1.2 Billion People ... and 3 Bears

We can talk more about caravanning any time, and we will, but we need to pause to bring you news of our latest big adventure.

Being a caravan owner has, in no way, diminished our sense of adventure and wanderlust; it just provides us with opportunities for more lovely holidays. As we stayed in Europe last year, this year we felt we were due a more exotic holiday, so off we went to one of our favourite countries ...

... the huge flag, which was flying in Connaught Place, will hopefully tell you that we've been to India. It was Gio's first trip, Yorkie's second and my third (George speaking). I'm beginning to feel quite a veteran. 

We flew into Delhi at breakfast time. We might have arrived early in the day but it was already very hot. Fortunately we had rooms ready for us in the lovely air conditioned oasis that the Florence Inn is. 

It didn't take us long to recover from our overnight flight and to want to go out and brave the 'feels like 44 degrees' heat to explore. We couldn't afford to waste any time as we were leaving Delhi the next day. 

You could be forgiven if you think we were in London, when you see our next photo ... 

... as it does look like I'm travelling on the underground. I was however, on the rather more modern Delhi metro which travels on stilts, overground, rather than underground. It was very easy to use, clean, cool, cheap and not too crowded. Perhaps the fact it was a Sunday helped. 

The most sensible thing to do would have been to stay on the metro all day, but being curious bears we surfaced at Connaught Place. This is where we saw the huge Indian flag flying. We knew it was big and have just found out it is 60 feet wide and 90 feet long, and it flies at the top of a 207 foot mast in Central Park. That's big! 

We strolled round Central Park, took in the Lutyen's architecture and marvelled at the fact that we were looking at the fourth most expensive office accommodation in the world. We preferred the official name of Rajiv Chowk as it sounds a lot more Indian. 

We gathered that Delhi doesn't get too many bear tourists as everyone wanted to talk to us and find out where we were from. It quickly became a bit much for us in the heat so we returned to our hotel for a bear nap and to prepare ourselves for the start of the holiday proper the next day. 

Lots of love, George, Yorkie and Gio xxx

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

Ribs Travels to God's Own Country

As we said last time, we're working backwards, so you had our most recent caravan adventure first. Our trip before that wasn't too long ago though, so it's still fresh in our memories.

We indulged Yorkshire bear/reindeer, Yorkie and Randolph, with a visit to that fine county of Yorkshire. While some of us were being patriotic in this choice, others were being more practical. We chose Yorkshire's east coast as we couldn't set off from Norfolk until well after lunch on the Sunday of our departure, so we needed a destination we could reach in a long afternoon's driving. Yorkshire was also somewhere we positively wanted to go to.

While it wasn't supposed to be that far, it wasn't that close either, so we didn't arrive until nearly 8.30 p.m. This was partly because we encountered some rather steep hills as we got closer to journey's end.  It didn't make for easy towing, but it made us happy, as we love upland scenery.

On arrival we instantly fell in love with Wild Slack Farm. It has a simply fabulous location, just outside Lealholm, on the edge of the North York Moors.

And, the icing on the cake is that farmer Martin, and his wife Andrea, are lovely, helpful people and gave a warm welcome. We couldn't believe our luck in choosing such a wonderful spot, and as it was a lovely mild evening, we set to, and got the awning up, before a very late supper. Many paws made light work.

The next morning we took in our surroundings properly and started plan our week.

Being on the edge of the moors, we knew we'd want to explore them on foot, but we also wanted to get to the coast, as Whitby and Robin Hoods Bay were not far away. We were also in the heart of horse racing country,  a fact that keen racing bears, Patrick and Curly wouldn't allow us to overlook! 

Look to the back right of our next photo and you'll see the farm buildings on the right, with the site to the left of them, and you'll appreciate what a quiet and relaxing spot we had found.  

And to cap it all there was a good pub just a mile away, which we could easily walk to.

Find out how we spent our week, next time and who we met.

Lots of love, all at Bears Unlimited xxx

Ribs Takes in the Midlands

Well how can we follow that one? Well done Suffolk Branch!

We'll follow it with something calm and relaxing; a report of a caravanning holiday. As we're just back from a very successful trip, we'll start with our most recent trip first and work backwards.

Our latest adventure started with our annual trip to the Greenbelt Arts Festival - not at Cheltenham race course this year, but at a new venue of Boughton House, just outside Kettering. We enjoyed the varied programme, although missed a decent headline act on MainStage, and we were surrounded by beautiful grounds and countryside. When it rained all day and night on Monday, we did discover the downside of the new venue; a lack of indoor facilities and permanent infrastructure.

When we left Kettering, we headed for Stratford on Avon to indulge our passion for horse racing. We'd discovered that there was jump racing at Worcester on the Wednesday and jump racing at Stratford on the Thursday. This was just perfect for us. We decided to base ourselves for a couple of days at Stratford, as rather conveniently there is a caravan site at the race course.

We got a great pitch right beside the course and we were right beside the first jump and hurdle which gave us some great spectator sport when the groundsmen came to get the jumps ready for racing. As you can see the sun was shining and the site was nice and quiet, so we were happy as Larry.

We hadn't been there long when a man came and roped us in, although we were left a car sized exit hole. This was because the disabled car park was being marked out and we were located right in the middle of it.

As Stratford is famous for it's waterways, we spent some of our time between race meetings, walking both the River Avon and the Stratford Canal. We'd been on both previously in a canal boat and recommend both as they are very attractive stretches of water.

When it came to Stratford race day itself, we had to move the Bearmobile and Ribs to the centre of the racecourse, so the disabled car park could be used.

We were the only caravan that moved, so we had the centre of the course to ourselves ....

... that was until a helicopter flew in and landed just the other side of the fence to us. We don't often get such a close up look at these amazing machines, so it was quite fascinating, if rather noisy.

We're used to Ribs turning quite a few heads and getting some admiring looks, as she's quite a characterful caravan, but this was a first ...

... as the horses went round the parade ring, they quickly spotted her with her roof sticking up like a periscope and there were quite few ears pricked up in interest. You can hardly blame them.

We think Ribs enjoyed her day at the races as much as us.

Lots of love, George, Yorkie, Patrick, Curly, Gio, Bris and Olaf xxxxxxx

Suffolk Branch ALS / Motor Neurone Disease Charity Ice Bucket Challenge

Suffolk Branch took advantage of a sunny day and now throw down the gauntlet to Norfolk and Midlands Branch members to get chilly for charity!  Admittedly we plastic members have a quick dry advantage so furries, you can wear your waterproofs!  Have fun!

https://www.justgiving.com/mndassoc/

Edit: for some reason the video doesn't show up on an iPad / iPhone, so click this link to view on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvKwa6LYrwg&feature=youtu.be

Nautical News

We'll be back with more caravanning news soon, but first a boating update.

Do you remember Miri, our Mirror dinghy moving on to her new home recently? Well we've had another departure since then; our Canadian canoe has also found a new home.

I gave her a good clean and a lot of t.l.c before she left. The nice thing is that we remain in touch with her new owners so I hear lots about her exciting new life, and all the fun she is having - it's very heartening.

You could be forgiven for thinking that, with 2 boat departures, we'd gone off boating. Far from it; it's our free time that we're short of, not enthusiasm for boats. We're also planning on being a bit more selective and lightweight. We've already bought an inflatable double kayak to take with us on holidays and we're hoping to buy a 'sit on' canoe soon.

Of course we also have our Wayfarer dinghy, Skylark, to keep us busy. We'd planned to take her out on Friday morning but when we got to Morston quay we found ...

... water absolutely everywhere - talk about a very high tide. In our picture you see what wold normally be car park covered with water and the usual jetties (by the posts) for getting to boats, especially seal trip boats, unreachable unless you were prepared to roll up your trousers and wade.

The big high tide wouldn't have stopped us going out, and it would have allowed a longer outing than usual. However the really strong wind, pushing the tide in, was the problem. To get out into Blakeney pit would have had to fight wind and tide.

I was game for an adventurous sail, but my crew were nervous and my golden rule is to put my crew first. We watched some other people trying to sail and it was good spectator sport. Each boat we watched hot into difficulties and had to give up and return before getting very far. We knew then that staying ashore had been the right decision.

We decided to take a walk along the coast path to Blakeney to see how it was faring with the high tide. As you can see, the usually fairly narrow creek was rather wide and more of a lake. The footpath along the quay was under water as was half of the road in front of the Blakeney Hotel. The poor old fun fair was suffering the worst though. It had located on the car park and the whole of the car park was covered in water. You can see the dodgems, not quite floating, but definitely not going anywhere.

Paws crossed for some calmer weather soon.

Lots of love, Eddie and all at Bears Unlimited xxx

The Freedom of the Road

Did you know that bears like to sing? If you pass below the window of our bear cave nowadays, the song you're most likely to hear us singing has a chorus that goes ...

Caravans, oh my soul is on the run
Overland, I am flying
Caravans moving out into the sun
Oh I don't know where I'm going
But I'm going.

We realise that this song probably dates just a little; it came out in 1980 and is Barabara Dicksons's Caravan song. But why are we singing it? It's because we're now caravanning bears and very happy to be so (sorry Jeremy Clarkson but we don't care what you think).

Our new found affection for caravans dates from the end of last year when a much loved family friend came to live with us. This was Ribby (Ribs for short) and Ribs is a fine specimen of a rather special and unique make of caravan, the Eriba.

Talk about Gallic charm, who could not fall for such fine looks and what an icon of the caravan world she is.

Ribs had been living with our female minder's minders for the last 18 years and given them many fantastic holidays. Our female minder recalls several happy holidays spent in Ribby during her student days before meeting our Dad.

Ribs came to live with us after Uncle G had a big birthday an decided he was a bit too old now for towing. He was sorry to see her leave, but is pleased she is staying in the family and he and Aunty G will still be able to use her, especially on holidays in Norfolk.

Their (partial) loss is very much our gain and having already had 2 great holidays, we are planning lots more. Although she is small, Ribs has a smart awning which almost doubles her size as you can see from our next picture.

This is great news for a household of bears the size of the Norfolk Branch, as it means we don't have to taken it in turns as much to go on holiday; lots of us can go at the same time, which simply isn't possible on suitcase holidays. 

We'll start telling you where we've been next time.

Lots of love, all at the Norfolk Branch xxx