Meet Our Friend Piggy

The great thing about Wild Slack Farm is that is a working farm as well as being a caravan and camping site. We thoroughly approved of this and wasted no time in making new friends. 

It took just a few steps to encounter the farm residents. Both the ducks and chickens had fairly young offspring with them and they were predictably cute ...

... but the real star of the show and our definite favourite, was Piggy, who you meet below ...

Who wouldn't fall in love with such a gorgeous pig? and she wasn't just gorgeous, she had a lovely friendly temperament as well. There was a sign in the toilet block encouraging us to feed Piggy our food leftovers, including fruit, veg and cake, and the fact that we frequently appeared with food offerings, quickly established a strong rapport between us and our porcine friend. Wherever she was in the field, as soon as we appeared, she would come running over to see us. As a result she got rather more than leftovers (we just couldn't let her down!) She enjoyed a taste of Aunty G's fruit cake and we even went carrot shopping for her. 

Towards the end of the week, Farmer Martin, told us Piggy was going to be joined, out in the field, by her sister and mother. We viewed this imminent event with rose tinted spectacles and thought it would be lovely for Piggy to have company of her own kind. 

However, on returning to the site that afternoon, we found Mum, and sister, but no Piggy. At first we thought she might have gone off to make b****n and we were quite worried for her. When we met Farmer Martin, he told us a sad tale. Piggy had been attacked by her relatives and he'd had to move her indoors for her safety.  

He told us where to find Piggy, so we went straight to visit with some treats (it's a radish in our picture). It was sad to see Piggy behind bars, after being used to seeing her outdoors, but at least the front barrier was low, and her barn was open to the elements so she could see out. She did seem rather dispirited though, and it was far from the happy re-union we had hoped for.

It's certainly true what they say, that nature is red in tooth and claw. We just can't understand why everyone can't live in harmony, just like us bears.

Lots of love, Chelmer and the B.U. caravanning gang xxx

Tips for Keeping Warm

Sorry we've been quiet of late, but now that the holiday season is under way, I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear that we were off on another adventure last week. We'll just finish our Yorkshire posts then will tell you all about it.

When we left you, we had just had an exhilarating time descending Catrigg Force, but we had got rather cold and wet. We hoped to follow this experience with a rather drier event.

Fortunately we got it. While Chelmer and Curly demonstrated their snow and ice climbing skills ...


... which they did very ably (who needs ice axes and crampons when you've got a bear's leathery paws!) those of us waiting for our turn, found a sheltered spot in which to wait. It was under a snowy overhang, so completely our of the wind - of course, we had checked for unstable cornices first.


However, when we came to find out 'what's in our lunchbox' we did find the ultimate way to keep warm while out and about in the cold. Our lunchbox contained a large flask of home made soup - piping hot and delicious. It warmed the cockles of our hearts and more besides.


After that soup, we were ready for anything.

Lots of love, the B.U. course participants xxx

Who Dares Wins

Within Bears Unlimited, the girls are very much part of the gang, and Rosa set out to prove this, by putting up a stirling performance as she stormed through the course exercises.


Her favourite exercise was the snow hole building and she said it was very cosy in her snow hole with Rocco. There wasn't room for Chelmer when he enquired, but that was a strategic move on Rosa's part, to force him to make his own, and so reinforce the skills he learnt last year - after all practice makes perfect.

A new challenge for this year was absailing down a waterfall - and it was no ordinary waterfall, it was Catrigg Force, swollen by a lot of winter rain.


What an exhilarating descent that was. Fortunately we'd all spent a lot of time watching one of our heroes, Bear Grylls, doing similar on television, so we knew exactly how to do it safely. Sorry you can't see action bears in the picture, but when each of us took our turn to spectate, we had to keep well back for health and safety reasons.

It was a very wet day when we did the waterfall challenge, but at least being wet to start, we didn't worry about getting wet from the spray.

Lots of love, the B.U. instructors & trainees xxx

Spot the Difference

Do you remember our very successful course, survival skills for small bears, from last year? It was run for us by instructors Ungi & Jimmy, and took place in Yorkshire in February, although, due to a busy year, wasn't reported on until the end of March.

When February came round again, for the second time, we had the offer of the loan of the lovely cottage that we used as a base last year. We leapt at the chance of going back. For some of us it would provide an opportunity for refresher training, and for others, such as Rosa, who wasn't with us last year, it would provide some vital skills for life training.

We'll start with a flash back to last year and how it was then ...


If you can't remember, you can see from our photo that we were blessed with sunshine and blue skies. We were very lucky, as we also had the snow and ice, which we needed for authentic survival training.

This year it was a little different. We still had the snow - not quite as much as last year - but, not only was it white on the ground, it was white in the sky, as it was quite foggy.

You'll see what we mean when you see our next photo, where we tried, as far as our memories allowed, to re-create last year's shot. This is why we've entitled our post 'spot the difference'.


Our survival training was therefore less of an exercise than last year, and more for real, especially when it came for navigating. We still had great fun though, and relished, even more than last year, returning to that lovely woodburner in the cottage.

More to come.

Lots of love Chelmer, Curly and the small bear posse xxx

Unmasked!

Our escapades at Malham marked the end of our course. We'd already thought it was a rather good course, but we were even more of this opinion when our instructors told us we were going to celebrate the end of the course with a curry and a few beers in Settle - and also that we had all passed.

We all let our fur down at the beer and curry night and both students and instructors mixed really well. Even though they'd worked us hard, we thought the instructors were a great pair. When you look at our next picture, you may recognise 2 individuals, and understand our feelings ...


Yes, the two fine Bears Unlimited members - Ungi and Jimmy - that you see relaxing by the woodburner were our instructors. The course was an in-house event organised by our bigger and stronger B.U. friends and colleagues, who are always looking out for the interests of us vertically challenged bears. They wanted to show us that size and strength are not everything, and that brains and technique have a vital role to play when dealing with emergency situations.

It's a lesson we will remember, and our confidence in our abilities has been given a real boost, so thanks chaps.

Love the B.U. small bears xxx

Skating On Thin Ice

From the top of Malham Cove we were supposed to do a yomp through the snow, all the way to Malham Tarn. It wasn't quite at yomp speed though, as we kept encountering snow drifts which were deeper than we were tall. It was all quite energy sapping and we needed our emergency rations of Kendal Mint Cake to keep us going.

Once we got to the Tarn, we found it frozen over.


The instructors produced a pair of ice skates for each course participant. As we all love ice skating, we thought we were all about to have an afternoon off and lots of fun. To a certain extent we were, but there was still an important lesson to be learnt. Before we took to the ice, we all had a safety line attached to us and we soon had good reason to be very grateful for them.

As more and more of us launched ourselves onto the ice, there was an ominous cracking noise, followed by a splash as George fell into the water. We didn't have time to take a picture as the instructors took us straight into rescue mode and showed us how to safely achieve a rescue from icy water and how to deal with the casualty. It was very good training as George can testify as he suffered no ill effects and said that the brandy was very good.

Lots of love, the Bears Unlimited students xxx

No Ropes!

After our day off, it was straight back to work and the biggest challenge of the course so far. We wondered why our instructors had such smug smiles on their faces as we set off, but when we saw what lay at the end of our drive, we understood why.


In fact, when we saw the bulk of Malham Cove looming ahead of us, all of us bar Noel and Rocco went and hid as the prospect of climbing Malham Cove in snow and ice was just too scary.

Our instructors cruelly kept us believing we'd got to climb Malham Cove until right at the last moment. Rocco and Noel told the rest of us later that they had worked out that our challenge had to be different, as they'd spotted that there were no climbing ropes amongst all the gear.

What we were asked to do was to climb, both up and down, the steps at the side of the cove. This might sound quite straightforward, but actually it wasn't. As Malham Cove is such a tourist trap, even in winter, so many people had been up and down the steps that the snow on the steps, awkward at the best of times, had become so compressed that it had become solid ice. It was potentially lethal.

Our instructors gave us some useful tips for retaining a sure footing and keeping our balance, even so we made good use of 4 paws rather than 2! As a reward we were allowed to do the same climb using crampons. What a difference that made!

Lots of love, the Bears Unlimited students xxx

Free Advertising

Some of the snow drifts made fantastic and very comfortable cushions, so when our instructors backs were turned, we took advantage and had a rest.


If you take a close look you might see something familiar - Yorkie's legs and bottom waving in the air! He assured us that this time it wasn't in order to get a drink, it was because he has so little padding on his bottom, that he had got a frozen behind and he was trying to keep it off the cold snow!

We all had a laugh at the bottom prints we had made in the snow and looking at them gave us a great idea.


We could write in the snow with our trekking poles and do a useful bit of advertising for our blog spot, by etching in our www address. We realise you probably can't read it, but we wrote in big letters and left a big paw print as a signature, in the hope that any other walkers out that day would see what we had written and be tempted to look us up - and hopefully become blog friends for life.

Lots of love

George, Yorkie & Co xxx

The Alternative Bear Cave

We were very lucky bears as the bright and sunny weather continued throughout the week of our course. It was very cold though (which stopped the snow melting) and there was a biting wind. We could therefore appreciate the need to be able to seek shelter, and paid special attention to the lesson on building a snow cave.


You wouldn't believe how cosy it was in our snow cave especially for Curly who had taken up a strategic position at the back. And it had hardly taken any time to build. We just regretted the fact that we hadn't brought a stove and kettle with us, as it would have been great to have a brew up in our snow cave.

Our instructors had other ideas though, and had more practicals in store for us. Yorkie had to resort to drastic measures to get the drink he was so keen to have (the extra effort working in the snow requires, does make you very thirsty, very quickly).


As you can see, he took a dive into the snow in order to fill his mouth and cheeks with plenty of snow, hoping it would melt quickly and slake his thirst. The rest of us thought that perhaps he should have a new nickname of Ostrich, as an alternative to his usual one of 'piranha', but on second thoughts, perhaps not, as there is already an ostrich in the family - she knows who she is!

Lots of love George & friends xxx

It's Seriously Deep

We didn't have to walk too far before we had the snowy countryside all to ourselves, and we could stop looking over our shoulders to see if hungry lambs were approaching and concentrate on our survival skills.

We found that navigating in the snow was quite hard as the path would be covered by snow and quite often we were the first to set paw in the lovely blanket of virgin snow, so there were no footprints to follow.


Here we see George using a bear's intuition for the right path. He could tell us, without resorting to compass or GPS, that we were on the right path, as he had cleverly worked out that where a gate is, the path must be!

Mind you, we soon found that gates are not always a blessing, especially when they attract some deep snow drifts.


This snow wall was many times bigger than us and required us to beg bootlaces from a minder's boot, to use as climbing ropes to get ourselves up.

Lots of love, the B.U. students xxx

We're Not Sure About the Natives

So did the eagle eyed among our readers spot the bottle of red wine warming in front of the log burner? It proved a great aid to evening relaxation and we had worked hard during the day to earn it!

So what else happened on our course? We had some interesting tips on how to defend ourselves from a fierce sheep. You might think this sounds a bit strange but we have the evidence to show it was necessary ...


We were practising our kung fu style defensive kicks on quite a steep and icy road, so we had to take care that we were sure pawed, otherwise we might have slipped all the way back down the hill to the village we'd set out from. Mind you, provided we slid faster than the pursuing lamb could run, we would have been o.k.

The same day we had evidence of more strange strains of well known animals in Yorkshire. We were quite taken aback by this sign ...


We felt rather sorry for the local dogs who are not allowed the right to roam on territory dedicated to them. We were beginning to understand the phrase we'd heard a few times, that 'it's tough up north'.

Lots of love, George, Yorkie & Co xxx

Honing Our Survival Skills

After recently blogging about the arrival of spring, with a perverse kind of bearish logic, we now want to wind things back and take you back to last month's wintry snap, when a number of us went on a winter survival skills for small bears course in Yorkshire, and had lots of fun in the snow.


As you can see we timed our course quite well and arrived when there was plenty of snow. It was just as well as the course could have required lots of imagination without the snow. We were lucky though, as not only did we have lots of snow, we had sunshine to go with it. The only problem was that the combination of blue sky and snow, made all the countryside look so stunning that it was tempting just to sit and stare, rather than get on with the business of survival.

We were also very lucky in that we had some wonderful accommodation for our off duty time. The log burner was a special treat as it did get very cold at night.


Learning to light the log burner and keep it burning efficiently, was one of our course lessons. It was good to be able to practise indoors, rather than outside.

More to come

Lots of love, small bears at Bears Unlimited xxx