Very Satisfied Bears

Remember those characterful Menorcan gates we told you were a speciality of the island? Well we found an even better example on this great first full day's walk. Here it is ...


We thought these gates would make a great entrance to our bear cave. There were two problems though: firstly we didn't see any for sale and secondly we thought we might have problems getting them onto the plane when we came home. Maybe someone will see our picture and be inspired to make us a pair.

It seems as if we've blogging about this first walk of ours for ages, and in fact we have, but there were so many interesting sights we simply had to share them with you. You will probably be surprised to learn that all these sights came in a walk of only about 8 miles duration. As a result, we finished before we were ready to go back to the apartment. Our handy Sunflower walking guide came to the rescue, and told us that there were other walks in the area and we didn't even need to move the car.

We voted for a walk up to the hermitage of Santa Maria, as this involved quite a steep climb and we thought we might get a good view of the island. The view was good, although a lot of it was of the town of Ferries where we'd started from. It wasn't that scenic (modern buildings and an industrial estate!) so we'll show you a picture of us sitting outside the hermitage instead.


It was definitely a bear sized church, but like so many nowadays, sadly it was locked, so all we could do was peer in through the windows.

We romped back down the path to the hire bearmobile in record time, with thoughts of a cool beer on our patio occupying our thoughts.

We'd had a truly great first day.

Lots of love, George & Yorkie xxx

Whose Wedding?

As we were hungry bears after our morning's walk, our priorities were food first and exploring second. We were very impressed that we could get up close and personal with these ancient monuments and there were no barriers or signs saying 'don't touch'.

When we got to the high point of the settlement and looked all the way down to the valley floor ...


not only were we wowed by the view (don't look for us in the picture, we weren't hang-gliding), but we took our metaphorical hats off to those ancient talyot peoples as we appreciated their strategic choice of defensive position.

Not far from our lunch spot, we came across some more interesting constructions of indeterminate age. They certainly weren't ruins, as you can see from our next picture showing the one we passed closest to ...


... but there again they didn't look much like modern constructions. We decided they looked just like tiered wedding cakes - typical of Yorkie, he was disappointed that they weren't edible. Both of our romantic illusions were quickly shattered when we consulted our guide book, and read that although they looked like Babylonian ziggurats (we hadn't though of that one), they were cattle sheds known as ponts. We chuckled to ourselves as we read on, to find out that some of these structures have recently been built to provide homes for people, rather than cattle, since they don't require planning permission.

If we were living in one we'd want a few more windows!

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

Prehistoric Bears

Some of our readers will be familiar with our 'What's in our Lunch Box' series of posts. In Menorca, the emphasis was more on 'Where's our Lunch box?' than 'What's in our Lunch Box?' as we had our picnic in some very interesting places.

On this wonderful walk we had our lunch among the prehistoric ruins of the ancient settlement of Son Mercer de Baix. They were really old - as they would be being prehistoric - and they created a wonderful atmosphere and a real feeling of history.


Can you see us perched on one of the supporting pillars of the famous Cova des Moor. The historians and archaeologists call this structure a room shaped naveta, but we're less romantic and would simply call it a cave. It was quite large and therefore required 3 stone pillars of the type you see us perched on at the entrance. It was truly amazing to think that this settlement was first inhabited between 2500 and 1800 BC, but even stranger to think that our lunch of ham and cheese bocadillos might not be that different to the lunches eaten all those years ago.

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

Nature Loving Bears

With each mile, our walk continued to delight. All along the path were lots of pretty wild flowers providing lovely fragrances and a feast of colour for the eyes.


We particularly liked the fine stone walls such as the one we were sitting on. It had even been warmed by the sun which was a real treat for our bear bottoms.

You can see more of these rather lovely stone walls in our next picture.


You can rely on us to sniff out the vines, which you also see in our picture. They were still quite small and there were no grapes ready for harvesting yet. We shouldn't have seen these vines really, as we were lost when we came across them. It was only a minor deviation though, and we were soon back on course.

Our favourite encounters with nature that day were the ones we had with the local pigs. First we watched them out in the fields doing a spot of sunbathing (this time we're easier to see than the pigs) ...


...and then, were lots of oooohs and aaaahs as we came across the following scene in an open air barn ...


You may need to look closely to see the sight which had warmed our hearts. We simply loved that little piglet flopped out on the calf's back.

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

Climbing Bears

The next day, the first full day of our holiday, was a fine day (shorts and t-shirt weather for those who wear clothes), but there was a bit of cloud cover, so we decided if would be a good day for exploring the interior of the island, to see what Menorca is really like, outside of the resorts.

We'd only gone a short distance when we found a great climbing wall.


As you will know from earlier posts, bears love climbing and cannot simply walk past a climbing opportunity. It calls out to us and begs to be climbed. Bears are also quite competitive - in a friendly way - so Yorkie and I are always trying to arrive at the top before the other. On this occasion, as you can see, Yorkie was ahead of me (I blend in rather well with the rock), but he did start off a few seconds ahead (that's my excuse anyway). He did spend so long admiring the view at this half way point, that I thought I was going to be able to sneak past un-noticed ... but then I sneezed and gave the game away.

It was only about 10 minutes more walk, until we had a surprise find. We came to a row of huge monoliths (also suitable for climbing). As Menorca is an archaelogical treasure trove and contains lots of talayotic remains (prehistoric if that doesn't mean anything to you) we assumed that these megaliths dated from this period.


The ancient nature of these stones left us with a bit of a dilemma. Would it be disrespectful and anti conservation, to have a climb. We thought not, after all we are so light and soft pawed, that we couldn't possibly do any damage, so up we went. This time the tables were turned and I stole a march on Yorkie - on a much more difficult climb I might add. This time it is Yorkie who is the more camouflaged, but he is there if you look bottom left.

What a great start to the walk. We were less than half an hour into it, with 2 great climbs under our belt. We we really looking forward to the rest of the day.

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

Paddling Bears

There were times when our progress along the cami was quite slow as we found lots of interesting rocky inlets to explore such as this one ...


This was definitely a bear sized harbour and it would be great for Eddie's seal boat. We also took time to swim out to that interesting large rock perched out to sea. Unfortunately we couldn't swim with our climbing gear, otherwise it would have offered a great face to climb.

As we got closer to the next resort of Son Bou we found we had reached a huge sandy bay and it was possible to paddle along at the water's edge for miles. We love splashing about in the sea, feeling the wind in our fur. As we got closer to Son Bou, the simple beauty of sand, dunes and sea was rather marred by some rather unsightly tourist hotels. Unfortunately there are quite a few of these in Menorca, which is a shame when you consider the spectacular natural beauty of the island. We would have preferred some rather more sympathetic developments, but the good news is that the Menorcans seem to have seen the light, and there are plenty of lovely hotel free bays on the island.


Much more aesthetically pleasing was the traditional Menorcan gate that we are sitting on. There are lots of these on the island and they are very charming.

Back soon.

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

Cami Bears

After an initial climb up from the beach, we found ourselves on the level and strolling along a well-defined path. It was a lovely path and the views ahead, and to both sides, were simply marvellous.


We could hardly go wrong: all we had to do was to keep walking in a straight line with the sea on our right - not too difficult really - so we were a bit surprised to see a number of waymarking posts. We might not have needed them for navigation, but they were certainly good for sitting on.


As we took a closer look we realised that these were not exactly waymarking posts, but were posts advertising the route of the Cami de Cavalls (path of horses), hence the horseshoe logo. The path was a medieval coast and country route circumnavigating the island. In the past, it had a military purpose, and was used to move soldiers and supplies around. We were very pleased to find it is being restored - mostly now complete - and what a great leisure facility it makes.

We'll be showing you more shots from along the way soon.

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

Beach Bears

After lunch it was time to explore beyond that tempting pool. We didn't have to go far to find the sea. A few steps beyond the far side of the pool, was a fine piece of boardwalk leading us to the beach. Can you see us?


There was no-one else on the beach which was not the fault of the beach as it was a beautiful sandy beach with crystal clear blue/green sea. It was (as was confirmed throughout the week) because we were some of the very few holiday makers on the island. As we had it all to ourselves, it felt like we were on beautiful desert island. It was just lacking the palm trees and coconuts.

The boardwalk was to preserve the sand dunes which are very precious to the Menorcans. As you can see from our looking backwards shot, showing Hamilton Court apartments, our Menorcan home for the week, we really had picked a great spot.


Mind you, lovely though the apartments and the beach were, there was far too much exploring to do for us to for us to stay there for long. We spotted a path at the end of the beach leading up some cliffs, and off we went.

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

Balearic Bears

Yorkie and I enjoyed our winter survival skills course, especially in retrospect. It was cold though, so the prospect of spending a few days in the sun, in the interests of doing some more research for the Friendly Planet Guide, was very appealing.

We therefore persuaded our minders to book a week in Menorca, the week after Easter, when it would be nice and quiet and prices were still cheap. Almost before we knew it, we were leaping into a rucksack and heading for Luton airport at 5.00 a.m. on a foggy April morning.

Ours was an early flight, so by mid morning we were bowling along the empty Menorcan roads in our very cute and bear friendly Renault Twingo hire car, en route to our apartment.


We found the apartment easily, and no sooner were our bags inside, than we were studying the information pack in our living room, while we waited for lunch to be prepared and the beers to chill.

Our apartment was very fine and on the ground floor, with a private patio and garden. As we slid open the patio doors we could tell we were going to enjoy sitting out in the sun with a cold drink and a good book.

The swimming pool was in view and we only had to go out our garden gate and up a few steps to be there and what a lovely pool it was ...


You can see from our edge of the seat pose that we could hardly wait to dive in.

Our first impressions were very good and we felt it in our fur that we were going to have a good week.

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

Meanwhile Back at the Ranch ...

The wheels of commerce need to keep turning, so while our small bear colleagues and their instructors were having fun in the snow, the rest of us were hard at work and keeping the home fires burning.

There was much less snow in Norfolk so Tommy was able to spend time in his beloved garden and made Chef Bear Oakley's day, by digging up some lovely home grown parsnips.


Mouths began to water as Oakley announced he would be making some curried parsnip soup and we would be having a roast dinner that night with all the trimmings and most definitely roast parsnips.

Both bears were slightly bemused by one of the parsnips which looked as if has arrived by UFO from outer space. See what we mean ...


There were roots/tentacles emerging everywhere. Tommy thought that maybe he needed to keep warm in the garden by doing a bit of energetic digging to remove a few of the stones that the growing parsnips must have hit. Thankfully this one tasted every bit as delicious as the others and proved home grown does beat shop bought almost every time.

Talking about keeping the home fires burning, while they waited for their tea, Eddie and Pooh of the Midlands Branch, who was visiting, got a good fire burning and settled down in front of it with a beer.


If you look carefully, you'll see it's not any old beer they're drinking, but one of the best named beers ever - Piddle in a Hole from the Wyre Piddle Brewery. Readers with good memories will recall Eddie was introduced to this brewery last year when he passed through Wyre Piddle with his crew, when canal boating on the Avon Ring. Not only did the beer taste good, it provided a good opportunity for reminiscing and reliving that exciting trip.

Back soon

Love all at Bears Unlimited xxx