Namche Bazaar in Sight

We've all had a lovely Christmas and have enjoyed going to Christmas services, gathering with family, eating lots of delicious food and braving the cold for some scenic walks, this year in the Hertfordshire countryside. We hope all our readers have had an equally good time: we at the Norfolk Branch are especially looking forward to a 'second Christmas' next weekend,when there is a big B.U. gathering in Norfolk, for our Company A.G.M. Five members of the Midlands Branch have arrived early, eager to bag bed spaces and enjoy Chef Oakley's culinary masterpieces, as he tries out new recipes from Christmas present cook books.

Anyway, back to Nepal. Our first views of Everest revitalised us and put a new spring in our step, so we almost flew up the last stage of the climb to Namche Bazaar.


As we spied these first few houses appearing along the trail we knew we were getting close. As we rounded the final bend and saw the whole of the town nestled into a natural bowl in the mountains we were surprised at how large it was. The town has expanded a lot to support the demands of an expanding trekking industry and the myriad of buildings (mostly tea houses) literally cling to the sides of the mountain, as you can see ...


Having risen 900 metres to reach Namche, most trekkers have a rest day there to help with acclimatisation to altitude. We were no exception. Being such a big and bustling place, Namche Bazaar is an interesting place to spend a bit of time, and we look forward to sharing the secrets of this wonderful town with you soon.

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

Everest In Our Sights

We didn't get to see Everest though until we'd done quite a bit of climbing. It was a very pleasant path up and, between you and us, we secretly found it quite easy going, although we bears don't carry a lot of extra weight, unlike a lot of humans we know.


We had frequent rest stops as we waited for others in our party to catch up. Our picture gives you an idea of the terrain: the chap in black is Bhakta our excellent Nepali leader. As you can see from his crossed arms pose this was an easy walk in the park for him.

We all know that good things are worth waiting for, and this was true of our first view of Everest. So here we are, appearing with the famous mountain as it allowed us a first, and yes, distant, glimpse through the foliage.


Just in case you think Everest is too small in our picture for you to be sure it is the genuine article, we'll also give you a zoomed version.


There's no mistaking it now, but you will be seeing more pictures as we got to trek much closer.

Sorry we've been too busy recounting our Nepal adventures to be very festive, but we do all, very much, want to wish all our readers a very happy and peaceful Christmas.

Enjoy your celebrations, as we will most certainly enjoy ours.

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

The Calm Before the Storm

Our lunch that day was very leisurely. It was cooked for us by our trekking crew while we rested on a sunny tea house verandah, surrounded by pretty flowers.


We were allowed time for a siesta after eating and we soon found out the reason for such a relaxing lunch. We were about to leave the river and begin a 900 metre climb to the bustling town of Namche Bazaar.

Not only was it long, hard climb lasting 2 -3 hours, as the path was relentlessly up, there were no refreshment stops en route. This was quite a change, as along the river there had been tea houses every few steps.

First though, was a final short stretch along the opposite side of the river, to get us back into our stride, before we started climbing.

It was easy to tell where the end of the flatter walking came, as there was quite a gathering of people, having a final rest before the hard work started. There was another reason for the gathering though, which you will appreciate, if you look in the direction we are looking.


We were all looking at the highest suspension bridge in the Everest region, and it was very high. Just to get to it required a steep climb. Once there it was very exciting crossing: this is how it looked as we prepared to go across. As you can see there were some zopkis crossing, and, given the width of their horns, it was a sensible decision to let them finish crossing first.


It was on the climb up that we had our first views of Everest. We'll share them with you next time.

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

Meet the Zopkis

Once inside we found that the tea house provided everything we needed, but nothing extra - this was fine by us. Our room simply had 2 beds and was separated from the next room by a fairly insubstantial partition wall, so we had to be careful not to make too much noise. We had to wash in our rooms with a big metal 'dog bowl' of water brought to us by our wonderful trekking crew - once it got dark it was too cold for anything more than a quick freshen up anyway. The only heating was in the dining area across the road, so we all gathered there to relax, drink tea house tea, and have a fine hot meal before retiring for an early night.


The next morning our pack animals, the zopkis, (pronounced dropkey) arrived to carry our red trek kit bags. Each one carried 3 bags which wasn't too heavy a load, as we had been encouraged to pack light, and leave as much kit as we could in the Kathmandu hotel store. We were also warned to pack everything in waterproof bags in case the zopkis peed on them. We didn't see them doing this, but we did once see them trampling on some of the bags! The zopkis were yak/cow cross breeds and they were the perfect pack animals for us, as, unlike yaks, they can survive at altitudes under 3,000 metres. They were very characterful, but we were warned not to get too close as they had some rather fearsome horns.

We continued along the river for all of the morning's walk. It might sound like flat walking, but it wasn't: there were lots of undulations. Before we had gone far, we discovered where the electricity, we had enjoyed in the tea house, came from.


As we sat under the sign in the shade - the sun got very hot, very quickly - a little boy spotted us and came up to tell us all about the hydro electric scheme. We had already witnessed the power of all that foaming white water, so it was great to think that it was helping to bring power to the region, so reducing the number of trees cut down for firewood.

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

Our First Tea House

As we were walking down in the valley bottom beside the river, the land was very fertile. There were a few flowers - and a very pretty sight they were too - but given the remoteness of the area, and the fact that the nearest road was a week's walk away, most of the land was given over to vegetable growing.

You can see from our picture how well the vegetables were growing. What a backdrop for your vegetable garden! We knew gardening bear, Tommy, would be envious when he saw our pictures.


We learned from our guide that we would be eating lots of vegetables over the next week, and probably no meat. For most wild bears this might be a problem, but not for us. We are domesticated bears and we love vegetables. As you know, Tommy, grows lots for us in the garden and we all devour them gusto.

Before we were ready for our first leg of the trek to end, we came to the entrance of the village where we would be staying.


As we looked at the loads that some of the porters ahead of us were carrying, we knew we wouldn't have enjoyed our afternoon anything like as much, had we been carrying heavy loads.

The village was called Phakding and it was only a couple of minutes walk further to the first of many tea houses, where we would be stopping each night. We weren't sure what to expect, but as we waited outside first impressions seemed quite good.


See what we mean? And we knew we should at least be able to get a good cup of tea!

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

Getting the Show on the Road

Having arrived safely in Lukla, our long awaited trek could get underway. But we didn't rush right off: we had just flown into an altitude of 2,860m, which is well over 9,000 feet, so we needed to slow things down while we adjusted to the thin air. We also had to meet our excellent trekking crew and pack animals (more about them later).

We had a short walk through the town, followed by a very early (11:30 a.m. lunch). Despite the altitude, the sun was shining, so we could sit outside and bask in it's warmth as we ate.

Anyway, you know what people and bears look like eating, so lets move on to the stuff of interest and our first trek photo.


We started off by losing a couple of hundred metres of altitude and descending to the river, which we walked along for the rest of that day. We had to cross the river and it's tributaries lots of times, and these steel suspension bridges provided the means of doing so. They might look quite rigid, but believe us they were very bouncy (and that was with our negligible combined weight). As you can see, we waited for the heavy humans to clear the bridge first.

Everything we saw was new to us and completely fascinating. We had moved into Buddhist territory and loved seeing all the many aids to Buddhist worship.


Some of the prayer wheels such as these ones were very colourful and we enjoyed giving them a spin to gain blessings for our journey. We made sure to do everything clockwise of course. As you can see the native animals were friendly and on hand to give us some tips.

Our trek had got off to a great start and we knew we were really going to enjoy the next few days.

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

In Safe Hands

As the flight progressed we began to relax a little bit, but we were still on edge, knowing the tricky landing was still ahead. We weren't worried for ourselves as stuffing is very resilient and bounces well, it was our minders we were worried for, as bones and organs are a lot more fragile.

We distracted ourselves by admiring the incredible views out of the window.


In the distance were beautiful, snowy, Himalayan peaks. Far closer, at times frighteningly close, was the ground below us. Although we were flying quite high, the ground below us was so mountainous that it wasn't far below us. We were quite amazed to see that steep slopes didn't deter house building and farming.

One thing that reassured us no end, was the fact that the co-pilot was relaxed enough about the whole flight to spend some of it filming.


We weren't surprised by this as it wasn't exactly an ordinary flight. When the camera turned on the passengers, we made sure we could be seen and gave cheery smiles and waves.

It wasn't a long flight and after about half an hour we could see the Lukla airstrip ahead.

Rather than try and describe the landing, we'll show you it, using the promised video clip. Obviously it isn't our plane, but one very like it. Be sure to have the sound turned up on your PC for the full effect, as it sounds more dramatic than it looks.



Enjoy, and thanks Agni Air for a safe flight!

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

A Fur Raising Flight

We think that story of bears blasting into space was both amazing and inspiring. What brave bears they were. We think our stuffing must be a bit softer than theirs! We were pleased though, that with their landing site being so close to Ipswich, the Suffolk branch were able to be quickly on hand, to welcome them back to earth and proffer warm blankets and flasks of hot coffee.

Mind you, we think our flight out of Kathmandu, up to the Everest region, was nearly as scary. Our flight was to the infamous Lukla airstrip, widely acknowledged to be in the top 10 of the world's scariest airports. There are lots of reasons for this: the runway is very short (just 502m), with a big drop at one end and a wall and mountains at the other, giving no second chances to go round again; the altitude is very high, at around 2,800m the runway is frequently obscured by clouds, and if that's not enough, the runway has a pronounced slope, to slow down arrivals and aid departures. You'll see what we mean about the length and the slope when you see this picture of ours.


We knew all these scary facts about Lukla before we even left home, but what we didn't know until we got to Nepal, was that 2 weeks to the day earlier, a plane had crashed on landing at Lukla and killed everyone on board except the pilot. It was a real tragedy and, as you can imagine, it made us all the more apprehensive about our flight.

We were pleased to learn that pilots have to have at least 7 years's flying experience before they can land at Lukla. As the planes have to be very small to land there, we were able to get a good look at our pilot and we thought that he looked as if he had a safe pair of hands.

In fact, as we sat in the front row, we were so close that we could have tapped him and his co-pilot on the shoulder. See what we mean ....


In the end we decided it would be best not to distract them so we settled for a seat on the pilot's briefcase where we could keep an eye on what was happening.


We'll be back soon to tell you about the rest of the flight and hopefully to include a video clip (technology permitting).

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

First Bears in (Real) Space

STOP PRESS: we interrupt our Nepal reporting to bring you some breaking news of huge significance to bearkind.

The Banner headline says it all -

Teddy bears blast off into space

Four teddies have taken a giant leap for bear-kind after being blasted to the edge of space by university boffins.

The cuddly toys were attached to a helium balloon and launched 30,000-metres into the atmosphere from Churchill College in Cambridge.

They were fitted out with space suits designed by schoolchildren from the city as the toys braved freezing temperatures.

The computer-controlled quartet, who were fitted with a GPS system and camera to track their progress, landed safely just north of Ipswich, Suffolk, following their pioneering flight of just over two hours.

Cambridge University said the project was part of an initiative to "engage local schoolchildren in science and engineering".

Aiyana Stead, 12, one of the pupils who helped make the space suits, said: "This was a really fun thing to do. The best bit was when we set the balloon off with the bears."

Kane Robbins, also 12, added: "I really enjoyed launching the teddy bear into space."

The project was overseen by the Cambridge University spaceflight team - a student-run society launched two years ago.

Ed Moore, one of its 10 members, said: "There can be few more worthwhile things for us to do than to try and provide that spark for the current generation of school kids. We had a fantastic time working with the kids."

A university spokeswoman added: "No treasured possessions were endangered in this experiment."

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Well done bears, a great achievement, which beats our adventures at the National Space Centre hand down.

Love from all at Bears Unlimited xxx