Visiting Popeye's Home

We hope you haven’t kept you in suspense readers, but we’ve been too busy enjoying Malta and relaxing in the evenings, to blog.

Rest assured though, we are having a good time, and finding plenty to do on this interesting island. It might be a small island, but by the time we go home, there will still be bits we haven’t seen. We haven’t even seen Valetta yet!

We are getting old hands at riding the buses now and we love their registrations …


… as you can see they all start with the letters BUS followed by their unique bus numbers. A lot of the buses are bendy buses which means they can get a lot of people in. The streets are quite narrow so there have been a few exciting squeezes. Arriva have only just taken over the service but some of the buses are not looking as new as they should!

We have done 3 more coastal walks since our last post and 1 inland one. We simply love to see the sea and when there are sandy bays and dramatic rocky headlands and high cliffs to take in, it becomes all the more exciting. It is rather different to the coastline round home.

We had a special treat on Thursday when our walk took in the filmset of Popeye. A whole village was created round a small harbour mouth and we got to see it without having to pay the entrance fee.


We’ve never seen the film, but might have to track it down when we get home.

All our walking means we need some suitable fuel to sustain us. Our ham sandwiches have been supplemented by some delicious mini pies from a pastizzeria we pass on the way to the bus station.

Here we are enjoying the pea and cheese varieties.


Back with more news soon, but perhaps not too soon as we’ll be making the most of our last evening tomorrow and the evening after we’ll be flying home.

Lots of love, the Malteser Bears xxx

P.S. we hope the Suffolk Branch have had a good trip to York

Shipwreck Island

We got off the bus to do a bit of sightseeing in the town of Mellieha. We admired the big church which reminded us a bit of Santiago in its grand Catholic style, and we popped down to see a grotto, dedicated to our lady of Mellieha, before walking down to the bay to start a fine coastal walk round a rugged headland with lots of bays and interesting features.

Once we had left the holiday homes behind, it was a complete contrast to the built up areas we had passed through earlier on the bus. It was wild and unspoilt. The sun was out, the sky was blue and the sea was that lovely turquoisey-green, that you just don’t get at home. However, we did have to put our windshirts on as there was a keen breeze. Our meandering path hugged the coastline had lots of ups and downs and lots of interesting things to see.

There were delightful clumps of narcissus that filled the air with their fragrance …


… there were wonderful views and lovely spots for a picnic and spot of sunbathing …


At times we were walking on mud paths; mostly they were dry but there was evidence that Malta has had some winter rain.

About two-thirds of the way round, we found ourselves looking across a narrow stretch of water to 2 very special islands. These were St Paul’s islands, where Paul was shipwrecked in AD60 on his way to stand trial in Rome. You can read all about Paul’s time on Malta in Acts 28 v1-10, or you can simply share our close up view of the larger of the 2 islands, complete with statue of St Paul.


As our walk continued there was still more to see including old look out towers, a nicely proportioned door cut into a huge boulder so you can go inside and some fine examples of salt pans. We also saw a man with a gun, so sounded the alarm to the local birds, who were present, as Malta does have a bit of a reputation.

Getting the bus back was a breeze and we were soon back in Bugibba calling in at the local supermarket for beer, wine and ingredients for a paella for tea.

What a splendid first day.

Lots of love, the Malteser bears xxx

P.S. Aunty M, we're chocolate free so far but on the look out for some little round balls

Sun, Sea and Occasional Sand

Yesterday, our latest travelling party of Chelmer, Curly, Yorkie and me (George,) was up bright and early to make our way to Gatwick Airport where we had a happy re-union with our friend Rodney, the Harrods door bear. We introduced Chelmer and Curly as they don’t do as much travelling as Yorkie and I, so hadn’t previously had the pleasure of Rodney’s acquaintance.


As we walked out to the departure gate, we could see the rain lashing down outside and knew that it was an icy rain. We were very pleased to be flying out to a much warmer place.

At one point our very informative captain told us that we were about to fly over the Italian island where the cruise liner recently capsized. We couldn’t see it because of the clouds, and probably our altitude as well. Shortly after flying over Sicily, we started our descent into the lovely Mediterranean island of Malta, our destination for the week.

From the airport we were minibussed off to our self-catering apartment in the resort of Buggiba, whose name we quickly learnt, is not pronounced as if it starts with the word bug. It was dark as we travelled, so we didn’t see much apart from lots of lights.

We’ll no doubt talk more about our home from home later in the week. We didn’t spend too long inside before we went out in search of food and beer (us bears have our priorities). We are about 1 minute from the sea, so we strolled along the front, battling against the wind! As it is only January, lots of places were shut, but we found a pleasant Italian restaurant and got stuck into the local Cisk beer and enormous pizzas laden with loads of lovely toppings, at a very reasonable price too.


This morning we treated ourselves to a full English breakfast in the breakfast room, again very reasonable at €4 for everything. We then saw our rep briefly before heading to the bus station to buy a weekly ticket and hop on a bus for our first island adventure. Sadly the characterful Maltese buses have just been replaced and Arriva have taken over, and are operating all of the island’s services with modern buses. This is a little problematical as all the walks in our walk book tell you which of the old buses to catch and the new ones are different. The changes are all so recent that no timetables or route maps are available, so we will have to be ingenious. Fortunately everyone speaks English and seems to want to help, so it is easy to ask.

Find out where we went next time.

Lots of love the Malteser Bears xxx

Being British: Talking about the Weather

So how have you all fared with the recent rather varied weather patterns? In true British fashion it's given us plenty to talk about.

We were disappointed bears on Tuesday, when the frosty weather meant that the racing at Fakenham had to be abandoned due to a frozen course. Naturally we didn't want any horses hurt, so it was completely the right decision, but we had so been looking forward to wearing our members badges, that, as you will recall from a recent post, we were thrilled to receive for Christmas. Never mind, hopefully they'll be able to re-arrange the event soon, and we would have got very cold watching if it had gone ahead.

Closer to home, the recent gales have wreaked a fair amount of havoc in the garden.


The most obvious damage is that we now have 3 fence panels down giving our garden rather more than an open plan feel that we would like.

We're now able to see right through to the churchyard we adjoin; at least our the neighbours are quiet and don't have dogs!

We will need to send a work party out soon to do some repairs as gardening bear Tommy is worried that there will be plants underneath that might be squashed and will certainly be wanting some light. On the plus side, under the fence panel will be a nice sheltered area for any animals needing a warm and dry place to rest. Fortunately the flat panel just missed a clump of snowdrops and some good news is that the aconites, Tommy's favourites seem to be spreading with a new clump close to a bit of fence that is still standing ...


We've decided that we need to escape to warmer climes, so this week, many of us will be heading off on a new adventure, to research a new chapter for the Friendly Planet Guide. We can't wait.

Lots of love, all at Bears Unlimited xxx

Chelmer's Nature Notes Returns

It's been quite a while hasn't it readers? but here I am, back with one of my nature notes.

For followers of Springwatch, when I say that Curly and I went to Pensthorpe yesterday, you'll know exactly what I'm referring to. For the uninitiated, Pensthorpe is a nature reserve with ponds and gardens and its a place where a lot of fantastic conservation work is done. Happily for us, its only just down the road from our bear cave.

It was a bit too cold yesterday for the full tour, so we just went along for the 3.00 p.m. winter bird feed. This is great, as visitors get to sit in the warm in a viewing gallery, with big glass windows looking out onto a large pond, while a warden goes out to feed the birds, talking through a headset so we can hear his commentary. When all the food has been scattered, he then comes back in to join us to talk some more about the birds and the fantastic work they do at Pensthorpe, including breeding red squirrels (aaaah!)



The warden spotted Curly and me straight away and commented about the bears at the window. After we said 'hello', he said he would address his comments directly to us so we felt very privileged.

As we waited for the feed to start, it was very clear that the birds knew exactly what was going to happen as they were all flying in and swimming in and jostling for pole position on the bank. There were 2 rather bully boy ruddy ducks who thought the bank where the feeding took place was their's and did their best to see others off, but they were outnumbered by the crowds.


The sheer variety of water fowl was amazing and we learnt lots of interesting facts. Our favourites were the bar headed geese and the smew, but we also rather liked the puma teal with its interesting blue beak. Bar headed geese in the wild fly from Tibet over the Himalayas to India, so are real high altitude fliers, but of course the captive bred geese at Pensthorpe weren't able to chat with us about their impressions of Everest.

This amazing experience cost us just £3 so, if you're in North Norfolk before the end of February we strongly recommend a visit to Pensthorpe to see the winter bird feed.


Lots of love, Chelmer and Curly xxx

Simply Great Presents

We are very lucky bears; we never fail to get lovely presents for Christmas and we can always tell that a lot of thought and love has gone into their selection. Of course we fully appreciate that Christmas is not about presents - except for the one that really counts - but when friends and family have given us such marvelous gifts it is good to appreciate and enjoy them.

While all of our presents were special, there were 2 this year that were a little unusual and caused great excitement.

The first was a gift to boating bear Eddie, and here he is explaining it to his friend and assistant, able seabear Louis ...


... it is a clock, but not a clock as most bears know it. It is a tide clock, with one purpose only, to count up, or down, the hours to high tide and low tide. When you live is an area like North Norfolk which is riddled with marshes and creeks, it is essential to know when high tide is, otherwise you might go out to your boat only to find it high and dry on a mud flat. Eddie is out in his seal boat most days, so will be spending a lot of time looking at his tide clock. He says he thinks it looks great, with its boat picture, as well as being a very useful and practical present.

Our next present was given to us by our minders and their families and it is a present for every member of the Norfolk Branch. Have a look at what Ungi and Blue Bear are wearing round their necks ...


... and you might see they are wearing green and yellow metal badges which are Fakenham Racecourse members badges for 2012. With them we will be able to go to all National Hunt race meetings at Fakenham, and also to many meetings at other courses. We'll be able to access all areas, even the posh stand, and can even park in a special members car park. As horse racing is a fairly new hobby and interest for us, we are all thrilled by this gift and it will give us many hours of pleasure.

We hope you, our readers, received equally special presents - we're sure you did.

Lots of love from all at Bears Unlimited xxx

Best Wishes for 2012

A very Happy New Year to our readers from all of us at Bears Unlimited.

We hope you all had a thoroughly enjoyable Christmas and were able to catch up with friends and family as we did. We had a marvelous time at our Midlands rendezvous. The Midlands branch were excellent hosts and welcomed us Norfolk branch members with open paws, along with our Suffolk branch friends and cousins.

We had lots of lovely food and drink and some good walks to work it off and we also had a trip out to the races at Leicester.

One of our Christmas traditions is to see how a particular statue, at the crossroads in the nearby village of Dunchurch, has been decorated. The statue is normally of Lord John Douglas Montague Scott, a 19th century landlord and Scottish M.P., but each Christmas mystery pranksters dress it up as a well known cartoon or TV character. This year it was ...


... a smurf, and a very fine smurf they had made of Lord Scott. As a birthday treat we chose Noel to pose with the smurf for a photo.

As we had been away for quite a few days, one of our first jobs on returning home, was to go shopping to replenish our store cupboards. We were thrilled to find huge bags of sprouts on sale in Morrisons for just 5p. What an absolute bargain. When we got home we put them all in a washing up bowl and it more than half filled it ...


... believe us, the depth of sprouts was a lot greater than it looks in our picture.
Fortunately many paws make light work and we managed to get them all peeled while watching the Top Gear Christmas special on iPlayer - not sure how we missed it.

Chef Oakley has been quite busy researching sprout soup, and other recipes. Tonight we are having roasted sprout and potato bubble and squeak with our casserole. It sounds lovely as we are all big fans of sprouts.

Lots of love, all at Bears Unlimited xxx

P.S. just weighed the peeled sprouts and there are nearly 4 lbs!