Leech Attack!

There was one incident on our holiday that caused us bears particular amusement. We don’t have a laugh at our minders expense too often as they are very good to us, but there are occasions when it just can’t be helped.

The occasion in question was a ranger lead walk in the Periyar national park. We had to meet the ranger bright and early in the morning so as to have the best opportunity for animal sightings – we were particularly hoping to see a tiger. As it was the end of the monsoon season it was very damp and steamy in the park: ideal conditions for leeches. Our minders were therefore issued with some very peculiar leech socks, which completely covered them from knee to toe. They then put their shoes on which made them look really strange. We thought how lucky we were to have stuffing rather than blood and so be of no interest to leeches. We didn’t want to miss out on a photo opportunity though so we posed alongside a pair of leech socks.


We’d only taken a couple of steps and hadn’t even been rafted across the lake to the heart of the park before the leeches struck the humans. We found it fascinating watching them arching their way over our minders’ shoes looking for a way in through the laces.

It wasn’t long before we discovered the disadvantage of leech socks: they don’t cover the upper part of the body. Our female minder said she felt a tickling sensation on her stomach and when we had a look we discovered a leech had crawled up the inside of her shirt and firmly attached itself to her stomach. There was another two and a half hours of the walk to go which would have given the leech time to get very fat, so we thought we had better put a rescue plan into operation. We checked available resources and settled for a DEET (mosquito repellent) spray. This worked a treat, although we did feel a bit sorry for the leech! He soon let go and we were able to pull him off. Bears to the rescue yet again.

That was actually the most eventful part of the walk as there were few animal sighting – mainly just monkeys. When we got back to base our minders found the leech socks had worked a treat and their legs and ankles were leech free but their shoes were full of leeches. There were a tense few moments getting all the leeches out, but after we gave the ranger his tip he was very attentive and did a great job of clearing our shoes. Clearly all part of a day’s work if you’re a park ranger in India, but we’re not sure we fancy it.

Lots of love, George & Yorkie xxx

Tea for Two

Seeing how tea grows is of course only half the story and we saw little resemblance between the cuppa we enjoy several times a day and those healthy green bushes you saw us sitting in yesterday.

When we found a tea factory that was open to the public to visit we were therefore first in the queue to find out more about how tea leaves become tea. In fact as you will see from our picture we were there before the gates opened (yes you do have to look quite hard to see us but we are there).


We thought the Connemara tea factory sounded a bit Irish but it was definitely tea they were making not Guinness! It was a very noisy, dusty and hot process and we were a bit intrigued by all the fermentation going on - we didn't think tea had an alcoholic content!

Sadly there wasn't any tea sampling at the end of the visit but we did know a lot more about manufacturing tea than when we started.

Lots of love, George & Yorkie xxx

More Tea Vicar!

We think our bear radar might have detected a few readers asking, how come they've been all that time in India and not mentioned tea once?

Well the time has come to talk about tea. We like drinking tea almost as much as we like drinking Wherry (it all depends on the time of day) so we looked forward to visiting tea country on our trip. Our overwhelming impression was that tea bushes are very fortunate as they get to look out on some stunning views and spend their days soaking up the sun. Our cycle ride through tea country took us over the Western Ghats and boy did we want to store those fantastic mountain views in our minds to recall on cold, wet and dark days (like today). A second memorable thing about tea bushes was that we had never seen anything similar growing at home yet we've drunk Yorkshire tea on many occasions. Now, just where are those bushes growing in Yorkshire? We will have to look harder when we next visit.

The third memory we took away from our cycle through tea country was the chink chinking sound of the tea pickers' sheers providing a musical accompaniment as we pedalled along. The tea pickers, who all seemed to be friendly ladies, had some very innovative sheers. They had containers attached to them that the snipped tea leaves fell into so they didn't have to stop very often to collect what they had snipped.

We thought some of our readers might not have seen a tea bush growing so we thought we would take a picture of ourselves in a tea bush about to lend the ladies a hand with some tea leaf picking.


Love George & Yorkie xxx

Back Afloat Again

While it was great to try out some truly Indian forms of transport, a visit to Kerala is, more than anything else, about seeing the backwaters. As the backwaters stretch for about 1,000 km and there is so much to see on them - birds, animals, local industry and people simply living out their lives - you simply cannot spend too much time exploring and how better to explore the backwaters than by boat?

As we are boating bears, we were very happy to get back afloat. We didn't get to go on a traditional rice barge as none of our boat trips involved overnight stays which they are geared up for, but we were very happy with the boats we travelled on, especially when the masters of the vessels let us have a drive. We were pleased to find there aren't any speed limits like on the Norfolk Broads at home, but while we couldn't resist an occasional burst of speed (just to see what she could do) most of the time we drove like the responsible bears so as to get the best sightings of kingfishers and fish eagles.


The boat in today's photo had very thoughtfully provided safety straps to stop bears unwittingly slipping overboard. We thought this was a very nice touch.

Lots of love, George & Yorkie xxx

Travelling in Classic Style

When, earlier this year, our minders told us they were going to take us to India we started imagining what it would be like and doing some internet research to find out what to expect.

As we like to think we share personality characteristics with James Bond (I'm sure you can spot them) and the Top Gear presenters (we're sure we'll be invited on the show any day) we always pay particular attention to the car chase sequences in James Bond films.

After watching the James Bond film Octopussy, we fell in love with the Hindustani Ambassador and since then it has been our ambition to ride in one. We thought the chance might just come our way on our India trip so did a Google search on 'Hindustani Ambassador'. We just adore one of the quotes we found in someone's blog - the author was talking about a ride in an Ambassador.

''It is like traversing a crazy golf course on your granny's sofa, with added obstructions coming from flitting auto-rickshaws, wobbly, cycling Sikhs and toiling bullock carts''.

After reading this we made a pact that we wouldn't leave India without riding in an Ambassador. We hadn't bargained for there being so many around - they were everywhere and every single one was white. How we longed to take a can of spray paint to one of them to make it different! Was the ride worth waiting for? Yes it was. These are just such cool cars that we have yet another business venture to research for Bears Unlimited.

Love George & Yorkie xxxxx

On yer bike!

While our tuk-tuk driving was great fun we were keen to try some other authentic forms of Indian transport to maximise our travelling experiences. Also we weren't sure our nerves could stand too much more tuk-tuk driving for a while.

We had noticed that not many people owned cars but lots had small motorbikes. To blend in with the locals which we were keen to do, to experience the real India we thought we would try a day on a motorbike.

What we found wouldn't have done our image much good at home but it was perfect for India where practical considerations win over style. Had we had the bike for longer we would have liked to paint it a more vibrant colour but we compensated by putting on some bright clothes when we were ready to go. We also put on our cycle helmets as we weren't too sure about the Indian practice of riding without a helmet.

The bit we really liked about the motorbike was that we were able to go fast enough to keep us cool, this counts for a lot in a country as hot and humid as southern India.

Love George & Yorkie xxx

"Driving in my Tuk -Tuk"

One thing you should know about us members of Bears Unlimited is that we always keep our promises. We have therefore, not forgotten that, a while ago, we promised to report on our tuk-tuk driving lesson. If you've been waiting for this report your patience will now be rewarded.

As we've told you, our tour leader, Andrew, was very kindly disposed to bears. He appreciated that we couldn't do quite as much cycling as the rest of the group in view of our rather short legs, so arranged a number of alternative forms of transport for us to complement our cycling.

We simply loved our tuk-tuk driving lesson - really we should call it an auto rickshaw as that's what they're called in India, but we prefer to call them tuk-tuks. We simply cannot understand why they are not all the rage at home as they are such fun, and we are seriously considering importing them as a new Bears Unlimited business venture.

Most of the tuk-tuks in the area were black and gold in colour but we got to drive in a special blue one, complete with L plates. We got our vehicle started fairly easily and checked the horn was working, as our instructor told us that the most important tip he could give us was to use the horn at every opportunity as most drivers don't obey any rules of the road. As we took to the streets this became quite apparent and we began to wonder why every driver in India doesn't have L plates as most don't appear to have had any lessons!

Mastering the tuk-tuk controls didn't take us very long and once we had established that the best way to get anywhere was to drive like a maniac so we would fit in with the traffic flows, we were well away and left our cycling minders far behind. In fact we had finished a bottle of Kingfisher in a local restaurant before they caught up!



Lots of love, George & Yorkie xxx (beep beep!)