Happy New Year

Sorry, it was a bit re-miss of us not to wish all our loyal readers a Happy Christmas -  we did actually wish you one in spirit, if not in writing - so we'd like to be amongst the first to wish you a Happy, healthy and successful New Year.

As always we had a lovely Christmas and hope yours was equally good.

A few days before the big day, we were fortunate to play host to Mary, Joseph and the donkey who were travelling round various homes in our village, seeking a meal and a bed for the night as they journeyed to Bethlehem. We thought it might be nice to take them out for a meal, especially as we had other guests staying with us, in the form of Clanger and Eeyore.

And so, we took them to the Thai restaurant at Fakenham, once we learned that they'd never tried Thai food. Needless to say, a good time was had by all and the Thai curries proved a hit. 

Going racing over the Christmas period definitely makes the festive period go with a swing for us, and we managed to get our racing fix in, with a Boxing Day visit to Towcester.  

Santa Bear is our newest convert to racing and was thrilled to see horses entering into the festive spirit, with Santa hats (look hard) and saddle tinsel on others.

Another Christmas period essential is a good walk and we were blessed with some good walking weather over the Christmas break. We took the oldest member of Bears Unlimited, Squirrel Nutkin, with us and he had a great time, even admitting to preferring our sandwiches to nuts.

We're pleased to report that Curly didn't actually fall in the canal, even though it looks like he's losing his balance.

And now it's New Years Eve. We're having a relaxing evening at home by the fire, with plenty of home brew and no doubt a bottle of fizz.  We've been joined once again by Mary, Joseph and the donkey, who now have the Baby Jesus with them ...

... clearly that hot curry played a part in ensuring the baby arrived in time!

A Happy New Year to you all.

Lots of love

All at Bears Unlimited xxx

Camp Wars

So, when we left you last time, we were just about to arrive at our campsite, not far from that lovely lake adorned with prayer flags. We passed a friendly yak on the way ...

We couldn't see the lake from our tents but it was a lovely spot nonetheless. The official camping ground was the far side of the dirt track in the middle of our first picture ...

.... but we were't there. Yes, you can see tents, but they weren't ours. We had been beaten to the camping ground by another trekking group and while there could have been room for us all, if they had pitched their camp sensibly, and thoughtfully, they didn't, and placed their dining tent in the middle of our half, effectively shutting our group out.

Our crew decided that these were people we didn't want to squish in with, so set up our camp on the grazing slopes the other side of the track. It was fine, and mini terraces meant we weren't going to slide down the hill during the night. The only downside was that we did have to navigate round a fair bit of animal spoor every time we stepped outside the tent.

Our picture was taken from the entrance to our tent, so we had pole position for getting to the dining tent in front of us, but the furthest walk to the toilet tents.

We did some great people watching from our tent entrance, and we're referring to observing the antics of the other trekking group. It was clearly luxury trekking for the rich and pampered. We watched cafetieres of coffee being taken round the tents, with aperitifs served from a silver salver a bit later. They also had shower tents with mirrors set up on easels outside and when they sat down to dine (we've no idea what delicacies they were served) they had directors chairs rather than camp stools.

We had none of this, but we weren't jealous as we had absolutely everything we needed and we were being extremely well looked after. We were also having a far more authentic camping experience; after all we were away from it all in the mountains, not staying in town in a posh hotel.

What's more, first impressions of the members of the group weren't good; they were very loud and to put it simply, a bunch of hoorays. We were especially unimpressed when they played loud music after 10.00 p.m. when we were trying to sleep. Believe us 10.00 p.m. is very late on a holiday like this and even the military post alongside us had switched off their generators and turned out their lights.

But we had the last laugh ... during the night our crew opened the gate to the camping ground and sent our ponies in to cause a bit of disruption, and they did this not once, but twice.

Serves them right we say.

Lots of love, George, Yorkie and Gio xxx

Weather Extremes

Remember our last post and how sunny it was and how blue the sky? Well it lasted a bit longer - and much of that period we were relaxing in a lodge enjoying tea and biscuits while our passports and permits were checked at a military checkpoint, then we had a cloudburst. Just before the heavens opened, we took this picture ...

... which showed the path we'd come down into the valley bottom (where the checkpoint was) only to climb up and out the other side. You can see the cloud coming in that brought the rain. We shouldn't have been ill prepared, but we were. It wasn't a problem for us, with our all weather fur, but our minders were soaked before they'd got full waterproofs on.

Fortunately, within a mile, we'd reached our lunch stop and it was an indoor one. Our group, plus another trekking party, crammed into a small tea house. We were all rather cold from our wet clothes but fortunately hot soup, chapattis and vegetable dishes were served to help warm us up.

It took about 2 hours for the rain to stop. It had got to the stage where we were going to have to leave anyway, when the skies brightened and the rain eased off. We had about an hour and a half's walk to our camp and it was a lovely walk. About 30 minutes from the camp we were met by one of the cook boys who had come to meet us with a big kettle of hot orange juice.

Just 5 minutes from our camp was this beautiful lake with prayer flags and a small stupa. This was Kala Pokhari, literally black lake. It was simply beautiful in the afternoon sun. We admired it from all sides. Gio's picture shows the black lake aspect, while we looked back alone the path we'd come and it looked very different.   

While this was a tranquil spot we had campsite wars ahead of us. Find out more next time.

Lots of love, George, Yorkie and Gio xxx

Reminders of Home

Sorry readers, we forgot to blog ... but we're back now!

Back in India ... we didn't go to bed, however, without viewing the marvellous sunset (o.k. that was at tea-time) and saying goodnight to our mule friends.

Strangely enough we also said good morning to the mules when we went to breakfast the next day. They were ready with their saddles on long before us. As you can see in our picture it was a lovely sunny morning; it wasn't this warm at 5.15 a.m. though, when we climbed the small rise to the rear of this same picture, for our second 'mountain view'. Kanchenjunga was already creeping noticeably closer.

We were trekking along the old military road built by the British so it was a pretty good path, although quite eroded in places. As a result the only wheeled vehicles that could use it were old British series 1 (possibly 2) Landrovers, older than us, and older even than our minders.

We were trekking along the border between India and Nepal, so we were regularly changing countries. We soon came to our first Nepali village with the indigenous Land Rovers ....

... no sooner were we out of the village and we came across our first local monkeys ...

... we weren't carrying any food though, so they were out of luck.

It was a beautiful day to be out trekking and our minders were busy with their sun tan lotion. We had stops for a military checkpoint and also to enter the Singalila National Park proper. Here we are at the entrance.

It had been an exciting morning and we hadn't even got to lunchtime yet, so there's more to come. 

Lots of love, Gio, George and Yorkie xxx