Meanwhile Back at the Ranch ...

The wheels of commerce need to keep turning, so while our small bear colleagues and their instructors were having fun in the snow, the rest of us were hard at work and keeping the home fires burning.

There was much less snow in Norfolk so Tommy was able to spend time in his beloved garden and made Chef Bear Oakley's day, by digging up some lovely home grown parsnips.


Mouths began to water as Oakley announced he would be making some curried parsnip soup and we would be having a roast dinner that night with all the trimmings and most definitely roast parsnips.

Both bears were slightly bemused by one of the parsnips which looked as if has arrived by UFO from outer space. See what we mean ...


There were roots/tentacles emerging everywhere. Tommy thought that maybe he needed to keep warm in the garden by doing a bit of energetic digging to remove a few of the stones that the growing parsnips must have hit. Thankfully this one tasted every bit as delicious as the others and proved home grown does beat shop bought almost every time.

Talking about keeping the home fires burning, while they waited for their tea, Eddie and Pooh of the Midlands Branch, who was visiting, got a good fire burning and settled down in front of it with a beer.


If you look carefully, you'll see it's not any old beer they're drinking, but one of the best named beers ever - Piddle in a Hole from the Wyre Piddle Brewery. Readers with good memories will recall Eddie was introduced to this brewery last year when he passed through Wyre Piddle with his crew, when canal boating on the Avon Ring. Not only did the beer taste good, it provided a good opportunity for reminiscing and reliving that exciting trip.

Back soon

Love all at Bears Unlimited xxx

Are We There Yet?

Having had a hearty cooked breakfast, we can't really claim to have been too hungry at lunch time, but it was good to have an excuse to rest and to admire the rural landscape. Yorkie also took the opportunity to do a bit of ear cleaning with his banana stalk (we can't take him anywhere!!)


After lunch we left farmland behind and the terrain became more rugged and typical of the Lakeland fells. This was the scenery we had set out to see and we began to feel very satisfied although a little worried about the long way we still had to go that day.

Fortunately the sun kept shining and we passed some lovely bubbling becks. Some had some really good bridges, as in our next picture. These are great for bears as when there are no bridges we often find we have to pole vault across streams that our minders simply step across.


The last 5 or so miles were along the shore of Lake Coniston. This is our favourite Lake District lake and holds a lot of happy memories for us. Unfortunately there wasn't time to linger as the Bluebird bitter in the Coniston Black Bull was beckoning. The shoreline path enabled us to speed up our progress but we all took some time out to admire the double rainbow which appeared over the lake.


It was a long first day's walk but a good one. We were very glad to put our feet up in the B & B and have a hot shower and a snooze before strolling to the Black Bull for a well earned pint (or two!)

Lots of love, George, Isaiah, Wooly & team xxx

Beer, a Woman and Song

Our last evening in Poland was rather satisfying. We went to a very traditional restaurant in the Jewish quarter (of Oscar Schindler fame) and had a lovely meal with our own personal music group playing a concert of klezmer music just for us.


We were enthralled, not only by the music, but also by the rather lovely young lady who played the violin exquisitely and sang equally well. Sadly for us we found out she was married, but then we wouldn't want to betray our own bear kind anyway, and, as our friend Naughty Bear is finding out in Chicago, flirting is more fun anyway! Flushed with the success of our recent video clip, we'd like to try another, so that you can share some of this unique experience with us.



The only potential downside of the evening was a worrying moment when we got bearnapped while our minders had gone off to view the sweet trolley. It must say something about them that they were the only 2 of a group of 17 who had sweets! Anyway, one of our fellow cyclists who had observed how much we mean to our minders, thought it would be amusing to separate us and hid us on top of a side board type affair.


Rather than make a fuss, we decided to go along with the joke as we weren't exactly well hidden and we would have shouted loud if they'd tried to go off without us. The rather galling thing was that when they came back after selecting their sweets they didn't notice we were missing! It was only when they came to pay the bill that they noticed we were missing, and we were gratified to see that there was a bit of a panic then. We were soon spotted and re-united.

As we walked back to the hotel after a final beer in the main square, we were informed by an electronic display that the outside temperature, at midnight, was 29 degrees C. So if you want to head for the sun, forget the Med and travel to Poland as you get a great country to explore to boot. We hope you've enjoyed our Polish adventures, but don't worry, you won't be deprived of our travel reports for long as we're off again very soon. Lots of love, George & Yorkie xxx

Border Crossings

Our cycling route in Poland took us along the river (with an unpronouncable name) which marks the border between Poland and Slovakia. Naturally we couldn't be that close to a country we'd not visited before and not take the opportunity to put a paw over the border to give us another notch on the belt, so to speak.


Here you see us pausing at the border to get our bearports out. Actually if you cross over this very fine new bridge they're not needed as there were no officials in sight. Sadly this meant we couldn't get a stamp for our collection.

Our guide Jakub told us that since this bridge crossing has been opened lots of Slovakians come across at 7.00 a.m. in the morning and buy up all the Polish sausage in the shops as it is superior to Slovakian sausage. Having thoroughly enjoyed our Bigos we can vouch for how good it is! This bulk buying upsets the local Poles as by the time they get to the shops there is no sausage left. In the return the Poles cross over to buy beer and vodka as the Slovakian varieties are reported to be better. We thought we'd better test out this theory with a pint of Slovakian beer and can confirm it was very different - possibly superior but there again there isn't much beer we don't like!


Before we went on a rafting trip, which we'll tell you about tomorrow, we visited the Red Monastery. Here you see us admiring the buildings which are now empty as the monks have moved out. Can you see us?

The grounds were very good for relaxing and doing a bit of sunbathing while we snoozed off our lunchtime beer. Quite by accident, our photo of us relaxing has managed to capture the three peaks of Trzy Korony (Three Crowns) which are the highest peaks in the Pieniny national park. We have to confess not noticing them at the time but at least having them in the photo we can share them with you now.


Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

I've started so I'll finish ....

We bears like a good quiz and, although we don't like to boast too much, we're rather good at them. Our natural ability extends to both answering the questions and setting them.

On the third Friday of every month we have a quiz at one of our local village halls and we are regular attenders. Earlier this year we won by a handsome margin and thoroughly enjoyed our prize of a big box of Celebrations. Needless to say they didn't hang around long.

The other part of the prize was that we got to set the quiz for the following month. We put our thinking caps on and came up with some ingeneous rounds: the blind crisp tasting to identify the flavours went down rather well and gave everyone a good munch.

Being beer lovers we had to have a beer and wine round and learnt a few interesting facts in setting the questions. For example, did you know that alcohol is actually bacterial excrement? Puts a different complexion on your pint doesn't it?


In today's picture you see the efficient scoring team. They worked hard behind the scenes for little credit so we thought we'd give them a pat on the back now by publishing a picture of them hard at work. Good job they're good at maths!

Love from the brains of Bears Unlimited xxx

Beer, Bears and Song

After a day spent enjoying the great outdoors it is always pleasant to enjoy a cosy night in, and us bears like to make our own entertainment as much as we can. When you are away from home, as we were in our Derbyshire cottage, there are often new activities to try out.

Before we could properly relax, we had to master the old fashioned range in the kitchen. It gave us a taste of what life was like before all the labour saving devices we now take for granted. There was a role for each of us. I, George, kept the grate supplied with wood; Dessie and Black Doggy checked the hob was hot enough for our kettle and that the soot box wasn't too full; Chelmer and Rocco prepared the iron; Ungi was in charge of toast making and Yorkie, we're not sure about - he appears to be supervising.


After tea Ungi revealed previously hidden talents as a pianist. He has a great repertoire and ran us through some classics, some songs from the shows and finally some rousing drinking songs - yes we did have the beer to go with it, but Wherry sadly wasn't one of the local brews. We were a fair distance from home though.


Lots of love George, Ungi and co xxx