Travelling along the Leeds and Liverpool canal, Bill Oddie, Jennie Bond, Anne Diamond and Pete Waterman eventually leave Yorkshire behind them and head into Lancashire. Pete and Anne discover a Polish war memorial and learn about the role canals played in the Second World War. Bill goes in search of an elusive kingfisher, while Jennie walks in Charlotte Brontë's footsteps. Later, Anne samples a Fat Rascal, Pete tries to turn Bill into a steam engine nut and the entire quartet disappear into the dripping darkness of Foulridge Tunnel, where they find out about a famous cow who once swam it.

On the second part of the Scottish leg, Bill Oddie, Jennie Bond, Anne Diamond and Pete Waterman join the Glasgow and Edinburgh Union Canal, rising lock, stock and barge up the Falkirk wheel before heading east. Anne and Jennie encounter the ghost of William Burke - of Burke and Hare fame - as they travel through the Falkirk tunnel, which he helped build as an Irish navvy. Pete goes digging for industrial treasure at an old railway terminus and Bill gets to look down on the birds for once as the barges take to the air on the longest aqueduct in Scotland.