, we pottered round to Bugsworth Basin as Hanley, Endon and I all wanted to see it again, and we stayed there overnight.

We took Huddlesford and Waverley with us to see some of the old pump equipment and the model of the basin when it was a busy inland port, which they thought we marvellous.

There was some repair work going on at the top of the site, repairing some of the retaining walls, but we are always pleased to see the Canal and River Trust repair people at work, as they keep our waterways safe to navigate, and there were still plenty of places for visiting boats to moor.

We had a sunny day for the first part of our journey back to Marple.  I will tell you all about a very exciting visit to New Mills we made later that day in another post, as that was very interesting, especially to Hanley and Huddlesford who like industrial history.

As you can see, we spotted a very famous bear on the way there, in one of the gardens near the canal at Furness Vale!

I hope you can see what a lovely waterway the Upper Peak Forest Canal is and why we like to visit it whenever we can.

An Autumn Cruise. Part 1 - Up the Macc to Marple

We bears have been so busy having adventures that I am getting behind with my blog about them.  Fortunately, although we are in the middle of another adventure, we are staying somewhere with Internet access and Polar has brought her little laptop, so I am going to start trying to catch up.

Last month, Polar had some leave booked and she and Grizzly decided to have an adventure on Uplander II (Uppie) the narrowboat.  They decided to explore the Macclesfield and Peak Forest Canals, and five of us were allowed to go with them (the Air Bears stayed at home to look after the house).

We set off in sunny weather, so Hanley and I fetched our life-jackets and sat out on the roof for the trip up to Congleton.  We know that part of the canal network better than any other but we still love it, as there are lovely views across the countryside and we often see kingfishers.

When we reached Congleton, Grizzly and Polar moored Uppie for the night and Polar set the stove up for a nice warming fire.  Poor old Grizzly was in trouble, though, because she found he had not loaded very much wood for the journey, despite telling her they had plenty when she had asked him earlier.

Rather than cut our trip short, they came up with a plan; in the morning, Grizzly would catch the train back to Kidsgrove, go home and get the car and some wood, bring it to the boat, then take the car home again and come back by train.

Hanley Bear wanted to go with him to help, but we were worried he might get left behind at home, or even on the train.  Instead, he helped Polar make room in the lockers for the extra wood and went with Polar to meet Grizzly when he came back on the train at the end of the mission, which meant he got a little bit of "all day breakfast" at the pub before we set off again.

Huddlesford borrowed my life-jacket for the next part of the journey, and he and Hanley sat on the roof for the trip from Congleton to the foot of the Bosley Locks, where we stopped on our second night,

We love it here, because the views are so nice.  We could see a big hill called The Cloud very clearly in one direction and, in the other, the very long railway viaduct across the Dane Valley, carrying the main line from Stoke to Manchester.

We once saw an otter here, but there were none around that evening.

In the morning, Polar said it was an all-bears-on-board day, because they had twelve locks to work up through and the weather was a little bit drizzly.

So she made us a comfortable seat on the table in the cratch, where we could see what was happening, after first making sure all he paints were safely sealed in their pots and none could get on our fur.

Grizzly worked the first few locks and these were the hardest, as he had no-one to help him.  Polar was luckier, as there were more boats coming down when it was her turn, so the other crews helped with the gates and paddles.

When we reached the top, Polar and Grizzly filled our water tank and made lunch.  I asked if any bears could go on the roof now the locks were behind us, but Polar said it was too damp, so we enjoyed the rest of the journey towards Macclesfield from the cratch, mooring just outside the town at the Gurnett Aqueduct that afternoon.

The next day was damp too, so we stayed inside as we went through Macclesfield, getting a super view of the huge Hovis Mill, which is now flats and offices, so sadly doesn't make flour, bread or buns anymore.  There are lots of boats here, with people living on them, so we waved to the humans and looked out for other boat bears (but we didn't see any).

Further north is Bollington, where there are two more massive mills - the Adelphi Mill and the Clarence Mill.  Both of them have stopped being mills and are now flats, offices and other things, but they are still very handsome and interesting buildings.

Opposite the Adelphi mill is a nice boatyard where we got extra fuel for our journey.  It is the base for Nb Alton, a lovely vintage fuel boat, and you can also hire two little day boats here, or bikes for exploring the Middlewood Way, a cycle route that runs along a disused railway route.

Grizzly brought us one of their leaflets to read and we saw that the bikes could be ready-stocked with picnic things in the baskets on the front - which would also make great bear-carriers!

"Maybe we can bring Uppie to Bollington and have a bike journey with our human guardians next summer?" I suggested to the other bears.  They all agreed it would be great, especially if we had a picnic too!

Thinking about food made us feel hungry, so we were pleased when we found somewhere to stop for lunch at the other end of the town, near the Clarence Mill.  This has lots of small businesses in it, including a radio station, an art gallery and a very good café with brilliant cake!

We all went ashore in the Bear Bag and, once Polar and Grizzly had eaten their savoury food, we jumped out for a taste of their cake.  Grizzly had coffee and walnut, which is Hanley's favourite too, and Polar tried some tangerine and almond cake,

Huddlesford and Waverley thought this one was the best, although Endon and I thought they were both equally good.  We also spotted some Victoria sandwich crumbs left on a plate on the neighbouring table so, being good small bears, made sure they were not wasted. 

In the afternoon, being very full of cake, we had naps in the chair while Polar and Grizzly steered Uppie further north.

Polar was pleased to see the repair boats hard at work near Four Ways, and we woke up in time to see the wide section near High Lane.  If it is fine, there are amazing views all across Manchester from here, but it was so misty we couldn't see the city at all.

We moored near High Lane that evening and, in the morning, cruised past another huge old mill into the town of Marple, where there is the canal junction with the Peak Forest Canal and two railway stations.

Polar and Grizzly were going to visit Manchester, as Polar wanted to buy some new walking boats as her old ones had got holey.  They decided to go from Rose Hill Station, and were very glad that they chose that one as it was a lovely little station, being looked after by a very nice man called Tony in the ticket office.

We had just missed a train, so we had some tea in the pub next door, then Grizzly and Tony had a long chat about railways, while Polar kept an eye on Endon as he explored the garden.

Mr Tony was so kind he even gave Grizzly a book about the local railways just as our train was ready to go!

We enjoyed our train journey, but our human guardians didn't like it in Manchester as it was very busy and very few other humans were wearing masks, so they soon came back to Marple.

We came back to the other station, then walked back to Uppie along the locks.  Hanley, Endon and I had seen them before, as we came through them on our trip through Manchester in 2019, but Waverley and Huddlesford hadn't seen them before.

There are sixteen altogether and they are full of interesting little details, like this tunnel under the main road for boat horses.

Near the top is a pub which is very special to Grizzly, as it was near here that he was reunited with an old friend called Peter, who he hadn't seen for many years, who happened to be there looking at the canal when Polar, Grizzly and another pal came through on a boat.

Mr Peter and his wife Mrs Val are great followers of our adventures, so we all posed for a photo where Grizzly and Mr Peter were reunited, then went for a drink at the pub.  

Hanley helped Grizzly drink a toast to Mr Peter, then it was time to go back to Uppie.

The following morning, we would be on the Peak Forest Canal - and I will tell you all about that in my next blog post.