Only in Spain

We might have been hungry when we went into the restaurant, but after a very fine meal, we decided, the next day, that we needed another walk, to work off some of the calories.

Thanks to the H.P.B. pack of walks, we were again able to start the walk right from the front door of our apartment. We went up and over the hills we'd walked earlier in the week, and ended up in a gorge with very steep sides and a dry river bed. Look very closely at our next picture and you must spot us amongst the grey.

As you can see from the blue sky, it was a lovely sunny day and the gorge proved to be quite a sun trap. It was nice flat walking along the river bed for a while, then it started to get a bit rockier and we came across  vegetation and running water. It was lovely sitting on a boulder cooling our paws ... 

We were sorry  to leave the oasis of the gorge and to climb out onto more barren ground. It wasn't long before this territory turned out to be far more exciting that we'd first thought. It was wild tortoise territory and we had the great pleasure to meet one of the inhabitants. Gio, being the patient bear he is, sat very still and quiet and the tortoise walked right up to him, and even brushed past him.

What a thrill that was!

After a spell of arid brown lanscape, it was back to a world of colour with a vengeance as we walked through a huge orchard of orange and lemon trees. They were simply laden with fruit and we thought there must surely have been enough to feed the whole world.

Pedro felt very much at home in these citrus groves. He firmly ruled against any fruit scrumping, and rightly so, but he did let us pick up and taste test a windfall which was the freshest and juiciest orange we had ever tasted.

It did leave us with rather sticky paws through!

Lots of  love George, Yorkie, Pedro and Gio xxx

Hungry and Thirsty

Bank Holidays and Royal wedding over, it's time to return to Spain. We hope you appreciated the diversion and can keep up with our to-ing and fro-ing. If you recall, our last post from Spain saw us out in the countryside enjoying the one and only dinosaur gorge walk.
We were on our way back to our apartment and looking forward to a swim in that beautiful pool. As we descended towards the valley bottom, we got quite excited when we spied something big and yellow ...

We wondered if it might be a Spanish trigpoint and therefore qualify for a post on our sister blog, http://www.bearsontrigpoints.blogspot.com/. We took a photo anyway; you can only see Pedro as he was the only bear sturdy enough to stay on in the wind that was blowing at the time. A short distance further, on we found further yellow markings, and these, coupled with the fact that the post wasn't on the highest ground, led us to sadly conclude, that it wasn't a trig point, but more likely a utilities marker. it's always good to be hopeful though! 

Once back at El Pueblito we made a great find. The bar served proper 'English' beer, and even better, our first glass was complementary ...

It was 'Bond Bitter', and very fine it was too. It was English beer in the sense that it was English bitter rather than English brewed. This was great as we got all the taste but with 'green' credentials i.e. it didn't have a great carbon footprint.

After trying the beer it was time to try the food in the site restaurant and we were all feeling very hungry after our sporting activities and our walk. 

Lots of love, the holiday party xxx

Post Wedding R & R

We were impressed by how hard the Suffolk Branch had worked assisting with, and reporting on, last week's Royal wedding. What a day it was, and it made us proud to think that Bears Unlimited had played such an important part.

We thought that a good way for the Suffolk Branch to have a complete and well-earned break, would be to invite them up to Norfolk for the rest of Bank Holiday weekend. This we did, And while we were at it, we decided to invite the Midlands Branch as well, as we hadn't seen either branch for far too long.

The Midlands branch were first to arrive and to welcome them we flew both the bear flag, and, a new addition to our flag locker, Warwickshire's flag featuring the famous Bear and Staff. This is the red and yellow flag flying well in our next picture.

It is a flag with special significance for a large number of our members, as a large part of both Suffolk and Norfolk branches originate from Warwickshire.

In the evening of Royal Wedding day, while the Suffolk branch were still coming off duty, several of us went along to the celebratory lighting of the new beacon in the village of Melton Constable. There was a good crowd and a good atmosphere as we watched some bales of straw blaze fiercely.

By Saturday morning the Suffolk branch had joined us and the latest Bears Unlimited gathering was complete. It was a lovely day so we all headed to the coast for a walk. We headed for Blakeney as George was keen to show off, to his brother Isaiah, the Norfolk branch's latest addition to the B.U.assets register, a sailing boat.

Isaiah was really impressed when George stopped him by a very fine, and large, traditional working boat and demanded a picture. He knew that the Norfolk branch had good sailing skills int the form of Boating Bear, Eddie, but he didn't know the Norfolk branch profits were as good as that!

George then took him to a rather more modest craft and said "I was only joking! It's actually Tarka that's ours".

We all agreed that Tarka is a very fine craft and a much more suitable size for a bear crew. 

Over the rest of the weekend, we enjoyed more fine walks and lots of chatting and eating and drinking. All the ingredients for the best of weekends were present. The highlight of a Sheringham coastal walk was seeing these amazing pebble sculptures on the beach. We loved both the lobster and the crab, and marvelled at all the hours of work that must have gone into their construction. We'd have liked to have seen them being built.

We'll have to pop back from time to time to see how they are standing up wind, tide and, probably most detrimental of  all, the general public.

What a great weekend! We'll be resuming our Spanish postings soon, in case anyones's wondering. 

Lots of love, all at Bears Unlimited xxx