Bears at Altitude

Right now it would almost be true to say that we have our heads in the clouds, as we have climbed up to O Cebreiro, at 1330m, a very high and tiny mountain top village, where you feel you're on top of the world and can look down on the rest of the world.

O Cebreiro is famous for the very old (9th century) church of Santa Maria Real, where Franciscan monks offer assistance to pilgrims, and also for it's pallozas, round structures with thatched roofs.

Fortunately we didn't have to climb all day to get here, just this afternoon. The morning's walk was not one we were looking forward to. We had read, most recently, in the German comedian, Hape Kerkelling's, book about his walk along the Camino, that you were dicing with death as you walked beside a main road, with lots of sharp bends, with traffic whizzing past, just millimetres away.

Thankfully, it is very different now. A new motorway has been built to carry most of the traffic, and concrete crash barriers have been built to separate pilgrims fom the few cars that come along.







The road also follows a fast moving river and also diverts off from time to time into a series of very pretty villages. There are lots of stone churches which today, for once, were all open, and there are lots of traditional buildings, many with wooden overhanging balconies. It was very pleasing to the eye, and also fascinating to see the huge concrete stilts carrying the new motorway way over our heads.

We also came across an encouraging mile marker, with St James of course, that told us we are now a long way from Roncesvalles and not so far from Santiago ...





This afternoon we had to ascend about 500 metres in 8km. Most of it was off road on good paths and through varied terrain. We passed through a couple of small farming hamlets which thankfully offered refreshments. We had our first ice cream which was very welcome as it was very hot this afternoon. We were very impressed by the Brazilian pilgrim runner who ran past us, at speed, on one of the steeper sections.

O Cebreiro hoved into sight at just the right time as we were getting increasingly hot and tired.
We found our pre-booked room o.k. and were soon rejuvenated, especially when went outside to take in the dramatic mountain views. The slopes are all very green and fertile.

Gio had an exciting time when we went to the church to look round and get a stamp for our pilgrim passports. It was given to us by a very nice Franciscan monk who admired Gio's Franciscan t-shirt and wished all 3 of us a buen camino.

We went back to the church at 7.00 p.m. for the Mass, but sadly the Pilgrim blessing which we really like, was only given in Spanish so we efectively missed it.

Sadly no wifi this evening so far, so you may have to wait a while to read this.

Lots of love, the Camino Bears xxx

Bears in Bierzo

Hola mis amigos,

Today we report in from the lovely little town of Villafranca del Bierzo. Bierzo is a little known Spanish wine growing region, this is probably because the wine is produced for Spanish consumption only. We're not sure if we've tasted any yet*, as it may be too good for pilgrim menus, but certainly all the wine that's been included with our meals recently has been very good.

Today we did walk through lots and lots of fields of grape vines and it is clearly harvesting time as lots of families were out picking grapes. As we did in France, we gave them lots of cheery waves and got lots back.

Today's walk was hard on the old paws again as there was a lot of road walking. Our first stretch took us into the historic town of Ponferrada. Here we had breakfast with the best pastries of the Way.

The route of the Camino took us past the ancient Templar castle. What an impressive sight this was, though like most things in Spain, at 9.30 in the morning it was closed.


It seemed a long way out of Ponferrada, and the way marking was very poor. The yellow Camino arrows were very thin on the ground.

We had lunch of €1 mini pizzas, made by a baker, beside a river, dangling our paws in the cool water.

By the time we'd reached Villafranca and found a room in a Casa Rural (very nice) it was 4.00 p.m. and, if our GPS is right, we'd walked nearly 22 miles, although it wasn't supposed to be that far.

After the usual post arrival washing of self and clothes, we had a very productive visit to Tourist Information. A very nice lady booked us a hostal room for tomorrow night at O Cebreiro, which means we don't have to hurry on the 3 hour climb up, aftercare long walk, to try and beat others to the accommodation. She also told us where we could go to print out our boarding tickets for our flight home, so that important job is now done.

We've now just finished a fine 'menu del dia' meal, rather than the usual pilgrim meal - just €2 more - and it made a pleasant change although we still had flan! *We asked and the wine was definitely a Bierzo region wine. It is lovely.

Hopefully back soon, wifi permitting.

Thanks Fred's Mum for all your comments, which are encouraging us greatly.

Love from the Camino bears xxx

Highs and Lows in More Ways than One

While the Gaucelmo albergue was lovely, last night and early this morning, we were reminded of why we don't like staying in albergue dormitories too much, and prefer our own room.

By 9.00 p.m. lights were out in the dorm and people were in bed, so we had to do everything by headtorch. Then, we'd hardly got to sleep, when alarms started going off at 5.30 a.m. and our fellow pilgrims were getting up.

Still, the English hospitaleros gave us breakfast (very unusual in an albergue) so this was a good start, then we exchanged email addresses so we can stay in touch and hopefully see them when they go to Walsingham next Easter, which is near our bear cave.

Even without hurrying, we were back on the Camino at 7.30 a.m. It was actually still dark and we worried about missing a yellow arrow waymarker. We really do fail to understand the attraction of setting out at 6.30 or earlier.

We were glad when it got light as today's walk was through some beautiful mountain scenery and most of the time we had dedicated dirt tracks which were much kinder to our paws than hard surfaces.

We climbed up through scenery that reminded us of crossing the Pyranees at the start of the Camino in Spain.

Our first stop of the day was at the famous Cruz de Ferro, a small iron cross on top of a big wooden pole. This in turn stands on a huge pile of stones left by pilgrims over many centuries. The idea is that you take a stone of some significance with you from home, and lay it at the foot of the cross as a symbolic laying down of a burden, and also as a symbol of your efforts on the pilgrimage.

Here we are laying stones taken from one of our favourite stretches of beach at home ...


From the cross we went down a bit, then up a bit more, to the highest point on the Camino, 1,515m. The views were superb and it was warm and sunny.

We then started a big descent of 845m. We were glad of our shock absorbing stuffing, as our minders reported it being hard on their knees and little toe blisters.

We had to growl a few times at stupid packs of cyclists who insisted on riding their bikes down our, often narrow, steep and some times rocky, Pedestrian path, expecting us to leap out the way as they came hurtling down. Why they couldn't use the very quiet Tarmac road which was made for them, was beyond us.

We had thought about going onto Ponteferrada today, and we certainly had time to do it, but when we got to Molinesca, it was such a delightful spot by the river, that we simply had to stop. We knew it was the right decision when we were able get a room in a Casa Rural hostal, right by the river, overlooking the old bridge. How's this for the view from our room?


In any event we had walked a tough 16.5 miles to get here and there is always tomorrow.

We are currently finishing our wine at the end of our pilgrim meal, but before that we had a pleasant time relaxing by the river and talking to a very nice South African lady who, like us, likes hamsters.

We have also met 2 fellow Brits just now. They're finishing just down the road in Ponteferrada tomorrow, having walked from Leon.

Love from the Camino bears xxx

Taking Tea

Here we are again to report on the last couple of days.

Yesterday, we had another long day and covered over 20 miles, although it wasn't supposed to be that far. We've now gone over 70 miles in 3 days and an afternoon, but our paws tell us we won't be able to keep that up.

The start was a little dull as we walked 10 km in a completely straight line. It then got more interesting as we walked to the historic Hospital de Orbigo, crossing the longest pilgrim bridge in Spain, with it's 20 arches.

The way then took us off road for nearly 12 km, before a long slog in very hot sun, into the old Roman town of Astorga.

As we were tired, we felt the need for our own room, although we'd read that it was a town of hundreds of albergue spaces and overpriced hotels. We were, therefore, very lucky to get a basic room with a basin and a shared bathroom, in a small pension, just off the main square. We felt we'd really landed on our paws.

We enjoyed looking round Astorga and having a beer in the square, although the cathedral was firmly shut even though it was early Sunday evening. Typical of much of Spain!

While our female minder had a conventional pilgrim meal, our minder had the local dish - Cocido Maragato - which was a meat feast with chick peas, potatoes and cabbage, served back to front, as it was followed by a noodle soup. As it was a big plate of food we helped him eat it.

We had a good night's sleep in our room, and set out shortly after 8.00 a.m. for a much needed shorter day's walk - only 13.5 miles!

It was very hot again so a short day was very pleasant, and we could have several stops en route, including breakfast.

At about 1.30 we reached the monastery town of Rabanal where we wanted to stay as there is an albergue run by volunteers from the Co-fraternity of St James in England, of which we are members.

We waited until the 2.00 p.m. opening time, in a pleasant shady spot outside the delightful little church. This church was open, and, even better, a French pilgrim was making fantastic music on his recorder inside.

We had a lovely welcome from Betty and Dugald and 2 visitors, and it was great to be chatting in English.

The albergue is a wonderful building, with patio, big garden/field, barn and kitchen herb garden. It is spotlessly clean and very well organised and the beds are smart and well spaced.

We haven't actually had the free time we thought we would, as we have been busy chatting (English pilgrims are a rare commodity) and, bliss, we even got to take afternoon tea, with our new hospitalero friends.


Shortly, we are going across the road to join the Benedictine Monks for Vespers, and Gio will be doing the English reading - apparently the lesson is read in 4 languages.

In the meantime we are typing away in the garden where the sun is now a pleasant temperature and our washing has already dried.

Bye for now,

Love from the Camino bears xxx

P.S. 1 hr later, Vespers didn't happen as the singing monk has had to go to hospital, but we're still going for Compline & Pilgrim's blessing at 9.30

Leon and Beyond

We're now at the end of day 3, and we've already walked 50 miles which, considering day 1 was a short afternoon, is pretty impressive, and we have in fact surprised ourselves.

Mind you our paws have felt every mile of it, and they're sore, although not as blistered as our female minder's. Given the amount of hard surface walking we've done, we think our minders would have been better off wearing shock absorbing running shoes than walking boots.

Once again we set off at 8.00 a.m. and enjoyed our 7 mile walk into the city of Leon, much more than we were expecting. We think some new paths have been added since our guide books were written, to keep pilgrims away from the traffic, and it was all quite pleasant.

On the pedestrian streets into the city, we found some lovely new Camino waymarks, which Gio shows to you ...


... and we also found a rather nice statue of St James with a nice flat resting place for bears on top of his head. While we rested there, our minders rested on benches and had pain au chocolat for breakfast.


Temperatures this morning were most pleasant for walking, at 15•C, but when the sun came out at lunchtime they shot up into the twenties.

As we're not really city bears, we didn't spend long in Leon. We found free wifi to post yesterday's blog, visited the cathedral and had a coffee, then headed out of the city past the most amazing Parador, featured in the film 'The Way'. We could only dream at staying at a place like that.

Once out of Leon, accomodation was a bit thin on the ground, which is why we had to do 22 miles today.

The first albergue we tried was full. The next had room but said there was a problem as they were hosting a party for the village and there would be noise. The fact that we could get a room to ourselves, a simple room with just a unmade double bed in, outweighed any potential disadvantage of noise.

We haven't been back yet to see how noisy it is, but the party is outside and we will be inside. In any event we have ear plugs and
we've only paid €5 each, so we can't complain.

I'm sure we'll sleep well.

Lots of love from the Camino bears xxx

Our First Full Day

We got up early this morning, as the nice lady looking after our accommodation, told us breakfast was at 7.00 a.m. We went down at 7.00 only to find the dining room in darkness; we suspect she actually meant from 7.00 a.m.

She heard us from the kitchen though, and we were soon tucking into toast & cafe con leche. After learning that the local shop was closed, we asked her if she would sell us some cakes, and she agreed. We at least had something to sustain us, along with our uneaten crisps from yesterday, on the long lonely stretch of 15 miles before the next civilisation.


We set off at 8.00 a.m. following the metal scallop shells in the road, and we made fast progress as it wasn't as hot as yesterday. We were walking on a hard and rocky track across what seemed like a giant prairie, with only a few other pilgrims and trains for company. The road was an old Roman road, the Via Trajana, and sections which show the Roman construction techniques, are being preserved behind some rather nice fencing.


We reached, what for most people is the end of the stage - the town of Mansilla de los mulas - at 2.00 p.m. For once we found a church open, so had a look in and also obtained church stamps for our pilgrim passports. Gio asked for one for the credencial he carries and very nearly got his Society of St Francis t-shirt stamped. A quick witted minder had to intervene and the passport was duly stamped.

We felt it was too early to stop walking, so decided to do just over another 6 km to take us closer to Leon. But first we stopped for a cafe con leche and a coke to rest and rehydrate. A couple of very nice Norwegian pilgrims joined us at our table. The poor lady was having difficulty walking due to an inflamed tendon, and we felt very sorry for her. It could be worse though, as she always planned to finish at Leon, and she should make Leon tomorrow.

We reached our destination, a village suburb of Leon, shortly after 4.00 p.m., arriving with a nice young Austrian man called Michael.

We found ourselves a room in a hostal and made ourselves comfortable and insected the blisters one of our minders has got, after walking 18 miles on a hard surface.

The drawback of our accommodation that we have discovered, is that meals aren't served until 9.00 p.m. We don't think many pilgrims stop here, as pilgrim meals are always served at 7.00 p.m.

Still we will be able to wait, and it does give us a chance to write blogs and diaries first.

Lots of love, the Camino Bears xxx

To be a Pilgrim: Take 2

It was Stansted Airport that we were reporting from last night and we were there ready to fly out to Valladolid early this morning.

We are very excited about this trip as it is no ordinary holiday. We have returned to Spain to resume our pilgrimage to Santiago, which we started 2 years ago and sadly didn't complete, due to a minder foot injury. If you didn't read our posts at the time, you can go back and read them now.

This time we really hope we will complete the remaining 240 miles to Santiago. We have over 2 weeks to get there, so paws crossed.

Back to this morning, we touched down at Valladolid at 11.30 a.m. local time and the train we wanted to get left at 12.30 - and, the train station is 35 minutes away by bus.

Thanks to a small airport and a great taxi driver who understood our 'tenemos mucha prisa' (we're in a hurry) we made it with time to spare.

The train took us to Sahagun, which was the place where we sadly said goodbye to the Camino 2 years ago. Then we thought it was a depressing place, but today it was lovely. This was in part due to us being pleased to be back, but also, Sahagun does have some very nice bits, including lots of historic religious buildings and an old bridge spanning a delightful river.

By 2.40 p.m we were walking out of the town and on the camino proper. It felt really good to be following the yellow arrows and scallop shell symbols once again.




We also found a new character starting to appear - a camino mouse, dressed as St James. What fun!

About 5km out of Sahagun we had choice of routes. We chose the road less travelled, and had the path all to ourselves for the rest of the afternoon. It also got us away from the dreary senda - side of road path - which can be a virtual pilgrim motorway.

It was hot walking, but we got to cool our paws in a fast flowing stream.

We reached our intended destination of Calzadilla de Los Hermanillos by 5.30 and, on calling in at the municipal alberque, ended up being told there might only be 1 bed free.

While someone was checking for spare beds, we spotted they were in very cramped cubicles. We quickly decided we didn't want to stay there anyway, and, politely, took our leave and scuttled off to a nice looking place we'd just passed, which was offering rooms.

What a great move. We now have our own en-suite room, at a very sensible price (unlike England) and we're currently enjoying the pilgrim menu our establishment offers. The wine is very smooth and the menu choice extensive.

What a great start to Camino 2011!

Lots of love, Gio, George, Yorkie and Pedro xxx

Something's Afoot!

We hope you'll excuse us, but we're going to accelerate through the last few days of our Morocco trip. This isn't because the trip became less interesting, but has more to do with the fact that several of us are now residing in an airport hotel ready to start a new adventure; and it is rather a special one.

We did quite a lot of travelling towards the end of our trip and saw lots of interesting sights and enjoyed some great hospitality. In our next picture you can see us taking mint tea, and a delicious form of pancake, at a village house, well off the beaten track. The owner didn't know us from Adam, but opened up his house to us and made us feel very welcome. It was a wonderful lesson in hospitality.


We also visited some incredible painted rocks, which have become quite famous in the area.


Apparently they were painted by a Belgian man to impress his girlfriend. We thought it made too big a statement, but would have been o.k. on a smaller scale; here we were thinking of a bear sized scale - something like this ...


After the rocks, we went up into the mountains to spend a couple of nights at a village house, in a fairly remote mountain village. We had a rather death defying drive up to the house; our minibus was quite literally mountain climbing, in terrain usually only accessible on foot. Here's the view looking down from near the top ...


It would have been lovely and quiet, if it hadn't been for the loudspeakers from the mosque! When you're sleeping out on the roof, as we were, it was deafening at about 4.30 a.m, but all part of the cultural experience.

Our return to Marrakech was made via the historic seaside town of Essasouria. We simply loved this place and it was also great for fairly relaxed souk shopping.

We will definitely go back to Morocco and a return visit to Essasouria will be a must on our itinery.

When we report in next, you'll hopefully understand the reason for our speedy conclusion.

Lots of love, George and Yorkie xxx

We're Clean Again

We felt quite sad saying goodbye to our camels and it felt quite strange to be sitting in our minibus again. Everyone's priority was to get to our hotel where we could de-sand and have a much needed shower, but we had a couple of stops on the way. The first was to see an ancient Koranic library and school and the second was to a potter's co-operative. The trouble was, that with sand in our eyes, it was difficult to see properly, especially in the bright sunlight, which made us squint. We hope the potters didn't think we were being rude, but it was difficult to give them the attention they deserved. We did buy a mini tagine cruet set though to support them.

Our hotel was situated right next to this sign advising we were 52 days away from Timbuktu. We recognised the sign as we'd seen it in the Explore brochure. We thought we'd pose for a photo to mark the significance of this spot on the ancient trading routes between Morocco and the southern Sahara.


Showering, lunch, clothes washing and relaxing in, and by, the hotel's pool occupied the afternoon very pleasantly and then, in the early evening, Khalif took us on a a lovely walk through the local palmeries. It was a lovelty relaxing day.

The next day we were on the move again and had an interesting day with lots of stops as more aspects of this fascinating country were revealed.

We stopped at some waterfalls and were very tempted to join the local children diving from the rocks.


We were quite glad we'd decided to press on, when we got to our next hotel and found that the swimming pool had just been filled. And the water was considerably cleaner than that river water!

Waterfalls were definitely the theme of the day as we found another one while strolling round the town of Tata.


As we were experiencing a bit of a heatwave and temperatures in the high 40s, any water had a great attraction for us and we made the most of any chance to cool our paws. Have you spotted us?

Lots of love, George and Yorkie xxx

Our World Turns Brown

As for exploring, there were really only a couple of choices: we could checkout the toilet tent, which we did - the hole that had been dug looked fine for small bears, but we weren't sure it would suit our minders. We could also climb sand dunes. As we'd never done this before, this is how we passed the hour before dinner, along with visiting the camels to get to know them a bit better. Now they were off duty, they were happy to chat, and they really are fascinating creatures.


Climbing up the dunes was quite hard as the sand was so soft, but running down them, or somersaulting, when our momentum got too fast, was great fun, and the sand was soft that we couldn't hurt ourselves.


We had dinner out in the open sitting cross legged on mats. It was a fine dinner but not exactly authentic Moroccan cuisine; we had spaghetti bolognaise. This had a more to do with the cooking facilities available than the wish to give us familiar food. After dinner we did some star gazing with occasional interruptions from a camel spider which kept running over the mats and scaring some of our party.

When it was time for bed, as it was so warm, we decided not to join the others in the nomad tent, but to join our minders on top of a dune. We had only just settled down when the wind got up and started blowing sand everywhere. We were particularly exposed on top of our dune and had to go back down. We didn't want to disrupt our fellow travellers, so set our mats down just outside the nomad tent, using it to provide a bit of shelter from the wind.

Although it was still windy, this proved to be a good move, after the tent started to collapse - there was quite a 'plink' as the first of the wooden supports holding up the fabric was blown down. More followed, and the tent occupants had to rebuild the tent - more than once! We wrapped ourselves up in the touareg scarves to try and keep the flying sand at bay, and tried to get some sleep - it wasn't easy, especially as we were half expecting to be nuzzled by a hopping (because of the hobbling) camel.


We did get a bit of sleep, and when we woke up it was to find sand everywhere - our minders' sleeping bags were full of the stuff, but the worst part was finding that sand had got into our eyes.

More fun followed when we went to visit the toilet tent. We had to fish out a huge beetle which had fallen in, before we could use it.

After breakfast we struck camp and re-mounted our camels for the return journey. It had been quite an adventure and great fun.

Lots of love, George and Yorkie xxx

Sirs George and Yorkie of Arabia

As evening approached, the following day, the new headscarves came out again, this time to be worn for real. They were rather large for us bears to wear, so no photos of us wearing them as you wouldn't see us, but we thought we might be able to make use of them at night to wrap ourselves in.

And why were we thinking this way ? It was because we were about to head out into the Sahara desert on a desert adventure. We were very excited for 3 reasons:

a) we'd never been to a desert before, so this would be an important new chapter for The Friendly Planet Guide

b) we were going to stay out in the desert overnight in a temporary camp, and

c) we had a great mode of transport to get us there, and here it is - or rather, one of them ... (still trying to work out which one of us is the most handsome!)


We were travelling there in a camel train. There were 2 small trains of 3 camels each. We both elected to ride with our female minder and were very glad we had after our male minder's camel couldn't get his footing on a muddy stream bank and fell over, causing our minder to roll off into the mud. We were very relieved he wasn't hurt; once we'd established this, we had a good laugh!


It felt very strange camel riding. As the camel's head and neck went forwards and backwards so did we, and combine this with a bit of up and down, and we felt like we were describing circles as we rode.

Although we had our sleeping mats on top of the saddles, our minders found they had very sore bottoms after a while - not a problem bears suffer. They were therefore glad when the camp came into sight, and it was time to dismount ...


The camp was exclusively ours, and there was no-one else in sight and nothing to see but sand for miles. There was a white tent for our crew where they did the cooking, a black nomad style tent for the the tour group and, a sensible distance away, a toilet tent. As you can see from our next picture, that was all there was, apart from our camels - by now hobbled - and lots of sand.


There was time to explore before dinner - part 2 follows shortly.

Lots of love George and Yorkie xxx

Keeping Cool at the Kasbah

Another of our cook's special picnic lunches followed the film studio tour, then it was time to drive to our next overnight stay. We had various photo stops on the way and we also stopped off at a shop to buy headscarves to wrap round our heads touareg turban style. We needed these so as to be ready for a desert adventure - more about that soon.

The accommodation that night was a real treat and the best yet. We stayed at a kasbah which had a great location and a lovely swimming pool. As it was very hot, discovering the pool and finding it empty was a real treat.


We spent hours in the pool cooling off while our minders left earlier, to rinse through their touareg blue headscarves, having been warned that the dye might not be that well set and might leave them with blue faces.

They returned to join us for dinner, appearing rather traumatised and more than a little blue of appearance - and it certainly wasn't because of the cold.


Apparently the scarves had run rather more than expected and dyed not only our minders exposed skin, but also the terracotta un-glazed bath, blue. Much scrubbing had then ensued, to return the bath to at least a paler shade of blue. We knew that we'd had a lot more fun swimming.

The rural location of the kasbah meant it was lovely and quiet. There was farmland right behind and, while we dried off from our swim, we enjoyed watching the local sheep and donkeys.


It was a rather idyllic pastoral scheme and we were very content, even more so when we discovered we could have our evening meal of Moroccan chicken and couscous outside, at a table right by the pool.

Sheer bliss, although sadly no beer in the bar - despite the pool it was a dry hotel!

Lots of love George and Yorkie xxx

The Bear Catapults (rather than the Human Cannonball)

It was a great party, but it's time to return to Morocco now, and tell you all where our cycle ride took us.

It was a place where this happens ...


... although we suspect the equipment used nowadays is rather more modern. Yes, we had arrived at none other than the famous Atlas film studios.

Before a tour, we needed to rehydrate after all our cycling in the hot sun. While our minders downed a coke beside the swimming pool (yes, you can stay at the film studios), Yorkie managed to get himself into a spot of bother.


As you can see he was in danger of being cooked alive in a cauldron. Had I not come to the rescue he might have had serious need of that pool close by.

As our tour got underway, Yorkie got his turn to repay me. I was testing out the posts for tying slaves to, from another Gladiator film set, when I got stuck and had to ask Yorkie to release me.


The tour was great fun and we saw lots of interesting sets. We racked our brains to recall scenes from film such as Kundun, The Mummy, Cleopatra and the Kingdom of Heaven so we could perform some re-enactments.


Despite all the fine sets, our favourite thing was the catapult we found. We took turns to see how far we could travel and at what speed. Looking back at it now, we really should have worn crash helmets!

Lots of love, George and Yorkie xxx

How Old???

Greetings to all our readers on this very special day. And why is it special we hear you ask? It is special because today is the 5th anniversary of the launch of our blog, Bears Unlimited.

622 posts later we're still going strong and long may the blog continue.

We'll be celebrating tonight with a party in the bear cave. Preparations have been well underway for a few days now.

Chef Bear Oakley has been busy preparing some party food ...


... which means we will shortly be tucking into curry and carrot cake - we can hardly wait!

Cellarbear TBB has been preparing the bar and it looks as if has catered for every one of our varied tastes ...


... and also managed to get plenty of champagne in.

All paws have been on deck to make the place look festive, and handybear, Blue Bear, and his team of climbing bears have done a great job putting up coloured lights and decorations.


Apologies for cutting this short but we've got to leave you now as it's time to party!

Lots of love, all at Bears Unlimited xxx

Tommy's Tremendous Tatties

This post bears news from our garden, not Morocco. I, Yorkie, am writing it as gardening bear Tommy is rather dazed and has had to go for lie down.

So, I'm sure you are all wondering what has been happening at our Norfolk Bear Cave.

The afternoon started like any other. Tommy was out in the garden starting his autumn tidy up. As our pea crop is long finished, Tommy decided to dig over the raised bed that held the peas as it was becoming rather overgrown with nettles and buttercup plants. There were also a number of potato plants which had self seeded from potatoes accidentally left in the ground after last year's harvest.

As he dug below the potato plants he unearthed the biggest potato crop he has ever seen in all his years of gardening.

Not only were there vast numbers of potatoes, the size of them was simply unbelievable. Spuds of 1 - 2 lbs in weight (perhaps more) were coming up time and time again. I helped Tommy weigh them, after we'd put the green ones in the composting bin and there was a staggering 28 lbs, all from approximately 5 squatter plants.


I stood by a couple of big ones to give you an idea of scale. It was like standing beside a block of flats and we had to give the big bears a shout to get them lifted.

I'm sure the planned potato crop will be disappointing after this incredible windfall, but I don't suppose it will matter as we won't need to buy any potatoes for a while.

Anyone know any good potato recipes?

Lots of love, Yorkie and Tommy xxx