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
