Bears Unlimited

Visiting Popeye's Home

2012-01-29T18:25:00.006Z

We hope you haven’t kept you in suspense readers, but we’ve been too busy enjoying Malta and relaxing in the evenings, to blog.

Rest assured though, we are having a good time, and finding plenty to do on this interesting island. It might be a small island, but by the time we go home, there will still be bits we haven’t seen. We haven’t even seen Valetta yet!

We are getting old hands at riding the buses now and we love their registrations …

… as you can see they all start with the letters BUS followed by their unique bus numbers. A lot of the buses are bendy buses which means they can get a lot of people in. The streets are quite narrow so there have been a few exciting squeezes. Arriva have only just taken over the service but some of the buses are not looking as new as they should!

We have done 3 more coastal walks since our last post and 1 inland one. We simply love to see the sea and when there are sandy bays and dramatic rocky headlands and high cliffs to take in, it becomes all the more exciting. It is rather different to the coastline round home.

We had a special treat on Thursday when our walk took in the filmset of Popeye. A whole village was created round a small harbour mouth and we got to see it without having to pay the entrance fee.

We’ve never seen the film, but might have to track it down when we get home.

All our walking means we need some suitable fuel to sustain us. Our ham sandwiches have been supplemented by some delicious mini pies from a pastizzeria we pass on the way to the bus station.

Here we are enjoying the pea and cheese varieties.

Back with more news soon, but perhaps not too soon as we’ll be making the most of our last evening tomorrow and the evening after we’ll be flying home.

Lots of love, the Malteser Bears xxx

P.S. we hope the Suffolk Branch have had a good trip to York

Shipwreck Island

2012-01-26T19:26:00.006Z

We got off the bus to do a bit of sightseeing in the town of Mellieha. We admired the big church which reminded us a bit of Santiago in its grand Catholic style, and we popped down to see a grotto, dedicated to our lady of Mellieha, before walking down to the bay to start a fine coastal walk round a rugged headland with lots of bays and interesting features.

Once we had left the holiday homes behind, it was a complete contrast to the built up areas we had passed through earlier on the bus. It was wild and unspoilt. The sun was out, the sky was blue and the sea was that lovely turquoisey-green, that you just don’t get at home. However, we did have to put our windshirts on as there was a keen breeze. Our meandering path hugged the coastline had lots of ups and downs and lots of interesting things to see.

There were delightful clumps of narcissus that filled the air with their fragrance …

… there were wonderful views and lovely spots for a picnic and spot of sunbathing …

At times we were walking on mud paths; mostly they were dry but there was evidence that Malta has had some winter rain.

About two-thirds of the way round, we found ourselves looking across a narrow stretch of water to 2 very special islands. These were St Paul’s islands, where Paul was shipwrecked in AD60 on his way to stand trial in Rome. You can read all about Paul’s time on Malta in Acts 28 v1-10, or you can simply share our close up view of the larger of the 2 islands, complete with statue of St Paul.

As our walk continued there was still more to see including old look out towers, a nicely proportioned door cut into a huge boulder so you can go inside and some fine examples of salt pans. We also saw a man with a gun, so sounded the alarm to the local birds, who were present, as Malta does have a bit of a reputation.

Getting the bus back was a breeze and we were soon back in Bugibba calling in at the local supermarket for beer, wine and ingredients for a paella for tea.

What a splendid first day.

Lots of love, the Malteser bears xxx

P.S. Aunty M, we're chocolate free so far but on the look out for some little round balls

Sun, Sea and Occasional Sand

2012-01-25T19:46:00.004Z

Yesterday, our latest travelling party of Chelmer, Curly, Yorkie and me (George,) was up bright and early to make our way to Gatwick Airport where we had a happy re-union with our friend Rodney, the Harrods door bear. We introduced Chelmer and Curly as they don’t do as much travelling as Yorkie and I, so hadn’t previously had the pleasure of Rodney’s acquaintance.

As we walked out to the departure gate, we could see the rain lashing down outside and knew that it was an icy rain. We were very pleased to be flying out to a much warmer place.

At one point our very informative captain told us that we were about to fly over the Italian island where the cruise liner recently capsized. We couldn’t see it because of the clouds, and probably our altitude as well. Shortly after flying over Sicily, we started our descent into the lovely Mediterranean island of Malta, our destination for the week.

From the airport we were minibussed off to our self-catering apartment in the resort of Buggiba, whose name we quickly learnt, is not pronounced as if it starts with the word bug. It was dark as we travelled, so we didn’t see much apart from lots of lights.

We’ll no doubt talk more about our home from home later in the week. We didn’t spend too long inside before we went out in search of food and beer (us bears have our priorities). We are about 1 minute from the sea, so we strolled along the front, battling against the wind! As it is only January, lots of places were shut, but we found a pleasant Italian restaurant and got stuck into the local Cisk beer and enormous pizzas laden with loads of lovely toppings, at a very reasonable price too.

This morning we treated ourselves to a full English breakfast in the breakfast room, again very reasonable at €4 for everything. We then saw our rep briefly before heading to the bus station to buy a weekly ticket and hop on a bus for our first island adventure. Sadly the characterful Maltese buses have just been replaced and Arriva have taken over, and are operating all of the island’s services with modern buses. This is a little problematical as all the walks in our walk book tell you which of the old buses to catch and the new ones are different. The changes are all so recent that no timetables or route maps are available, so we will have to be ingenious. Fortunately everyone speaks English and seems to want to help, so it is easy to ask.

Find out where we went next time.

Lots of love the Malteser Bears xxx

Being British: Talking about the Weather

2012-01-21T19:17:00.006Z

So how have you all fared with the recent rather varied weather patterns? In true British fashion it's given us plenty to talk about.

We were disappointed bears on Tuesday, when the frosty weather meant that the racing at Fakenham had to be abandoned due to a frozen course. Naturally we didn't want any horses hurt, so it was completely the right decision, but we had so been looking forward to wearing our members badges, that, as you will recall from a recent post, we were thrilled to receive for Christmas. Never mind, hopefully they'll be able to re-arrange the event soon, and we would have got very cold watching if it had gone ahead.

Closer to home, the recent gales have wreaked a fair amount of havoc in the garden.

The most obvious damage is that we now have 3 fence panels down giving our garden rather more than an open plan feel that we would like.

We're now able to see right through to the churchyard we adjoin; at least our the neighbours are quiet and don't have dogs!

We will need to send a work party out soon to do some repairs as gardening bear Tommy is worried that there will be plants underneath that might be squashed and will certainly be wanting some light. On the plus side, under the fence panel will be a nice sheltered area for any animals needing a warm and dry place to rest. Fortunately the flat panel just missed a clump of snowdrops and some good news is that the aconites, Tommy's favourites seem to be spreading with a new clump close to a bit of fence that is still standing ...

We've decided that we need to escape to warmer climes, so this week, many of us will be heading off on a new adventure, to research a new chapter for the Friendly Planet Guide. We can't wait.

Lots of love, all at Bears Unlimited xxx

Chelmer's Nature Notes Returns

2012-01-14T18:28:00.008Z

It's been quite a while hasn't it readers? but here I am, back with one of my nature notes.

For followers of Springwatch, when I say that Curly and I went to Pensthorpe yesterday, you'll know exactly what I'm referring to. For the uninitiated, Pensthorpe is a nature reserve with ponds and gardens and its a place where a lot of fantastic conservation work is done. Happily for us, its only just down the road from our bear cave.

It was a bit too cold yesterday for the full tour, so we just went along for the 3.00 p.m. winter bird feed. This is great, as visitors get to sit in the warm in a viewing gallery, with big glass windows looking out onto a large pond, while a warden goes out to feed the birds, talking through a headset so we can hear his commentary. When all the food has been scattered, he then comes back in to join us to talk some more about the birds and the fantastic work they do at Pensthorpe, including breeding red squirrels (aaaah!)

The warden spotted Curly and me straight away and commented about the bears at the window. After we said 'hello', he said he would address his comments directly to us so we felt very privileged.

As we waited for the feed to start, it was very clear that the birds knew exactly what was going to happen as they were all flying in and swimming in and jostling for pole position on the bank. There were 2 rather bully boy ruddy ducks who thought the bank where the feeding took place was their's and did their best to see others off, but they were outnumbered by the crowds.

The sheer variety of water fowl was amazing and we learnt lots of interesting facts. Our favourites were the bar headed geese and the smew, but we also rather liked the puma teal with its interesting blue beak. Bar headed geese in the wild fly from Tibet over the Himalayas to India, so are real high altitude fliers, but of course the captive bred geese at Pensthorpe weren't able to chat with us about their impressions of Everest.

This amazing experience cost us just £3 so, if you're in North Norfolk before the end of February we strongly recommend a visit to Pensthorpe to see the winter bird feed.

Lots of love, Chelmer and Curly xxx

Simply Great Presents

2012-01-07T17:34:00.007Z

We are very lucky bears; we never fail to get lovely presents for Christmas and we can always tell that a lot of thought and love has gone into their selection. Of course we fully appreciate that Christmas is not about presents - except for the one that really counts - but when friends and family have given us such marvelous gifts it is good to appreciate and enjoy them.

While all of our presents were special, there were 2 this year that were a little unusual and caused great excitement.

The first was a gift to boating bear Eddie, and here he is explaining it to his friend and assistant, able seabear Louis ...

... it is a clock, but not a clock as most bears know it. It is a tide clock, with one purpose only, to count up, or down, the hours to high tide and low tide. When you live is an area like North Norfolk which is riddled with marshes and creeks, it is essential to know when high tide is, otherwise you might go out to your boat only to find it high and dry on a mud flat. Eddie is out in his seal boat most days, so will be spending a lot of time looking at his tide clock. He says he thinks it looks great, with its boat picture, as well as being a very useful and practical present.

Our next present was given to us by our minders and their families and it is a present for every member of the Norfolk Branch. Have a look at what Ungi and Blue Bear are wearing round their necks ...

... and you might see they are wearing green and yellow metal badges which are Fakenham Racecourse members badges for 2012. With them we will be able to go to all National Hunt race meetings at Fakenham, and also to many meetings at other courses. We'll be able to access all areas, even the posh stand, and can even park in a special members car park. As horse racing is a fairly new hobby and interest for us, we are all thrilled by this gift and it will give us many hours of pleasure.

We hope you, our readers, received equally special presents - we're sure you did.

Lots of love from all at Bears Unlimited xxx

Best Wishes for 2012

2012-01-01T17:48:00.009Z

A very Happy New Year to our readers from all of us at Bears Unlimited.

We hope you all had a thoroughly enjoyable Christmas and were able to catch up with friends and family as we did. We had a marvelous time at our Midlands rendezvous. The Midlands branch were excellent hosts and welcomed us Norfolk branch members with open paws, along with our Suffolk branch friends and cousins.

We had lots of lovely food and drink and some good walks to work it off and we also had a trip out to the races at Leicester.

One of our Christmas traditions is to see how a particular statue, at the crossroads in the nearby village of Dunchurch, has been decorated. The statue is normally of Lord John Douglas Montague Scott, a 19th century landlord and Scottish M.P., but each Christmas mystery pranksters dress it up as a well known cartoon or TV character. This year it was ...

... a smurf, and a very fine smurf they had made of Lord Scott. As a birthday treat we chose Noel to pose with the smurf for a photo.

As we had been away for quite a few days, one of our first jobs on returning home, was to go shopping to replenish our store cupboards. We were thrilled to find huge bags of sprouts on sale in Morrisons for just 5p. What an absolute bargain. When we got home we put them all in a washing up bowl and it more than half filled it ...

... believe us, the depth of sprouts was a lot greater than it looks in our picture.
Fortunately many paws make light work and we managed to get them all peeled while watching the Top Gear Christmas special on iPlayer - not sure how we missed it.

Chef Oakley has been quite busy researching sprout soup, and other recipes. Tonight we are having roasted sprout and potato bubble and squeak with our casserole. It sounds lovely as we are all big fans of sprouts.

Lots of love, all at Bears Unlimited xxx

P.S. just weighed the peeled sprouts and there are nearly 4 lbs!

Seasons Greetings

2011-12-22T20:35:00.005Z

We did appreciate the Suffolk branch's seasonal post and it seems like it is all happening down in Suffolk. It's a good job Polly and her team are on hand to keep order. Here in Norfolk we are having a more traditional run up to Christmas and we're all looking forward to the big day on Sunday.

We have been to several sessions of carol singing, with more still to come. We particularly enjoyed an evening of traditional carols that we went to in one of our churches last Saturday evening. Two local folk musicians played us carols from the 1800s on some very old instruments: violin, hurdy gurdy, flute and Scandinavian bagpipes. They also sang and it was stirring stuff which transported us right back to the time of Thomas Hardy and Under the Greenwood Tree. We regretted the fact that many of the old carols have gone out of circulation, as we would have preferred to sing them, rather than some of the Victorian classics that are rather hackneyed nowadays.

The church was beautifully decorated and we had a good look round in the interval, while enjoying a glass of mulled wine and, no less than game pie and mince pies.

The next morning we were back in the same church for our Sunday morning service. We love the tiny Christmas tree which is a real one, and bear sized. As Gio peered over to see what was in the crib we had the same experience as the Suffolk branch - that of discovering that the baby Jesus had already arrived - or was it a stunt double, standing in until Sunday?

We are all looking forward to our multi branch re-union over the Christmas break. I'm sure we'll have lots of fun and much to report on, but until then, we wish all our readers a happy and peaceful Christmas.

Lots of love, all at Bears Unlimited xxx

Christmas Greetings from Suffolk

2011-12-20T20:59:00.006Z

Hi everyone

Christmas came early in Suffolk - as you can see from our nativity scene baby Jesus has been born already and traffic officers were on hand with their first aid kit to give him the once over, as post natal care probably wasn't great in Bethlehem all those years ago. Polly was concerned that the wise men had arrived a little prematurely so she set up a road block and was fending them off in order to let the shepherds have plenty of time to visit without crowding out baby Jesus.

However, Polly then got some Police intell about Herod's nefarious plans so she quickly took up an observation post on the roof of the stable and fired a warning taser shot to see Herod off.

Unfortunately this woke up baby Jesus so other members of Suffolk Branch gathered under the Christmas tree, and after sharing their mulled wine and mince pies with him, they lulled him back to sleep with some carols.

Happy Christmas everyone!

House Sitting Can Be Such Fun

2011-12-17T16:47:00.008Z

Just for a change, it's Blue Bear and Ungi here readers. While Gio, Pedro, George and Yorkie were away with our minders, walking the Camino, we had a very important job to do. We were looking after the house which includes our Bear Cave. As I, Blue Bear, am so big, our minders think I make a very good security guard and it is certainly true that I have a very deep growl, which I can make sound quite threatening, if I want to.

As well as looking after the house, we also did a bit of car sitting for a friend. The car we looked after, and still do from time to time, is a rather special car, especially for such a car enthusiast as me. It is a Austin Healey with a 'B' plate which makes it pretty old - 48 years in fact - many times old than me, and even older than Ungi!

As you can see it is a fantastic red model - what better colour can there be for a classic sports car? And on a nice day we can fold back the roof and go for a spin with the wind ruffling our fur.

As you might expect we turn quite a few heads when we go out in this car, affectionately known to us as 'Vroom'. We'd like to think this is because we cut such fine figures behind the wheel/windscreen, but it probably has as much to do with the fantastic throaty engine roar and the classic good looks of the car.

Being able to drive and look after this magnificent car was seventh heaven for me and I can honestly say I wasn't envious of the Camino walkers. I'd much rather have been behind the wheel of Vroom, which I was.

The current wintry weather and dark evenings means Vroom stays firmly tucked up in his owner's garage. I can't wait for the spring when I'll hopefully be allowed to take him out again. Before then we'll have to find Ungi a better booster seat as the wooden Rioja case he was sitting on to give him a good view, was apparently a bit uncomfortable!

Lots of love, Blue Bear and Ungi.

And to Finish ...

2011-12-08T14:15:00.009Z

How do you finish the tale of such a great adventure, that has been a major influence on my life for the past 3 years, if not longer? I've been thinking long and hard, and there's no easy way to do it.

I think I'll just share a last selection of photos that have escaped the blog so far, and offer a few random bear thoughts to go with them.

The path of the camino has some lovely sections and some not so lovely, but if it were all the same, it wouldn't be half as interesting.

I did enjoy sections like the one in my first photo ...

We'd be walking through a woodland glade, with the sun shining through, enjoying a soft dirt track under our paws and some nice easy walking. And then, we'd come across a group of pilgrims having a picnic by a small stream. We would realise we knew them as companions along the way, and pause for a few friendly words. You might find it hard to see them behind my minder, but there were pilgrim picnicers there.

In fact, among that particular group of picnicers, were a lovely Dutch couple, minders of someone who became a good camino friend of George, Yorkie and myself. This was none other than Artis de Partis, who you see with me in my next photo (we were actually outside Santiago cathedral at the time).

I feel quite ashamed now that in an earlier post, before I got to know him, I referred to Artis as a strange creature! He is of interesting appearance, but that's as far as strange goes. He is delightful and has a very interesting life as the mascot of Amsterdam's Artis zoo. He is very well travelled and, if you look at the zoo's website you will see pictures of Artis all over the world. I'm sure a picture of him in Santiago will be appearing soon.

We'd like to visit Amsterdam before too long and, when we go, we will visit the zoo and look up Artis.

But back to the camino and another lovely quirk of the route. On more than one occasion we saw these adaptations to the sign used to warn motorists to drive carefully as the road was shared with the camino path.

We felt that the addition of the hair and skirt was graffiti at it's best - adding humour and not destroying the original. Everytime we saw it, it put a smile on our faces.

We didn't have a smile on our faces though, when we were woken in the middle of the night at the Rabanal alberque, by pilgrims getting up at about 5.00 a.m. to start walking in darkness. However, as we'd been woken up we also made an early start, setting out at 7.30 a.m. - even then it was still dark. We did feel it was worth it though to be able to see our beautiful surrounds gradually revealed by a lovely sunrise.

We concluded that perhaps every pilgrim should see at least one sunrise, and lots of sunsets (more of the latter as these don't require the early starts!)

Finally, for me, it was having such wonderful walking campanions as George, Yorkie and Pedro, that made our walk special. They may be veteran travellers, far better travelled than me, but they are definitely not travel weary and always take a great delight in each new day on the road.

Yorkie will always be Yorkie though, and here he is being thoroughly typical: trust him to find the biggest bottles of wine and beer on the camino. It isn't just that Yorkie's small, these were seriously big bottles ...

... the wine bottle must have held nearly a gallon. We couldn't take it with us though as we were carrying all our own gear: one of the things that makes a pilgrim a true pilgrim rather than simply a plastic one.

But I won't set off on that hobby horse again, so it's time to end. I hope you enjoyed travelling with us to Santiago via the blog.

We don't have a new adventure to report yet, but we'll be back soon with news of life in the Bear Cave.

Lots of love Gio, on behalf of the Camino bears xxx

Gio's Signage Selection

2011-11-27T12:54:00.012Z

Sorry for recent blog silence, but we've all got jigsaw addiction and when you start puzzling, evenings disappear before you know it!

But back to the Camino, It never ceases to amaze me that I can set off on a walk of several hundred miles without a proper map, and not get lost.

That this is possible, is all due to the amazing sign posting along the way. The traditional yellow arrow painted onto features (hopefully permanent ones!) indicating the way ahead, is the simplest and oldest way mark. It is all that is needed and works perfectly. You can't imagine the good feeling and reassurance that seeing your next yellow arrow brings.

On our recent trip there was just one place where more yellow arrows are needed and this was in the heart of the large town of Ponferrada. Normally, unless there is no other direction to go but ahead, you can see your next arrow. In Ponferrada there were stretches where this was not the case, and we had to keep going hoping and trusting another yellow arrow would appear; thankfully it always did!

While a yellow arrow is all that is needed, as the camino has got busier, the signage has got more sophisticated. Invariably the modern signs still include the yellow arrow, but they also include the traditional camino emblem of the cockleshell, appearing rather attractively and significantly as a sunburst.

The forms these twin emblems of the camino take are many and varied. Here are some of my favourites starting with the wall mounted tile, beautifully simple:

There were lots of these pseudo trig points along the way:

They were very good for seeing some way off and they also provided a fine perching point for a rest. The drawback was that they tended to attract a lot of graffiti - clearly many find the simple white background irresistible.

Occasionally we'd come across a 'one-off', seemingly the creation of the local municipality, and these were great as no two were ever the same.

I particularly liked the wooden ones as they always gave the impression of being hand made by a local craftsman.

However, these wooden ones, resembling the footpath signs at home, didn't seem to have quite the same touch of a craftsman. Mind you, by now we were getting very close to Santiago and, the closer we got, the less individual the signs seemed to be.

These last signs, however, were rather special as they appeared on the streets of Santiago leading up to the cathedral.

It was a good job that there were so many of them as the cathedral failed to reveal itself until almost the last moment. It certainly wasn't a case of being led in by the spires; mind you with so many pilgrims to follow, we could hardly get lost.

Lots of love Gio and friends xxx

The Big One

2011-11-13T17:11:00.009Z

For any pilgrim, 'the big one' will always be the cathedral at Santiago. It is a fine church in it's own right, but, as the end point of the Camino, it has a significance far beyond it's outward appearance as a grand place of worship.

I always had the impression that the cathedral was the heart of Santiago and would dominate the city. We were therefore all very surprised that it took so long to catch our first glimpse of the famous towers. We seemed to have been walking through Santiago streets for ages before, all of a sudden, and completely unannounced, they suddenly appeared ...

I got very excited and even more so when, a few minutes later, it was there in front of me, in all it's splendour. What a facade! Despite the square being quite busy, I could have sat there in silence and admired it for ages.

However, the other chaps were keen to see inside so in we went. We weren't surprised by the rather ornate, and to us overdecorated, surrounds to the centrepiece of St James, but we were surprised that it was much smaller than it's outward facade implied.

There are 2 aspects to the cathedral that stay with you. Firstly, the botafumeiro; we talked about it at the time we were there, but none of us will every forget it's size, it's crazy swing and the ethereal singing from the amazing singing nun that accompanied it - simply awe inspiring.

The second lasting impression is that it is very much a shrine to St James. As a non Catholic, I kept wondering where Jesus was. St James was after all a disciple, not Jesus. I hunted around to see if I could find Jesus in the cathedral and I managed it, he was on the wall by one of the side doors. I still feel he should have far more prominence.

The cathedral takes on a whole dimension though, once you've picked up your Compostella. I was so pleased and proud when mine was awarded to me. There is no better place to have a picture taken with your compostela, than in front of the cathedral

I don't think I'd have felt the same way about the cathedral if I hadn't walked there. I can't imagine just flying into Santiago and going to visit. I guess I'm the lucky one, whose had the marvellous opportunity of walking there.

Lots of love Gio and my fellow camino bears xxx

Gio's Church Selection

2011-11-05T12:25:00.013Z

I'm sure you won't be too surprised to hear that we did visit one or two churches along the way. The numbers weren't as great as you might think, due to the fact that, as we found on our earlier trip, the Spanish do tend to keep their churches locked. It's a great shame.

Quite soon into this trip, we walked through the big city of Leon. The Camino took us right past the entrance to this magnificent cathedral ...

The office where we went to get a stamp for our pilgrim passports was just after the rather fine screen in our next picture...

The artwork was so intricate that there was almost too much to see. I concentrated on the colours instead as I'm a simple soul, and found some of the frills too much.

In contrast, I really loved the simplicity of the church at Rabanal. It was just outside the albergue we stayed at, run by the English Co-fraternity of St James. It was very old and very peaceful. When we arrived a French pilgrim was playing his recorder inside and it sounded wonderful.

A few days later we went into a church that was open and, while the church was not really to my taste, with a bit too much gold and heavy decoration, I was more pleased that you can imagine, to see my old friend St. Roch, with his dog, again. We saw St Roch quite a lot in France but only occasionally in Spain. He is the patron saint of pilgrims and was a similar sort of figure to St Francis of Assisi, so, with me being a Franciscan bear, there is an immediate affinity.

You'll always know if you've seen St Roche as he always has his very distinctive thigh wound and the dog who saved his life by bringing him food when he was sick, at his feet.

We'll talk a bit more about the big one, Santiago Cathedral, next time.

Lots of love Gio xxx

Gio's Cross Selection

2011-10-30T17:48:00.006Z

Some of you might remember that on stage 1 of our walk, I accumulated quite a collection of very different cross photos. I photographed a few more during part 2 of our walk. I like to see crosses along the way as they remind me that I am on no ordinary walk, but on one of the world's great religious pilgrimages.

Crosses by roads are good, as they speak not only to the pilgrims on the route, but also to drivers and other passers by who can't help but notice them as they go about their daily business.

My first cross was located beside the road out of the town of Astorga. I like it's simple nature and I always like crosses made of wood. I also liked the seat I had at the bottom and I found it useful to have a little map of the villages that were coming up on the way.

My next cross is a city centre one. It was located close to the centre of Leon and I liked the fact that it was there in the midst of all the traffic and hustle and bustle of the city. I think there should be more crosses, like this one, in a very different location to a church building.

My final cross was not in a town or a city, but was delightfully situated in a rural setting. It was a beautiful stone cross, in a small wood, just to the left of the camino. My guidebook told me it was very old, 17th century in fact. It was typical of many crosses in Galicia in that it had figures carved on both sides: Christ on the cross on one side, and Mary on the other.

It was a very tranquil spot so I lingered for a few moments to soak up the peace and sense of history.

Lots of love, Gio xxx

Our Art Selection

2011-10-26T20:47:00.007+01:00

While we were away on our pilgrimage, you had lots of words from us and less pictures that usual. It's now time to redress the balance and share a few pictures with just a few explanatory words.

Here are the first 3 we have selected, on the subject of artwork.

Within minutes of setting foot back in Sahagun, the starting point for this trip and end point of our last trip, we were greeting our old friend St James, without whom there would be no Camino. He does seem to change his appearance quite a bit along the way, and here comes across as quite a lean and gaunt figure ,and we always think it looks like he has his shopping bag with him. It was nearly 2 years since we stood in this very place beside this particular St James, and we can't describe how good it was to see him again, even though we weren't too sure about the yellow eyes which he has gained since we last saw him.

A few miles down the road, in a small village, was this wonderful agricultural scene, carefully worked in metal ...

Yorkie and I were quite tempted to ask for a lift, but it was a bit soon in our walk and anyway, Gio, our pilgrimage leader, would never have allowed it. He was determined to walk every step of the way and we couldn't help but be inspired by his passion and commitment. We were there to walk, and walk we would.

After a lot of walking, every pilgrim needs a rest and our next sculpture showed us just how to do it. We wasted no time in following this pilgrim's fine example and resting our paws and eyelids.

We loved the spot chosen for this rest. It was right outside one of the most impressive and expensive paradors in Spain. We knew we couldn't afford to sleep inside it, but we did enjoy our snooze outside it.

More pictures to come.

Lots of love, George, Yorkie and Gio xxx

Home Again

2011-10-16T17:29:00.010+01:00

As you can probably tell from the fact that our posts have stopped, we're safely back home and caught up in the usual daily grind.

We actually returned to the Bear Cave at 1.15 a.m. on Monday morning, then, a few short hours later, it was back to work, to do our part to keep the wheels of Bears Unlimited turning.

We've been so busy telling our friends and colleagues all about our trip that we haven't had too much time yet to reflect on our trip and what it means for us.

However, a friend and fellow pilgrim Luc, from Belgium, did email us some words that we strongly agree with. We met and walked with Luc 2 years ago and while he wasn't with us in body this time, he was travelling with us in spirit and said he 'would follow us on our trip to the field of the stars on the road that never ends'.

And he is quite right; the physical road may have ended for now, but the journey has not. While we were in the church at O Cebreiro, we came across the following prayer, written by a Franciscan relative of Gio's which we found very moving. It says far better that we ever could, what walking the camino, and returning from it, is all about, so here it is ...

Prayer of La Faba

'Although I may have travelled all the roads,
crossed mountains and valleys from East to West,
if I have not discovered the freedom to be myself,
I have arrived nowhere.

Although I may have shared all of my possessions
with people of other languages and cultures;
made friends with Pilgrims of a thousand paths,
or shared albergue with saints and princes,
if I am not capable of forgiving my neighbour tomorrow,
I have arrived nowhere.

Although I may have carried my pack from beginning to end
and waited for every Pilgrim in need of encouragement,
or given my bed to one who arrived later than I,
given my bottle of water in exchange for nothing;
if upon returning to my home and work,
I am not able to create brotherhood
or to make happiness, peace and unity,
I have arrived nowhere.

Although I may have had food and water each day,
and enjoyed a roof and shower every night;
or may have had my injuries well attended,
if I have not discovered in all that the love of God,
I have arrived nowhere.

Although I may have seen all the monuments
and contemplated the best sunsets;
although I may have learned a greeting in every language;
or tried the clean water from every fountain;
if I have not discovered who is the author
of so much free beauty and so much peace,
I have arrived nowhere.

If from today I do not continue walking on your path,
searching for and living according to what I have learned;
if from today I do not see in every person, friend or foe
a companion on the Camino;
if from today I cannot recognize God,
the God of Jesus of Nazareth
as the one God of my life,
I have arrived nowhere.'

We've lots more pictures and a few more tales to share with you in the next post or two.

Bye for now,

Love from the Camino Bears xxx

Time to Go Home

2011-10-09T08:00:00.001+01:00

Today we're going home, although not until this evening. We will be spending the day in Santiago before going to the airport we've already walked round.

I'm sure lots of interesting things will happen today, but you may have to wait for a report, as hopefully we'll be airborne at our usual typing and posting time.

We'll be back soon though.

Love from the Compostella bears xxx

Worth the Wait

2011-10-08T22:40:00.002+01:00

As we sat up late last night watching Gavin & Stacey, there were lots of loud bangs as the town was showered with fireworks as part of the fiesta celebrations.

After breakfast we headed out, and this time the Tourist Information office was open, so we could get a map. The lady inside congratulated us on our Spanish which pleased us no end.

Armed with our map we walked for a good 2 hours round a headland, keeping the sea on our right. There was lots to see and some lovely tracks, and the locals were out in force jogging along them. Much of the coast was rocky but from time to time we came across a lovely sandy cove. On the higher land were all sorts of sculptures, including a mini Stonehenge and a real (old) lighthouse.

Around 1.00 pm the sun was quite strong and people started to come down for a swim. We stopped on a sandy beach which was steeply shelving so there was some great surf. We sunbathed and paddled and had great fun.

Spanish Pedro acted as our tour guide and showed us a really lifelike sculpture of some surfers. We could almost feel those muscles flexing.

We had a late lunch then a long walk to the railway station, but at least we knew where we were going this time.

On the way we were able to get a big bottle of Fa cologne which pleased our female minder no end and lots of pimenton (for Rick Stein recipes) which pleased our male minder.

We caught the 15:45 train back to Santiago and checked back into our friendly Pension Alfonso. It felt like coming home and we were given the room above our last one, with possibly an even better view of the cathedral.

We knew there was a mass at 6.00 pm so we went back to the cathedral to find standing room only at the sides, but the botafumeiro back in place over the altar.

We sat patiently at the bottom of a pillar waiting to see if there would be any signs of imminent use. During a long sermon in Gallician we concluded that nothing was going to happen and snook out. The next things that happened must surely have involved some divine intervention.

We went first to the Pilgrims' Office and then to Tourist Info to see if we could get information on when the botafumeiro would be swung. We gave up as either there was a long queue or there was no-one there.

We started to walk further away from the cathedral and met our Austrian/Norwegian friend coming the other way. We knew he had seen the botafumeiro twice on Thursday so asked him when in the service it was used. Our male minder had thought it would be early, before the Gospel, but our friend said, no, it was at the end.

We looked at our watches and thought, we could be missing it right now. We hastily retraced our steps and re-entered the cathedral towards the end of the distribution of the mass (the cathedral remains open to visitors during the services). As chance would have it, we ended up following 3 men in maroon robes, who from the look of them had to be botafumeiro operators. They were heading towards the ropes so we followed them. More strong looking men in maroon robes appeared on the other side.

The priest then said something about the botafumeiro and it was slowly lowered. A dish of burning coals was put into the bottom and then a visiting priest from America (whose group probably paid for it to be swung) blessed the incense and put it on the hot coals.

The botafumeiro was then raised and one man gave it it's initial swing. Once it was going 8 men then started pulling on their spiders web of ropes and it got faster and faster and the arc greater. We had seem it on film before, but the reality far exceeded all expectations. We could only describe the swing of that censer as absolutely crazy. We really thought it might go through the roof and we could quite understand how it has gone flying out the doors in past history. It almost gave us vertigo watching it and the power of it's swing was quite frightening, given how packed the cathedral was. It was also quite surreal seeing all the priests standing there with it passing in front of them.

When the 8 rope operators stopped pulling, the arc of the swing started to decrease but it took a while to slow down to an almost stop. One of the men went to grab the chain and, although it looked as if had almost stopped, it still swung him completely round. It was then raised again and the main rope secured. This most amazing and awesome spectacle was then over. We could understand why it had to be done at the end of the service. It was so spectacular that no-one would be able to concentrate on the mass after seeing it.

We felt so lucky to have seen it in action, especially when we heard that it had not been used at the midday mass today. What a good thing that we bumped into our Austrian friend. It is just a shame that it seems to be the case that you see it if a group has paid for it. This is a form of bribery of which we do not approve.

After this excitement we went for a beer and then a lovely meal. We then went back to the cathedral square to hear more tuna music. The square was half full of Porsche cars, which amounts to an awful lot of cars. There was clearly some special event going on and no doubt the owners were all staying at the Parador the other side of the square.

While listening to the amazing tuna music we were joined by our American friend Christina, last seen in Sarria waiting to be joined by her husband. It was lovely to see her again and to meet Jim.

What an exciting day we've had.

Love from the Compostella bears xxx

Being Pilgrim Tourists

2011-10-07T21:54:00.001+01:00

Oh dear, we've been typing throughout the day committing all the exciting events of today to keyboard, and, in a slip of a paw - no idea what we did - it's all gone, and we're just left with a capital T on the screen. Absolute growls of frustration have been let loose!

So what had we been saying? Firstly we'd commended the excellent breakfast at our B&B. Bread & honey, salami and ham , juice, coffee and fried eggs and toast were provided in abundance
and, when we tried to pay our host, he would have none of it, telling us to pay when we return for our second night tomorrow. How trusting!

We made our way from our B&B to the cathedral, arriving an hour early so we could get a good seat in the pilgrim area. We ended up in the second row in front of the altar. By the time the midday service started, the cathedral was packed out, with standing room only for many pilgrims.

It was a good, simple service, with 3 critical phrases in English which made all the difference. Singing was led by a nun with a lovely kind face and we were pleased to recognise the Taize chant of 'Ubi Caritas'. We were also pleased to recognise the priest from Rabanal who had led the compline service we had attended. Sadly, not only was the botafumeiro not swung today, it had even been removed. Perhaps this was because it was Friday.

The numbers of pilgrims arriving from each country are read out, along with a list of starting points. We definitely heard Le Puy and we think it was 26 from the UK, although we were listening out for England, not the UK.

After the mass we spoke to
lots of pilgrim friends who had kept us company on our journey. We were also reacquainted with our friend from Amsterdam zoo and we know his name now, it's Artis de Parvis (picture to follow -taken on wrong camera!).

We then had a coffee and bocadillo before heading for the station to catch a train to A Coruna, for a change of scene an to see the sea. On arrival we gave A Coruna the lead paw award for lack of maps and direction signs. We had no idea which direction to take and, after asking for directions, ended up in the commercial port area. We eventually found a map and made our way towards the centre/marina area, only to find the 2 Tourist Information offices closed, even though they should have been open.

By chance we found ourselves a nice Hostal then headed for the marina, noticing that everything was closed. As we sat having a beer, the reason soon became apparent: it was a festival day. The police closed the road in front of us and we heard sounds of a marching band. We went to investigate and found a procession complete with the carriage of Our Lady of Fatima, patroness of the city. We had never seen anything like it. There were 2 bands with drums, trumpets and bagpipes, ladies in black mantillas and high heels, a full choir, police, church officials and Mary on her trolley being steered by 6 men. It was fascinating and a real Spanish experience. We followed the procession for a good half an hour and it was still going strong when we left it.

We then walked round the marina and timed our arrival with the departure of the biggest cruise ship we had ever seen. The city had suddenly become a whole lot more interesting and we were really glad we had come.

An excellent Italian meal this evening has further given us a good opinion of La Coruna.

Time for bed now.

Love from the Compostella bears xxx

Arrival Part 2

2011-10-07T12:43:00.001+01:00

Our first action after our initial visit to the cathedral was to go to the Pilgrim's Office to collect our minders' final Cathedral stamps and their Compostellas. Our ones will come through a special bears' Pilgrim office. If you use the link to our minders' blog, you will see them with their Compostellas.

We then went to find our accommodation and here we really had landed on our paws. It is very like a nice English B & B and our host is a very charming and amusing man and he is keen to practice his English. Our room really does have a great view of the cathedral, it is much more than a mere glimpse.

We went to find some lunch, a tasty Spanish hamburger, then returned to the cathedral for a proper look round ...

... and to observe some of the traditions including going behind the statue of St James to give him a hug. His neck was a bit big for me (Gio) but I put my paws round as much as I could.

We then went down into the crypt to see the remains of St James and 2 of his disciples in a silver reliquary. It was quite a thought that we could have been in the presence of the remains of someone who went about with Jesus.

We also saw the famous botafumeiro (censer) hanging above the altar. The keen eyed might have noticed it hanging above me in yesterday's, inside the cathedral, photo. Someone pointed out the ropes controlling it and I was lucky enough to be allowed a small swing.

We spent the rest of the day strolling round and sitting in cafes soaking up the atmosphere. At 10.00 pm we went to hear local university musicians, dressed up in medieval academic dress, playing and singing traditional songs. It was a fantastic sound and a great end to a special day.

Love from the Compostella bears xxx

Hemos Llegado (We're here!)

2011-10-06T22:07:00.001+01:00

Today has been very exciting for all of us as it has been the culmination of many hours, days and weeks of paw pounding the Camino.

We didn't have an early start this morning as we had a late night last night. The sociable Nowegians kept us talking in the restaurant until late, then we had diaries to write and posts to finish so it was nearly midnight before we went to bed.

As a result we had our latest start of this leg of the Camino and didn't set off until nearly 9.00 am. We started with quite a steep climb through eucalyptus woods, the first of many climbs that faced us today. We didn't mind though, as every step was taking us closer to Santiago.

The first major landmark was the airport and we skirted the runway on 2 sides. We will fly out of it on Sunday, and it was strange to be there before we'd even reached Santiago.

A little while later we had a fairly late but decent breakfast, with reasonably sized bits of toasted baguette. After this, we were ready for the final approach.

Monte del Gozo was the next stop. We climbed up to the modern sculpture, from where we should have had our first glimpse of the towers of the cathedral of Santiago. There was nothing to see but the modern suburbs of Santiago. Too many trees have grown since Medieval pilgrim times! The big excitement for us was that Galician TV were there filming pilgrims. Yorkie had let slip that this was a very special day for our pilgrimage leader Gio.

We started to descend into Santiago, passing the huge albergue which can accommodate 3,000 pilgrims at busy times. It all started to remind us of the walk into Leon. Although Santiago has a very small historic centre, it has extensive modern suburbs.

Eventually we reached the town sign ...

... next stop the cathedral. It seemed an awful long time until, at last, we had our first glimpse, then, just minutes later we were looking not just at the cathedral in all it's glory, but many of our friends that we'd met along the way: what a great moment.

The midday pilgrim mass had just finished, so it was quite busy in the square, but was a good time for us to join paws and enter the home of St James who has been inspiring and motivating us for so long.

We'll tell you about the rest of our day in our next post.

Lots of love, the Compostella bears xxx

Skol!

2011-10-05T22:14:00.001+01:00

Santiago draws ever closer and we shall be there tomorrow lunchtime, God willing. We think we have 15 to 17 km left to walk, (about 10 miles) but all the guides fail to agree the distance from Amenal, where we currently are. As before, one of the problems is that there is another choice of routes into the city tomorrow. Even the marker posts, every 0.5 km are about to stop mentioning kms to go, so they can be re-set and start counting accurately again.

We did think about trying to rush to the Cathedral for the midday Pilgrims Mass, but we're not going to now, for 2 reasons:

a) this will be the end of over 960 miles of walking and we feel we need to savour those final few clicks and not hurry them.

b) at the midday mass, the names of those registering for their compostella the previous day are read out, so it is the Friday mass we really want to be at.

Today has been quite a relaxed day and nobody has been hurrying. This is because there is a sudden gap in the supply of the pilgrim albergue accommodation, with none now until the one on top of a hill looking down on Santiago, just 5 km away. As we're staying in rooms, rather than albergues, we are now 4.5 km ahead of the rest of the pack, although we know a nice Norwegian couple are also here, and I'm sure other pilgrims will be too (P.S. they are).

Before breakfast we walked with a nice American man who lives in South Africa. Time passed very quickly while we were chatting about all the caminos he has done. It seems that camino walking can be quite addictive. We are already talking about where to go next.

As we neered the small town of Arca we came across an information booth staffed by a very helpful young man who would book you any accommodation you wanted particularly in Santiago. He was operating a booking service on behalf of the Santiago hoteliers.

You told him what you wanted, where you wanted it, and in what price bracket and he sorted it all for you. And so, we, very usefully, got our accommodation for tonight booked and also for Thursday night and Saturday night in Santiago. He has booked us a 2* pension, very close to the cathedral, and it certainly looks very nice and cheaper than an English B&B.

Rather than spend 3 days in Santiago we think we will take the train to La Coruna on Friday afternoon, overnight there, then come back on Saturday. It will be good to get some sea air after the dust of the Camino. We already have the train times thanks to the man in the information office.

At one time we did think about trying to make up a 2nd extra day so we could continue to Finisterra, but it seems it requires some hard additional walking and, to make up an extra day in this extreme heat when paws are sore, just seemed too much, so we will save Finisterre for a separate mini break.

We have only one small growl at the moment. Our accommodation, which is out of town, closed it's bar and restaurant at 5.30 until 8.00 pm. We were just in time to get some beer in bottles to take out but other pilgrims are wandering round hungry and thirsty. This is actually a hotel and it is now full (of pilgrims) so we are a little surprised.

After a growl, we've also had a laugh at the following translation on the reception desk ...

... yes, it is supposed to be English. Spanish Pedro is a little ashamed of his countrymens' linguistic skills.

When 8.00 pm came round we had a very good meal taken with, none other than 4.5 Norwegians.* The half was a half Austrian man. Only on the Camino could this happen. You have to prepare to expect the unexpected!

Lots of love, the Camino bears xxx

* the coincidence was that this was not a single party of Nowegians, but 3 separate groups, who did not know each other and had completely independently chosen this accommodation.

Only a Marathon Away

2011-10-04T20:33:00.001+01:00

This evening we are in Arzua and so are lots of people we haven't seen for a while, or who had planned to be further ahead, and we thought we wouldn't see again. It's certainly been fun renewing acquaintances.

We've also seen some people who we felt very sorry for last night as they were limping so badly they could hardly walk. Considering Palas de Rei to here is an 18 mile stage, they've either made a good recovery, which we very much hope is the case, or they must have had some 4 wheeled assistance!

Talking of 4 wheeled assistance, the mild mannered Gio nearly turned graffiti artist today. He got very upset by all the adverts for taxis that kept cropping up along the way and wanted to scribble out the numbers, so that pilgrims wouldn't be led astray and be tempted to cheat. We reminded him that true pilgrims wouldn't cheat in the critical last 100 km., but he was worried about the p.p.s, the plastic pilgrims.

On the subject of plastic pilgrims, we were quite amused by the behaviour we noticed while having breakfast at a private albergue this morning. The albergue was located about 3.5 km after Palas de Rei. We were the only customers, yet streams of 'new' pilgrims were going past and collecting a stamp (sellos) for their pilgrim passports, as the stamp was outside.

Now we know that the rules say that pilgrims doing only the final 100 km get an overnight stamp, and at least one from along the way, but they really want church stamps. To be madly collecting a stamp from a bar that they haven't even had a drink in, seems to us to be a complete waste of time. Needless to say we didn't get a stamp from our breakfast bar, even though we had been customers, but got 3 church stamps instead.

The walk today was quite like that of recent days, but our guide said we crossed 6 river valleys, and it certainly felt like it, as there were a lot of ups an downs.

As a yellow arrow is the Spanish camino waymark, we really liked this yellow arrow made of scallop shells, the Camino's emblem ...

We got a room at the first pension, attached to an albergue, that we tried, so we are safely accommodated this evening. Santiago is now just 26 miles away, an English marathon, not that we will get there tomorrow. There is no hurry now and it's far too hot to hurry, but we can enjoy the anticipation.

Lots of love, the Camino bears xxxx

For those who prefer Miles ...

2011-10-03T17:27:00.001+01:00

It was still dark when we left Portomarin this morning, after saying goodbye to the very nice Manuel, in whose albergue we had a very good overnight stay. We did need earplugs though as there were a few howling dogs about.

We didn't realise how many pilgrims were ahead of us until we got to a place called Gonzar, after about 8 km. This was the first place, after Portomarin, that you could get breakfast and it was very crowded, as nearly everyone stopped there. The early arrivals must have walked a long way in the dark, and this continues to baffle us, as we find the 15 minutes or so that we do in the dark, to get us out of town, more than enough.

The mix of nationalities that are walking is quite something. Germans are in abundance, there are plenty of French, plus Dutch, Irish, Fins, Swiss, Americans, Canadians, South Africans, Aussies & Kiwis, Brazilians, Spanish, Orientals (can't be more precise) and some English, including a rather alternative type (bald with a tuft of hair and bivvying every night) who has apparently walked from Manchester.

Over breakfast we chatted to a Dutch couple that we have seen several times. They have an interesting knitted creature that is strapped to the side of the lady's rucksack. We've been wondering what it was for a few days; we're still not sure, but apparently he comes from Amsterdam Zoo and goes on holiday with various people and collects holiday snaps. He doesn't seem to say a lot, but the minders are very nice.

The days fall into a bit of a routine now and there is not so much new to report. From today, the new things are:

a) the increasing pilgrim traffic, a veritable pilgrim motorway

b) admiring the interesting structures for storing farm produce ...

c) passing the waymark that we believe equates to 50 miles to go

When we got to Palas de Rei, after just over 16 miles, we passed an information booth on the outskirts, staffed by a very nice lady who gave us a list of rooms and marked locations on a map. This was extremely helpful as we got a basic room at the first place she marked, and we also got an official town hall stamp from her for our credencials.

The stamps (sellos) are increasingly important now we are on the critical last 100 km. New pilgrims have to get at least 2 every day, preferably from churches, but it's no so important for us given our large collection.

It's currently after 6.00 pm and the temperature across the road at the pharmacy still shows 28 degrees. Apparently it may start to get cooler from tomorrow.

Just to rub the Midlands branch minders nose in it, every evening we get a 3 course pilgrim's menu that includes a bottle of wine for €9! It's good to be in a pilgrim friendly country. And the even better news is that the meals are bigger than they were 2 years ago, so we're not losing much weight.

Bye for now,

Love from the Camino bears xxx

Counting Down from 100

2011-10-02T19:47:00.001+01:00

How's the heatwave in England? It's very hot in Spain, but fortunately it only gets really hot after 2.00 pm. In fact, at just before 8.00 am today it was actually quite cool. Once again, we managed to get most of our walking done by 2.00 so our fur didn't get too hot and sticky. We do wonder how Midland Branch minders are faring in Mallorca, as they're a fair bit further south.

Sarria, our place of departure this morning, is the last place you can start walking from, and obtain a Compostella. In other words it's a little over 100 km from Santiago, and 100 km is the minimum distance for a Compostella.

Not surprisingly, there were a lot of people on the Way today. We're used to seeing pilgrims carrying all their gear and enjoy comparing the size of their packs to ours. Today was a bit different. There were lots of people with small day sacks and we have to say a lot of them seemed to be French. We call these people plastic pilgrims, as they're not quite the genuine article.

Today's route was not the best or the worst. There were no particularly memorable bits, although we did enjoy seeing more pilgrim brown cows and also some sheep wandering along the way - most of them in the wrong direction! The good thing was that our paws felt in the best shape they've been for a while. However, we nearly got concussed a few times from falling sweet chestnuts and acorns. Crash helmets might be a good idea now that autumn is upon us (despite the heatwave).

The 100 km to go marker post was a bit of an attraction, and everyone was stopping for a photo, so we had one too.

However, we know that the kms are understated by about 9, so we had another picture at the 91 km to go pillar, as this is more likely to be in the right position to indicate 100 kms to go.

Accommodation was not a problem today, as yesterday we bravely phone booked a private room in an albergue. Considering a dorm bunk at the same place costs €10, our private room with sheets and towels is an absolute steal at €25. We may not be so lucky tomorrow!

Lots of love, the Camino Bears xxx

P.S. We like Portomarin as there is unlocked wifi at the town hall - what a great idea.

Lost 2!!

2011-10-01T20:35:00.001+01:00

Oh dear we've done it again, we really must learn how to be techno bears. After another couple of hours of nimble pawed typing, our post has once again disappeared into the ether, lost forever.

It seems we are connecting to a router, but not to the internet, when we post. Our minder understands, and we think we do too now. We will have to be more careful in future.

Anyway, we have had a good day, although, as in England, we are sweltering in Sarria.

We came here via the huge Benedictine monastery of Samos, and had an interesting tour round.

When you see our next picture, I'm sure you'll agree it's a big space for 15 monks, although they also accommodate up to 90 pilgrims, just in one room though.

For the rest of our news, please see our link to our minders' blog -he doesn't make silly mistakes like us.

Love from the Camino Bears xxx

Lost (the post not us)!

2011-10-01T06:49:00.001+01:00

We did prepare a nice post for you from Tricastela, where we are tonight, but sadly there was a posting problem and it's disappeared into the ether!

So unless we get to meet you face to face you won't know about ...

- the brown cow pilgrims
- a tarmac free day, yippee!
- our Galician tuna pie lunch
- being driven off by a Spanish
lady (Olga) to Casa Olga where
she has pension rooms
- getting better aquainted with our
Irish friend Roisin

All in all it's been a good day, and we'll be happy to tell you more, any time.

Lots of love, the Camino bears xxxx

Bears at Altitude

2011-09-30T15:40:00.001+01:00

Right now it would almost be true to say that we have our heads in the clouds, as we have climbed up to O Cebreiro, at 1330m, a very high and tiny mountain top village, where you feel you're on top of the world and can look down on the rest of the world.

O Cebreiro is famous for the very old (9th century) church of Santa Maria Real, where Franciscan monks offer assistance to pilgrims, and also for it's pallozas, round structures with thatched roofs.

Fortunately we didn't have to climb all day to get here, just this afternoon. The morning's walk was not one we were looking forward to. We had read, most recently, in the German comedian, Hape Kerkelling's, book about his walk along the Camino, that you were dicing with death as you walked beside a main road, with lots of sharp bends, with traffic whizzing past, just millimetres away.

Thankfully, it is very different now. A new motorway has been built to carry most of the traffic, and concrete crash barriers have been built to separate pilgrims fom the few cars that come along.

The road also follows a fast moving river and also diverts off from time to time into a series of very pretty villages. There are lots of stone churches which today, for once, were all open, and there are lots of traditional buildings, many with wooden overhanging balconies. It was very pleasing to the eye, and also fascinating to see the huge concrete stilts carrying the new motorway way over our heads.

We also came across an encouraging mile marker, with St James of course, that told us we are now a long way from Roncesvalles and not so far from Santiago ...

This afternoon we had to ascend about 500 metres in 8km. Most of it was off road on good paths and through varied terrain. We passed through a couple of small farming hamlets which thankfully offered refreshments. We had our first ice cream which was very welcome as it was very hot this afternoon. We were very impressed by the Brazilian pilgrim runner who ran past us, at speed, on one of the steeper sections.

O Cebreiro hoved into sight at just the right time as we were getting increasingly hot and tired.
We found our pre-booked room o.k. and were soon rejuvenated, especially when went outside to take in the dramatic mountain views. The slopes are all very green and fertile.

Gio had an exciting time when we went to the church to look round and get a stamp for our pilgrim passports. It was given to us by a very nice Franciscan monk who admired Gio's Franciscan t-shirt and wished all 3 of us a buen camino.

We went back to the church at 7.00 p.m. for the Mass, but sadly the Pilgrim blessing which we really like, was only given in Spanish so we efectively missed it.

Sadly no wifi this evening so far, so you may have to wait a while to read this.

Lots of love, the Camino Bears xxx

Bears in Bierzo

2011-09-28T20:08:00.001+01:00

Hola mis amigos,

Today we report in from the lovely little town of Villafranca del Bierzo. Bierzo is a little known Spanish wine growing region, this is probably because the wine is produced for Spanish consumption only. We're not sure if we've tasted any yet*, as it may be too good for pilgrim menus, but certainly all the wine that's been included with our meals recently has been very good.

Today we did walk through lots and lots of fields of grape vines and it is clearly harvesting time as lots of families were out picking grapes. As we did in France, we gave them lots of cheery waves and got lots back.

Today's walk was hard on the old paws again as there was a lot of road walking. Our first stretch took us into the historic town of Ponferrada. Here we had breakfast with the best pastries of the Way.

The route of the Camino took us past the ancient Templar castle. What an impressive sight this was, though like most things in Spain, at 9.30 in the morning it was closed.

It seemed a long way out of Ponferrada, and the way marking was very poor. The yellow Camino arrows were very thin on the ground.

We had lunch of €1 mini pizzas, made by a baker, beside a river, dangling our paws in the cool water.

By the time we'd reached Villafranca and found a room in a Casa Rural (very nice) it was 4.00 p.m. and, if our GPS is right, we'd walked nearly 22 miles, although it wasn't supposed to be that far.

After the usual post arrival washing of self and clothes, we had a very productive visit to Tourist Information. A very nice lady booked us a hostal room for tomorrow night at O Cebreiro, which means we don't have to hurry on the 3 hour climb up, aftercare long walk, to try and beat others to the accommodation. She also told us where we could go to print out our boarding tickets for our flight home, so that important job is now done.

We've now just finished a fine 'menu del dia' meal, rather than the usual pilgrim meal - just €2 more - and it made a pleasant change although we still had flan! *We asked and the wine was definitely a Bierzo region wine. It is lovely.

Hopefully back soon, wifi permitting.

Thanks Fred's Mum for all your comments, which are encouraging us greatly.

Love from the Camino bears xxx

Highs and Lows in More Ways than One

2011-09-27T20:00:00.002+01:00

While the Gaucelmo albergue was lovely, last night and early this morning, we were reminded of why we don't like staying in albergue dormitories too much, and prefer our own room.

By 9.00 p.m. lights were out in the dorm and people were in bed, so we had to do everything by headtorch. Then, we'd hardly got to sleep, when alarms started going off at 5.30 a.m. and our fellow pilgrims were getting up.

Still, the English hospitaleros gave us breakfast (very unusual in an albergue) so this was a good start, then we exchanged email addresses so we can stay in touch and hopefully see them when they go to Walsingham next Easter, which is near our bear cave.

Even without hurrying, we were back on the Camino at 7.30 a.m. It was actually still dark and we worried about missing a yellow arrow waymarker. We really do fail to understand the attraction of setting out at 6.30 or earlier.

We were glad when it got light as today's walk was through some beautiful mountain scenery and most of the time we had dedicated dirt tracks which were much kinder to our paws than hard surfaces.

We climbed up through scenery that reminded us of crossing the Pyranees at the start of the Camino in Spain.

Our first stop of the day was at the famous Cruz de Ferro, a small iron cross on top of a big wooden pole. This in turn stands on a huge pile of stones left by pilgrims over many centuries. The idea is that you take a stone of some significance with you from home, and lay it at the foot of the cross as a symbolic laying down of a burden, and also as a symbol of your efforts on the pilgrimage.

Here we are laying stones taken from one of our favourite stretches of beach at home ...

From the cross we went down a bit, then up a bit more, to the highest point on the Camino, 1,515m. The views were superb and it was warm and sunny.

We then started a big descent of 845m. We were glad of our shock absorbing stuffing, as our minders reported it being hard on their knees and little toe blisters.

We had to growl a few times at stupid packs of cyclists who insisted on riding their bikes down our, often narrow, steep and some times rocky, Pedestrian path, expecting us to leap out the way as they came hurtling down. Why they couldn't use the very quiet Tarmac road which was made for them, was beyond us.

We had thought about going onto Ponteferrada today, and we certainly had time to do it, but when we got to Molinesca, it was such a delightful spot by the river, that we simply had to stop. We knew it was the right decision when we were able get a room in a Casa Rural hostal, right by the river, overlooking the old bridge. How's this for the view from our room?

In any event we had walked a tough 16.5 miles to get here and there is always tomorrow.

We are currently finishing our wine at the end of our pilgrim meal, but before that we had a pleasant time relaxing by the river and talking to a very nice South African lady who, like us, likes hamsters.

We have also met 2 fellow Brits just now. They're finishing just down the road in Ponteferrada tomorrow, having walked from Leon.

Love from the Camino bears xxx

Taking Tea

2011-09-26T18:24:00.001+01:00

Here we are again to report on the last couple of days.

Yesterday, we had another long day and covered over 20 miles, although it wasn't supposed to be that far. We've now gone over 70 miles in 3 days and an afternoon, but our paws tell us we won't be able to keep that up.

The start was a little dull as we walked 10 km in a completely straight line. It then got more interesting as we walked to the historic Hospital de Orbigo, crossing the longest pilgrim bridge in Spain, with it's 20 arches.

The way then took us off road for nearly 12 km, before a long slog in very hot sun, into the old Roman town of Astorga.

As we were tired, we felt the need for our own room, although we'd read that it was a town of hundreds of albergue spaces and overpriced hotels. We were, therefore, very lucky to get a basic room with a basin and a shared bathroom, in a small pension, just off the main square. We felt we'd really landed on our paws.

We enjoyed looking round Astorga and having a beer in the square, although the cathedral was firmly shut even though it was early Sunday evening. Typical of much of Spain!

While our female minder had a conventional pilgrim meal, our minder had the local dish - Cocido Maragato - which was a meat feast with chick peas, potatoes and cabbage, served back to front, as it was followed by a noodle soup. As it was a big plate of food we helped him eat it.

We had a good night's sleep in our room, and set out shortly after 8.00 a.m. for a much needed shorter day's walk - only 13.5 miles!

It was very hot again so a short day was very pleasant, and we could have several stops en route, including breakfast.

At about 1.30 we reached the monastery town of Rabanal where we wanted to stay as there is an albergue run by volunteers from the Co-fraternity of St James in England, of which we are members.

We waited until the 2.00 p.m. opening time, in a pleasant shady spot outside the delightful little church. This church was open, and, even better, a French pilgrim was making fantastic music on his recorder inside.

We had a lovely welcome from Betty and Dugald and 2 visitors, and it was great to be chatting in English.

The albergue is a wonderful building, with patio, big garden/field, barn and kitchen herb garden. It is spotlessly clean and very well organised and the beds are smart and well spaced.

We haven't actually had the free time we thought we would, as we have been busy chatting (English pilgrims are a rare commodity) and, bliss, we even got to take afternoon tea, with our new hospitalero friends.

Shortly, we are going across the road to join the Benedictine Monks for Vespers, and Gio will be doing the English reading - apparently the lesson is read in 4 languages.

In the meantime we are typing away in the garden where the sun is now a pleasant temperature and our washing has already dried.

Bye for now,

Love from the Camino bears xxx

P.S. 1 hr later, Vespers didn't happen as the singing monk has had to go to hospital, but we're still going for Compline & Pilgrim's blessing at 9.30

Leon and Beyond

2011-09-24T21:09:00.003+01:00

We're now at the end of day 3, and we've already walked 50 miles which, considering day 1 was a short afternoon, is pretty impressive, and we have in fact surprised ourselves.

Mind you our paws have felt every mile of it, and they're sore, although not as blistered as our female minder's. Given the amount of hard surface walking we've done, we think our minders would have been better off wearing shock absorbing running shoes than walking boots.

Once again we set off at 8.00 a.m. and enjoyed our 7 mile walk into the city of Leon, much more than we were expecting. We think some new paths have been added since our guide books were written, to keep pilgrims away from the traffic, and it was all quite pleasant.

On the pedestrian streets into the city, we found some lovely new Camino waymarks, which Gio shows to you ...

... and we also found a rather nice statue of St James with a nice flat resting place for bears on top of his head. While we rested there, our minders rested on benches and had pain au chocolat for breakfast.

Temperatures this morning were most pleasant for walking, at 15•C, but when the sun came out at lunchtime they shot up into the twenties.

As we're not really city bears, we didn't spend long in Leon. We found free wifi to post yesterday's blog, visited the cathedral and had a coffee, then headed out of the city past the most amazing Parador, featured in the film 'The Way'. We could only dream at staying at a place like that.

Once out of Leon, accomodation was a bit thin on the ground, which is why we had to do 22 miles today.

The first albergue we tried was full. The next had room but said there was a problem as they were hosting a party for the village and there would be noise. The fact that we could get a room to ourselves, a simple room with just a unmade double bed in, outweighed any potential disadvantage of noise.

We haven't been back yet to see how noisy it is, but the party is outside and we will be inside. In any event we have ear plugs and
we've only paid €5 each, so we can't complain.

I'm sure we'll sleep well.

Lots of love from the Camino bears xxx

Our First Full Day

2011-09-24T09:52:00.002+01:00

We got up early this morning, as the nice lady looking after our accommodation, told us breakfast was at 7.00 a.m. We went down at 7.00 only to find the dining room in darkness; we suspect she actually meant from 7.00 a.m.

She heard us from the kitchen though, and we were soon tucking into toast & cafe con leche. After learning that the local shop was closed, we asked her if she would sell us some cakes, and she agreed. We at least had something to sustain us, along with our uneaten crisps from yesterday, on the long lonely stretch of 15 miles before the next civilisation.

We set off at 8.00 a.m. following the metal scallop shells in the road, and we made fast progress as it wasn't as hot as yesterday. We were walking on a hard and rocky track across what seemed like a giant prairie, with only a few other pilgrims and trains for company. The road was an old Roman road, the Via Trajana, and sections which show the Roman construction techniques, are being preserved behind some rather nice fencing.

We reached, what for most people is the end of the stage - the town of Mansilla de los mulas - at 2.00 p.m. For once we found a church open, so had a look in and also obtained church stamps for our pilgrim passports. Gio asked for one for the credencial he carries and very nearly got his Society of St Francis t-shirt stamped. A quick witted minder had to intervene and the passport was duly stamped.

We felt it was too early to stop walking, so decided to do just over another 6 km to take us closer to Leon. But first we stopped for a cafe con leche and a coke to rest and rehydrate. A couple of very nice Norwegian pilgrims joined us at our table. The poor lady was having difficulty walking due to an inflamed tendon, and we felt very sorry for her. It could be worse though, as she always planned to finish at Leon, and she should make Leon tomorrow.

We reached our destination, a village suburb of Leon, shortly after 4.00 p.m., arriving with a nice young Austrian man called Michael.

We found ourselves a room in a hostal and made ourselves comfortable and insected the blisters one of our minders has got, after walking 18 miles on a hard surface.

The drawback of our accommodation that we have discovered, is that meals aren't served until 9.00 p.m. We don't think many pilgrims stop here, as pilgrim meals are always served at 7.00 p.m.

Still we will be able to wait, and it does give us a chance to write blogs and diaries first.

Lots of love, the Camino Bears xxx

To be a Pilgrim: Take 2

2011-09-23T13:15:00.001+01:00

It was Stansted Airport that we were reporting from last night and we were there ready to fly out to Valladolid early this morning.

We are very excited about this trip as it is no ordinary holiday. We have returned to Spain to resume our pilgrimage to Santiago, which we started 2 years ago and sadly didn't complete, due to a minder foot injury. If you didn't read our posts at the time, you can go back and read them now.

This time we really hope we will complete the remaining 240 miles to Santiago. We have over 2 weeks to get there, so paws crossed.

Back to this morning, we touched down at Valladolid at 11.30 a.m. local time and the train we wanted to get left at 12.30 - and, the train station is 35 minutes away by bus.

Thanks to a small airport and a great taxi driver who understood our 'tenemos mucha prisa' (we're in a hurry) we made it with time to spare.

The train took us to Sahagun, which was the place where we sadly said goodbye to the Camino 2 years ago. Then we thought it was a depressing place, but today it was lovely. This was in part due to us being pleased to be back, but also, Sahagun does have some very nice bits, including lots of historic religious buildings and an old bridge spanning a delightful river.

By 2.40 p.m we were walking out of the town and on the camino proper. It felt really good to be following the yellow arrows and scallop shell symbols once again.

We also found a new character starting to appear - a camino mouse, dressed as St James. What fun!

About 5km out of Sahagun we had choice of routes. We chose the road less travelled, and had the path all to ourselves for the rest of the afternoon. It also got us away from the dreary senda - side of road path - which can be a virtual pilgrim motorway.

It was hot walking, but we got to cool our paws in a fast flowing stream.

We reached our intended destination of Calzadilla de Los Hermanillos by 5.30 and, on calling in at the municipal alberque, ended up being told there might only be 1 bed free.

While someone was checking for spare beds, we spotted they were in very cramped cubicles. We quickly decided we didn't want to stay there anyway, and, politely, took our leave and scuttled off to a nice looking place we'd just passed, which was offering rooms.

What a great move. We now have our own en-suite room, at a very sensible price (unlike England) and we're currently enjoying the pilgrim menu our establishment offers. The wine is very smooth and the menu choice extensive.

What a great start to Camino 2011!

Lots of love, Gio, George, Yorkie and Pedro xxx

Something's Afoot!

2011-09-21T21:59:00.008+01:00

We hope you'll excuse us, but we're going to accelerate through the last few days of our Morocco trip. This isn't because the trip became less interesting, but has more to do with the fact that several of us are now residing in an airport hotel ready to start a new adventure; and it is rather a special one.

We did quite a lot of travelling towards the end of our trip and saw lots of interesting sights and enjoyed some great hospitality. In our next picture you can see us taking mint tea, and a delicious form of pancake, at a village house, well off the beaten track. The owner didn't know us from Adam, but opened up his house to us and made us feel very welcome. It was a wonderful lesson in hospitality.

We also visited some incredible painted rocks, which have become quite famous in the area.

Apparently they were painted by a Belgian man to impress his girlfriend. We thought it made too big a statement, but would have been o.k. on a smaller scale; here we were thinking of a bear sized scale - something like this ...

After the rocks, we went up into the mountains to spend a couple of nights at a village house, in a fairly remote mountain village. We had a rather death defying drive up to the house; our minibus was quite literally mountain climbing, in terrain usually only accessible on foot. Here's the view looking down from near the top ...

It would have been lovely and quiet, if it hadn't been for the loudspeakers from the mosque! When you're sleeping out on the roof, as we were, it was deafening at about 4.30 a.m, but all part of the cultural experience.

Our return to Marrakech was made via the historic seaside town of Essasouria. We simply loved this place and it was also great for fairly relaxed souk shopping.

We will definitely go back to Morocco and a return visit to Essasouria will be a must on our itinery.

When we report in next, you'll hopefully understand the reason for our speedy conclusion.

Lots of love, George and Yorkie xxx

We're Clean Again

2011-09-19T18:20:00.008+01:00

We felt quite sad saying goodbye to our camels and it felt quite strange to be sitting in our minibus again. Everyone's priority was to get to our hotel where we could de-sand and have a much needed shower, but we had a couple of stops on the way. The first was to see an ancient Koranic library and school and the second was to a potter's co-operative. The trouble was, that with sand in our eyes, it was difficult to see properly, especially in the bright sunlight, which made us squint. We hope the potters didn't think we were being rude, but it was difficult to give them the attention they deserved. We did buy a mini tagine cruet set though to support them.

Our hotel was situated right next to this sign advising we were 52 days away from Timbuktu. We recognised the sign as we'd seen it in the Explore brochure. We thought we'd pose for a photo to mark the significance of this spot on the ancient trading routes between Morocco and the southern Sahara.

Showering, lunch, clothes washing and relaxing in, and by, the hotel's pool occupied the afternoon very pleasantly and then, in the early evening, Khalif took us on a a lovely walk through the local palmeries. It was a lovelty relaxing day.

The next day we were on the move again and had an interesting day with lots of stops as more aspects of this fascinating country were revealed.

We stopped at some waterfalls and were very tempted to join the local children diving from the rocks.

We were quite glad we'd decided to press on, when we got to our next hotel and found that the swimming pool had just been filled. And the water was considerably cleaner than that river water!

Waterfalls were definitely the theme of the day as we found another one while strolling round the town of Tata.

As we were experiencing a bit of a heatwave and temperatures in the high 40s, any water had a great attraction for us and we made the most of any chance to cool our paws. Have you spotted us?

Lots of love, George and Yorkie xxx

Our World Turns Brown

2011-09-18T09:53:00.008+01:00

As for exploring, there were really only a couple of choices: we could checkout the toilet tent, which we did - the hole that had been dug looked fine for small bears, but we weren't sure it would suit our minders. We could also climb sand dunes. As we'd never done this before, this is how we passed the hour before dinner, along with visiting the camels to get to know them a bit better. Now they were off duty, they were happy to chat, and they really are fascinating creatures.

Climbing up the dunes was quite hard as the sand was so soft, but running down them, or somersaulting, when our momentum got too fast, was great fun, and the sand was soft that we couldn't hurt ourselves.

We had dinner out in the open sitting cross legged on mats. It was a fine dinner but not exactly authentic Moroccan cuisine; we had spaghetti bolognaise. This had a more to do with the cooking facilities available than the wish to give us familiar food. After dinner we did some star gazing with occasional interruptions from a camel spider which kept running over the mats and scaring some of our party.

When it was time for bed, as it was so warm, we decided not to join the others in the nomad tent, but to join our minders on top of a dune. We had only just settled down when the wind got up and started blowing sand everywhere. We were particularly exposed on top of our dune and had to go back down. We didn't want to disrupt our fellow travellers, so set our mats down just outside the nomad tent, using it to provide a bit of shelter from the wind.

Although it was still windy, this proved to be a good move, after the tent started to collapse - there was quite a 'plink' as the first of the wooden supports holding up the fabric was blown down. More followed, and the tent occupants had to rebuild the tent - more than once! We wrapped ourselves up in the touareg scarves to try and keep the flying sand at bay, and tried to get some sleep - it wasn't easy, especially as we were half expecting to be nuzzled by a hopping (because of the hobbling) camel.

We did get a bit of sleep, and when we woke up it was to find sand everywhere - our minders' sleeping bags were full of the stuff, but the worst part was finding that sand had got into our eyes.

More fun followed when we went to visit the toilet tent. We had to fish out a huge beetle which had fallen in, before we could use it.

After breakfast we struck camp and re-mounted our camels for the return journey. It had been quite an adventure and great fun.

Lots of love, George and Yorkie xxx

Sirs George and Yorkie of Arabia

2011-09-17T19:33:00.009+01:00

As evening approached, the following day, the new headscarves came out again, this time to be worn for real. They were rather large for us bears to wear, so no photos of us wearing them as you wouldn't see us, but we thought we might be able to make use of them at night to wrap ourselves in.

And why were we thinking this way ? It was because we were about to head out into the Sahara desert on a desert adventure. We were very excited for 3 reasons:

a) we'd never been to a desert before, so this would be an important new chapter for The Friendly Planet Guide

b) we were going to stay out in the desert overnight in a temporary camp, and

c) we had a great mode of transport to get us there, and here it is - or rather, one of them ... (still trying to work out which one of us is the most handsome!)

We were travelling there in a camel train. There were 2 small trains of 3 camels each. We both elected to ride with our female minder and were very glad we had after our male minder's camel couldn't get his footing on a muddy stream bank and fell over, causing our minder to roll off into the mud. We were very relieved he wasn't hurt; once we'd established this, we had a good laugh!

It felt very strange camel riding. As the camel's head and neck went forwards and backwards so did we, and combine this with a bit of up and down, and we felt like we were describing circles as we rode.

Although we had our sleeping mats on top of the saddles, our minders found they had very sore bottoms after a while - not a problem bears suffer. They were therefore glad when the camp came into sight, and it was time to dismount ...

The camp was exclusively ours, and there was no-one else in sight and nothing to see but sand for miles. There was a white tent for our crew where they did the cooking, a black nomad style tent for the the tour group and, a sensible distance away, a toilet tent. As you can see from our next picture, that was all there was, apart from our camels - by now hobbled - and lots of sand.

There was time to explore before dinner - part 2 follows shortly.

Lots of love George and Yorkie xxx

Keeping Cool at the Kasbah

2011-09-16T19:37:00.006+01:00

Another of our cook's special picnic lunches followed the film studio tour, then it was time to drive to our next overnight stay. We had various photo stops on the way and we also stopped off at a shop to buy headscarves to wrap round our heads touareg turban style. We needed these so as to be ready for a desert adventure - more about that soon.

The accommodation that night was a real treat and the best yet. We stayed at a kasbah which had a great location and a lovely swimming pool. As it was very hot, discovering the pool and finding it empty was a real treat.

We spent hours in the pool cooling off while our minders left earlier, to rinse through their touareg blue headscarves, having been warned that the dye might not be that well set and might leave them with blue faces.

They returned to join us for dinner, appearing rather traumatised and more than a little blue of appearance - and it certainly wasn't because of the cold.

Apparently the scarves had run rather more than expected and dyed not only our minders exposed skin, but also the terracotta un-glazed bath, blue. Much scrubbing had then ensued, to return the bath to at least a paler shade of blue. We knew that we'd had a lot more fun swimming.

The rural location of the kasbah meant it was lovely and quiet. There was farmland right behind and, while we dried off from our swim, we enjoyed watching the local sheep and donkeys.

It was a rather idyllic pastoral scheme and we were very content, even more so when we discovered we could have our evening meal of Moroccan chicken and couscous outside, at a table right by the pool.

Sheer bliss, although sadly no beer in the bar - despite the pool it was a dry hotel!

Lots of love George and Yorkie xxx

The Bear Catapults (rather than the Human Cannonball)

2011-09-11T17:09:00.010+01:00

It was a great party, but it's time to return to Morocco now, and tell you all where our cycle ride took us.

It was a place where this happens ...

... although we suspect the equipment used nowadays is rather more modern. Yes, we had arrived at none other than the famous Atlas film studios.

Before a tour, we needed to rehydrate after all our cycling in the hot sun. While our minders downed a coke beside the swimming pool (yes, you can stay at the film studios), Yorkie managed to get himself into a spot of bother.

As you can see he was in danger of being cooked alive in a cauldron. Had I not come to the rescue he might have had serious need of that pool close by.

As our tour got underway, Yorkie got his turn to repay me. I was testing out the posts for tying slaves to, from another Gladiator film set, when I got stuck and had to ask Yorkie to release me.

The tour was great fun and we saw lots of interesting sets. We racked our brains to recall scenes from film such as Kundun, The Mummy, Cleopatra and the Kingdom of Heaven so we could perform some re-enactments.

Despite all the fine sets, our favourite thing was the catapult we found. We took turns to see how far we could travel and at what speed. Looking back at it now, we really should have worn crash helmets!

Lots of love, George and Yorkie xxx

How Old???

2011-09-06T19:38:00.006+01:00

Greetings to all our readers on this very special day. And why is it special we hear you ask? It is special because today is the 5th anniversary of the launch of our blog, Bears Unlimited.

622 posts later we're still going strong and long may the blog continue.

We'll be celebrating tonight with a party in the bear cave. Preparations have been well underway for a few days now.

Chef Bear Oakley has been busy preparing some party food ...

... which means we will shortly be tucking into curry and carrot cake - we can hardly wait!

Cellarbear TBB has been preparing the bar and it looks as if has catered for every one of our varied tastes ...

... and also managed to get plenty of champagne in.

All paws have been on deck to make the place look festive, and handybear, Blue Bear, and his team of climbing bears have done a great job putting up coloured lights and decorations.

Apologies for cutting this short but we've got to leave you now as it's time to party!

Lots of love, all at Bears Unlimited xxx

Tommy's Tremendous Tatties

2011-09-03T18:34:00.006+01:00

This post bears news from our garden, not Morocco. I, Yorkie, am writing it as gardening bear Tommy is rather dazed and has had to go for lie down.

So, I'm sure you are all wondering what has been happening at our Norfolk Bear Cave.

The afternoon started like any other. Tommy was out in the garden starting his autumn tidy up. As our pea crop is long finished, Tommy decided to dig over the raised bed that held the peas as it was becoming rather overgrown with nettles and buttercup plants. There were also a number of potato plants which had self seeded from potatoes accidentally left in the ground after last year's harvest.

As he dug below the potato plants he unearthed the biggest potato crop he has ever seen in all his years of gardening.

Not only were there vast numbers of potatoes, the size of them was simply unbelievable. Spuds of 1 - 2 lbs in weight (perhaps more) were coming up time and time again. I helped Tommy weigh them, after we'd put the green ones in the composting bin and there was a staggering 28 lbs, all from approximately 5 squatter plants.

I stood by a couple of big ones to give you an idea of scale. It was like standing beside a block of flats and we had to give the big bears a shout to get them lifted.

I'm sure the planned potato crop will be disappointing after this incredible windfall, but I don't suppose it will matter as we won't need to buy any potatoes for a while.

Anyone know any good potato recipes?

Lots of love, Yorkie and Tommy xxx

Small Bears Need a Tandem

2011-08-31T20:45:00.001+01:00

Our Ait-Ben-Haddou accommodation was rather grander than the home we visited for tea, even though it was full of charm and history. We stayed in a kasbah just the other side of the wadi. Our room had 3 beds which was great, as it meant there was a bed exclusively for bears, and we also had a private courtyard just off our room ...

... the only trouble was that there was no light so we couldn't make much use of it after dark.

We thought the person who had left a bear sized version of Ait-Ben-Haddou in reception was very thoughtful ...

... so we arranged a private tour and sat to attention under the Moroccan flag.

The next day was completely different. We had a morning of mountain biking ahead of us. A truckful of bikes was laid out for us to pick one which best suited. We rushed over to have first pick, but weren't quite as fast as our female minder who got there first, but then was so indecisive we did actually pick first ...

Apart from the first 100 yards our ride was all off road. There were a few ups and downs to test us, but the biggest problem was all the rocks on the track that we bumped over. After the first hour we had extremely sore bottoms and jarred paws.

This picture will give you an idea of the terrain we were cycling across, although as you will see it was one of the early, rock free, sections.

About 20 minutes ride from the end, we had a welcome break after Khaled, our leader, spotted an orange lizard darting into a hole. Together with the driver of the support vehicle who had numerous tools with him, they started to dig into the hard ground to unearth the lizard. Apparently, if they captured the lizard, it could be exchanged for a lot of money.

We kept our paws crossed that the lizard would not be dug out, and fortunately he wasn't. The 2 Moroccans eventually gave up their pursuit and we set off again for a rather unusual final destination.

You'll have to keep reading to find out where we went.

Lots of love, George and Yorkie xxx

In the Steps of the Stars

2011-08-22T19:37:00.000+01:00

Thanks Suffolk branch for their news from the West. The references to the Norfolk Branch and Yorkshire pud will be understood by anyone reading our sister blog 'Bears on trig points' which we hope you are all following. We also hope you are thinking about possible contributions from your neck of the woods.

But for now, back to the land of mint tea and tagines. After the ruins, it was time for another of our cook's spectacular picnic lunches and this time, some yummy lentils accompanied the salad. After lunch, it was off to yet another historic site, but this one was definitely not in ruins.

Our destination was the UNESCO World Heritage site of Ait-Ben-Haddou. This is a 'fortified city', or ksar, which grew up as a stopping point for the caravan trains travelling between the Sahara and Marrakech.

If it looks familiar, many films have been shot at Ait-Ben-Haddou including Jesus of Nazareth and Gladiator.

The buildings are largely made of mud, and they do tend to sustain damage when it rains, so lots of restoration work is required. Given the tendency to erode, it's very impressive that some of the buildings may date back to the seventeenth century.

After the view from the wadi outside the town, it was time for a climb through the narrow streets to take in the view from the top.

Only a handful of families still live in these buildings. We were lucky enough to take tea (mint of course) with one of them, and even luckier when we found out that the 'cave' inside the house where we were drinking our tea turned out to have been Russell Crowe's prison in the film Gladiator.

We rather like our next picture as it shows us in the cave with our new Moroccan friend Khaled and Russell Crowe's sword, which was a bit heavy for us to manage on our own.

Our lady hostess was kind enough to let us look round her house which was typical of these old mud houses.

Believe it or not, the animals, which we went to say hello to, were kept upstairs, not down ...

... and there were lots of fascinating rooms, mostly quite small and very traditional. We were particularly impressed by the old kitchen with oven, although we didn't fancy waiting for a meal, as it might have been quite a long time coming.

It's quite a few years since we saw the film Gladiator so we were very pleased to note it in the T.V. schedules the other day. We recorded it and look forward to watching it soon and seeing how much we recognise.

Lots of love, George and Yorkie xxx

Suffolk Branch go west!

2011-08-21T21:07:00.005+01:00

Whilst Norfolk Branch were either sipping mint tea in Morocco or enjoying Yorkshire pud on their latest trip, Suffolk Branch decided that whilst on holiday in beautiful Pembrokeshire they would light a fire on the beach both to keep warm and dry off their fur - it being a typical bracing day at the seaside - and to cook some fresh seafood for lunch. Here we have Polly doing some rock climbing to observe from a higher vantage point what was available.

She spotted some shrimps and took to the water to catch some, but they hid in the sea weed and tickled her toes and even the expert fisherman Puffin was unsuccessful.

Meanwhile Isaiah, Dale and Tiny had a bit more luck mussel gathering but Suffolk Branch had burnt a lot of calories walking the coast path and surfing the waves and were still hungry so in the end their Minder's sandwiches ended up being toasted on the barbeque as well! Lush!

Minarets and Mint Tea

2011-08-15T18:39:00.007+01:00

Our goat tagine was simply delicious and, after it, our leader Khaled, gave us a potted introduction to his country which covered geography, history, religion and politics. It was all fascinating stuff and there was so much to say that it was about 10.30 p.m. before we reached a suitable place to break.

The next morning we retraced our steps, this time on paw rather than hoof. Everything looked different the other way round and also from a much lower vantage point.

Before we rejoined our bus, we stopped for refreshment and, guess what?, another glass of mint tea.

I think our cook thought we might fade away after an hour's walk with no food, so he prepared a lovely plate of dates, figs, nuts and, our favourite of all, some nutty/toffee balls - we never did get to find out their official name.

When I turned back from the plate, I discovered Yorkie had disappeared. I soon found him, or rather heard him. He had found a replica minaret in the restaurant and was practising at being a muezzin, calling the faithful to prayer.

Unfortunately though he was out with his timing, as it wasn't one of the hours of prayer, so I shut him up and called him down in case anyone thought we were being disrespectful. Fortunately no-one seemed to have noticed - there are some advantages to being small!

We travelled a sort distance in our bus before stopping to explore the ruins of an old palace which had belonged one of the Lords of the Atlas. This man, an Arab, had collaborated with the French and oppressed the Moroccans. He therefore had no local friends, so when he died his palace was left to fall into ruins.

It was all quite sad, especially as mud buildings don't last long. We had fun though clambering over the ruins, finding traces, such as this painting, of its former grandeur, and meeting the current inhabitants: donkeys and storks.

When it got a bit hot we took refuge under a very shady fruit tree. It was easy to doze off and we were very lucky that the bus didn't go without us - thank you minders!

Lots of love, George and Yorkie xxx

Switching to Four Legged Drive

2011-08-07T18:52:00.007+01:00

Well rested and fortified after our siesta style picnic, we were ready for the first active activity of our trip. This was a real treat for us as it was mule riding, which we don't get to do as often as we'd like.

So here we are aboard our charming steed, who with such a light load as Yorkie and myself on board, was champing at the heels of the mule in front (mounted by a rather heavier minder). It was a bit unfortunate therefore, that we got stuck at the back of the convoy, but we soon settled down into plodding, rather than racing mode, and it was all extremely pleasant.

We rode for a good hour and enjoyed looking at the amazing Atlas mountain scenery all around us. We had red earth hills above and, down in the valley below, fertile flood plains beside a river.

All too soon we reached the gite where we were going to be staying, and it was time to dismount and say goodbye to our new 4 legged friend.

Our mule friend went back to his home, as he was a genuine working animal rather than a ride for tourists. No doubt he had a few more hours work to do on the farm before his day was over. For us though, it was time to relax at the gite. While our cook got to work preparing a goat meat and vegetable tagine, we took, yet more, of the Moroccan drinks staple - mint tea - out on the balcony.

As you can perhaps deduce from our next picture, it wasn't long before the skies turned dark and there was a heavy downpour. It was quite mesmerising watching the rain and watching the locals hurrying for cover - there were no fancy Goretex waterproofs in sight!

Our mouths started to water as aromas of tagine began to waft up the stairs. It was a good job there wasn't too long to wait.

Lots of love, George and Yorkie

A Double Dose of Yummy!

2011-08-01T19:45:00.006+01:00

Our special surprise was cute, small (but bigger than us!) and furry. For almost the first time in our travelling career we had a fellow bear traveller, who wasn't a member of Bears Unlimited.

We first became aware of our new friend as we reached our lunch-time picnic spot and settled down in a shady spot with a glass of mint tea. We spotted some squirming in a rucksack and, a few moments later, out popped a bear. We were especially excited to find it was a female bear, as we do tend to be a bit short on female company.

Bear hugs and introductions followed, and we discovered our new companion was Helen Spencer bear. Seconds later we were all chatting happily as if we'd known each other for years. We discovered that compared to us old bears Helen was a spring chicken and she'd only joined her minders a year ago for their wedding.

It was a good job there was plenty of mint tea on tap, as talking nineteen to the dozen made us initially, very thirsty ...

... and before long, very hungry. It was a good job we had such an excellent cook who worked hard to prepare delicious picnics for us while we lounged in the sun.

One of his staples, which was to become a firm favourite, was the beautiful and delicious plates of salad that came to us looking almost too good to eat.

Needless to say we did eat them, and they were as good as they looked.

Back soon.

Lots of love, George, Yorkie and Helen xxx

Passing over the Tizi N' Tichka Pass

2011-07-23T19:36:00.011+01:00

It was well into evening as our plane started its final approach into Marrakech's Menara airport, so we were rather surprised when our pilot announced that the temperature was a rather warm 40 degrees! Our minds boggled at what the midday temperature msut have been like.

It was perhaps quite fortunate then, that we left Marrakech at 9.00 a.m. the following morning, as for bears, cities and scorching temperatures don't mix well. First though we had to meet our tour leader and fellow travelling companions.

So here we are with Khaled our tour leader in local dress, and 4 British tourists (plus one of our minders was taking the picture so we could be in it). As you might guess, this wasn't actually Marrakech and you will also note that we were a small, but select group.

Introductions didn't take long with it being a small group, so it wasn't long before we were climbing into the bus and heading for the High Atlas Mountains and some altitude moderated temperatures.

Our route took us over the famous Tizi N' Tichka Pass. We made lots of stops to enjoy the great views such as this one ...

It wasn't all rocky mountains though, there were also some rather lush meadows such as the one in our next picture which was very close to a natural spring where our cook filled up his water containers ...

Perhpas we should say that accompanying us in our minibus we had Khaled, as leader, a cook, and also our driver Mustafa. They were a fine crew and looked after us so well.

It was shortly after our last picture that we stopped for lunch and got the most wonderful surprise. Find out what it was next time!

Lots of love, George and Yorkie xxx

P.S. we'd like to wish our lovely friend Caroline Muggridge every success for her cross Channel swim that starts at 6.00 a.m. tomorrow. She's made of sterner stuff than us bears but we will be rooting for her every stroke of the way and hope you, our readers will too.

All Change!

2011-07-16T20:57:00.007+01:00

We think we'll leave Spain on the highlight of the Alhambra, particularly as we now have an exciting new adventure to report on.

We all had a great time in Almeria and hope it won't be too long before we're back. The Holiday Property Bond's El Pueblito complex really is something special and we hope our next picture, shot from just outside our front door, conveys something of its charm.

When you see our first two pictures from our latest adventure, you might be forgiven for thinking that we liked the Alhambra so much that we'd decided to return. The other way of looking at it, is that southern Spain was the warm up for a trip to a close neighbour.

So here we are in the Grand Imilchil hotel, not a million miles from southern Spain.

Does the fine Moorish tiling remind you of the Alhambra as it certainly did us? Has anyone spotted the link? What we'd done was to travel a bit further south and cross the Straits of Gibraltar (albeit in a plane) to reach Morocco. Our starting point was the exotic city of Marrakech and Marrakech's Grand Imilchil hotel certainly has some Moorish influences, just like the Alhambra.

And it wasn't just the Imilchil hotel? Just 10 minutes walk from the hotel was the city's Cyber park and just look what we found there: a mini version of 'General Life'!

We hope we've seamlessly moved you from Spain to Morocco and whetted your appetite for more news of our latest travels.

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

Nothing 'General' about these Gardens

2011-07-09T20:20:00.006+01:00

What better way to end a visit to the Alhambra than with a visit to the General Life gardens. It may sound like an insurance company, but there the comparison ends, as you can see ...

We really liked this spot amongst some orange and lemon trees and clearly we looked at home here, as when we went to get up after our photo, lots of people begged us to stay where we were so they could take a picture of us too. We were flattered to be so much in demand.

For those of our readers who aren't too wordly wise, it's important to know how to pronounce General Life. You need to call the gardens 'Heneral Leafay' and then you will sound like a local, not a tourist.

The main attraction of the gardens for us, was all the lovely water features. Even though it was only March, it was hot enough for us to be glad of the cooling effect of the rising and falling water. We took lots of photos to show gardening bear Tommy, in the hope that he can emulate some of these features in the gardens of the bear cave.

As we strolled along the colonnades beside the water troughs, we could look out, through the arches, at the buildings of the main part of the Alhambra ...

It was all quite simply, idyllic and we were sad to leave this wonderful place. Although it receives thousands of visitors, we were still able to enjoy some peace and tranquility and it didn't feel too touristy.

Hopefully, one day we'll return.

Lots of love George, Yorkie, Pedro and Gio xxx

Alhambra 2

2011-07-01T19:30:00.002+01:00

We hope you enjoyed the Suffolk branch's post from Brittany as much as we did. It just goes to show what a nose for travel us bears have; we get everywhere. In fact, while the Suffolk branch were sunning themselves in Brittany, we were away on yet another Norfolk branch adventure, but before we reveal more, it's back to the Alhambra and another stunning picture to start us off.

Often when we tour round historic sites and old monuments, we begin to flag quite quickly as we get culture overload. Not so with the Alhambra - we remained bright eyed and bushy tailed for many hours drinking it all in.

This was because there was so much to see and so much variety. After visiting the palaces, we investigated the Alcazaba (great name!) which was the military fortress.

It was grand from the outside and also on the inside ...

The architecture was very different to that of the palaces, as you would expect. Climbing to the top of the tower gave us some views to marvel at ...

At the best of times Gio can't help being a bit boggly-eyed, which is part of his immense charm, but even he had to boggle more than usual ...

... and we still hadn't got to our favourite bit yet. Pictures coming soon!

Lots of love George, Yorkie, Gio and Pedro xxx

Bonjour from Brittany!

2011-06-15T18:58:00.004+01:00

Bonjour from Brittany! Suffolk Branch is having a good, if rather damp, time and is pleased to report on activities to date.

We have all been reading the excellent Edmund Hillary biography kindly bought by Norfolk Branch, and this, together with the rocky Atlantic coastline, has inspired a spot of rock climbing. Isaiah is channelling his inner Tenzing Norgay with words of encouragement and advice to Polly and Kiwi as they try to ascend a difficult escarpment.

It was hot and sweaty work so Polly was first into the sea to cool off, with the bears and Kiwi close behind.

Then, once safely back at their camp, they decided to sample the local cider to see how it compared with the Breton Puffin beer! They preferred the Puffin beer but either their translation is wrong or else the magic ingredient is puffin wee! Who cares – it tastes nice! Santé to all at Norfolk and Warwickshire branches and à bientôt!

One of the 7 Wonders of the World?

2011-06-15T12:01:00.006+01:00

The highlight of our week in Spain was undoubtedly our trip to the Alhambra. There was so much to see, and it was all so stunning, that it will fill a very long chapter in the Friendly Planet Guide.

We decided to pass on the organised HPB trip and arrange our own, so we could depart at a civilised hour. Trig, our trusty hire car, had a long run up to Granada but we enjoyed the scenery en route, especially the views of the snow capped Sierras.

Granada also looked a fine city as we drove through, but, on this occasion, the Alhambra was more than enough for us, so we ignored its charms.

Our timed slot to visit the Nazaries Palaces was at 2.00 p.m. so we made sure we were there early. The timed slots work well and we enjoyed being able to view these stunning palaces and courtyards without having to fight our way through huge crowds.

We had hired audio guides so we were able to hear lots of fascinating facts about the Alhambra, all in English! There was a lot to learn, but to be honest with you, we've forgotten it all now, so we won't spout any exotic names or dates. In any event, the Alhambra is a feast for the eyes, far more than a feast for the ears.

We particularly enjoyed the open spaces ...

... and Gio was thrilled with all the scallop shells at the entrance to the places, as they reminded him of his time walking the Camino to Santiago (the scallop being the emblem of St James).

Pedro and I were quite taken with the ornate niches, of which the following is a good example.

They made good resting places for bears and strangely enough they were always unoccupied, possibly as they were too small for humans. We liked the suggestion that, historically, they were places to leave your slippers when you went inside, although this probably is just a fanciful notion.

We hope you're beginning to get a flavour of the Alhambra and why we enjoyed our visit so much.

We've got lots more Alhambra pictures to share, so keep looking out for our next post.

Lots of love, George, Yorkie, Gio and Pedro

Down to Sea Level

2011-06-10T15:56:00.006+01:00

As we digested the contents of our lunch box looking ahead to the sea, our destination for the afternoon, we remembered to take a look behind us to see where we'd climbed up from. We'd nearly missed this view in our eagerness to see what was to come ...

... this was the top of the delightful gorge that we'd just climbed out of. The path down was a lot easier, at least to begin with, because it was tarmaced and zigzagging, although still very steep.
See what we mean ...

It wasn't long before the smooth path ran out and we put our paws into four wheel drive to descend on the loose rock safely.

As we went down, the sea got closer and closer. When we reached it, we found it was a stunning stretch of coastline. We could see why it was a national park. Of course we do like to think our photography skills had something to do with it looking so good.

There was nothing for it, but to stop for an libation in the local cafe, so we could sit and drink in the lovely views.

We got a little lost trying to follow the path along the coast. It should have been easy, just keeping the sea on our right, but somehow it wasn't.

We did a bit of pioneering cross country trekking, to take us back to the road which took us up to an official viewpoint. This art installation made a lovely seat for us to rest our tired legs while we took in another fine view.

Because it was Spain, even though it was only March, we could bask in warm sunshine under blue skies.

From there it was a fast downhill march back to our mining town starting point, then back to El Pueblito for a relaxing sauna and swim.

Lots of love George, Yorkie, Pedro and Gio xxx

Golden Nuggets for Lunch?

2011-06-07T21:04:00.001+01:00

After a few days of local walks, we decided our trusty trig (our hire bearmobile) needed a decent outing, and so we took a drive over to a scenic stretch of the Almerian coast. The area we'd chosen was the national park of Cabo de Gato.

In the HPB library we'd found a rather interesting book of walks, which included a walk in precisely our target area. It sounded rather good as it took in not only the stunning coastline but also the historic mining area of Rodalquilar.

We'd barely started our walk when we came across the first of many mine ruins. Can you see us perched on the wall?

These were no ordinary mine ruins, they were gold mine ruins. Gold mining had been very big in the area from the 1880s until the early 1990s. At the time of our visit though, it was clear that the mining was well and truly over, and, even more disappointing, there was no gold to be seen - anywhere!

Still, the cessation of mining activity meant that we were free to roam and explore. Very exciting it was too, especially as all the activity had taken place in an area of outstanding natural beauty.

There were all sorts of tunnels, which we could see were perfectly safe to explore and play hide and seek in ...

... and there were loads of other relics of what had clearly been a major industry.

As we walked out of the main areas of mining activity, the scenery got even better and we passed sheep and rural farmsteads and giant cacti and other plants suited to an arid climate. Then we faced a big climb up and out of a gorge. It was hard but dramatic walking.

When we reached the top it was time for lunch and to ask the immortal question, 'what's in our lunch box?'

On this occasion it was cheese and chorizo bocadillos with crisps and bananas. This delicious lunch set us up nicely for the descent to the coast. We'll share this with you in our next instalment.

Lots of love, George, Yorkie, Gio and Pedro xxx

Only in Spain

2011-05-29T20:26:00.000+01:00

We might have been hungry when we went into the restaurant, but after a very fine meal, we decided, the next day, that we needed another walk, to work off some of the calories.

Thanks to the H.P.B. pack of walks, we were again able to start the walk right from the front door of our apartment. We went up and over the hills we'd walked earlier in the week, and ended up in a gorge with very steep sides and a dry river bed. Look very closely at our next picture and you must spot us amongst the grey.

As you can see from the blue sky, it was a lovely sunny day and the gorge proved to be quite a sun trap. It was nice flat walking along the river bed for a while, then it started to get a bit rockier and we came across vegetation and running water. It was lovely sitting on a boulder cooling our paws ...

We were sorry to leave the oasis of the gorge and to climb out onto more barren ground. It wasn't long before this territory turned out to be far more exciting that we'd first thought. It was wild tortoise territory and we had the great pleasure to meet one of the inhabitants. Gio, being the patient bear he is, sat very still and quiet and the tortoise walked right up to him, and even brushed past him.

What a thrill that was!

After a spell of arid brown lanscape, it was back to a world of colour with a vengeance as we walked through a huge orchard of orange and lemon trees. They were simply laden with fruit and we thought there must surely have been enough to feed the whole world.

Pedro felt very much at home in these citrus groves. He firmly ruled against any fruit scrumping, and rightly so, but he did let us pick up and taste test a windfall which was the freshest and juiciest orange we had ever tasted.

It did leave us with rather sticky paws through!

Lots of love George, Yorkie, Pedro and Gio xxx

Hungry and Thirsty

2011-05-14T15:37:00.000+01:00

Bank Holidays and Royal wedding over, it's time to return to Spain. We hope you appreciated the diversion and can keep up with our to-ing and fro-ing. If you recall, our last post from Spain saw us out in the countryside enjoying the one and only dinosaur gorge walk.
We were on our way back to our apartment and looking forward to a swim in that beautiful pool. As we descended towards the valley bottom, we got quite excited when we spied something big and yellow ...

We wondered if it might be a Spanish trigpoint and therefore qualify for a post on our sister blog, http://www.bearsontrigpoints.blogspot.com/. We took a photo anyway; you can only see Pedro as he was the only bear sturdy enough to stay on in the wind that was blowing at the time. A short distance further, on we found further yellow markings, and these, coupled with the fact that the post wasn't on the highest ground, led us to sadly conclude, that it wasn't a trig point, but more likely a utilities marker. it's always good to be hopeful though!

Once back at El Pueblito we made a great find. The bar served proper 'English' beer, and even better, our first glass was complementary ...

It was 'Bond Bitter', and very fine it was too. It was English beer in the sense that it was English bitter rather than English brewed. This was great as we got all the taste but with 'green' credentials i.e. it didn't have a great carbon footprint.

After trying the beer it was time to try the food in the site restaurant and we were all feeling very hungry after our sporting activities and our walk.

Lots of love, the holiday party xxx

Post Wedding R & R

2011-05-08T18:47:00.001+01:00

We were impressed by how hard the Suffolk Branch had worked assisting with, and reporting on, last week's Royal wedding. What a day it was, and it made us proud to think that Bears Unlimited had played such an important part.

We thought that a good way for the Suffolk Branch to have a complete and well-earned break, would be to invite them up to Norfolk for the rest of Bank Holiday weekend. This we did, And while we were at it, we decided to invite the Midlands Branch as well, as we hadn't seen either branch for far too long.

The Midlands branch were first to arrive and to welcome them we flew both the bear flag, and, a new addition to our flag locker, Warwickshire's flag featuring the famous Bear and Staff. This is the red and yellow flag flying well in our next picture.

It is a flag with special significance for a large number of our members, as a large part of both Suffolk and Norfolk branches originate from Warwickshire.

In the evening of Royal Wedding day, while the Suffolk branch were still coming off duty, several of us went along to the celebratory lighting of the new beacon in the village of Melton Constable. There was a good crowd and a good atmosphere as we watched some bales of straw blaze fiercely.

By Saturday morning the Suffolk branch had joined us and the latest Bears Unlimited gathering was complete. It was a lovely day so we all headed to the coast for a walk. We headed for Blakeney as George was keen to show off, to his brother Isaiah, the Norfolk branch's latest addition to the B.U.assets register, a sailing boat.

Isaiah was really impressed when George stopped him by a very fine, and large, traditional working boat and demanded a picture. He knew that the Norfolk branch had good sailing skills int the form of Boating Bear, Eddie, but he didn't know the Norfolk branch profits were as good as that!

George then took him to a rather more modest craft and said "I was only joking! It's actually Tarka that's ours".

We all agreed that Tarka is a very fine craft and a much more suitable size for a bear crew.

Over the rest of the weekend, we enjoyed more fine walks and lots of chatting and eating and drinking. All the ingredients for the best of weekends were present. The highlight of a Sheringham coastal walk was seeing these amazing pebble sculptures on the beach. We loved both the lobster and the crab, and marvelled at all the hours of work that must have gone into their construction. We'd have liked to have seen them being built.

We'll have to pop back from time to time to see how they are standing up wind, tide and, probably most detrimental of all, the general public.

What a great weekend! We'll be resuming our Spanish postings soon, in case anyones's wondering.

Lots of love, all at Bears Unlimited xxx

Suffolk Branch and the Royal Wedding

2011-04-29T13:20:00.000+01:00

Here we see Polly and Suffolk Branch's own traffic department assisting with crowd control along the Mall. Did you see Polly on her bike being an outrider when Catherine left the Goring Hotel?

Liberty, as a veteran bridesmaid bear and fashionista, did a live commentary on the BBC along with her boss Paula Reed from Grazia, on the wedding dress and outfits generally. Particular favourites Sam Cam in Burberry, Prince Albert of Monaco's fiancee's dress and Pippa Middleton's gorgeous bridesmaid dress. Love, love love!

And finally, the rest of Suffolk Branch toasted the happy couple with vintage champagne and then tucked into a yummy tea party! Hurrah!

Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T12:53:00.000+01:00

And hot on the heels of St George's day comes Easter Sunday, so a very happy Easter to all our readers.

The sun is out and we've had a lovely stroll down to an Easter service in a church full of beautiful flowers. This was just one of many arrangements that made St Mary's at Burgh Parva a very bright and cheerful place.

And we've been very lucky to receive lots of Easter cards and chocolate eggs; all made with Fair Trade chocolate of course!

Yes, we like Easter and hope you are having a good one too.

Lots of love, all at Bears Unlimited xxx

For George and for England

2011-04-23T19:32:00.001+01:00

Hello readers,

We're not in Spain today, we're in England, both in body and spirit. And where better place to be on our national day and the day of the saint with whom I share my name - George.

The problem with having a name like George is that I can't really deny my English heritage, as it's a very English name - although I am aware of the Greek roots. Sometimes, usually when I'm abroad, and embarrassed by the behaviour of my fellow Brits, I'd prefer not to be so obviously English, but on days like today, I'm proud of my nationality and heritage. St George was a rather fine chap after all, and thankfully it wasn't a bear that he slayed, but a dragon.

We had a rather timely meeting last night with a prolific collector of flags. As we admired our friend's collection, he told us he had several duplicates, and, knowing about our flag pole, from which we like to fly the bear flag, he asked us if we'd like the duplicates.

Actually, duplicates wasn't quite the right word, and we went home with 3 flags featuring the cross of St George, including a fine bear sized one.

We got them all flying this afternoon and they made a stirring sight and some lovely flapping noises. If you look hard you might see Yorkie and me on the roof of the bearmobile, looking proudly at our new acquisitions.

A happy St George's day to you all.

Lots of love, George, Yorkie and all at Bears Unlimited xxx

Perhaps Not One to Try at Home

2011-04-17T13:38:00.001+01:00

As we tucked into our lunch, prior to going out exploring, it started to rain - in Spain! It was quite heavy rain so we convinced ourselves it would be a short, sharp shower. And so it was, by the time we were ready to go out, the rain had stopped. Bravo we thought!

Our first foray out into Spain proper, was going to be on foot, and straight out from El Pueblito. One of the nice things about HPB sites is that you can often buy a pack of local walks - for just 1 euro - from reception. We had got our pack on arrival, and decided on number 2, a nearby dinosaur gorge walk, to start. We were attracted by the dinosaur theme and it sounded the most adventurous, which appeals to active and brave bears like us.

It was a simple 15 minute walk to the gorge, then the fun started. Our path was straight up the, now dry, floor of the gorge. There was lots of scrambling over boulders involved and we also had to pick our way through lots of plant growth. And then, it started to rain again. Normally walking up narrow, and steep sided gorges is not a good thing to do in heavy rain, as there can be a danger of flash floods. However, on this occasion, as the river bed was very sandy and long dried up, we felt there was no risk of flooding. The rain didn't last long anyway, it was just another shower.

You'll need to be very sharp eyed to spot us in our first picture. We're sitting on a rock in front of our first dinosaur find. As you can see we'd found a fossilised giant ray. It was simply huge, and we marvelled at how small the modern day rays have become in comparison. If this one hadn't been fossilised we'd have been very scared.

Our next prehistoric rock was of great interest for two reasons: first, it was full of fossils and, second, it made a great climbing wall. As you can hopefully see, despite my camouflage fur, Yorkie and I wasted no time in starting a race to the top. By now we understood exactly why this was called the dinosaur gorge walk; it was because of all the fossils everywhere.

As we left the gorge, we started to climb and to get some great views of the area where we were staying. We didn't find any more fossils, but we did get a fine hilltop view of El Pueblito. Home for the week was one of those white boxes! We'd thought we were staying in a nice, quiet, away from it all area when we arrived, and now we could see why. Apart from a few local farms and dwellings, there was nothing but countryside all around us.

By now we appreciated that we had picked a great place to holiday, and we were really looking forward to the rest of the week.

Lots of love, George, Yorkie, Gio and Pedro xxxx

Has El Pueblito Ever Hosted the Olympics?

2011-04-10T19:18:00.001+01:00

After a leisurely breakfast on our sunny balcony, our first full day got properly underway with a welcome meeting in the bar. Thierry, the charming Parisian site manager, thoroughly entertained us with his great brand of humour, while we all enjoyed a delicious cup of coffee, apparently the nearest thing you can get to French coffee in Spain.

Meeting over, we decided to check out the outdoor facilities while we mulled over all the information we had been given about the site and surrounding area.

The facilities are fantastic. We were very keen to have a go at Padel tennis as this is now the number 2 sport in Spain, second only to football. Having a go made us feel less like tourists and more like locals.

Padel most closely resembles tennis, but is played on a smaller court and everywhere is in play - you can't hit the ball out of court. There is a link with squash in that you are allowed to take the ball off the back wall and the sides. You play with a chunky plastic paddle (no strings) and, great for us, you serve underhand, as Wimbledon type serves are not realistic for small bears.

We gave it our best and had fun. Even though our rallies weren't very long and we spent as much time outside the court retrieving wildly hit balls as in it, we thought we'd done well for a first attempt. That was, until we heard on the radio the other day, that Padel is easy to pick up and anyone can play it! We beg to differ.

We also enjoyed being Continental on the petanque court and had some very competitive games. The table tennis table and crazy golf course also beckoned and we had lots more fun. After dipping a paw in the outdoor pool which was extremely bracing, we were relieved to find the indoor pool which was extremely warm.

The sun loungers were oh so comfortable, and behind us there were a sauna, steam room and jacuzzi. We could tell we we would be spending a lot of time here. We could already see that it could be very easy never to leave the site as there was so much here to entertain us. But, we reminded ourselves, we had come to see Spain, and that was exactly what we were going to do .... but lunch came first!

Our afternoon continues shortly.

Lots of love George, Yorkie, Pedro and Gio xxx

Our Iberian Itinery

2011-04-05T21:27:00.000+01:00

Hemos ido a Espana! It's us, George and Yorkie, back from our latest adventure that took us to Spain, and we're more than ready to take up the reins of the blog from Eddie, who has done such a great job and no doubt whetted your appetite for a sailing holiday in Greece.

So what took us to Spain, apart from the need to do more research for the Friendly Planet Guide? There were a couple of reasons. For the last 3 years or so, our first holiday of the year has been taken in Britain and, while we always have a good time, we would have liked some better weather. The sunshine of Spain and some Spanish Rioja seemed very appealing. Second, as you may recall, we spent several weeks in the north of Spain, 18 months ago, when we were walking the Pilgrimage route to Santiago. Having seen the north of the country and enjoyed practising our Spanish, we thought it would be good to see the opposite end of the country and practise our Spanish a bit more.

And so we came by plane and our hire car, Trig, to the Holiday Property Bond's newest development, El Pueblito del Alfaix. We're quite unusual in Bond circles as there aren't too many Bondholders who are bears, but we're always given an enthusiastic welcome.

Our studio apartment is the very one that you can see in our first picture. It was right at the end of the the first row of apartments. We didn't have the upper floor, that was another apartment, but the big patio windows opening onto a balcony were ours. We just thought we'd point out that we are sitting on the wall, as you may not have spotted us.

Our apartment was everything we could have wished for. It was well laid out, well equipped and still very new.

While inside was great, we tended to spend a lot of time out on our balcony. Sadly the clouds had descended for our picture, and they are hiding some gentle mountain slopes, but you can still see all the citrus trees in the foreground.

As you may have noticed, there are 4 of us, not 2. We invited Gio along as he was with us in Spain on pilgrimage and loves the country, and the 4th member of the gang is Pedro, wearing the red t-shirt. Pedro has kept a low profile in the blog so far, while he's been learning English. He is in fact a true Spaniard and moved to England from Spain to join Bears Unlimited. There was no way that we were going to leave Pedro behind when heading for Spain, and, anyway, he is great company, as you will discover in the posts to come.

Join us again soon.

Lots of love, George, Yorkie, Pedro and Gio xxx

Αντίο και καλή τύχη (that's Greek for Goodbye and Good Luck)

2011-03-26T19:23:00.000Z

It may seem to you, our readers, that this holiday has gone on forever, as we have been posting for quite a while. However, for us, the participants in the holiday, the time simply flew by and all too soon it was time for goodbyes.

While George and Yorkie went exploring ashore, I tended to stay on Milia and met lots of lovely Greek fisherman as a result. I loved seeing their painted caiques and talking to them, so I had lots of new friends to say goodbye to.

It was very sad having to say goodbye to Milia as she was a very fine vessel - great for sailing, but also very comfortable to live aboard. I wanted to ensure we returned her in good shape, so while George and Yorkie swabbed the decks, I checked out her engine and made sure everything was clean and in good working order.

Our final group meal was, as always, a very happy occasion and we all enjoyed the customary speeches and awards ceremony. Not only did we receive a fine Loutraki plaque, with some great likenesses of the lead crew (the photo printing shop was apparently closed!) but I was also thrilled to get a special award.

In honour of the fact that Milia was the only boat with a crew of bears, we were presented with a new Greek friend, and you can meet him for the first time in the next picture.

Our new friend is Louis, the only possible name, as he was given us by the crew of Loutraki. He travelled home with us and has settled in well as the latest bear to join Bears Unlimited. Look out for him on future boating holidays.

We had all enjoyed the finest of fine holidays and can't wait to go again. Don't forget that the name to look for, for the best flotilla sailing in the Greek Islands, is Sailing Holidays. We can't recommend them enough.

George and Yorkie are just back from another adventure so expect to hear from them soon.

Bye for now and lots of love

Eddie xxx

What a Difference a Day Makes

2011-03-24T19:26:00.000Z

The next day dawned bright and sunny but the forecast was for a repeat of the previous day, with more strong winds. Having had our paws burned, we, along with most of the boats in our flotilla, went no further than the short hop down from George´s taverna to the Vathi town quay.

We waited for the winds to blow up again, but nothing happened. There was hardly a breath of wind in the air and our next picture shows how still and calm it was.

You´d have though we were sitting by the edge of a lake, not the sea. Still it was a lovely day for relaxing, going for a walk and swimming and we made the most of all these opportunities.

We also made sure that we´d got all our postcards written, after which George and Yorkie went in search of a post box.

I also made sure we used this down time to practise our safety drill, and make sure any further big waves or heeling of the boat wouldn´t send us overboard.

The safety harnesses worked to perfection and kept us safe and all together.

All too soon it was evening and time to plan the next day's sailing.

Lots of love, Eddie, George and Yorkie xxx

Any Port in a Storm

2011-03-13T18:12:00.000Z

Now, you may be interested to know, that Vliho bay where we'd anchored for the night, is often referred to as a storm hole, since it provides the best possible protection against a storm, being surrounded by high land with just a narrow entrance by water.

As we sailed off the next day, we didn't know it at the time, but we leaving a storm hole to go into a storm. We were due to meet up again with our lead crew and the rest of our flotilla at the port of Atheni on the island of Meganisi. We were quite excited about this as we'd been there before and enjoyed some great Greek dancing.

We had plenty of time ahead of us and not too far to go, so decided to do some sailing in the Zaverda Bay. We had a good but not particularly fast sail until lunchtime. The wind then suddenly dropped completely. At about the same time our VHF radio came to life with a message from our lead crew, telling us a big storm was brewing and we should head immediately for port.

I looked over my shoulder and saw that the sky was an ominous black and the clouds were racing along. I realised that we had encountered the calm before the storm and ordered the sails to be taken down as quickly as possible.

Thanks to my efficient crew, we just had time to drop the sails, don waterproofs, take a bearing on our destination, and secure everything we could, before the storm caught us.

As you can see, the waves started to build very quickly and Milia was plunging up and down through them. She was handling the conditions really well, so I felt confident that as long as I held onto the wheel, we would be alright.

I began to change my mind when it started to rain, and visibility completely disappeared. We couldn't even see Meganisi - our world shrank to just boiling sea and howling wind. The wind kept getting stronger and stronger. At the start of the storm we thought winds of over 20 m.p.h. were strong, but they seemed nothing when we recorded on our instruments a wind speed of 34.6 m.p.h. We were experiencing force 7 winds and it didn't look good outside the safety of our boat.

This picture was taken before the rain and lost visibility; at that point taking photos wasn't practical and there would have been nothing to see. As the entrance to all the Meganisi ports is hard to spot from the sea, and we knew there were small islands just off the entrance, I had to make the hard decision to delay putting into the safety of harbour and stay out in the open. It was the only option as I couldn't risk hitting rock.

A few minutes later the rain eased and we could start to see again. We spotted a configuration of small islands which, when compared to the chart, could only be the approach to Port Atheni. What luck! We motored inside the entrance and spotted a number of boats sheltering at anchor in a calm spot in the lee of the wind.

We joined them, and put down our anchor. It was great to be still and flat! As the moorings are some way down the inlet and were out of sight, we called up our lead crew for instructions. We reached them on the VHF, only to find they weren't there. The anchoring wasn't suitable for the conditions, and they had already had an anchor pop. They had decided that mooring at George's Taverna, at Vathi, was the safer option.

It was the next port along, and not far, but it did mean putting out into the storm again, this time motoring across the waves, rather than having them push us along. We were quite relaxed by this time though, as we knew we could make safety.

Within 30 minutes, George's moorings were in the sight and the lead crew were ready to moor us. We were very pleased to see them and most of the rest of our boats (a few had taken shelter elsewhere and would join us the next day). It was lovely to warm up with a hot shower, change into dry clothes and then to join everyone in the taverna to share our adventures.

For me, the star of the show was our boat Milia - what a performance she had given, and she had kept us safe and given us lots of confidence, should we encounter a similar storm again!

Lots of love, Eddie, George and Yorkie xxx

Goodbye Mother Hen

2011-03-04T18:13:00.000Z

We'd enjoyed our overnight stay in Fiskardo very much, so it was tempting to stay a bit longer. The lead crew were having a rest day there and we had the option of staying there as well, or having a day's free sailing.

Nearly all the other boats were going off free sailing and we decided this would be a good experience for us. It wasn't long before the busy harbour started to empty and Milia had large gaps to either side of her.

After consulting charts and making plans we were ready to leave too. It was quite exciting going on our first solo adventure.

We joined the queue of boats leaving the harbour; it's amazing how a busy harbour can suddenly become so quiet when everyone leaves after breakfast.

Our choice of harbour for that night was determined by two things: a) there wasn't a huge amount of wind that day and anyway we didn't want to venture too far from mother hen, our lead boat Loutraki, and b) in common with the other boats in our flotilla we were nervous about mooring up in harbour without assistance.

The latter fact meant that nearly all of the boats in our flotilla headed for one of two destinations. The harbour of Spartahori on Meganisi, where there are lazy lines so you don't have to drop anchor, and the taverna owner is there to help, was a popular choice. We, however, but we opted for the alternative, of the harbour of Vliho, on the island of Lefkas. This is a very sheltered natural harbour surrounded by land on 3 sides and with just one small entrance. It is quite shallow and provides a very safe mooring. You don't have to tie up alongside a quayside, you just drop your anchor, and, if by any chance you came adrift in the night, you wouldn't go very far.

This was definitely the safe choice, and, as it was our first night on our own, it seemed the sensible one to make. Also it was somewhere new to us, whereas we'd been to Spartahori before.

Milia, is the boat on the right. We took this picture from our inflatable dinghy as we rowed ashore to a taverna to have a beer and a plate of calamari.

Two other boats from our flotilla made the same choice as us, one being the boat on the left. We could wave across to them from our mooring, and it felt good to have company, even if it was distant.

We had a fine night and were very securely anchored in quite a bit of mud! The only drawback was that the water was murky and there were lots of big jellyfish, so it wasn't the best spot for swimming. We did have the best plate of calamari of the holiday though.

We did remember to text Loutraki to let them know we were safe.

Lots of love Eddie, George and Yorkie xxx

Fiskardo by Night

2011-02-27T18:20:00.000Z

What was it I was saying in our last post about being King of the Castle? Well it was only minutes later that I found my castle. Sadly though it was in ruins, and there wasn't much left to be king of. But I did strike what I thought was a suitably regal pose for my next picture, and, looking at it now, I feel that I was rather lucky that that crack over my head didn't get any bigger!

On our way back to our boat we spotted a restuarant that the lead crew had recommended to us, especially good for moussaka, we were told. It was Nicolas' Taverna, at the top of a short hill.

We decided to return there for a meal and what a good choice it was. As it wasn't a waterfront restaurant it wasn't crowded and we got the very best of service. We were also the only British diners there. We were able to sit outside on a terrace looking down on the harbour ...

... and as you can see there were some lovely flowers scenting the warm night air. Fiskardo at night was a rather magical sight ... we sat there for quite a while taking it all in and the wonderful atmosphere ...

... until we started to get hungry and thirsty. We can really recommend the wine ...

... our choice that night was a cool and refreshing rose, lovely to look at and even better to drink. The food lived up to expectations too, especially the moussaka that had been recommended.

We did hear from others in our flotilla that the Thai restaurant in Fiskardo was very good, but we'd had such a lovely evening we wouldn't have changed it for anything.

Lots of love, Eddie, George and Yorkie xxx

King of the Castle

2011-02-20T13:32:00.001Z

Fiskardo is a lovely place to spend a few hours. About 15 minutes walk away is lovely secluded beach, where you can well and truly escape from the crowds, who are more interested in the swanky shops and cafes.

If you go in the other direction, you can walk out to the old Venetian lighthouse on the headland. It's in ruins now, having been replaced by a Victorian lighthouse, but it's great for exploring.

Greece hasn't gone Health and Safety mad, so it's possible to climb all the way to the top (mind you we did recently find a website that said it was possible, but not advisable, to climb the tower. The article was probably written by Brits!). We felt very safe climbing up and found a great Eddie sized porthole half way up which provided a great opportunity to have a rest and check out the view to sea.

It didn't take long to get to the top and hopefully you see it's me at the top, by my profile of sticky out ears. It was wonderful to have such great 360 degree views, but my favourite was the view out across the harbour approach. I took a seat in the sun to watch all the sailing boats. Fortunately for me - not so good for the sailors - there wasn't much wind, so I wasn't in any danger of being blown off my tower top perch.

Seeing all those boats heading out of harbour made me think of Dunkirk - not that I was there - and I truly knew what is is to be 'king of the castle'.

Lots of love Eddie, George and Yorkie xxx

A Bird's Eye View

2011-02-15T20:49:00.000Z

So was our cocktail a hit or a miss?

Sadly, on grounds of taste, it was deemed the latter, although we did subsequently find out that we had won the best decorated cocktail, which was something of a consolation. I think we suffered from the fact that engineer Richard, wasn't available for the judging, as he had to work on somebody's broken engine. This meant that we had lost a beer man from the judges and ours was mostly a beer cocktail, after all. Thankfully our male minder liked our cocktail so it wasn't wasted.

All the flotilla enjoyed a wonderful beach picnic with lots of roast chicken and lovely salads. We got extra rowing practice when we realised that we'd forgotten to bring our own cutlery as instructed and had to row back to Milia to get some.

The next morning we sailed over to the very popular Cephalonian harbour of Fiskardo. As it is so popular we were advised to get there by lunchtime to get a mooring on the quay. We did this and got a prime mooring as you can see from our next picture. Doesn't Milia look a fine vessel?

When it came to early evening, and the briefing for the next day, we all gathered in the designated bar and wondered where our skipper, Ben, was. When he was spotted at the top of one of our boat's mast, we realised he was going to be late!

As you see from our picture, he was a long way up, which is why he seems so small. It certainly isn't an easy life being lead crew. And this was all to fix a problem with a radio aerial. Mind you boat radios are very important which is why George and Yorkie practise regularly with ours.

We'll tell you about our leisure time in Fiskardo next time.

Lots of love, Eddie, George and Yorkie xxx

Bear with a Sore Head

2011-02-07T20:14:00.001Z

After a lovely time relaxing at our private beach, it was time to join up with the rest of the flotilla. We sailed across to Ithaca and went from one beautiful beach to another. Our lead crew had picked the charming Poli bay for our night's stay. It was rather special and very unspoilt. This was because there was no harbour and no shore facilities. This meant we had to raft up all the boats a stone's throw from the shore - I say we, although, as usual, it was our hard working lead crew doing all the hard work of tying up and placing anchors.

We did have some work of our own to do though. First we had to pump up our inflatable dinghy so we could row ashore for our flotilla beach picnic. Our paws were pumping madly for quite a long time. It was hard to find a flat surface to put the boat while we pumped, so we opted to use the roof.

It was then quite a logistical feat to get the inflated boat from the roof onto the water, bearing in mind that there are lots of ropes, rails, awnings, not least the boom, to get in the way.

With much pushing, shoving and squeezing we got our dinghy into the cockpit and from there, into the water. It was a good job it was made of tough material.

We then had a very important job to do. We had to make our cocktail to submit at the best cocktail competition that was taking place at the beach picnic. We had thought long and hard about our cocktail. We knew that the male members of our lead crew were beer men, but we were also aware that Katie, our hostie was more of an ouzo girl. We thought we would combine a beer cocktail (3 different types of Greek lagers) with a splash of ouzo. We'd had a trial run the day before and thought it tasted pretty good.

We knew there was a prize for the best decorated cocktail so we really went to town on the decoration and even included one of the turtles for which Zakynthos is famous. See Zak hanging from the top of our 'pitcher'.

We were really pleased with the end result and, even though the cocktail colour wasn't too appetising, we thought the decoration more than made up for it. We even served our cocktail in a cut down Loutraki water bottle, which we thought was a touch of genius, as our lead boat was called Loutraki. And what better name for our cocktail could we choose than 'Bear with a Sore Head'?

Did our lead crew judges like it or not? Find out next time.

Lots of love, Eddie, George and Yorkie xxx

Our Private Paradise

2011-01-31T22:15:00.000Z

After our epic journey, we had a much shorter day. We only had to cross over to Ithaca and locate Poli Bay, where we were going to be rafting up that evening.

We didn't want to go straight there though, so first we sailed up the coast of Cephalonia to do some exploring. There were some beautiful small bays, as you can see from our next picture. What a gem of a beach ...

And the best thing about it was that it was completely deserted: we could have it all to ourselves. And so we decided to drop anchor and spend a relaxing hour swimming and sunbathing.

As we got closer to shore I kept an eye on the depth of the water, both visually and by using the depth sounder. I was looking for a depth of about about 10 metres to drop the anchor. I kept looking and Milia kept getting closer to the shore, but the depth was still too deep for anchoring. It was most bizarre. It was only when it seemed that we surely must run aground that the depth suddenly dropped off.

We dropped the anchor and it held, just in time. As we went snorkelling, we discovered there was a very sudden increase in depth very close to the shore. The seabed simply dropped away. It was a great spot for swimming with the colourful local fish. We'd already got Greek salad for lunch so we didn't need to catch any fish. It was their lucky day.

Lots of love Eddie, George & Yorkie xxx

More than a Marathon

2011-01-21T18:30:00.000Z

We suspect that Honey might be venturing further afield than Greece, but that's where we're heading back to now.

We enjoyed our evening in Zakynthos town although it was a bit stressful keeping out of the way of ferries while we waited to be parked by our lead crew, working together with the helpful harbourmaster. There were some good shops in the town so we bought everything we needed for the cocktail competition (more on that soon) and we also bought a few small Christmas presents.

We didn't stay out late though, as we had an early start the next morning. Our lead crew wanted us away around 7.30 a.m. as we had a long day ahead of us. We had a massive 42 nautical miles to cover to take us back to Cephalonia and the port of Ag Euphimia. At a motoring speed of just over 4.5 knots and a variable sailing speed, you can see the reason for our early departure.

As I am always up early, I was more than happy to make an early start. Leaving before the Sailing Holidays boat that had come in after us the night before, turned out not to be such a bright idea, when we discovered their anchor had been laid on top of ours and we were taking it up as well as our own.

Our male minder did a great job of lifting the extra anchor up and over ours, with the aid of a boat hook. This saved the skipper, who was supervising from his inflatable, from having to take an early morning swim, so he was pleased with us.

As you can see when our anchor finally came up it, was very muddy and some of the mud had ended up on our minder. It was reassuring though to know that there had been such good holding in the harbour.

It wasn't long before we saw our lead boat, Loutraki, (which leaves harbour last) come steaming up towards us, thanks to her bigger engine. We got ready to take a photo, but then she stopped dead and floundered in the water. We thought about going back to help, but as they had Sailing Holidays no.1 engineer, Richard, on board, we didn't think there would be much we could do. Sure enough Richard soon had the problem with the engine fixed, and then Loutraki really did steam past us.

All the lead boats have a great collection of flags which are really useful for spotting them when you're out at sea. Our lead crew were flying flags from New Zealand and England and were even flying Warwickshire's bear and staff. This went down well, as the longer standing members of both the Norfolk & Suffolk branches, originate from Warwickshire, and,of course, the Midlands branch still have their bear cave there.

The rest of the trip passed without incident and it was a lovely long day at sea. We were tired, but very happy bears.

Lots of love Eddie, George & Yorkie xxx

Going Global - Part 2

2011-01-15T23:16:00.007Z

Dear readers, we, the Midlands branch, are back again, with a follow up to our recent Teddies for Tragedies posting. If you recall, our last post ended with our disappointment that the bivvy bag handover had been postponed due to bad weather. We were waiting for a call from Honey Bear with another date.

We didn't have to wait too long. About two weeks after Christmas, the eagerly awaited telephone call from Honey was received. He said that the presentation and party at Sesame was now scheduled for Friday the 14th, and that we could still go along and join him.

On the day we were so excited that we arrived rather early, but fortunately Honey was already there to make sure the bags were tastefully displayed. He signed us in and showed us around. There were not many people there at this stage, and so we had a great time playing with Honey and the lovely new bivvy/sleeping bags.

Time passes very quickly when you are enjoing yourself, and it did not seem long before other people began to arrive. They all seemed to know each other, and we began to feel shy and nervous, and sat very quietly in the background, especially when Lucy and the man representing Honey's Organisation, 'Teddies for Tragedies', arrived.

We listened carefully to the man's talk, and clapped very loudly when he thanked the bag makers for all their hard work, and presented two lovely certificates with pictures of bears, like Honey, in the background. Because the recipients were seated he got down on one knee for some of the photographs ...

... so we had to stand on our chairs in order to see what was happening. We were soon spotted and invited to come closer for a better look, and ended up sitting on Lucy and her friend Pat's knees.

When we began to recover from the shock of being at the centre of attention, we were horrified to realise that our friend Honey, who had invited us, had somehow been left out of the limelight. After all, he was the bear going to do the real work helping children in tragic circumstances, so we beckoned him forward to join us. He assured us that he was happy looking on, and we could tell he is naturally modest, but we wanted everyone to know what a remarkable bear he is, so we arranged for him to sit on Lucy's knee and have a private viewing of her certificate and a photograph with her.

By this time it was lunch time, and our tummies began to rumble, and we wondered how long people were going to carry on chatting. We need not have worried, however, because, before long, the tables at the back of the room were covered with all sorts of lovely buffet food, and we were all invited to help ourselves. It was so delicious that we bears went back more than once.

We had the most lovely day out with Honey, and will be very sad to see him go when he starts his next assignment. It is great to know, however, that thanks to Lucy and her friends, both he and his colleagues, will be properly equipped, and have the type of bag they like to take with them.

Love Pooh and Connie.

A Short Hop

2011-01-12T20:11:00.000Z

The wet and miserable weather that is our lot this week, causes us to dream of our sunny holiday in Greece, so let's go right back there, and pick up our tale.

If you recall, we'd just been exploring the wreck of the Panagiotis. On the journey back to harbour and our boats, we'd stopped off to swim in one of the caves. Dimitri picked one that went a long way into the cliff, so we seemed to swimming into the cave for ever. At one point it got quite narrow and rather dark, and as there were quite a lot of us swimming, we kept bumping into each other.

The high speed boat whizzed us back to harbour, and to our lunch, in no time at all as, with it's huge engine, it simply ate up the miles. There was no free afternoon for us though, as we were due in the main harbour of Zakynthos town that night. Hardly had we returned from our morning's adventure before there were only 4 boats left in Aghios Nikolaos ...

Ours is the second boat from the left - you can tell by the hint of green from the bear flag!

You can't hurry a good lunch though, so we were in no particular hurry to leave. We strolled down to Dimitri's taverna to say goodbye. It was definitely sailor friendly as you can see from the ingenious taverna signing at the entrance.

You'll appreciate how big this sail is when you look at me (Eddie) sitting on the wall under it, to provide a sense of scale.

Our introduction to Zakynthos had been great, but we were also looking forward to seeing the bright lights of Zakynthos town that evening.

Lots of love Eddie & B.U. crew xxx

Will My Bottom Keep it Warm?

2011-01-07T17:48:00.001Z

As regular readers will know, we are rather partial to a drop of Woodforde's finest Norfolk ales, and have frequently extolled their virtues on our blog.

However, as a new year has started, and many people will be resolving to moderate their alcohol intake and live healthier lives, we thought this was a good time to put the record straight and confirm that we do enjoy lots of drinks besides Wherry. We all like a good cuppa, even though I always think it tastes a lot better coming from a Woodforde's mug, and we hardly ever drink beer before the sun is over the yardarm.

Having said this .... Christmas was made rather enjoyable (we stress as a one off event) by the arrival of 2 beerboxes of Woodforde' ales: one of perennial favourite Wherry, and the other, of the rather delicious golden brew of Sundew.

As B.U. cellarman, I was in charge of looking after the beerboxes and seeing that the beer was kept at it's best. After it arrived I left it to settle in our porch , where it would be nice and cool. Unfortunately, the cold snap round Christmas, meant the beer was getting rather cooler than I wanted. I kept a thermometer to hand and tried to keep the temperature as close to the recommended 12 degrees as I could. At one point I had to employ a sleeping bag blanket, and my furry bottom to raise the temperature.

I think I must have done a good job though as both bears and minders from all 3 branches said how much they enjoyed the beer - not surprisingly it's all gone now.

Lots of love T.B.B. and all at B.U. xxx

Something New from B.U.

2011-01-03T19:20:00.001Z

We would like to start this first post of 2011 wishing all our readers a very Happy New Year.

Over the Christmas period, we had our usual Christmas meet up with both the Midlands and Suffolk Branches, and a fun time was had by all, with much Wherry and Sundew beer being consumed, along with a feast of food, supplied by Oakley our resident chef bear.

Once the feasting and catching up had taken place, as is our custom, we held the Bears Unlimited Annual General Meeting. Polar from the Midlands Branch suggested we should make more use of our Sister Blog Bears Unlimited Biographies. This was set up by me (Jimmy) a couple of years ago to test new features for this blog, such as our Cluster Map. It was also set up to give our readers more of an in depth knowledge of the members of the various branches. While Polar had been on his extended stay with the Norfolk Branch, (reported on in October "Forgotten???") he had taken the chance to tell us all about himself.

Polar had enjoyed the experience so much he thought all of us should write our biographies. This idea was enthusiastically supported by everyone, so we decided to make a new years resolution that we would post one new biography every month. We will start this month, with another member of the Midlands Branch, so keep you eyes pealed to see just who!

We then decided that we should put into action a project that has been on the back burner for a while. As we travel across the country we often come across Trig Points set up by the Ordnance Survey, and we like to have our photograph taken sitting on top of them. Why not then, set up a new blog with photos of us, or indeed any other Bear or soft furry, sitting on the Trig Point with a few details of where we are. Bris, who as our readers know has a thing about churches, suggested that we should extend the scope of the blog to Ordnance Survey bench marks, as he had seen many carved on churches.

We all thought this was a great idea, so I, along with our other top teckie Fred from the Suffolk Branch, set about making the plan a reality by creating our new blog.

Our new blog is called Bears on Trig Points and can be found at http://www.bearsontrigpoints.blogspot.com/

Since this second of our New Years's resolutions was made, travelling bears George and Yorkie, accompanied by Rocco, have already bagged their first pair of Trig Points in Derbyshire. They will be posting on these two trig points shortly, along with another which is virtually in the Norfolk Branch's own back yard. We then plan to trawl through the BU photo archive to add as many bear adorned trig points photos as we can find.

We hope lots of our readers will join in with this project and persuade their minders to snap them on top of their local trig points and then send the photo into us with a note of who you are and where you are. We want to get as much of the country covered as we can, as a tribute to these fine features of the British way of life.

Please see the new blog for details of how to join in.

Love Jimmy, Fred and all at BU xxx

Going Global

2010-12-25T18:16:00.016Z

Dear readers, Midlands Branch here (just for a change) to report on a recent interesting venture that we've been pleased to be involved in.

It all started a few weeks ago when Pooh and I (Connie) were tidying the loft on a rainy day and found some rolls of material that were too good to be wasted. We wondered what we might do with it and a friend suggested that it could be used for the Teddies for Tragedies project. This sounded interesting, so we did a Google search to find out more. We soon discovered that Teddies for Tragedies are very special teddies who travel all over the world to work with children. Pooh and I thought this sounded very exciting and inspiring. There were details of a local contact on the internet, so we made gave him a ring to find out more.

A bear called Honey visited us shortly afterwards and told us he had volunteered for a mission in the new year, and thought he would be sent to a third world country. He then explained that there are no cosy bedrooms, or even cupboards, where he was likely to be placed, so he liked to take his own bivvy bag with him. He showed us one that had been made for him previously.

Our timing of meeting Honey was perfect, as he had recently heard about a lady in Rugby, called Lucy, who had persuaded her friends at the Sesame Centre to join her in a big bivvy bag making session. Honey had been over to try one or two of the first bags produced for size.

He said they were superb pieces of kit, and the finished bags were due to be handed over to his association on December 22nd. He was kind enough to ask us if we would like to go along to join in the fun.

We were really looking forward to this event, but sadly it fell victim to the snowy weather and had to be postponed due to several inches of snowfall. We were very disappointed but it was good to see Honey again when he came round with the news.

Honey has told us to be patient and he will try and involve us in another handover attempt soon.

We've given Honey our mobile number so he can contact us, wherever we happen to be.

Lots of love

Connie and Pooh xxx

A Very Merry Christmas

2010-12-24T19:35:00.000Z

We temporarily leave the sunshine of Greece, to return you to a cold and snowy England, so we can wish all our readers a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

We hope we can put you in a suitably festive mood, with some of our recent pictures:

It was just last weekend that we walked our Christmas tree back from our village shops, and boy was he heavy - but then he is a rather prize specimen as you can see ...

We got him upright and stable in the lounge, and made sure that his top knot cleared the ceiling. Randolph and tooty bot then had the important job of giving Christmas tree a drink from their tummy/bottles ...

Many paws make light work, and it wasn't long before our tree was festooned with light and decorations ...

... when Bris, Gio & Olaf came back from a carol and Christingle service they were amazed at the transformation. What a wonderful sight! (but is there room for all the presents?)

The carolling trio brought back their Christingles to share with us all.

These are no ordinary Christingles, they are hi-tec Christingles with glow stick instead of candles. It saves held breaths, wondering what small children are going to set fire to.

It has been great to have the Midlands branch arrive today (Polar has been re-united with his friends and minders) and we look forward to the arrival of the Suffolk branch tomorrow.

Have a very happy and peaceful Christmas.

Lots of love,

All at Bears Unlimited xxx

The Wreck of the Panagiotis

2010-12-19T18:40:00.000Z

Hi, George here to pick up the story, as when Eddie saw what was on the beach, he didn't want to go ashore exploring, and chose to stay on the boat talking to Dimitri.

This is why ...

... it was because there was a wrecked ship on the beach and, being a boat lover, Eddie finds wrecks very distressing.

Yorkie and I, however, were very excited at the thought of exploring, and the great thing about this wreck, was that there were no health and safety restrictions; you could go on it, in it and through it. There was no part out of bounds. We went everywhere seeing what was left of the original boat, which wasn't always a lot.

The ship we were exploring is the Panagiotis and she has been lying in Shipwreck bay since 1980, which explains her rather rusty appearance. The story of how she came to be wrecked is rather exciting. It's believed that she was smuggling cigarettes (some say for the Italian Mafia) and the Greek authorities had got wind of this and sent the Greek Navy out in pursuit. While under pursuit, she encountered stormy weather and ran aground, only to be abandoned by her crew. Over the years she was pushed up the beach by the elements to her present, well and truly beached, location.

It's a sad story for the ship but exploring her gave us a lot of pleasure. Have you spotted us taking in the view from the hawsepipe (technical term learnt from Eddie!).

Eddie will be back at the blog helm next time.

Lots of love George, Yorkie & Eddie xxx

Seal and Elephant Watching

2010-12-16T20:37:00.000Z

As we sped along the coast, there were all sorts of interesting sights. When we were going really fast, some were a bit of a blur, but we slowed down for the interesting ones. The best sight for me, Eddie, was a rare sighting of a monk seal that is occasionally spotted in the area. I think he must have made an appearance as he'd heard about my seal trips in Norfolk, and learned that I was particularly seal friendly.

George & Yorkie were fascinated by some of the unusual rock formations. In our next picture you'll see a sculpture of an elephant submerging his trunk in the water to get a long refreshing drink.

We also passed the ruins of a monastery and still more caves. Then the cliffs started to get really high. They were so tall that even avid climbers George & Yorkie felt they might be a challenge too far, although George did spend a lot of time thinking about it.

Our boat started to turn towards the bay George is looking at, and Dimitiri told us we would be stopping there to explore something, for which Zakynthos is famous, on the beach.

Find out what it was next time.

Love Eddie, George & Yorkie xxx

Chauffeured!

2010-12-10T17:39:00.000Z

The morning after arriving in Zakynthos, we had a morning off. This was only time off from sailing, though, not from boating, so it was fine by me.

We all went off in a big speedboat with one of the local entrepreneurs - a very colourful character called Dimitri (front right) and he drove very fast! (He also owned the restaurant we'd eaten in the night before).

We went up the coast, staying quite close to the shore. This enabled us to take a good look at all the caves in the cliffs.

There were lots and lots of caves and some of them were big enough for us to drive into. Mind you, some of them didn't look big enough to take our boat, and it was a good job Dimitri knew both his boat and the local coast intimately, as we frequently had less than an inch of clearance between the boat and huge slabs of rock.

The water was so clear and still that it was able to reflect the light creating some lovely effects. Dimitri also pointed out the beautiful colours obtained from light reflecting off sponges on the sea bed ... as our next picture shows:

We marvelled at the wonderful sights and - I never thought I'd say this - I appreciated not being at the helm and having to concentrate on the boat, as it gave me to freedom to look around and, along with George & Yorkie, drink in all the wonderful sights.

More next time.

Lots of love, Eddie, George & Yorkie xxx