First Border Crossing

We really liked the fact that most our our camp sites were on the route, so we would pack up in the morning (bags, tents and packed lunches) and then very quickly be back on the trail. This is where we really wanted to be, as what a trail it was. In the winter, many of the paths are ski runs. Now, we've never been skiing, but it all looked quite different to what we've seen on the tele. For a start, how many skiers do you see sharing the slopes with such charming companions as these? ...

Shortly after meeting these lovely equines, we had the only real rain that we experienced while walking the Circuit. Fortunately, after his Camino experiences Gio, knows how to do a steady plod, so he plodded on uphill, with no hesitation or deviation, and with Yorkie and me following in his paw prints and doing a bit of slip streaming. Despite the rain, it was still a lovely walk and we could still admire the views. Before we knew it, we had reached our high point of the Col de Balme where there was another 'buvette' serving hot drinks and snacks. We enjoyed another hot chocolate and dried out in the warmth of the hut. When we ventured outside again, the rain had stopped! We had another, scenic, but not too difficult descent and had plenty of time for admiring the views, lunch and photo stops ...

By now we had crossed the border into Switzerland, but there was no need to show our bearports. We had all the time in the world, and, as we didn't have to walk as a group, it was nice to have the mountains to ourselves from time to time. As it flattened out at the bottom, and we entered into meadow land, the wild flowers abounded. Gio simply adores his flowers and loves to sit in the middle of them all ..

We had a choice of 'wild' campsites that night, but they weren't that wild, just lacking in hot water and showers, but they did have proper toilets and wash basins, which was good for our minders, although being bears, we'd have been happy to be completely wild ... for once! Lots of love George, Yorkie and Gio xxx

Why's it Harder Going Down?

Our first morning got off to an hilarious start as we all struggled to acquire the knack of taking down our Quecha pop up tents - there is a definite technique, including such descriptive moves such as the 'dying swan'. The tents take quite a lot of taming as they keep wanting to spring back up, not go down.

By 8.30 a.m. we were ready to start our Tour de Mont Blanc. It started with 2 modes of transport, neither of which involved walking! First we caught the local bus into Chamonix, and then we caught the telepherique up to La Flegere. The views were great, but being crammed into the car with big mountaineers who reeked of garlic and had loads of gear, wasn't much fun.

Despite gaining lots of height in the telepherique, our route was relentlessly up. It was quite a rocky path, but not too difficult, although we didn't skip along as nimbly as the ibex that crossed our path. Occasionally we had to cross small patches of snow which were deeper than Yorkie was tall.


After a couple of hours walking we reached a delightful plateau which was where we found the Lac Blanc which is behind us in our picture. I reminded us of our trip to Iceland where we saw lakes amid snow and glacier ice. It wasn't as cold as it might look but it was very windy. There was a conveniently (for us) situated mountain lodge serving delicious hot chocolate which was very rejuvenating. The lodge location wasn't so convenient for the proprietors though as there was no road to it, so all supplies had to be brought in by helicopter.


After our refreshment stop we started our descent. We like descents as being bears, we are sure and steady on our paws, but we know our female minder doesn't like them. We made sure to keep an eye on her but, after a steep start, she declared it o.k. and we all enjoyed the fixed ladder that helped us down an otherwise difficult stretch ...


... we weren't so keen on the weather closing in though, and yes, it did come on to rain. We descended many more metres than we'd climbed and it took quite a while, but we were enjoying ourselves and all got down safely.

It was quite a wet evening, but thankfully the camp site had a large wooden shelter and that night we were eating a set meal in the camp site restaurant, so we didn't get too wet except for dashing between our tents and the site facilities.

Day 1 of walking got the thumbs up and we were looking forward to more.

Lots of love, George, Yorkie and Gio xxx

Pedal Power Pilgrimage

Dear readers, Gio here, to temporarily usurp the Mont Blanc postings, to report on my recent cycle pilgrimage around North Norfolk Churches. Last Saturday was the Historic Churches Trust sponsored bike ride, and I took part, along with my minders.


It was a lovely sunny day and we set off bright and early to try and visit all the 37 churches in our local deanery. The countryside we pedalled through was beautiful and varied, and so were the churches we visited. There were some real gems and most of them were open for me to look round. My next picture shows me outside the church at Hempstead, which really took my fancy with its delightful thatched chancel.


As we had so many churches to potentially visit, we hardy stopped pedalling throughout the day. We did stop for a few brief minutes outside Cley church to eat a roll and for me to remind myself of my planned route and to count up the churches already visited and signed off on my sponsor form.


When we got to Blakeney and called in at the Methodist church, we were shown their new cafe in the church hall. I was delighted to find 3 friendly bears helping to run the cafe, and they were doing a great job. Sadly we didn't have time on that occasion to sample their fare, but I plan to go back when I have more time.


By 5.00 p.m. when the ride finished, both minders and myself were quite weary, but we'd had a great day. When we consulted the GPS I was amazed to discover that we'd all pedalled 64 miles each and visited 42 Norfolk churches. I thought that was a superb achievement and I'm very grateful to all of our readers who sponsored us.

Lots of love, Gio xxx

Hello to the Alps

In our excitement, we got back to Geneva airport early,so had time for an iced tea. As we drank, we saw a man in a black Exodus t-shirt sitting right outside the cafe we were in. This was exciting, as the adventure travel company, 'Exodus', was the one organising our holiday. We popped out to say 'hello' and discovered we were talking to mountain guide Frank, who wasn't going to lead our walking group (he was going to lead the hotel group (cushy number) while we were the hardy camping group), but he was going to escort us, and the members of a couple of other tours, to our campsite just outside Chamonix.

It was a comfortable coach ride to our campsite and we were dropped off in a lay-by, where a white van and 2 strapping men were waiting for us ...


These were Simon and Ben who were going to look after us for the next 2 weeks, while we walked what is arguably one of the world's top 10 walks, the Tour de Mont Blanc.

Our bags went into the van and were driven the short distance to the tents, while we walked there with Simon who we all liked immediately. As we walked into the campsite we knew it was going to be a good one as it had such a great name, as well as location - it was marmots camping (not that we saw any there!)


It also had 3 stars and wifi, so really we should have started blogging straight away - shame on us that we didn't. Anyway, the tents were up and looked welcoming and we were relieved to see that there was plenty of room for our minders and their luggage as well as us. We didn't really want to go into our tents to unpack, as the view, in the direction of Mont Blanc, of the Los Bossons glacier, was simply superb and we couldn't tear our eyes away ...


We did join the 15 members of our party for a pre trek briefing which was very exciting and gave us a lot of confidence. We discovered that Simon, our leader and guide, had served 23 years in the Royal Marines as a physical training instuctor before becoming, not just an International Mountain Guide, but a trainer of mountain guides. What a pedigree! and as the briefing continued it became clear that he really knew his stuff and we would be in the best possible hands.

Our worries about the walking, which we knew was going to be tough, began to subside and we were in great spirits as we tucked into our first camp meal and started getting to know our fellow trekkers.

Back soon,

Lots of love, George, Yorkie and Gio xxx

A European Adventure Gets Under Way

Sorry we've been off air for a while, but we're having so much fun going on adventures this year, that we never seem to have the time to report on them.

Last time, you may recall that we were in the Lake District, doing a spot of training for a big walk. That walk happened at the beginning of July, and it all started with an Easy Jet flight to Geneva. Our flight was an early one, so we arrived in Geneva several hours before we were due to meet our tour leader and fellow walkers, for a transfer to the start of our big walk.

It was a beautiful sunny day, and we had no intentions of hanging round the airport for hours on end, so in true Bears Unlimited fashion, we went exploring, especially as the Friendly Planet Guide we are writing, was in need of a chapter on Geneva.

Catching the train to the city was straightforward as all trains stopped at the central station, so you could get on any one you liked. It was a lovely train with lots of space, as many continental ones are, so it was a shame our journey only lasted about 6 minutes.


Our first stop was at the Tourist Information office where we picked up a guide and map and made friends with our first Swiss cow, who wasn't exactly the beautiful brown cow we were expecting. He was a fount of local information though and, please don't worry, it wasn't as painful for Gio as it looks, as the cow's horn was up his t-shirt, not part of his anatomy!

In no time at all we had reached the Lake, which was what we most wanted to see, as shops and museums don't really do it for us. As it was a boiling hot day, it was lovely to stroll beside the water, and the famous jet spout was high on our list of things to see.


After this picture was taken we did get really close, and all that power was completely awesome. The spray was lovely and cooling on our fur, although didn't take away the need for a cooling pistachio ice cream, a little later.

Seeing all the people enjoying the water, and also the public beach that we discovered, was great and helped put us into holiday mode. The gardens edging the lake were also lovely and we were all impressed with this floral clock ...


We did have a quick foray into the old town and a look at the cathedral, but it was a quick one, as it was time to head back to the airport, meet up with our tour group and start our holiday properly.

We'll reveal all next time, and hopefully it won't be quite as long to wait for our next post.

Lots of love, George, Yorkie and Gio xxx