Woolly's Great Adventure: Part 1

Those who remember our Cumbria Way postings from last year, will recall that Woolly is no ordinary sheep. He was the first sheep to walk the Cumbria Way and while, like an average sheep, he does enjoy a good munch of grass, he does far, far more than spend his days grazing.

Even so, I don't think he quite envisaged what was in store for him when he set out with us one fine, sunny morning, to climb the Old Man of Coniston. This is a true story by the way, and it was a genuine accident.

Part way up the Copper Mines valley we stopped for a breather and for our minders to put on some sun tan lotion. Woolly, with his fine woollen coat, had no need of sun cream, so wandered over to a big rock to peer down at the beck tumbling down from the hills on its way to Lake Coniston.


We shouted at him to pause there, while we took his photo, as beck and Lakeland sheep made quite a scenic picture. The next thing we knew was that there was a gust of wind and suddenly Woolly was flying off he rocky perch and bouncing down the steep banks towards the foaming white water.

We rushed forward but it was a very steep drop and Woolly was tumbling too fast for us to reach him. There was a splash as he hit the water (quite an impressive dive it was!).

The water was racing down the hillside so fast that we thought he'd be travelling downstream faster than we could run. Chelmer, being the fastest, set off to see if he could attempt an interception.


As it happened this wasn't necessary as Woolly had landed in the whirlpool, shown in our 'after the event' photo, (not surprisingly Woolly wasn't too keen to reconstruct his fall for the benefit of the camera). As we peered down we saw him going round and round in circles, getting increasingly wetter. We climbed down to water level as fast as we could as we wanted to reach him before his coat got too waterlogged and he sank. As we stood at the edge of the whirlpool, Woolly kept passing just out of our reach. We had to think quickly what to do to save him. Fortunately, Yorkie remembered the trekking poles and shouted for one to be sent down. We were able to use the pole to flick Woolly into our waiting paws, not a moment too soon though, as he was getting very chilled.


We gave his coat a good squeeze then put him on a sunny rock (away from the river) where he could drip dry in the sun. Can you see the water he's shedding running down the rock?

Trauma number one was thankfully over, but it wasn't the end of the day's adventures, as you'll soon find out.

Lots of love from Woolly & the rescue party xxx

Anyone for Hockey?

The work of setting up camp hadn't ended with the raising of the Bear flag: this just signified that our tent was up, and therefore, like the Queen with the Royal Standard, we were in residence.

Woolly always gets very excited when he returns to his birthplace and can't keep his hooves still for one minute. He therefore proves to be very useful round camp and anticipates all the jobs which need doing.


Here he is with Patrick filling up the water containers. As you know, we like to do our bit to promote our favourite brewery, Woodforde's (not that they've rewarded us for all the free publicity with a complimentary barrel yet!) but we can assure you it was only water coming out the tap, not beer.

As this is a wonderful, away from it all, campsite we have to provide our own toilet facilities.


Putting up the toilet tent is therefore a very important job, and once it's up and our portable toilet installed we can relax and uncross our legs.

We save our favourite job til last. This is to clear our camp area from from sheep droppings so we don't sit in them or take them into the tent. We get a couple of games going which make this task a really fun one.


In case our ingenuity is greater than your imagination, we'll tell you that we played sheep pooh hockey and sheep pooh snooker using our trekking poles as sticks and cues. As the sheep stay in our camp field, providing good company for Woolly, it is usually necessary to have a return match later in the week.

Hopefully you can tell by now that we just love camping - when it's not raining anyway!

Lots of love from the Bears Unlimited Camp Crew xxx

Adventuring Swallows & Amazons Style

Well, would you believe it, we're having so many adventures this year that another adventure starts before we've finished telling you about the previous one. We simply can't keep up with our posts, so you'll have to excuse us if we do a bit of backwards time travel in our blog.

We're only going back to last month though, when we had a simply superb camping adventure in the Lake District. We set up our camp in what is probably our favouritist place in this country, Hoathwaite farm at Torver, near Coniston.


We love it so much as we are able to camp very close to the shore of Lake Coniston and have great lake views from our encampment. It is simple camping with few facilities, but that suits us fine as camping is, for us, all about the great outdoors and getting close to nature. We took our Mirror sailing dinghy, 'Miri' with us, and our walking boots and planned a week of wonderful outdoor adventures following in the footsteps of our Swallows & Amazons heroes.

Before we could start our adventuring though we had to observe the ceremony of the raising of the bear flag.


Here we are standing respectfully to attention while the flag was raised. You can see the raised flag flying in our earlier picture.

Don't you just wish you were there too - we certainly wish we were still there.

Lots of love, the B.U. Swallows & Amazons adventurers xxx

Turning Japanese (not by the Vapors)

By the time we got off the London Eye it was virtually dark. This meant that it was time to find somewhere to eat.

After a rather special evening, we didn't fancy anything too ordinary in the food department, but we didn't have to wander too far to find a restaurant that was just the ticket.


This was the Aji Japanese noodle bar. We'd never eaten Japanese before and didn't know any Japanese dishes. However, there were two things present to help us. Firstly as you might have noticed from our earlier picture, our place mats doubled up as rather useful menus. They not only described the dishes well but suggested various combinations and, most excellently from our point of view, the more you had, the cheaper each course became.

Secondly there was a prominent instruction board telling us exactly what to do and how to order.


It was all a lot easier to order a delicious meal than we expected and we were soon tucking into very tasty stir fry dishes with fresh vegetables, chicken and prawns. We were also bowled over by their superb fruit juice which definitely contained ginger and carrot juice and we think orange juice as well.

As we wandered back to our chauffeur driven limo (we had a night off driving the bearmobile) we lingered by these rather effective lights which adorned the trees close to the river.


We had all thoroughly enjoyed our V.I.P. London evening out.

Lots of love, all at B.U. xxx

Flying High Over London

Although it was a fine, sunny evening for our boat trip, there was quite a cool wind blowing, so by the time we disembarked, our fur was standing on end with the cold. We went into the former County Hall to warm up prior to our London Eye flight and found a warm radiator to sit on. We soon had toasty bottoms and warm paws.


We were very lucky to get a pod almost to ourselves. As a result there was lots of room and we could move round to test out the various views. As we started to rise we found it very funny seeing legs in the sky above us.

We didn't have to get very high to start enjoying some wonderful dusk views over London.


Not surprisingly, while the rest of us were identifying famous buildings, Eddie was paying more attention to the river traffic.

As we rose even higher London really started to open up beneath us. We pointed out the Queen's back garden to Patrick and then we all waved madly in case H.M. was enjoying an evening stroll in the garden with her corgis.


Our next picture shows us reaching dizzying heights. It's a good job bears have a good head for heights.


It was actually getting quite dark at this point, but a burst of camera flash makes it seem quite the opposite.

We've only one criticism of a London Eye flight and that is that it's over all too soon.

Lots of love, George, Yorkie, Eddie, Patrick, Chelmer & Rocco xxx

Cruising on Old Father Thames

Once our cruise boat was ready for embarkation, we boarded as fast as we politely could, taking care not to mow down any old ladies in our path. Our fast manoeuvring paid off and we made it to the front seats before anyone else.


As it turned out there were very few passengers on board so we needn't have hurried. Still, having the front row of seats to ourselves was really great, and we made the most of our excellent vantage point. We didn't think much of the flag though - nothing like as good as the bear flag!


Patrick was bombarded with information from all sides. He had the tour guide to listen to in one ear, and the commentary of the ever enthusiastic Eddie in the other. Patrick enoyed seeing all the great landmarks of London for the first time, but his eyes kept coming back to the London Eye. He was finding it hard to believe that he was only minutes away from being in the air in one of those capsules.


For Eddie, the msot exciting sight on the Thames was H.M.S. Belfast. He was pleased at how close we got to this illustrious vessel, although he was disappointed to have scaffolding in his photo.


While us smaller bears enjoyed the cruise, our priorities were rather different. While Eddie and Patrick exclaimed over the sights, we investigated the complimentary London Eye choccies. It was inevitable that this involved a spot of tasting. Don't forget that Yorkie is nicknamed the Piranha.


Lots of love George, Yorkie, Eddie, Patrick, Chelmer & Rocco xxx

London Calling

Having just been telling you about our exploration of England's second city, now seems a good time to tell you about a special trip to England's first city - London - that a number of us thoroughly enjoyed recently.

A local Norfolk businessman had heard about our company and all that we get up to, and was very impressed. In recognition of all our good work he gave us 6 complimentary tickets to an evening cruise on the Thames followed by a dusk flight on the London Eye.

We gave some thought to who should go. Eddie was an obvious choice as there was a boat trip involved and Patrick had never been to London, so he definitely had to go. Then the guys were kind enough to say that Yorkie and myself (George) should go to research the entry for the Friendly Planet Guide. We had a draw for the remaining 2 tickets and these went to Chelmer & Rocco.


In our excitement we turned up early. As we waited for our boat trip on the jetty we had a great view of the Eye and really enjoyed anticipating the flight we were soon to have.

Eddie in his usual Eddie-ish way was completely absorbed by the boating activity on the River Thames.


He was particularly interested in the size of this tug's tow and said he would have loved to be in the shoes of the tug captain, as a tug, is one type of boat he has still to try out.

As the light began to fade it became quite atmospheric. Eddie remembered that all of the sights of London were new to Patrick and sat him down beside him to point out some prominent landmarks ...


... the most famous being Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament.

We didn't have long to wait before our cruise boat arrived and it was time to board. Catch up with us again soon.

Lots of Love, George, Yorkie and friends xxx

Final Musings

If you've been keeping up with me, you'll realise that our marathon run of Avon Ring posts has now all but come to an end, as the boatyard to which we had to return Muscovy, was only a short chug from the bottom of the Tardebigge flight.

I've got a few photos left though, and I'd like to use them to share a few musings about life aboard a canal boat, or life on the cut, as some would call it.

So, in no particular order ...

1. A mug of tea tastes so much better in the fresh air and especially when enhanced by a view of a canalside curiosity. There are loads of these on the canal system and I was particularly taken with this holey railway bridge.


My canal guide offered the suggestion that the big hole was there to lessen the weight of the structure.

2. Boating in the springtime is especially good (it might be summer now but it was spring when we went on our adventure) as there is lots of blossom and flowers to enjoy and lambs and baby birds provide much entertainment.


3. There are an incredible number of derelict industrial buildings beside the towpath.


I regard this as prime land and I really can't understand how little use is being made of it. I think we need more local industry and more waterside homes.

4. Navy blue is a good colour for a canal boat roof as it absorbs the sun well and makes the roof very nice to sit on, as I demonstrate ...


5. Not all barges are narrow boats.


I checked out the alternatives on this trip but decided that narrow boats are my first love and, for me, have the most character.

6. It would be lovely to live by a canal, although we won't as long as we live in Norfolk, due to the non existence of canals.


On this trip I got some ideas of what I could do to maximise a water frontage if I had a waterside home.

7. My final thought for this trip is that canal boating is best done with friends.


I know you've seen this picture before, but it is rather a special one, as it's the only one I have with all my crew together. I can't say a big enough thank you to this wonderful bunch of bears, who made this holiday a really special one for me. Thanks guys.

Hope you've enjoyed sharing the Avon Ring with me and rest assured we'll be back with lots more adventures very soon.

Lots of love Eddie and all Muscovy sailors xxx

The Big One

After tackling 'a big one' in terms of tunnels, we were ready for 'the big one' in terms of lock flights. This was the Tardebigge flight which is so big that it really does represent a boater's Right of Passage.

There are 30 locks in the Tardebigge flight with another 6, the Stoke Locks, close by, which gives a grand total of 36 locks in 4 miles. Compared to this, all other flights pale into insignificance. The time it takes to go through is roughly the interval between meals. If you set off after an early breakfast and work efficiently, you should be through by lunchtime; if you set off after lunch, you will be ready for your evening meal at the end of the flight. It is therefore rather a shame that, while there is a pub close to the bottom lock, the one close to the top lock now appears to be shut!


As you can see from my relaxed mode, the Tardebigge flight didn't phase me or my crew. In fact some of my crew had done the flight the other way round a few years ago. Ungi told me that he'd done the full flight on his first ever full day of canal boating. Sadly I wasn't around in those days, but I metaphorically took my hat off to Ungi, Jimmy & Fred who were.

We agreed with our Pearson's guide book which says 'well maintained and surrounded by fine countryside, with wonderful views to the Malvern Hills, Tardebigge Locks are there to be enjoyed not dreaded'.

On this occasion, we didn't do all the locks in one go. We did nearly a quarter of them late on the last evening of our holiday, so we didn't have too much of a rush in the morning, as we had to return our boat at lunchtime. We walked all the way down from our mooring to have a meal in the Queen's Head (good food & wonderful beers) near the bottom lock. It was a surprisingly long walk, but with the locks covering 4 miles, this was hardly surprising.

We tackled most of the flight the next morning and got through in record time (we know if was quick, but we forgot to write down how quick).


Hope you like the picture of us relaxing at the bottom lock after all the work was over. As you can see the sun was shining which was a wonderful reward. I don't suppose doing Tardebigge would be half as much fun in the rain.

Lots of love, Eddie, Ungi, Jimmy, Fred & Co xxx

Now You See Me, Now You Don't ...

As we chugged out of Birmingham the next day we were all feeling a little sad. This was not because of the after effects of the curry, because we were starting out on the homeward leg of our journey, which was now almost at an end.

Still, it was to be a good trip back to the Black Prince base at Stoke Prior, including two tests of canal boating skill.


The first was the Wast Hill tunnel, which we are approaching in my picture. This is a real biggie and it is 2726 yards long (that's nearly 3 km for those who have gone metric). This might sound long, (and it is long) but even so, it is only the 4th longest navigable tunnel on the canal system.

Canal tunnels are inevitably dark, gloomy and can be very wet, with lots of water dripping from the ceiling. The helmsman has to put on waterproofs and then those of us who are resting in the life ring on the hatch roof, all take cover from the wet, by sheltering under a minder's jacket .


As it was Polar's first tunnel of any size, he couldn't resist the temptation to look out, even though we did tell him there was nothing to see in the dark. As you can see, he perfected the technique of being able to look out and still stay dry.

The British Waterways sign at the tunnel entrance said that travelling time for the tunnel was about 1 hour. That must be for very nervous drivers who are timidly creeping along. Our guide book said that it would take about half an hour to negotiate and, being confident boaters, we did it in even less (without speeding of course).

When we entered the tunnel we were still in the urban sprawl of the West Midlands. By the time we had come out, we had reached the charming countryside of north-east Worcestershire - quite a change!

Lots of love, Eddie, Polar and crew xxx

Beer & Curry Night

Once we had arrived at Gas Street Basin and moored up, there was lots for us to do.

Firstly we did an on paw exploration of the area. Lots of different canals and branch lines come together in the area and provide a wealth of interest to a canal anorak like me. If you're not such a canal anorak, there are loads of bars to keep you entertained, as Chelmer and some others of my crew discovered.


As you can see from my picture, the area has been well developed and the canal system is key to the success of the area as a recreational zone. The distances to the various areas of interest are nearly all in metres, not miles, so you don't have to walk too far to see lots of interesting history.


The other 'must do' activity (after sampling a few beers in the waterside bars) was to sample a curry. Birmingham is the curry capital of Britain, after all. As you can see, Yorkie lived up to his nickname of 'Piranha' and made short work of a naan bread that was a lot bigger than he was.

Lots of love Eddie, George, Yorkie & Co xxx

Where Was the Farmer?

There was just one short tunnel taking us under the railway line ...


... before we had left dereliction behind and returned to the hustle and bustle of city life.

But, we still had the 13 wonderfully named Farmer's Bridge locks to work through before we reached the true canal heart of the city at Gas Street Basin.

These locks are quite a favourite of ours as we always attract a crowd of gongoozlers, who are quite easy to impress with our boat handling and locking skills. They usually ask lots of questions which I enjoy answering, being the canal anorak that I am.


As you can see from this photo and the next one, going up this lock flight you really do rub shoulders with the city workers and get to see how the canal and city businesses co-exist alongside each other.


With 13 locks coming in quick succession and a crowd of onlookers to impress, there was no slacking for me and my crew. I was grateful to a canal engineer of earlier times who had thoughtfully built up and weighted the lock gate to make it easier to open.


It also made a good seat as well.

Lots of love, Eddie and crew xxx