Gio's Camino Crosses

Gio here, with the first of some reflections on our wonderful walk. From the moment I first heard about the Camino, I was really taken with the historic nature of the route, and thought it would be really amazing to walk the same route that has been walked by thousands of pilgrims for over a thousand years.

All along the way are many reminders that the route is walked by pilgrims with religious motives. I particularly liked all the crosses that appeared, quite frequently, along the way, and I'd like to share some of my favourites with you.

Some you simply could not miss, as they were large and prominently placed on the path.


This was one of my favourites, as its very simplicity made it all the more powerful as a symbol and I liked the fact that you couldn't ignore it as you passed by.

Other crosses were tucked away to the side of the path. Many of these were iron crosses, but I much preferred the wooden ones such as this one ...


... especially when they led the eye to a lovely pastoral scene, as this one did. The only thing I found a bit disturbing was the piles of stones that were put on, or around, the cross. I kept thinking, this is a cross not a cairn, but I read somewhere recently, that pilgrims leave stones to remember loved ones who have died. If this is the reason for the stones being left, then I think I can just about accept it.

Some of the crosses are very old. My next one, which we encountered when walking between Figeac and Cajarc, was reported in our guide book to be the oldest cross in the region, but sadly it gave no estimate of how old.


As we sat beside this cross, looking at the weathered stone, we had a real feeling that it had stood there for centuries. I really like this cross.

My last cross is a rather more modern one, and certainly not lacking in green credentials.


It is an ingenious piece of topiary and I think it makes a great statement.

I hope you have enjoyed sharing my photographic cross collection.

Lots of love Gio xxx

P.S. sorry our blog layout has gone haywire. When we've worked out why, we'll try and fix it.

The Best Laid Plans

It's been quite a while since we last posted and it's hard to believe how much has happened in just a few days. Of course, if you've been following our minders' blog you will know all there is to know.

Our walk out of Boadilla was a rather wet one. It was the first time since we started walking in September that we had set off in the rain. Fortunately the rain had raised temperatures so we didn't get cold, and our spirits were raised as we walked along an old canal, since as regular readers will know, we are big canal fans. It was sad to see a fine lock staircase no longer in use, and with lock gates at the top end only. It was quite a spectacle, but we were prised away by the promise of a nice, hot cup of coffee.

The rain continued all day, but fortunately our lunch problems were solved by a nice lady at a hostal we passed, who cooked us plates of pasta with cheese and tomato soup! Being rather wet on the outside, provided us with a good excuse to book into another private room at a hostal, at the town of Carrion de los Condes.

In the end this turned out to be a wise decision for more than the original reason of spreading out wet gear. Our male minder, who had been having some foot troubles for a while, thought we should see if a day off helped. Thanks to our hostal room, we had somewhere warm and dry, with a TV with a good sports channel, to hole up the next day, while we anxiously hoped for foot improvements. The extra day gave old friends a chance to catch up with us, and this is exactly what happened. We were very pleased to see our Belgian friend, Luc, walk in to the restaurant where we were having our pilgrims' meal, and spent a happy hour catching up on each other's news.

Unfortunately, the day off, didn't improve the bad foot, and during one of the most miserable walks of our life the next morning, (17km of the straightest, red earth Roman road, with nothing of interest on either side to view, and an icy gale blowing right into our faces) we came to the conclusion, reluctantly, that finishing the camino on this trip simply wasn't going to be wise, or possible.

At the albergue, at the grandly named village of Terradillos de los Templarios, which wasn't so grand in reality, as there wasn't so much as a bar or a shop, our minders monopolised the PC offering the internet, so we couldn't get near it to write a post. They did have important business to do though, as they were researching ways to get home and successfully booking a flight.

They did well, and the next day we had an amazing travelling day. First we all walked the 12 km from Terradillos to the next town of Sahagun. From there we caught a train to Leon, and from Leon, caught a bus for the three and a half hour ride to Santander. By this point it was gone 7.00 p.m. so we checked into a lovely 3 star hotel for a bit of pampering. You should have seen the toiletry range - it could have kept us occupied for the whole weekend!

In Santander we occupied our time before our flight back to England using the 'tusbic' scheme. This allows you to register and leave a deposit on your credit card, at which point you can release a bicycle and cycle round the city for no fee at all. You can return your bici to any of the stations round the city. We kept well clear of the traffic and mixed it with all the promenaders who were walking along the water front and the lovely sandy beaches. It was such a great scheme and should definitely be introduced in England.

So now we are back in England, rather sooner than we expected. Rest assured we will be putting the extra time to good use and hopefully embarking on another adventure soon, so watch this space. In the meantime, we will be planning to share some of our camino photos with you and hopefully will get to visit some of our many friends.

Lots of love the Camino Bears xxx

Making Good Use of All that Wind!

So here we are again, to continue from where we last left you in Burgos.

As we object to paying to enter churches, just as much as we object to them being locked all the time, we decided to wait to visit the cathedral until the pilgrims´mass at 7.30 p.m. We were quite willing to attend the mass, but would also use the opportunity to have a free look round.

We had not bargained for the spectacle that was in store for us. See our minders´blog for full details, but we ended up as three small bears in a very big ceremony, with lots of robed clergy, multiple archbishops, even a cardinal, and lots of incense swinging (or whatever you call it). We were disappointed that our Spanish was inadequate to tell us what was happening, but a switched on minder worked out that it was probably the inauguration of a new local saint, called Raphael.

The next day we had to leave at 8.00 a.m. so out we went into the cold and dark, and promptly got lost trying to find the way out of Burgos. As it was Sunday morning there weren´t too many locals to ask ´donde esta el camino?´ but fortunately a kind local spotted us, before we saw him, and put us on the right route.

Not long after Burgos we started to climb into the much talked about high meseta. It is supposed to be a very bleak and isolated crop growing area, and very monotonous, but we loved the peace and quiet, big skies and landscapes and the birds, including some scary vultures. We are also very impressed by all the wind turbines which adorn every hill top in numbers too great to count (next time we can´t sleep we will picture the wind farms and try counting the turbines). Many of them seem pleased to see us and wave their arms madly at us, so of course we wave back.

Today we are staying at at small town called Boadilla. There is a swimming pool but it was too cold to use it, even though we have lsot the chilling east wind. When we looked in at the albergue bed concentration, it was a bit depressing, so we took what the owner said was a good choice: a room in the main house. As we opted for non ensuite, it is a real bargain, and although more expensive that an albergue bed, it is still no more than the cost of a bed in a youth hostel at home, so a real bargain, especially as we get sheets and towels provided. It is so much more relaxing to have our own space to relax in. The only touble is, that just like in Travels With My Donkey, when Tim Moore discovered that a brandy was so affordable, he realised he would want one every night, the same is likely to be true with us and hostal rooms. On the plus side, we can still have a cheap pilgrim meal, and as tonight, get to take this together with all the other pilgrims - tonight again with our Slovak friend whose name is a bit complicated. We just don´t return to their dormitory with them afterwards.

We are sure we will sleep well tonight.

Lots of love, the Camino bears xxx

Our First Marathon

We hope all our readers have been avidly following our minders´blog as that will give you all our news, as, strangely enough, we do all walk together and share the same experiences.

Tonight´s quick post is coming from a very new pilgrims´ hostel, right in the centre of Burgos. It was only opened last year so is very modern, and has nicely partitioned bed areas on 7 floors. As we were early arrivals, we have beds on the first floor.

It is only a stone´s throw from the hostel to the very fine cathedral and there are lots of expensive hotels nearby, so we feel very fortunate to have accommodation for a minimum donation of €3 - we did actually put in a bit more.

The walk into Burgos was an interesting one. We started off climbing a stony sheep path up a hill, then we came down, crossed some agricultural land, then walked right round the airport perimeter fence, before walking the last 8km into the city centre through parkland beside the river. As it is Saturday, the Spaniards were out in force, walking, running or cycling, and they do seem to be taking more exercise than the average Brit.

We were pleased to arrive at lunchtime as our paws are still recovering from our marathon walk of two days ago when we unintentionally did a marathon length leg of over 40km. We had already set ourselves a challenging target, without allowing for the fact that our chosen hostel was shut. There was no other choice but to walk on for another hour to the next town. Fortunately when we got there we did find ourselves an excellent room, with a complimentary carafe of red wine which soon revived us, as did the massaging shower.

The big change over the last week has been the change in the weather. Still no rain, and clear blue skies and lots of sunshine, but there is a biting wind from the east (Siberia?) and first thing in the morning and in the evening, it gets very cold. Our wardrobe has now completely changed and all of the winter clothes we have been carrying around unused for weeks, are now becoming essential wear. As we set out yesterday morning we were surprised to see frost on the grass, and it was the same today. Possibly our Helvellyn high altitude has something to do with it. Needless to say we are now drinking more cafes con leche than San Miguel!

20 minutes on the internet machine doesn´t last long so we must now say hasta luego!

Lots of love, the Camino Bears xxx

Red Wine Heaven

So it does seem that life without an iPod is perfectly possible (it helps to have an MP3 player on your phone though!): this trip is supposed to be about living simply anyway, so we need to start putting theory into practice. Today we are reporting from a back room of a small shop in the even smaller town of Navarette. It is the first place we have stayed in the region of Rioja - we crossed the boundary today - and we are looking forward to a glass of the local vino later.

Talking about wine, we need to bring you up to date with news since our stop on Saturday at Puenta la Reina, and most of it concerns wine. With our meal in the hostel we were served wine in a pint glass, and what´s more, the glass was three quarters full! We certainly had a good night´s sleep after finishing it while watching basketball on the T.V.

Then the next day we managed to time our arrival at the famous Irache wine fountain for mid afternoon. As there is free red wine on tap, it was a much better time to pass than just after breakfast. We had to wait a bit for our wine tasting as, upon entering into the enclosure with the fountain, one of our minders managed to lose a trekking pole through some iron railing into the winery works area below. Being a Sunday, this was completely closed off. We all had to initiate an elaborate fishing exercise to retrieve the pole, by hooking another pole into the loop of the handle and raising it very slowly. By the time the rescue operation was complete, both we, and a small audience which was watching with bated breath, agreed that we had earned a sample of the wine.

The critical tap is the one on the left: the one on the right is for water! We did not expect wine being given away for free to taste as good as it did. Even Gio, who is usually quite abstemious, got stuck in and slurped his fill.


If you go to http://www.irache.com/ you can see the webcam which is focussed on the fountain and you might see some other pilgrims, or locals, indulging.

From the fountain, we continued for another couple of hours to a small albergue run by a Dutch evangelical organisation. A team of 5 lovely Dutch people looked after us, and about 14 other pilgrims, extremely well and cooked us a lovely paella. We have never heard such good English being spoken as was spoken by those Dutch friends. The place seemed to attract English speakers, and among our fellow guests were 4 Americans and an Australian. We also re-encountered Johannes, the German-Swiss chap who we last saw well over a month ago, when we shared a mobile home with him, only about a week into our trip. It is a very small world on the Camino.

Last night, after a week or sharing dormitories we treated ourselves to a $40 private room with ensuite facilities. It was nice to be able to let our fur down without disturbing anyone, and after 2 long days of 30km we thought we´d earned it. We also had reason to celebrate as our GPS clocked up our 1000th kilometre as we walked into the town (Viana). We have actually walked further, as there have been times when the GPS accidentally got shut down, and when batteries have run out.

Late this morning we passed through the big city of Logroño which was nearly as big as Pamplona. We did a couple of hours of sight-seeing and shopping, mainly food and pharmacy, and also purchased a trendy belt for one of our minders who can no longer keep her walking trousers up without one! The camino was routed extremely well and kept us out of the traffic except for the very centre and we went though some lovely parkland areas.

We think that´s most of the news for now,

Lots of love, the Camino Bears xxx

Hammer Treatment Required

Growl, double growl and thrice growl: it´s a good job that our paws aren´t letting us down as technology certainly is.

Yesterday we published (using what we thought was a working wi-fi connection) a post telling you all about our first impressions of the Camino in Spain and how it differs to France. Our iPod clearly thought it was posted, but the internet doesn´t seem to think it has received anything, and we rather think our fine work is lost, never to be seen again.

Then at lunch time our bear iPod died in exactly the same way as our minders´did a few weeks ago. It requires the Fred hammer treatment to bring it back to life, but we have decided this time to be brave bears and to try and live without it for the rest of our trip, rather than try and manage the travel logistics again. It does mean that our posts may start to dry up and only appear when internet terminals are available. We trust you will understand and we will try and catch up when we can. In the meantime keep reading our minders´blog (see friends sites) for all the news.

In a very brief summary, before our twenty minutes run out, what we were hoping to say to you was:

a) we are enjoying the walk in Spain and especially the fact that there are a lot more off road paths than in France.

b) our hopes that October would be a quiet time were completely wrong. It is very busy and the 100+ bed dorms that we though we would have to ourselves are nearly full. Everything is well run though and a good spirit prevails and everyone mucks in well together. The crowds do take a bit of getting used to though.

c) there are lots of new friends to make and lots more nationalities than on the Le Puy route. We had a great Pilgrim meal 2 night ago with a Swede, a Belgian and a German. Fortunately everyone speaks English, which is just as well as our Spanish dictionary died with our iPod.

d) we really enjoyed Pamplona yesterday and it is a fine city. We staged our own, out of season bull run, and we will share the photo with you when we can. We even managed to get our fur cut!

We´ll be back when we can,

Lots of love, the Camino Bears xxx

Bienvenidos en Espana

Growl, technology has failed us again. We emailed a photo from our phone to this blog at the French/Spanish border, or what we thought was the border, but sadly it didn´t work. We will try and paste it in later.

We had a good, but steep climb up to the Orisson albergue yesterday and had a bit of a party in the evening, with lots of people and the previously mentioned champagne. It turned out it was an English speaking American, not a Brit, so we remain very much a rare breed and in the minority.

We continued our climb at 8.30 this morning and we are pleased to report the rain did not materialise either yesterday, or today, other than a few spots which came to nothing. The ascent was a lot less steep today, but we did have to contend with some very strong wind which required us bears to put safety ropes on, otherwise we´d have been blown straight back to Le Puy.

We got to the fence that marked the border around 11.00 a.m. but were not quite sure where the exact crossing point was. We certainly did not need to show our bearports. After consulting out guide books we eventually decided it was a cattle grid and wooden gate - very low key - and took some photos there. We did see helicopters circling overhead, possibly looking to see who was coming and going, but we seemed to be acceptable.

We took the easy descent to Ronscevalles and are now waiting for the Abbey to open, while having a coke and using the internet in a bar.

Lots of love the Camino Bears xxx

Another Milestone Achieved

Today we have reached St Jean de Pied Port which is the gateway to Spain and so, we are almost at the end of our French journey. France won't let us go that easily though: we have to cross the Pyrenees, climbing over 1300m to leave France behind.

Thanks to the safe arrival, and collection, of parcels from England - thanks Midlands & Suffolk branches - we can start our ascent tomorrow. We will spend the morning in St Jean then set off for a refuge about 700m up. We have heard that an English woman will also be there and is taking champagne to celebrate her birthday, so it could be a fun stay!

The internet cafe is closing soon and we are hungry, so we must finish now. If you read our minder's blog you will find out the latest Poddy disaster with the charger which may keep us off air for a bit.

Love from the Camino Bears xxx

Marking The Way

We have walked close on 500 miles now and, apart from a couple of exceptions recently, have had no problems finding the way. So how do we do it without having a separate rucksack full of maps?

The secret is that we follow the red and white blazes which now, mark out GR footpaths in Europe. In our case we are following the GR65, which is, in France, more commonly known as the chemin de Saint Jacques or Compostelle.


Up until this week, every hundred metres or so, we would see a white stripe on top of a red stripe, reassuring us that we are on the right path; and a red and white cross at junctions, indicating directions which are the wrong way to go. This week, however, the blases have been few and far between, which means the potential for getting lost increases considerably.

Putting a marker every few metres, on a path running for 500 miles in France, is quite a tall order and checking and refreshing the signage doesn't just happen by chance.

This year, knowing that our minders were due to do the walk, Bears Unlimited very own French bear, Gilbert, tendered for the way-marking contract and, being the shrewd business bear he is, got it.

Since Gilbert is rather an urbane and chic bear, he didn't fancy doing the job himself, but he did know exactly who to sub-contract the job to.

He consulted his list of B.U. Contacts and found a team of Polish bears ready and willing to check and refresh the blazes. Gilbert does have rather a fine brain and we hope you will understand why he chose Polish bears for the route.

Firstly, and most simply, Polish bears are very hard workers and take great pride in their craftsmanship.

Secondly, he reasoned that as the white and red stripes resemble the Polish flag, the best thing he could do would be to employ workers who were passionate about Poland and who would seize every opportunity to adorn the countryside with mini Polish flags. This would allow him to ensure that enough blazes were being painted, as too many would not be a problem for walkers, whereas too few would.

Mind you even Gilbert didn't reckon on this level of enthusiasm from the Polish bears!


It's a fair bet that no-one has got lost on that section of the route over the Aubrac plateau!

Quite often the red and White blazes appear in conjunction with other chemin de compostelle markers. These occur in all shapes and sizes and we'd like to model a few of them.


Here George models one of our favourites. The blue plaque with the yellow scallop shell gives the distance from Santiago in kilometres. The first one in Le Puy said about 1550 km and we haven't seen one for several days now, but the last we saw was about 932 km. Unfortunately many have been vandalised by, we presume, unscrupulous pilgrims, who prize off the blue plaque as a souvenir. No doubt the same ones as the grape and fruit scrumpers!


Then you have much simpler signs, of which we model two examples: the disadvantage of the first is that you have to know which way you are going as the arrows point both ways - in theory you should recognise where you have just walked!


We think we will have to stop this post after one more example otherwise this post will take forever to send. We're sure you'll have got the gist by now anyway.


There was one particular department, Gers we think, which included the red and white stripes on a metal plate with the scallop shell emblem of the camino/chemin. We particularly liked these and also the yellow information boards which gave times to places and told non walkers/cyclists to keep off the paths.

We have some more fine examples of camino signage for another post, if our readers would like to see more.

Love from the Camino Bears xxx

Meeting Our Own Kind

Having told you about some of the human friends we've made, we need to reassure you that we are making friends of the furry kind also, and to introduce you to some of them.

The first is really for Travelling Moose and members of his hosehold which does now include two fine elks.


So here we are with Monty, the Podally gite elk. He had an amazing gift for doing the splits which we don't think we could emulate and live to tell the tale. He was also more nimble and sure footed than us, which he needed to be as he lives on the edge of a crockery display. We're pleased to say we managed to visit without smashing anything.

Our next two friends were fresh air freaks and seem to live permanently out of doors.


Although the weather has taken a bit of a toll on them, they need to be outdoors as they have a very special role of welcoming pilgrims to the village of Marsolan.

The gite we stayed in was just round the corner, so we kept on popping over for a chat, while our minders did boring things like washing clothes. As a result we got to know them quite well
and were very impressed by their dedication to duty.

Love from the Camino Bears xxx

Forging Friendships

As you might imagine, this far from the start of the route, the numbers of pilgrims has rapidly diminished and they are becoming a much rarer breed. This was probably one of the reasons we got lost a couple of days ago: we hadn't a trail of pilgrims in front of us to follow!

However, in some ways the quality of the pilgrims we do meet at the overnight stops has gone up. Last night, at the pleasant town of Aire sur L'Adour, we stopped at La Maison de Pelerins (pilgrims' house) which was a really authentic pilgrim place, run by a pilgrim, for pilgrims. We found ourselves there with our charming French friends, Seb & Anne, who have stayed at the same places as us for three nights on the trot. We were delighted when they asked if we would like to join them for a meal to be cooked in the gite by Seb.

We dined in style, also with a Breton who was on his own, on turkey tagliatelle, cooked in cream and goat's cheese, with green salad. It was delicious and the camaraderie was equally good, especially when we finished off the evening singing English pop songs (mainly Beatles numbers) to Anne's piano playing. The spirit of the camino had surfaced yet again.

It was with us again today this lunchtime, as we sat outside the church at Miramont-Sensacq eating our lunch. A man came out his drive and over to talk to us. He told us he was the Priest, and when we told him our minder was also a priest, he asked us if we would like to come over for a cafe, and to receive the Parish stamp in our pilgrim passports, after we had finished our lunch.

We did exactly this and spent a pleasant time talking with the Priest (in French) in his house and drinking not only his coffee, but in the case of one of us, his armagnac also. Pere Roger, it was lovely to meet you and compare parish notes!

Another special moment, that will remain with us a long time, came yesterday (sorry we're jumping about in time) when we found a note for us left by the 3 friendly Canadian girls, on a noticeboard along the way. It had been left by them on their last day, several days earlier (see our minders' blog for full details). It was great to know they were thinking of us and wanted to say goodbye: we were especially thrilled that us pilgrim bears got a specific mention.

Tonight we are staying in a village called Pimbo, at a 'Centre d'accueil communal'. It is a building for pilgrims run by the local commune. Effectively it is a whole apartment, with all facilities (including real soap powder for our washing) and although there are 5 beds in the dormitory, we have the whole place to ourselves - simply marvellous! Thank you to all pilgrims who have done the extra 5.5 km to reach the town.

We have just cooked ourselves a meal, as we are completely self-contained, and we have been sitting out on the elevated terrace eating it, looking at the incredible views which stretch for miles. They are fast disappearing now as it is getting dark, but is still warm enough to sit outside. It is probably too late now to go and pick the figs we were told to help ourselves to.

Love from the Camino Bears xxx