A Very Merry Christmas

Seasons greetings to everyone who knows us or is reading our post. We wish you a very happy and peaceful Christmas and an excellent New Year.


We hope you like our rather fine crib scene which is new this year at one of our churches. We think it is rather nice to have an outdoor crib and there is a lovely atmosphere when it is lit up at night.

The inspiration came from a crib of the same design that we used to see and admire every year on the garage roof of a house in Rugby near to the Midlands Branch HQ. The owner kindly supplied the plans when a member of the Midlands Branch enquired, originally asking to take a photo. The plans were duly taken to Norfolk and a kind and talented neighbour of ours took it from there. What a great job he's done - we love it and hope you do too.

Lots of love

All at Bears Unlimited xxx


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Villa Hermani Gets the Paws Up

It was nearly midnight when we reached Villa Hermani; the last part of the journey was on dirt roads in the national park. We'd got the impression we were in an exciting location, but we had to wait until morning, and the arrival of daylight, to find out more. On arrival it was just a case of enjoying a glass of home made schnapps left out by the owners and then finding our rooms and bed.

It was a thrill to wake up in the morning and have a wander out onto our balcony to look out the view across rolling pastureland with the distinctive yeti like haystacks.

Sorry our picture doesn't do it justice and the sun hadn't come out yet .. and the power lines got in the way ... but it was nice! And Villa Hermani was a lovely chalet style lodge with lots of wood ...

... and some wonderful natural additions. Outside were a huge bear and a wolf, and yes, we quickly made friends ...

... while inside were some real (but sadly not alive) creatures of the stuffed variety. By this we don't mean they had indulged in too much of the excellent Villa Hermani cuisine, rather that they had been for a visit to the local taxidermist.

On the way up the stairs to our room was a beautiful owl, but even more special was the splendid badger which was located right outside our room ....

... that's our room with the sun streaming in. The story of the badger is an interesting one. He had apparently fallen dead at the feet of Katerina, our hostess, while she was out walking with a party. She hadn't looked a gift horse in the mouth and had she couldn't have had a fresher corpse to get stuffed. We did feel very small in relation to Brock. We hadn't realised badgers are so big and I'm sure   we'd be quite scared if we met one out in the wild.

Villa Hermani didn't just look good, it was good. It was very comfortable and Katerina and Hermann our hosts looked after us wonderfully along with their hardworking team. The stage was set for a wonderful holiday. 

Lots of love

George, Yorkie and Chelmer xxx

Bucharest Beckons

We can hardly believe it, it's October already. In that case we'd better get our skates on and start reporting on our recent adventure which took us, last month, to one of Europe's last wilderness areas. We're talking about the beautiful country of Romania.

We'd booked on a walking and wildlife holiday with one of the 2 adventure travel companies we like to use, Exodus. We arranged our own flights though, which had several advantages, one of which was that we got into Bucharest several hours ahead of the group flight, so had time for a bit of exploration and research for the Friendly Planet Guide.

We hit a bit of a snag trying to catch the bus from the airport to the train station where we would be able to leave our luggage. We'd just been to an ATM to get some Romanian leus and ended up with no small change as a result, only fairly big notes. This freaked the lady at the bus ticket kiosk out no end, and we had to work hard, smiling or most disarming bear smiles, to get the tickets we needed (or thought we needed - see later).

Having deposited our luggage at the gare du nord (felt very French) we set off on paw into the city feeling like a weight had been lifted off our shoulders (it had - our luggage). Yorkie had done some research on where we should go before we left home and, being Yorkie, it had to involve food. All credit to Yorkie, it was lunchtime, and he took us to a truly wonderful restaurant.

What a gem it was, we had no idea we were going to be in for such a great treat. We're talking about Beca's kitchen which is a small bistro style restaurant where the food is cooked by the charming and talented Beca. There are no menus as fresh seasonal produce is used and the dishes change regularly. There was plenty of choice though as you can see from the blackboard behind us ...

... we were relieved to be given the English version as our Romanian is not too good. Beca herself came out to take our order and to explain the dishes. She also talked to us about her concept of serving food which is to make it an experience for her diners as if they were coming to her home to have a meal with her.  Her dishes are very carefully thought through and nutritionally balanced and, what more can we say, other than it all works and comes together beautifully.

Beca brought out the dishes herself and we loved every one. We drank raspberry iced tea then started with fresh pea and mint and pumpkin, ginger and chilli soups.  For our main courses we enjoyed chicken skewers with roast beetroot and carrot and basil and courgettes stuffed with cheese, basil and garlic served on salad leaves. We finished up with chocolate and chilli ice cream and a fruits of the forest cheesecake which was so beautifully light it was more of a cheese mousse!

The food, the ambience and the welcome was so good we stayed a good couple of hours. We did leave some time for a bit of sightseeing on the way back to the station. We had a city map so planned a walking route taking in some churches, parks and other historic buildings. It was a lovely sunny day so we took our time.

There is some great architecture in Bucharest and some interesting contrasts between Communism and Capitalism.  We think we'd like to spend a weekend there some time. 

We were a bit worried on our return bus trip to the airport, as although our ticket seller had told us there were 2 journeys on our travel cards, the cards showed up as used when we went to validate them. Fortunately you validate your card away from the driver and no inspectors got on! We were quite pleased nonetheless to get off the bus at the airport and await the arrival of our tour group and our 3 hour transfer to Villa Hermani which was to be our home for the week. 

More next time. 

Lots of love

George, Yorkie and Chelmer xxx

We're Not Afraid ...

Who's afraid of the big bad wolf, sorry Gruffalo?

Well, we weren't too sure what to think when we met him yesterday at Newmarket's July racecourse.



Patrick was initially very brave and took a selfie from a respectable distance in front of the Gruffalo. But he forgot the one golden rule, never turn your back on a Gruffalo. The next minute our hearts were in our mouths as Patrick was gripped by those terrible claws ...


... And lifted towards those huge fangs. What would happen next?

We were very worried. Did we have time to dial 999?

We should have had more confidence in our friend Patrick though. Patrick really does have the Irish gift of the gab and can charm the hind legs off a ... Gruffalo!

Suddenly the Gruffalo was smiling and waving , introducing his new friend to the crowd ..


When we finally got Patrick back we asked him what he'd said to the Gruffalo to turn around the tense situation. Patrick had apparently offered him a couple of rather tasty racing tips.

Patrick was none the worse for his adventure and reckoned the Gruffalo is just a gentle giant. We'll have to read his stories to find out more. Perhaps we had misjudged him.

We then settleddown to enjoy some great racing and to hope that Patrick's tips came good for the Gruffalo. Our favourite race was the greys' race where every runner is a grey. What a sight they all are in the parade ring and as they charge down the course as a great wall of grey. It's great to be able to make some confident predictions, such as, 'a grey is going to win!'

What a grey(t) day!

Lots of love

The B.U. Bears xxx

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Beating the Weather

For our last day we made a journey to the Mecca of the area for walkers, Malhamdale. The area is packed with interesting footpaths and there are the local beauty spots of Malham Cove and Malham Tarn to enjoy. We'd picked up a great walks leaflet at our caravan site, showing at least 6 back to back walks to choose from. We'd picked the blue route to start but we'd thought we might combine it with one of more of the other routes.

However, no sooner had we parked the Bearmobile at Malham, than the rain started falling. We decided to have  a look round the National Park visitors centre while we waited for the rain to stop.  It didn't seem to want to, even though the staff at the centre agreed that it wasn't forecast. We didn't want to waste our last day though, so we donned our waterproofs and set off, thinking we'd go at least as far as the cove.

As you will from our photo, as we got closer to the Cove, the rain stopped and our waterproofs came off. We were therefore able to plan and look forward to, a much longer walk.

We climbed up the steep steps to the left of the cove then enjoyed exploring the wonderful limestone pavement at the top ...

We think it is great that Health and Safety has given Malham Cove a miss and there is no safety fence or warnings just before the drop at the top of the Cove.

We continued to Malham Tarn where we tucked into our sandwiches and then we ranged a bit further afield until our path linked up with our lunch spot from 5 days earlier. We returned to Malham via Goredale Scar, enjoying a great cup of tea, in sunshine, from a mobile refreshment van just after the path to the Scar, after which we headed down to Janet's Foss ...

... after overnight rain and the rain from earlier, the waterfall looked pretty good. All too soon we were back at the Bearmobile and heading back to Ribby. We took her awning down in the dry, as rain was forecast for the morning. We then headed into Grassington to treat ourselves to a take away curry - delicious - and a great way to end a great holiday.

Lots of love

The B.U. caravanning party xxx

Stepping Back in Time

For day 4 we had something quite different planned. We'd all wanted to visit Beamish, the Living Museum of the north, for quite a while. While it wasn't quite on our doorstep, it was close enough for us to make the journey.

It was well worth the drive. The Beamish site was huge. We had arrived by 11:00 and when the site closed at 5:00 we still hadn't visited the fairground and had to whizz round other venues.

Talking of whizzing, there were various ways to get round the site including the fine tram and the vintage bus picture above. You could also travel on the steam elephant which was a wonderful reproduction of an early steam train with pistons travelling vertically rather than horizontally. Mind you, you could have walked the short distance of the track quicker than the steam elephant travelled ...

... that wasn't the point though, it was all about the experience.

During the course of the day we visited an 1820s hall and gardens, a 1900s town, a 1940s farm and a 1900s pit village and colliery.

We made friends with back yard pigs ...

... we went down a drift mine with very low roof - we were the only members of the party who didn't need hard hats as we were not tall enough to have to walk bent double trying not to bang our heads. We had great admiration for a game old lady who must have been well into her 80s who made it along the wet, dark seam.

... we also tested out an Anderson shelter

... there was plenty of room for us on the bench but it probably wasn't much fun for a gathering of adults and we felt it lacked a few mod cons! 

Thank you Beamish for a great day out. 

Lots of love 

The B.U. caravaners xxx

The Dales Way Revisited

Following a day off, we went walking again. We were staying very close to the route of the Dales Way which you may remember Yorkie and I, along with Gio, walked last September. As this was such a fine walk we were quite eager to revisit a stretch or two, and also to share the delights of the route with our friends, who had missed out first time round.

We picked the stretch each side of Kettlewell to walk and turned it into a circular walk by adding some new stretches of footpath. It was a big climb up to join the high level section into Kettlewell, but we all enjoyed the flattish walking, once we were up, and the great views. 

After Kettlewell we joined the riverside path up to Starbottom. It is a beautiful stretch and very popular with all sorts of walkers. The photo above is a new one, but we're fairly sure we'd posed for the same picture previously.

By the time we'd worked our way back to the bear mobile we'd covered over 15 miles, so we'd had a goodly walk. We'd kind of got used to one way walking and forgotten that you can only go half as far if you have to return as well! Fortunately the weather was good and we had plenty of daylight left.

Lots of love

The B.U. caravanners xxx

Anyone for Licquorice?

On day 2 we indulged ourselves with a day's racing. Yorkshire is one of the best places to go racing as there are so many racecourses to choose from. As our aim is to visit all the racecourses in the country we needed to go somewhere new, so there was only one choice - Pontefract.


We knew nothing about Pontefract apart from its association with the black sticky stuff, and didn't have high hopes of the racecourse, but boy were we in for a surprise. It is a lovely course set in parkland with a lake and it has a very pleasant olde worlde feel giving it bags of character. Of course, being there in such glorious weather added to its appeal.


So, the course was great, and the racing was very good. There were some beautiful horses and competitive racing. We'd read that Pontefract is a stiff track, both hilly and undulating, so horses, and jockeys, unused to its demands can struggle. We adopted a strategy of backing horses who had run there and done well previously. It worked, we were all slightly up on our betting at the end of the day. We also enjoyed seeing Frankie Dettori winning both of his 2 races and showing us just why he is one of the best.


We found an old set of scales for weighing out and in, in the ladies toilets
of all places ( please don't ask what we were doing in the ladies). Patrick went off the scale at 15 stone, so demonstrated that he has been drinking too much Guinness recently. His excuse was that he is on holiday.

Lots of love,

The B.U. Caravanners

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

First Day Wanderings

Day 1 of our holiday dawned bright and sunny and there was a choice of interesting footpaths from the site to explore. The bearmobile therefore had a day off to recover from a long drive up, and we set off on paw with rucksacks bulging with sandwiches (not marmalade) and other goodies to sustain us, as we knew that fitness freak Chelmer would take us on a long trek.

We went over moor and down dale (literally) then some farm track and then lots more moor. We weren't far from the tourist honeypot of Malham, but were just far enough away to have all the stunning countryside to ourselves. There was no other walker in sight all day, just a handful of mountain bikers, who were gone as soon as seen.

Although we'd had a relaxed morning and didn't set out until 11:30 we'd done 7 miles before we stopped for lunch and did virtually the same again after lunch. We'd got used to this sort of distance walking Offa's Dyke.

Just as we finished lunch, the rain started, but thankfully it wasn't heavy, so we continued with the walk as planned - no short cuts for us! We didn't hang around though and romped along over 3 straight miles of Mastiles Lane crossing Kilnsey Moor, before turning in the direction of the site.

We apologise for the lack of photos to accompany this post but we blame the rain and the size of the walking party - we all thought the others had taken pics - and also, too much time spent talking to all the friendly sheep. Our next post will have photos though, we promise.

Lots of love

The B.U. Caravanners xxx






- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Flying the Flag of the White Rose

Dear readers

We'd like to continue the precedent set recently of reporting to you live from our travels. Yes, we are on our travels again, and this time we are quite a large travelling party: Ungi, Jimmy, George, Yorkie, Patrick, Chelmer, Curly, Randolph and Santa Bear. The size of our party reflects a) the range of activities we are getting up to (all interests catered for) and b) the fact that we are away in our beloved caravan, Ribby the Eriba. This means we have a bear mobile with us and there is plenty of room for us all in Ribs.



We are in Yorkshire and Yorkie and Randolph are particularly pleased and proud to be in the heart of their home county. We are staying at the Caravan Club's Wharfedale site, a short hop out of Grassington. A very fine site it is too with a great location with lots of good walking straight from the caravan door.

We'll be back tomorrow to let you know the exciting adventures we've been having.

Lots of love

The B.U. Caravanners xxx

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

That's All Folks, Signing Off

The last 13 and a bit miles have now been done and we are Offa's Dykes veterans. Sadly, this was our least favourite day's walking. There was far too much very muddy, woodland path walking, high above the River Wye, with nothing to see but trees. We did get a bit of relief when we took the River Wye river bank alternative path option (but still official ODP). This was very nice walking ...


The approach to Chepstow and the Sedbury Cliffs finish was also rather uninspiring. Sorry to any locals, but we definitely preferred the Prestatyn end. We did pick up Offa's Dyke again today and it was with us during the last few yards, which felt good. After all the big ups and downs of the path, we had to smile at the fact that the last few yards to the end, were a real steep pull up, worthy of a guide book double chevron - the path wasn't going to let us go that easily ...


... we liked the 'nearly there' encouragement we got on the sign, to encourage us to dig deep, for that last, almost vertical section.

Then suddenly the end had arrived. We sat on the marker stone (which has the distance wrong) and looked out across the River Severn ...


We might have grumbled a bit about today's stretch but don't let that put you off having a go yourself. It is a truly great walk, and as all the Australians, Americans and other nationalities we've met, who gave travelled long distances to do the walk tell us, we are truly blessed to have such riches in our land to walk and explore.

Signing off now,

Love, George, Yorkie and Gio xxx

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

The End is Nigh

Not the end of the world, hopefully, just the end of our Offa's Dyke walk. Today we did what felt like a marathon, but wasn't quite. We were delivered back to Whitecastle where we'd finished walking yesterday, at 9.10 and we proceeded to yomp the first 11 miles into Monmouth getting there before 1.00 p.m. (It was quite easy walking!) On the way the path took us through a new type of scenery, apple Orchards for Bulmers Cider ...


Monmouth itself took us into some even more novel scenery i.e. The Offa's Dyke path runs right along the High Street ...


It made a change to encounter a plethora of refreshment facilities during the day so we took full advantage and enjoyed a coffee on a riverside terrace and then an unhealthy lunch of a Mr Whippy ice cream.

The afternoon's leg should have been a further 7 miles to take us up to a grand total of 18 miles but, as always seems to happen, we managed to do a bit more and the final total was 19.5 miles. The going was harder with some big, double chevrons ups (and downs) and by the time we arrived at this evening's destination of The Florence Hotel we were definitely flagging. Still, once again we are rewarded by excellent accommodation. We don't actually know where we are, but we appear to have no neighbours and be just the other side of the road to the River Wye. Just look at the view from our bedroom window ...


... We can see the river from our bed, from the bathroom and from our little sitting area a step up from the lounge - how lucky we are! And not knowing where we are doesn't matter as we haven't got to go anywhere - our hosts are cooking for us. As it is our final night in guest accommodation we're treating ourselves to 3 courses; we think we've earned it.

We believe we've got about 14 miles to do tomorrow to the trail's end at Sedbury Cliffs near Chepstow, but we seem to have come so far today it hardly seems possible.

Thanks Aunty M for all your comments on our posts - they have encouraged us no end.

Lots of love, George, Yorkie and Gio xxx

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Back in the Tropics

A really comfortable room, a fantastic breakfast and the excellent conversation of our hosts Idris and Gwen meant that we lingered over breakfast so were late-ish setting off today. It was nearly 10:00 a .m. when we were dropped off back at Llanthony Priory. This was part of our strategy though, as we only had a short day today and needed to take it easy to prepare ourselves for a much longer day tomorrow.

We climbed back up to Hatterrall Ridge, the same Black Mountain ridge we were walking along yesterday. We hardly recognised it, as while yesterday we froze, today we were very comfortable wearing 3 less layers! Today we loved romping along the ridge and we were pleased to find wild ponies surrounding today's trig point which made for an interesting photo for our sister blog, but which we'll also share here.


We descended into Pandy, which was seemed to be a non event (no coffee shop) so we were glad we had overnighted off the route not here (sorry Pandy).

After Pandy the sun really shone and it became very hot. We felt our pace slow as a result. Just after Caggle Street we also awarded a lead paw to the tractor driver ploughing up a field crossed by the ODP making both navigation and passage difficult (the chicken manure also smelt horrible).

We reached Whitecastle just after 4.00 p.m.and called our host at The Old Rectory at Llangattock Lingoed for a lift. We knew we were in for a treat a we had walked past the accommodation earlier and even spoken to the owner as we came out of the Church next door after a welcome coffee.

Once again we have a lovely room and just look at the view we have over the gardens ...


The sequence of buildings where we are is B&B, next to the Church, next to the Pub. Perfect! We are still in the pub as we type ...

Lots of love, George, Yorkie and Gio xxx


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Feeling Like Polar Bears

After the sunshine of yesterday, we always knew from the weather forecast, that today would be cooler. We hadn't bargained for by how much though.

Leaving low lying Hay on Wye and our aptly named B&B, Rest for the Tired ...



... we climbed steadily, first through fields, then across grassy foothills, then up to Hay Bluff in the Black Mountains to reach the Hatterrall Ridge. It was the first long climb and it was definitely a claim of Lake District proportions - about 700 metres of ascent. It had the look of the Lake District too - wild moorland of heather, bilberry and tussocky grass with (thankfully) flagstones laid across the peat boggy sections of the path.

Once up on the ridge, we stayed up, for mile after mile, and it was really flat and easy walking. We stayed on the ridge until it was time to come down to Llanthony for our overnight stop. The walk on the ridge might have been easy, but conditions were truly arctic. It was cold and there was a biting wind. We could have been on a different continent to yesterday, and more and more layers of clothes were added until we had nearly empty rucksacks.

Descending into Llanthony it felt like we had entered the tropics in comparison. We arrived via the picturesque ruined priory (photo lost, will rake another tomorrow).

Our host for tonight, the very charming Idris, met us there and whisked us off, in his car, quite a few miles to our accommodation for tonight. We are at Pen-y-dre Farm in Llanvihangel Crucorney. We have a lovely big room with comfortable arm chairs and the village pub is just 200 yards away. The icing on the cake is a fridge with fresh milk for our teas and coffees, and the 2 large slices of fresh cream and apricot sponge which were left for us along with the milk. Yum and a big laws up!

Lots of love George, Yorkie and Gio xxx


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Making Hay While the Sun Shines

Today has been a simply glorious day. We woke up to sunny weather which has been with us all day, and we had one of our best breakfasts, thanks to Sue at De Lacy House.

N.B. We forgot to say last night that we had rounded off our evening with drinks at the Olde Tavern. This was a traditional but very friendly beer drinkers pub. We were made to feel very welcome and there was a good choice of real ales which we just had to sample. The hosts are new there and we believe it will get even better, so do visit if you find yourself in Kington.

So Kington gets a paws up from us.

The ODP climbed steadily out of Kington onto the Hergest Ridge. What a ridge walk this was. We cannot extol its virtues enough. There were 2 special treats for us, the first being the path crossing another old racecourse, this one last used in 1880. It was very obvious when we'd reached the racecourse as the 1 mile oval track could still be seen. We split into 2 parties so we could walk the entire racetrack, one party circling left and the other right, so we could get a feel of what it would have been like to race round. We could see the imprint of horses hooves in the turf, and with the wind in our fur it was quite atmospheric.


Our other special treat, as if the glorious views weren't enough, was to see a herd of wild ponies with a number of foals. We held our breath as they came past us, then they gathered to drink at a watering hole. It was a special moment.



Then the next joy of the day was descending into Newchurch to find that the church there (St. Mary's) provided a kettle, tea, coffee and squash for walkers. It must be nearly 100 miles since the last church (at Llandegla) which offered refreshments. Given the fact that refreshment stops, except for at our overnight stays, are virtually non existent on the ODP, this is a vital service churches can, but rarely do, offer, so we'll done St Mary's.

We must be getting into our stride, as we covered our 16 miles to Hay on Wye, with about 820 m of ascent, quite quickly and were in Hay by about
16:20 - I think this had something to do with getting our minders there with time to look round Hay's many second hand bookshops before they closed. Mind you, fast though we might have been, on the way we met a very nice man who was walking Hay to Knighton today - that's a walk we've done in 2 days and a distance of nearly 39 miles. We bet he drinks Carling Black Label!

Our B&B tonight has the wonderful name of Rest for the Tired. We've got a lovely little suite and we're well situated for the town centre. Tonight we are in the Red Indigo Indian Restaurant where, if starters are anything to go by, the food is very good. It's nice and quiet in town tonight but it will be very different in 2 days time when the Hay Literary Festival starts.

Lots of love George, Yorkie and Gio xxx


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

The Rollercoaster and Beyond

So, we have two days to catch up on. Yesterday was the biggest day of the trail so far, with, according to our guide book 7-8 hours walking with stops in addition. Fortunately the location of our lovely previous night's B&B had given us a head start of an hour which was very useful.

The day is famous for its switchbacks which basically means you spend a lot of time climbing some very steep inclines and a similar amount of time going down the other side. Offa's Dyke path doesn't seem to do zig zags to lessen steep sections, it only does straight up and straight down. This is why we called it the Rollercoaster day, or Nessie day (as in the Loch Ness monster) - take your pick of which fires your imagination.

We're pleased to say that we loved the day. It was wonderful walking and we were mentally prepared; it is certainly true that the best things in life aren't always easy or cheap and all our climbing effort was amply rewarded.

It was a very sheepy day and very apparent that sheep love walking Offa's Dykes but also that they love pooping on the Dyke. We walked through loads of sheep poop as a result and weren't sure it was respectful to such an historic monument.

We bagged 2 more trig points for our sister blog on the way and also had our first heavy rain shower of the trip. We donned full waterproofs and cowered under a tree which gave some shelter. We were just a few steps away from the finger post marking the half way stage, 88.5 miles to Prestatyn and 88.5 miles to Chepstow.we needed a volunteer to go out in the rain for a picture and Yorkie drew the short straw!

The rain was over in about 30 minutes and our fur dried quickly. Our minders returned to shorts and t-shirts.

We rolled into Knighton at about 5.30 p.m. and installed ourselves in the George and Dragon pub. We recommend it for beer, food and accommodation. Sadly the Offa's Dyke visitors had shut at 5.00 p.m and didn't open again until 10.00 a.m. so we didn't get to visit.

Today we had a lovely 13.5 mile stretch into Kington (note Kington tonight Knighton last night - we haven't got confused. The weather was dry and sunny and the ascents and descents less punishing - but they will still there - we climbed over 800 metres. We saw hardly any one as we walked. This was unbelievable as the scenery was once again stunning on all sides. We compared it to the Lake District and agreed that noted that we had magnificent views over a much bigger area and not a person in sight. You just wouldn't get that in the Lakes, wonderful though they are.


As we turned off the Dyke to descend into Kington we said a sad farewell as it has been a constant friend for the last 80 miles. We think it ends now and we will miss it.

Tomorrow's walk into Hay on Wye sounds rather special though.

Lots of love George, Yorkie and Gio xxx

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

All the B's - Buttington to Brompton

The Moors was such a lovely B&B it was hard to tear ourselves away, especially after breakfasting with 3 laid back Australian ladies. As we left, we said goodbye to our hosts' most impressive guard dog ...



It was forecast to be quite wet today so if was wonderful to start out in the dry and in sunshine. It didn't last long, but we were lucky to encounter nothing worse an a bit of drizzle and a few light showers. There was something quite reassuring about starting to climb again and encountering those double chevrons in our guide book - it's what we've come for after all.

We climbed up to Beacon Ring where we bagged another trig point for our other blog. There was an Iron Age hill fort at this site and it all felt quite old. We descended through a forested estate then we spent the rest of the day crossing the Plain of Montgomery with the Dyke (Offa's Dyke no less) in evidence much over the time e.g. as below.


After just over 15 miles we reached Druin's Farm where we are spending the night. It's another great B&B and we chomped our way through the jam and cream scones and Welsh cakes that were kindly offered on arrival. Our hosts drove us out to nearby Mellington Hall for a meal and kindly collected us after.

We will have an early night tonight as we will be facing the biggest walking test of the trip so far tomorrow.

Lots of love George, Yorkie and Gio xxx

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

The Montgomery Canal to Welshpool

Today we had our second easy day, an official 10.5 miles which we managed
to extend to 14 miles with a few small detours to other places of interest to us. This really was a flat day with only about 30 metres of ascent.

We started off going the wrong way along the Montgomery Canal as we wanted to see how far the restoration work had got. We strolled along until the canal ran out and the derelict section of canal started. It was sad to see; if Eddie had been here he would have been quite upset.

Here I am standing on the towpath looking at what should be canal ...


We itched to get our paws started on clearing, but today was not the day, we had a walk to continue.

We have named this leg of the walk the dairy milk (cow) walk, as we walked through fields and fields of young friesian cows as we followed the course of the river Severn, in its early stretches. It seemed to be a bit of a game for the cows to gather in the gateways we needed to go through, and forging a passage wasn't always easy.

It wasn't the most exciting walking and several people we met weren't enjoying it, but we weren't unhappy, even though the rutted path (from all those hooves) wasn't the easiest to walk on.

We have struck gold with our B&B tonight. We're staying at Moors Farm near Buttington where the rooms are fabulous (lovely big bed with wool blankets) and our hostess delightful. She's driven us down to a curry house in Welshpool and we will walk back shortly along the Montgomery Canal. We can help ourselves to drinks in return for a donation to the Air Ambulance. What a great idea and generous gesture. We feel duty bound to participate.

Lots of love, George, Gio and Yorkie xxx

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Doing the Hokey Cokey

Today was an easy day with a much reduced mileage, officially only about 10 miles but in reality about 12, with a sprinkling of the, the now to be expected, double chevrons (the sign of a steep section). As a result we had a late and leisurely breakfast, with our fellow walkers (Tony and Barbara) and left our horsey overnight stay to wander just a mile down the road to the old Oswestry Racecourse. Being racing fans we were very interested in this. We lurked round the remains of the grandstands and looked out on the former figure of 8 racetrack, now carpeted by bluebells.


The last race was in 1848 so sadly we were a bit late!

We bimbled onwards to Trefonen, home of the Offa's Dyke Brewery, beside the Barley Mow pub. Despite it being lunchtime neither were open which was a bit of a disappointment, especially as we'd had a glowing report of looking round the Brewery from a fellow walker we'd met a day or two ago. We settled for a coffee in the village store - good for them.

Our descent into Llanymynech, end of today's stage, took us through an old quarry, now turned into a nature reserve. As we hit the main Street we found ourselves in no man's land, with 'Welcome to England' a few feet to our left and 'Welcome to Wales' a few feet to our right. We wandered down the road, into Wales, to find our accommodation, the Bradford Arms. Because this was the other side is the street, it was in England! You'll see what I mean now about doing the Hokey Cokey: one foot into Wales, then the other into England.


Our evening at the Bradford Arms is going well. we haven't strayed far as the first real rain of be trip arrived just after we got indoors. We've had a great meal, the beer is well kept and the landlord most genial. We've also been chatting to a single Swiss chap who is walking in the opposite direction. It's all most satisfactory.

Lots of love George, Yorkie and Gio xxxx

Location:The Street,Llanymynech,United Kingdom

Days 3 & 4 - Getting into our Stride

This evening we are bereft of wi-fi,  so we can't post, sorry. However, we will pen our post, so it is ready for the next sniff of some working wi-fi.

What a walk this is. There cannot be a walk like it for the sheer diversity of scenery. Yesterday we came off the Clwydian Hills only to walk through a forest ...


... then later, across a narrow path half way down some big, Lake District style scree elopes.

As a lot of people walk the path south to north, rather than north to south as we are doing, we get to meet quite a few fellow path walkers and have had some great chats. We even met a lady who had stayed with Ken and Barbie on the Coast to Coast (Aunty M will appreciate this).

Last night we stayed at the Squirrels in Llangollen. We didn't see any squirrels, but we made lots of new bear friends as it was a bear friendly B& B. Our new friend Porter was there to welcome us in reception ...


In a pub, the Wynnstay Arms, which we called into on spec, we met Offa's Dykes friendliest bar maid, probably Wales' friendliest bar maid, Nia. She was just lovely so we stayed longer than we planned to and enjoyed a tasty and great value meal.

Today rain was forecast for most of the day. We're delighted to report it largely stayed away and we only got a few spots. We also got enough sunshine to cause our minders to slap on the suntan lotion, so as not to add to their collection of sunburnt areas.

The climb back to the path from Llangollen was a big one but it was o.k. as we only had 12 miles to do today. Our route took us across the famous Pontcysyllte aqueduct which we had crossed a few years ago by canal boat so it was good to revisit and to sit by the canal and have a Spanish coffee, served barista style from an enterprising canal boat. Not long after leaving the Llangollen Canal, we encountered the historic dyke that King Offa built over 1,200 years ago for the first time. You can see the big ditch and sloping sides quite clearly.

We have ended the day at a B&B called Carreg-y-big which is attached to the Oswestry equestrian centre. As a result there are lots of horses here so we are all quite excited. Richard, our host cooked us an excellent chicken meal which we enjoyed with toffee fudge cake and red wine, so we all feel quite mellow now.

Hopefully we will get a chance to publish this post tomorrow so you can catch up with us.

Lots of love, George, Yorkie and Gio xxx

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Off(a) We Go - on Offa's

Dear readers

We're very pleased to be posting to you live from our latest adventure. We're currently two days in to the stunning Offa's Dyke long distance footpath and we're very happy bears as we sit in the Miners Arms in a village with one of those great Welsh names that is instantly forgotten by the English. We're happy as we've had a second great day's walking and have a pint of Conwy Brewery's Clogwn Gold beer in front of us and the anticipation of the hake special from the tasty sounding menu.

We actually have our female minder's Aunt Elizabeth to thank for this trip. She invited us all to her 90th birthday party in Cheltenham on Saturday, and this inspired to us to think about fitting in a holiday around the party, as it isn't often we travel so far west from our Norfolk base. The Offa's Dyke Long Distance Footpath (LDP) running for about 177 miles along the England/Wales border between Prestatyn and Chepstow ( or vice versa) seemed to fit the bill, so on Saturday afternoon, after a lovely birthday lunch, we found ourselves being party poopers (sorry everyone) and leaving afternoon tea early to take a bus and a train to the start of our walk in Prestatyn.

Travel arrangements ran smoothly and we reached the Beaches Hotel in Prestatyn shortly after 9.00 p.m. Our room was so close to the sea, if the tide had been in, we could have played stone skimming from the window of our room. We were tired teds though so we let the sound of the sea send us off to sleep.

Sunday morning we woke refreshed to tackle a full English before making our first steps along the sea front to the start of the trail.

Perhaps I should clarify that 'we' is myself George, chief travelling bear and most reliable blogger; Yorkie, my faithful travelling companion, who blogs less as he's too busy eating, and Gio because he simply loves walking and thinks the best holidays are walking holidays.


I'm telling you this as we didn't manage to get a photo at the start with all of us in.

The first mile of the route took us, in lovely sunshine, from the coast, up the High Street of Prestatyn and we have to say we were quite impressed by Prestatyn - it's a lovely little town. The rest of the day unfolded very pleasantly with a lovely mix of gorse covered hillsides, country lanes, woodland and pastureland. Navigation was no problem thanks to all the national trail way marking, it was just a case of follow the acorn.

We had to walk a mile off piste to our B&B (Glen Clwyd Isa) where we had a warm welcome in this comfy but quirky establishment. There were extensive grounds to stroll around in the evening sunshine before we joined the 3 other guests for a lovely home cooked meal of asparagus and salmon (or duck) and berry sponge pudding.

Today the weather had been glorious, with really Mediterranean blue skies. We've walked just over 14 miles across the Clwydian Hills. If you don't know these hills give them a Google and find out more. They are wonderful and the views across to Liverpool and Snowdonia are stunning. The path is mostly turf so kind to our paws, but the ascents and descents between the hills were challenging to say the least. There is no accommodation at the end of this stage but we got picked up and taken to the Hafan Dag B&B where we've really landed on our paws - it's a real gem.

There's only one reason to Growl - the Clogwn Gold has now run out - we haven't drunk that much honest!

Hope to have another report for you soon.

Lots of love George, Yorkie and Gio xxx
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

2015: What a Year We've Had!

You must have wondered what we were up to last year and we'll be the first to admit we've got a bit of catching up to do. The last big trip we were reporting on was our Northern India trip and we went on that in 2014!

We thought we would do you a potted review of our explorations of 2015 and then we'll be up to date. So here goes ...

We banished the post Christmas blues by escaping to some Spanish sunshine at the end of January. With Spanish bear Pedro as our guide and chief translator, we flew into Malaga and picked up a rather cute Fiat 500 to transport us round the Axarquia region and take us into the countryside for some good (if steeply mountainous) walking.

We enjoyed lovely sunny weather and some good paths and views as you can see. While the path in our picture below was a good one for walking, it was a long way from any roads and there were some big drops at the side, so we a bit surprised to see a 30 speed limit sign ...

... if you could get a car along this track then we wouldn't recommend going that fast - could be why the sign looks like it might have taken a knock - and for walkers, even runners, 30 (even if kph) is incredibly fast.  Not all the paths were this good; we abandoned one walk after getting scared by the loose scree on a very steep ridge walk. 

A rather special walk took us along a high path where we crunched through some remaining snow before a big descent down to a fossilised waterfall, in the background of our picture. 

It was a lovely spot for a swim for us, a paddle for our minders, and a picnic. 

Spain lifted our spirits and recharged our batteries so were happy to wait until after Easter for our next adventure. We took our much loved Eriba caravan, Ribs, up to a Caravan Club site on the edge of Buxton in Derbyshire and had a lovely week. We had some V.I.P company in the form of Miles who you may recognise from the Thomson holiday adverts ... 

As you'd expect from outdoor bears staying in a great walking area, we did a lot of lovely walking,
but we were doing some cultural sightseeing when the photo above was taken. We were exploring Buxton and having a coffee in the Devonshire Dome. The coffee wasn't bad but the dome was much more impressive. It's more than 150 feet in diameter and bigger than the dome of St Paul's Cathedral. It's incredible to think it was built to provide accommodation for up to 120 horses and the ostlers and servants of the gentry visiting The Crescent.

Our holiday highlight of the year was our flotilla sailing holiday in the Greek islands at the beginning of June. Captain Eddie had an expanded crew this years as new B.U. member RNLI Bear, Peter, was with us. He was strangely reluctant to take off his yellow RNLI jacket except when it got really hot, but it didn't take him long to agree with regular sailors Louis and Eddie, that a Greek Island sailing holiday could be the best holiday in the world. Even Yorkie and I, as more seasoned travellers with experience of a greater variety of holidays, really look forward to our Greek adventures.

This year we sailed in a new area, the Peloponnese and Saronic Islands. To reach our boat, Adriana, we had to cross the Corinth Canal. We had an opportunity to get out the bus and walk across the bridge over the canal, and see some boats motoring through, a long way below us. What an incredible feat of engineering the canal is.

We really enjoyed this trip as we got to visit some smaller islands and harbours, which are a bit off the main tourist trails; delightful places such as Aegina, Spetses, Dhokos, Hermione and Poros. These were mostly quiet except for one port - Hydra. Hydra is a real gem of an island: there are no cars, no scooters, just tiny cobbled lanes, donkeys, rocks and the sea. There is one drawback though. The harbour is unbelievably busy and, far more people want to anchor there than there is room for. Our while flotilla got there early, before the previous night's boats had departed. Even so, for every boat that left, there were at least 3 waiting to take it's place. Getting moored up was quite stressful, but our lead crew really showed there worth and got us all in. We ended up about 4 boats away from the harbour wall and our next picture shows what it was like ...

 

... the only snag is that you can't see where the harbour wall is - you will have to imagine it about 3 boats into the foreground. It wasn't too claustrophobic for us as we had a stretch of water behind us as there was a much bigger boat behind.

Our outlying mooring wasn't a problem for us, as bears are nimble enough not to have any difficulties crossing boats to reach terra firma. The boats nearest the harbour wall didn't get much privacy though!

The harbour on Hydra might be busy, but you can don't have to go far to lose the crowds. We took one of the footpaths along the coast and it was simply beautiful: it was just as advertised: no traffic, just donkeys, cobbles, rocks and sea, plus great views down to the harbour from the top of the town.

After Greece we didn't need to go away for a while, as a summer in North Norfolk has a delight and charm all of its own. It was in the middle of September before we felt the need to sally forth on another adventure. This time we decided to stay closer to home and enjoy a fortnight in Yorkshire, which especially pleased Yorkie. It was a rather special fortnight though. We spent most of first week walking the Dales Way which runs for 84 miles between Ilkley and Bowness on Windermere. We were following in the footsteps of St Clare (the Balding) who walked the Dales Way as part of her wonderful Ramblings series on the radio. At the end of each day's walk we'd list to the equivalent instalment of Clare's walk on our iPods.

It is a wonderful walk, taking your through some of the best Yorkshire Dales scenery and allowing walkers some great overnight pub stops. Our favourite was the Buck Inn at Buckden (as above): great rooms, great beer and great food. The pub truly knew what Welcome to Yorkshire was supposed to mean.

In our next picture you see us relaxing on the seat provided for Dales Way walkers only, a stones throw from journeys end, Lake Windermere. This was a lovely spot: sadly Bowness itself was not so good as it was overrun with slow moving tourists. It was all a bit of a culture shock after the tranquility of the way.

We didn't want to linger though as we needed to get back to Ilkley to pick up the Bearmobile and start the second leg of our September adventure. This was another boating trip so Captain Eddie was once again in charge, ably supported by his trusty crew of Louis and Peter. We hired a boat from Sowerby Bridge and she was the small, but perfectly formed narrowboat, Devon.

She was only 32 feet in length, but had everything we needed and above all she was really cute. We fell in love with her immediately. We took her along the Rochdale Canal up to the Summit and back. This required all paws to the pump, or rather the lock gates, as there was a big climb to the Summit from Sowerby Bridge, and canals don't climb without locks. Ironically, although the canal was really quiet, with few other boats out, the locks were all huge, 2 boat double locks, and not the best maintained. We had to go through most of them on our own. This meant we were all on almost constant lock duty, but it was fun and the scenery was very rewarding.  We all slept very well at night after our exertions and all that fresh air.

What a year we've had! We loved it all, and the only question that remains is, can we have an even better year this year? Well that remains to be seen. You'll have to keep reading to find out.

Lots of love, George, Yorkie and all at Bears Unlimited xxx