Going Global

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

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

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

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!

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

Double Punch

By the time our sail was changed, all the other boats in our flotilla - lead boat excepted - had departed for Zakynthos. It was going to be quite a long sail, so I was eager to set off as soon as we could. Secretly I was quite confident about catching up, even overtaking, some of the other boats, especially with my new sail. 

As we left the shelter of Cephalonia we waited for the extra knot of wind to arrive. Nothing happened, in fact the wind died completely. It was very strange: we were almost becalmed and having to switch on our engine, while over to our right we could see a boat heeling over in strong wind.  And then ... the wind arrived ... and it quickly became a very strong wind ... and help! ... we had rather more sail up than I would have liked.

The wind was gusting up to 20 knots and packing quite a punch, but I was pleased to see George & Yorkie were taking it all in their stride and relishing the speed through the water. I was pleased to have the wheel to hang on to, and my safety line. 

Not surprisingly we made good time and as we got closer to Zakynthos we came within the shelter of land and could all relax a bit. Once again we had a pleasant mooring and this time it wasn't us who was moored up alongside the ferry.

That night we had a flotilla punch party with lots of delicious nibbles, all beautifully prepared by our lead crew. I took the opportunity to get acquainted with our charming Kiwi hostie, Katie. As readers, who were with us at the time of the posts of our previous flotilla, should know, I do have a soft spot for hosties and like to have my photo taken with the them ...   

It was a lovely punch party and everyone was chatting and getting to know each other, as welll as enjoying the punch and nibbles. At the end we were still hungry enough to head for the local taverna.

Have you worked out the double punch?

Lots of love Eddie, George & Yorkie xxx



Down with the Old, Up with the New

This holiday was a great one for combining the old and the new. From the new, Kioni, it was off to Cephalonia, and an old favourite of ours, the port of Poros.

Actually I hadn't been there before, it was George and Yorkie who had the fond memories, and they were very enthusiastic guides. They showed me the big rocks on the way into town that they'd been photogrpahed with before. They looked even better when lit up at night.  

The boys also took me to their favourite pizza restaurant and it was every bit as good as they remembered. We ended up with a complete mountain of pizza and were fit only for a lie down and sleeping by the time we'd finished. 

The next morning we had a delayed departure as we had to have a new mainsail fitted. I'd reported a tear in our old one to the lead crew a day or two earlier and Ben, our skipper, decided that now was the time to change it.  

Both my minder and I made ourselves available to help. It was quite a lengthy and involved job getting the old sail off and then it was the same for getting the new one on.

I learnt an awful lot as I observed Ben in action from the cockpit.  It was all good experience and fascinating stuff.

There was a very good reason why this was the right day to have our sail replaced. We were due to sail over to Zakynthos, our longest sail of the holiday, and one that took us out of the shelter of land (Cephalonia) and into an open stretch of sea between the 2 islands. Ben had warned us that some strong winds could get up as we left the protection of land, and for this, we would need our boat Milia to be sailing well and problem free.

A couple of hours later we were very glad of our new sail. Find out more next time.

Lots of love Eddie, George & Yorkie xxx

Meeting a Friend of Aesop

George & Yorkie love swimming, so even though they'd just swum off the ferry slides, they were keen to come with me to the official swimming beach. As it was the other side of the 'town' to the harbour, it gave us a chance to have a decent stretch of the paws, and size up the tavernas, before selecting one for our evening meal.

Just before the swimming beach we had a real treat. We came up to a small white washed church which was rather sweet in its own right. But our attention quickly shifted to the grounds of the church when we saw who was out for a post siesta stroll.

What a simply gorgeous tortoise, and what a shame it is that you don't see them very often nowadays. A veteran bear such as Ungi, can remember going over to his minder's grandma's house when his minder was a small girl and seeing a tortoise wandering in the garden. That was many years ago though, and George, Yorkie and I had never seen one before, so we were completely enthralled by the sight. 

Eventually we tore ourselves away to walk the final few yards to the swimming beach , and what a fine beach it was.

We blend in rather well with the rock but hopefully you've spotted us. It was great for drying of our fur. The water was so clear and quite warm so we didn't need our snorkels to see what was underneath us.

What with sailing, swimming and walking, we were getting quite hungry. We saw a pig being spit roasted on our return journey and decided that was the place for us to eat - but first things first, it was beer o'clock! 

Lots of love, Eddie, George & Yorkie xxx 

Feeling Like Sardines

Ithaca is a lovely and unspoilt island so, at the next day's briefing, we were pleased to discover that we would be heading for another port on Ithaca, that of Kioni. We hadn't been there before so we were all eager to see what it would be like. We didn't want to arrive there too soon though, as that would be to waste a good day's sailing, and that would never do.

When we did come into harbour, we were pleased to have our lead crew to park us, as it was very busy. Lots of flotillas had chosen the same harbour and we couldn't blame them, as it was rather lovely.

We managed to get a spot sideways onto the edge of a pier, so that's Milia you can see nearest the camera with me supervising operations from the top of the bimini awning. Then 2 more Sailing Holidays boats came in and were rafted against us, so their crews had to come across the front of our boat to get ashore.

Boats still kept coming after that, and were ingeniously inserted into places you'd never have thought a boat would go.

We were moored right beside a ferry mooring and had a bit of excitement, and a few heart stopping moments, when the ferry arrived and started reversing in. It finished up little more than a whisker away from us, but, such is the skill of these Greek Captains, Milia was never in any real danger. You can hardly see us in our next picture as we're the inside boat right next to the ferry.

There was something we really liked about the ferry. It ran excursions for tourists and clearly stopped now again for its passengers to take a dip. There were some great water slides for entering the water. Of course George & Yorkie simply had to have a go while I kept a careful watch to check they didn't bang their heads on the harbour wall.

I'd heard about a much better swimming place though and was keen to go exploring to find it. You'll hear how we got on next time.

Lots of love Eddie, George & Yorkie xxx

Was Odysseus Here?

The great sailing that we had confidently predicted, got under way with a lovely sail over to Ithaca. At the briefing prior to departure, we were pleased to discover that we were going to an old friend, the port of Big Vathi.

We had such a good sail over, and Milia handled so well, that we actually sailed past the entrance to Vathi - it had come upon us so quickly. We had to do a quick turnaround when our GPS told us we had gone too far. I never like to rely too much on the GPS though, and think there is nothing like a visual recce of the land ahead.

After mooring, with the welcome assistance of our very capable lead crew, we still had plenty of time to wander round to the swimming beach and enjoy a beautiful swim in the clear warm waters of the Ionian, before heading into town to do some shopping.

That evening we had a lovely group meal in the local taverna and enjoyed looking at the lights of the town, over at the other end of the harbour.

 

We all felt very relaxed and at peace with the world. We couldn't think of anywhere we would rather be, and with the prospect of more good days of sailing to come, I was in bear heaven.

Lots of love, Eddie, George & Yorkie xxx

Getting Shipshape

It was very exciting for us all, getting to know a new boat. Now, I wouldn't like you to think that the Jaguars we'd sailed on the previous 2 flotillas, were out of favour with us - not at all! We still love them, and would have had another if we'd had the choice, but we didn't. There weren't any on the route we were taking this time. As a result, we'd chosen the rather bigger Beneteau 32 and it was certainly an impressive boat as you will soon see.   

As we tried out all the equipment on the boat, prior to setting out into the big blue sea, we gathered at the stern for the important ceremony of raising the bear flag.

It immediately began to flutter well and, seeing it flying, brought a lump to our throats. It is becoming a very well travelled flag and still looks good, despite having been out in all weathers.

Another important task, was to kit ourselves out with safety harnesses and lines. It is important to get the fit right and we are of course 3 very different sized bears. They must have known we were coming, as we all quickly found a perfect fit, and tested clipping on to a solid part of the boat. We were safe and secure and ready for anything.

I was very excited, but a little apprehensive about sailing a boat with a wheel, as I am very much a tiller bear, and this was the first time I had sailed a boat with a wheel. I made sure to get some practise in ...

It was very different to a tiller and took some getting used to. For the first couple of days, I steered what must have looked like quite a drunken course, as I instinctively turned the wheel the opposite way to the course I wanted to take, only to have to quickly spin it to the other side as I remembered boat wheels work like car steering wheels.

While I was getting used to the wheel, George & Yorkie got some practice on the VHF radio. 

They were pleased to find that our lead boat was the very same one that had been with us on our last flotilla, Loutraki. This made it easy for them to remember how to call up the lead boat with "Loutraki, Loutraki, this is Milia, Milia".

By this stage we were ready for the off and feeling full of confidence.  We were going to enjoy some great sailing.

Lots of love Eddie, George & Yorkie xxx

All Aboard .... Milia

We embarked from our plane into lovely sunshine, and it wasn't long before we were admiring the beatifully clear Ionian Sea.

The sea wasn't the only thing we were admiring, we were also very interested in what was floating on the sea - lots of boats - and one was of particular interest, as it was to be our home for the 2 weeks of our holiday.

This was the good ship, Milia, and she was to me, Eddie, 32 ft of very beautiful yacht. I felt both proud and excited to step aboard.

Now, as you know, we try not to repeat our adventures too often, but some are so good that they simply have to repeated. If you're getting a sense of deja vu, it is because we've been on a Greek Islands sailing adventure before, and it was even with the same company, since, as far as we're concerned there is only one company to sail with, and it is, as our next picture shows ...

... Sailing Holidays. They really know how to give their customers a fantastic holiday, which is why their customers keep coming back for more.

For us,  this was our third flotilla: the first pre-dated our blog, and the second,was three years ago, so we're sure our most loyal readers, who have been with us that long, will have forgotten most of the previous posts.

This trip involved a bigger boat and a new route, so our posts will be different anyway.

We look forward to taking you with us on our wonderful adventure over the next few weeks.

Lots of love, Eddie, George & Yorkie xxx

A Great Ambassdor for a Posh Store

It's time for us - George & Yorkie - to leap in with all 8 paws, before any other bears beat us to the next post.

We're sure you're all eager to hear about our travels of last month. It was our big trip of the year, and saw us heading overseas.

It all started very early on a Sunday morning: 5.00 a.m. at Gatwick to be precise. Normally we find the wait between check-in and take off a bit tedious, especially when we've a touch of 'bear with a sore head', having been forced to get up early.

However, on this occasion, the airport experience was a lot more fun than normal. We had a new bear friend to thank for this. Here he is ...

He was Rodney, the Harrods bear, and what a smart bear he was. We tried not to get his crisp white shirt dirty from our dusty paws, and we loved the feel of his plush green jacket. He had lots of interesting stories to tell  as he sees a lot of life from his vantage point outside the store. He told us that although he is for sale, his price tag of £1,652.15 puts a lot of people off buying him, so he has been standing outside the store for quite a long time. We think for a bear as fine and smart, not least to say, as large as him, he is worth every penny. He certainly made our large friend Blue Bear look small, which is usually quite hard to do.

We'd have loved to take Rodney with us, but we would definitely have needed an extra seat and sadly the plane was full. We did remember to send him a postcard though.

Find out, where our postcard was from, next time.

Lots of love, George, Yorkie and Eddie (a clue!) xxx

Forgotten???

It was lovely having members of the Midlands and Suffolk branches to stay at the weekend. We all had a really lovely time and we were very sad to see everyone go. The bear cave seemed very empty after the last departures. We looked across the room at the empty space where members of the Midlands branch had been sitting ...

... but as you can see, it wasn't empty. Someone was still there, and we were delighted to find that it was the always charming Polar, of the Midlands branch. We immediately assured him that he was very welcome to stay as long as he likes, and we very much hope he will take up our offer to stay until Christmas when his friends and minders are due to join us again.

But one question remains, and only his minders can answer it? Was he forgotten or did he do a deal with them to be allowed to stay? One thing our readers need to know, is that Polar is a microwavable beanie, just like his Norfolk branch friend, Benji Beddy Bear, yet he doesn't get to go in his sun bed very often at home, only when he comes to Norfolk. Coming to Norfolk therefore makes him very happy, although we do believe he loves, and is much loved by, his Midlands branch minders.

While we wait to hear from his minders, we'd like to assure everyone that while Polar does miss his minders, and hopes they miss him too, he is having a great extended holiday in Norfolk and spending a lot of quality time with fellow hotties Randolph and Benji ....

... and of course Blue Bear is always happy with his latest form of head gear.

We just hope that having a Polar creature such a Polar with us, doesn't bring us some snow.

Lots of love all at the Norfolk branch and special guest Polar xxx

Tally Ho!

Sorry George & Yorkie, but you've got another bear trying to slip a quick one in before your next adventure gets under way.

Some of us had such a good time this weekend on a Bears Unlimited outing to our local racecourse, that I wanted to tell you about it.

I, is of course, me, Patrick. Being Irish I have horseracing in my blood and, as well as my Guinness, I do like a small (and controlled of course) flutter on the horses.

It was our smallest racecourse that we attended, that at Fakenham. Small racecourse it might be, but what a big day out it was. The chaps and I haven't enjoyed ourselves so much since we were in Ireland.

I spent a lot of time studying all the notes and form in my racecard, trying not to get distracted by the legs of the racecourses walking past. There was lots of useful and very interesting information to digest.

But for me, having a bear's instinct for a winning horse, the best way to pick the right horse to back, was to get up close and personal and engage them in a bit of eye contact as they came past (when I wasn't posing for the camera, that was).

I found I had a special fondnesss for the Irish horses, and there were plenty of them. But at the end of the day, I couldn't help but be influenced by the jockey's colours. What great combinations some of them had come up with!

So did I go home richer or poorer. Well I made just enough to pay for my pint of Norfolk's finest ale, Woodforde's Wherry, and that was good enough for me.

We'll hope to make a visit to the races a regular feature in the B.U. diary, but, until next time, I'm contenting myself with pulling a Dick Francis novel off the B.U. bookshelves.

Lots of love, Patrick and all at Bears Unlimited xxx

Autumn Garden News

Tommy here readers, to leap ahead of bears eagerly waiting to tell you about their latest adventure, and bring you news from our garden. I'm told I can only have one post, so I'll be brief.

We've had some highlights and some lowlights in the vegetable patch this year. My potatoes have been a bit small and we had no! strawberries, but the broad and french bean crops were good.

This year, however, has seen a bit of a pumpkin fest.

I took Chef bear Oakley out the other day, to show him the pumpkins and start harvesting.

They are beautiful specimens and especially pleasing, as they were grown from plants given to me for free. The cultivator had grown them from seeds from her previous year's pumpkin harvest.

I love the traditional bright orange colour - it fits autumn so well. However, I'm also very fond of this much paler specimen that had grown to a good size. It was too much for a bear of my size to carry when cut, so I had to call in Blue Bear to provide some much needed muscle.

Oakley has some great plans for pumpkin curries and soups. We had a great pumpkin and chick pea curry at the weekend and will be cooking it again for visitors from our various branches, who will be with us at the weekend.

The courgettes also did very well and quite a few grew into marrows as we failed to keep up with supply. That's o.k. though as we all love stuffed marrow, and that legendary marrow chutney kindly introduced to me by Aunt Jessie from Devon.  

Somehow I think we'll be very well fed this winter. I hope it isn't as cold as last year though.

Lots of love

Gardening Bear Tommy xxx

The End is Nigh

So, here is our last post from Ireland. I hope you aren't relieved by this news, and have enjoyed reading. 

Before we left, we managed to complete the 1000 piece jigsaw we were doing in the evenings. It was an orchard scene with cider making in progress. The shapes weren't conventional jigsaw ones, and there were all sorts of curves and nearly, but not quite straight lines, so that just building the edge was quite challenging - and that's usually the easy bit.  

We'd spent many a happy hour constructing it, and then of course it takes only a minute or two to dismantle. That's why we always like to take a picture of the finished item, for our B.U. records.

We had an early morning sailing from Rosslare back to Fishguard so we had to say our fond farewells to Sli Na Mara a day early.

There were more fond farewells, particularly from me, to my beloved Ireland, as our ship pulled out of harbour the next day.

My B.U. travelling companions told me that I'd given them a marvellous insight into my country and that cheered me up a bit, as did the fact that I was already a day closer to my next visit - whenever that may be (soon I hope).

It's timely that I should finish now, as there is a new Bears Unlimited adventure coming very soon. The next lot of travellers are back from their travels with tales and pictures aplenty.

Lots of love, Patrick, George, Yorkie, Ungi, Rosa and Gilbert xxx

Wind, Rain and a Shark

The day after our meal at Josie's, the weather forecast was not good, so we had a lie in. However, we got up to find it was quite a reasonable day, and we enjoyed our breakfast outside, making the most of our sea views.

We decided we would visit the south westerley tip of the Beara Pensinsula, and perhaps even take a trip over to Dursey Island, which, unless you have a boat, can only be reached by cable car.

We did not time our arrival at the cable car very well. Like a lot of places in Ireland, there is no service from mid morning to around 2.00 p.m. - we couldn't work out if the Irish have a long elevenses break or an early lunch. As we arrived about 12.30, there was, therefore, no cable car running and, on top of that it started to rain, and it was a very wet and windy rain.

Gilbert showed himself to be more adventurous and less urbane that we thought, and he opened the bear mobile door, and stuck his head out in the rain, so as to get a good look at the cable car supports and winding mechanism. He was quite fascinated by it.

He turned round to view the island from the other direction and was a liitle surprised to see a black fin cutting through the water between us and the island. Although you can't see the fin, you have to believe that Gilbert was looking at it, as we did witness it ourselves.

When we talked to our host back at Sli Na Mara about it, we found out that it would have been a basking shark. Not dangerous, but quite an exciting sighting.

When the cable car started up again at 2.00 p.m. we spent some time, watching it making quite sedate (in the circumstances) progress between island and mainland, but we didn't go on it, as it wasn't the weather for exploring the island on paw.

The rain did ease though, and we had a lovely walk round the headland, once again following the Beara Way, so the day was by no means a washout.

Lots of love, Patrick and B.U. friends xxx

Celebrating the Prodigal's Return

We were all very happy when our minder returned and we were all together again. We went out for a special meal to celebrate. We'd picked somewhere that we'd heard was good, and are pleased to report it was much more than good, it was stunning.

So where is the place to go if you ever find yourself near the Cork/Kerry border? The place to go is Josie's restuarant which is at Lakeview House, in a remote spot overlooking the delightful Glanmore Lake.

We had a warm welcome as we arrived and were taken to a cosy table right by the window so we could look out over the gardens, lake and mountains.

One of our minders started with seafood chowder and when the bowl came it looked lovely, and was big enough for Yorkie to swim in. It tasted as good as it looked, and Yorkie even abandoned his usual pirana devouring approach to food, and decided to savour it, so as to make it last as long as it could.

In between courses we had a chance to look out the window and admire the view ...

... it was very special. It was just a shame we were there just after the longest day so didn't get a chance to see the sun setting over the mountains, but there again, as it was so light, we could enjoy the view for the whole of our meal.

The main course was a lovely piece of salmon with beautifully cooked potatoes and vegetables. As salmon is one of a bear's favourite foods, what more can we say ... other than the Eves pudding we had was desert was also most spendid.

However good the meal was, it was even better to have our minder back. Mind you, if we are every back in the area - which we hope to be - Josie's will be one of the first places we head to.

Lots of love, Patrick and co xxx

All Very Irish

We enjoyed our time at Derreen, and, while we were there, I took one of our official 'bears on holiday' snaps for the Bears Unlimited company album. What a fine trio of bears, even though George is a adopting the Victorian father pose. Rosa and Yorkie hasten to add that they're not his children.

Of course, with one of our minders going away, we had a couple of runs, to and from Cork airport, to do. We made the most of the travelling and had a couple of stops off, to see places and things of interest.

One was Cromwell's bridge in the town of Kenmare, which you see, along with us, in our next photo.  

 

It was a very high bridge for such a small river, and we wondered what tall vessels had travelled under it in the past. The sides were actually a lot steeper than they look and, as it was drizzling while we were there, the stones were very slippery. We felt we would have needed a climbing rope to safely cross the bridge, so we didn't. The packhorses who used to use it is times past, must have been surer footed than us.

The bridge quite intrigued us, so we consulted the town trail that Tourist Information had kindly given us to find our more about it. We learned that, even though it was called Cromwell's bridge. Cromwell himself had never been to this part of Ireland. The name seems to have originated from the Irish word for moustache, and we have to agree that the bridge is more than a little moustache shaped.

Moving on, unlike the rest of my Bears Unlimited companions, I, Patrick, being Irish born and bred was brought up as a good Catholic bear. And so, when I saw a sign to a holy well in the corner of a layby, I felt drawn to investigate, taking the others with me. 

We walked through wood for several minutes, and we were beginning to think we would never find it,when we came across a slate indicating the entrance.

  

We went through a rickety iron gate, and then ... we were very disappointed. There was a sludgy puddle, a bare light bulb and a few rather tacky offerings and some ornamental dolls which rather gave me the creeps. It was a bit of an experience and it did serve to make me realise that I'm not missing too much of my past.

We didn't linger as we were eager to go and pick up our minder.

Lots of love Patrick and friends xxx