A Life of Brian

After a last scenic visit to the toilet tents, we were on our way again, for what turned out to be the best day's walking of the trek.

First we were heading for the high point of Phalut, which is a small settlement on the Singalila ridge and marks the point from which we would start our descent to lower altitudes (good news for those suffering altitude headaches).

The path to Phalut started off as a lovely ridge walk, with a steep 1 km ascent at the end. Rather confusingly Gio is not looking in the direction of the trail; had he turned his back to the camera (which he thought would be rude) he would have be pointing in the right direction. Our path was basically along the left hand edge of the picture, then to a white blob on the right hand side of the distant mound, this being Phalut. Although Phalut appeared on kilometre marker stones, giving the impression of being almost a town, it was only about 2 houses in size which is why it doesn't show up in the picture.

We were first to the top, and while we relaxed waiting for the rest of the party to arrive, we looked back along the trail - and spotted our male minder half way up - look carefully and you should see a stick figure standing in a grassy area just to the left of the path - that's him!

We also took some time to get better acquainted with Ratoo who was ambulance horse for the duration of the trek. He mostly carried one of the party who was not at all well, but, for a short while he had a different passenger following a fall resulting in a banged knee.

We felt a bit sorry for Ratoo as he had to travel with the trekking party which meant he got separated from his fellow ponies in the baggage train and had a longer working day. As he lacked equine company we thought bear company might be the next best thing.

Talking of company, we had some great company of our own when we got introduced to Brian the Lion from Wales. We'd heard rumours that there was a fellow cuddly on the trip, but as we hadn't met him, he was either very quiet and shy or, he didn't exist.

We were very pleased to find a) that he did exist and b) that he was a most friendly and charming seasoned traveller. In no time at all we were getting on like a house on fire and we found we had lots in common. We were introduced at the lunch break and we had so much to talk about we were in danger of not doing the delicious lunch dishes justice. Fortunately Yorkie realised we were neglecting lunch in time, and rounded up some dishes before going into scary piranha mode.

We hope this wasn't going to put Brian off us. 

Lots of love, George, Gio and Yorkie xxx

Well Sited Toilet Tents

Oh dear, shame on us, no post for over a month, that's really bad ... but we have been off travelling again! News in a while.

Back in India ... there was no further rain overnight and thanks to our early night it was no hardship to get up at 5.00 a.m. for the wonderful mountain views.

Gio was rather taken with the sight of the first rays of the sun lighting up Kanchenjunga. You can see why the range is described as the sleeping Buddha, although sorry, we slightly chopped off the top of his head to the extreme left, an easy mistake given that we were still half asleep (well Yorkie and I were - Gio as usual was as bright as a button).

The walking that day was rather special. As we had left the jeep track behind, it was all off road walking, either across lovely green pastures - such as this one, where our rule train overtook us -

or dirt tracks which were easy to walk on.

As it was a shortish walking day, it wasn't worth having lunch on the way, but as it was going to be a late lunch by the time we'd reached camp, we had a soup stop en route. It was lovely hot soup with a choice of flavours and lovely japattis to go with it. We didn't really need our lunch proper after that!

We had free time at the camp after lunch so we went for a bit of an explore which was good to do as we were at a place where several paths converged and we could only leave on one the next day. The afternoon started off fine and sunny with blue skies, as you can see from our next picture ... Gio was pleased to find another collection of prayer flags on poles ...

... but the sunshine didn't last and quite early in the afternoon it got very cold and windy and a lot of mist rolled in. For the second day running we snuggled up in our tents to keep warm. The visibility got so bad that you almost needed a compass to find your tent again after venturing out for a visit to the dining tent or the toilet tents, and it was quite funny when one lady went into the wrong tent and gave it's occupant a bit of a fright.

The next morning the wind had gone and the mist had cleared. The sun was out again and the sky was blue. What's more, there was a treat in store going to the toilet tents - they were toilet tents with a great mountain view.

Lots of love Gio, George and Yorkie xxx

Flowers and a Flood

And now back to India, where we'd just reported on camp wars with the hooray Henries.

Now the good thing about being on a no frills tour was that we could get off a lot quicker in the morning: after all we had no showering and shaving to do and no cafetieres of coffee to linger over, (although we always had a perfectly fine breakfast). Probably the most important thing was that we had no hangovers to nurse!

We left camp feeling bright and chipper, unlike the hoorays, and looking forward to the day's walk. It was only to be a short walk as we were climbing up to the highest point on the trek and we needed to acclimatise.

It was nice to have the time to linger to look at the flowers ...

... talk to the locals ...

... and take lots of time to admire the views ...

As we climbed, we found ourselves occasionally above the clouds; it was a very long way down. The walking was very much Gio style i.e. plod, plod, plod which is the perfect way to walk. Part way through the morning we were overtaken by the hoorays, charging along at top speed and making quite a racket. We completely disapproved - what was the point of their trek!

The high point of Sandakhphu at 3,636 m was reached before lunchtime. There was very little there apart from a few tea houses. We borrowed one to brew a cup of tea. Sandakhpu is at the end of the jeep track, so it where most Indian tourists finish their trip, as they're not walking. Things were about to get a lot quieter.

As we left the settlement we were now on a walking path rather than a driving path (not that we'd have driven the driving path!) We walked for another 30 minutes or so then got to our campsite. As it was a wild camp we had it all to ourselves. The tents were up and waiting for us, so we grabbed one in the front row, dumped our gear then went to the dining tent for lunch.

While we were having lunch it rained hard. In fact it rained all afternoon, so we were all holed up in our tents, snuggled in our sleeping bags. We emerged from time to time for a quick sprint over to the dining tent for such delights as tea and the most delicious pakoras. The tent entrances got quite flooded and we had a damp floor. Our spirits remained high though and we enjoyed reading our booksand watching t.v. programmes on our iPads. 

We were early to bed in view of the weather and so as to to be ready for the call to 'mountain view' at 5.00 a.m. the next morning. We'd been promised a good one. 

Lots of love, George, Yorkie and Gio xxx

A Pig in Clover

We were very proud of our friend Pigs, the Piggybank, when he took a starring role in the final nativity tableau at our local church yesterday.

Pigs was there to represent the gold, given as a gift to the Baby Jesus by the Wise Men. Now, you need to know that Pigs is almost full of lovely shiny £1 and £2 coins which he looks after for us and  pays out to us (in modest quantities) when we go racing and need some coins for betting.

During the service Pigs was brought up and added to the crib scene along with the frankincense and myrrh. Can you see him at the front of our picture, looking a real natural?

Santa Bear climbed onto the roof of the stable for a real good look at this timeless scene and to be reminded of where the tradition of giving presents, that he works so hard to support, originates.

Having completed his present delivery work until next year, Santa Bear took some time off to relax with Mary and Joseph, practise his donkey riding and to marvel at how big the Baby Jesus had grown in just over a week.

 
We won't see much of Mary and Joseph now until next Christmas, but we know they won't be resting on their laurels, as they'll be very busy and attentive parents.

Lots of love

All at Beard Unlimited xxx

Happy New Year

Sorry, it was a bit re-miss of us not to wish all our loyal readers a Happy Christmas -  we did actually wish you one in spirit, if not in writing - so we'd like to be amongst the first to wish you a Happy, healthy and successful New Year.

As always we had a lovely Christmas and hope yours was equally good.

A few days before the big day, we were fortunate to play host to Mary, Joseph and the donkey who were travelling round various homes in our village, seeking a meal and a bed for the night as they journeyed to Bethlehem. We thought it might be nice to take them out for a meal, especially as we had other guests staying with us, in the form of Clanger and Eeyore.

And so, we took them to the Thai restaurant at Fakenham, once we learned that they'd never tried Thai food. Needless to say, a good time was had by all and the Thai curries proved a hit. 

Going racing over the Christmas period definitely makes the festive period go with a swing for us, and we managed to get our racing fix in, with a Boxing Day visit to Towcester.  

Santa Bear is our newest convert to racing and was thrilled to see horses entering into the festive spirit, with Santa hats (look hard) and saddle tinsel on others.

Another Christmas period essential is a good walk and we were blessed with some good walking weather over the Christmas break. We took the oldest member of Bears Unlimited, Squirrel Nutkin, with us and he had a great time, even admitting to preferring our sandwiches to nuts.

We're pleased to report that Curly didn't actually fall in the canal, even though it looks like he's losing his balance.

And now it's New Years Eve. We're having a relaxing evening at home by the fire, with plenty of home brew and no doubt a bottle of fizz.  We've been joined once again by Mary, Joseph and the donkey, who now have the Baby Jesus with them ...

... clearly that hot curry played a part in ensuring the baby arrived in time!

A Happy New Year to you all.

Lots of love

All at Bears Unlimited xxx

Camp Wars

So, when we left you last time, we were just about to arrive at our campsite, not far from that lovely lake adorned with prayer flags. We passed a friendly yak on the way ...

We couldn't see the lake from our tents but it was a lovely spot nonetheless. The official camping ground was the far side of the dirt track in the middle of our first picture ...

.... but we were't there. Yes, you can see tents, but they weren't ours. We had been beaten to the camping ground by another trekking group and while there could have been room for us all, if they had pitched their camp sensibly, and thoughtfully, they didn't, and placed their dining tent in the middle of our half, effectively shutting our group out.

Our crew decided that these were people we didn't want to squish in with, so set up our camp on the grazing slopes the other side of the track. It was fine, and mini terraces meant we weren't going to slide down the hill during the night. The only downside was that we did have to navigate round a fair bit of animal spoor every time we stepped outside the tent.

Our picture was taken from the entrance to our tent, so we had pole position for getting to the dining tent in front of us, but the furthest walk to the toilet tents.

We did some great people watching from our tent entrance, and we're referring to observing the antics of the other trekking group. It was clearly luxury trekking for the rich and pampered. We watched cafetieres of coffee being taken round the tents, with aperitifs served from a silver salver a bit later. They also had shower tents with mirrors set up on easels outside and when they sat down to dine (we've no idea what delicacies they were served) they had directors chairs rather than camp stools.

We had none of this, but we weren't jealous as we had absolutely everything we needed and we were being extremely well looked after. We were also having a far more authentic camping experience; after all we were away from it all in the mountains, not staying in town in a posh hotel.

What's more, first impressions of the members of the group weren't good; they were very loud and to put it simply, a bunch of hoorays. We were especially unimpressed when they played loud music after 10.00 p.m. when we were trying to sleep. Believe us 10.00 p.m. is very late on a holiday like this and even the military post alongside us had switched off their generators and turned out their lights.

But we had the last laugh ... during the night our crew opened the gate to the camping ground and sent our ponies in to cause a bit of disruption, and they did this not once, but twice.

Serves them right we say.

Lots of love, George, Yorkie and Gio xxx

Weather Extremes

Remember our last post and how sunny it was and how blue the sky? Well it lasted a bit longer - and much of that period we were relaxing in a lodge enjoying tea and biscuits while our passports and permits were checked at a military checkpoint, then we had a cloudburst. Just before the heavens opened, we took this picture ...

... which showed the path we'd come down into the valley bottom (where the checkpoint was) only to climb up and out the other side. You can see the cloud coming in that brought the rain. We shouldn't have been ill prepared, but we were. It wasn't a problem for us, with our all weather fur, but our minders were soaked before they'd got full waterproofs on.

Fortunately, within a mile, we'd reached our lunch stop and it was an indoor one. Our group, plus another trekking party, crammed into a small tea house. We were all rather cold from our wet clothes but fortunately hot soup, chapattis and vegetable dishes were served to help warm us up.

It took about 2 hours for the rain to stop. It had got to the stage where we were going to have to leave anyway, when the skies brightened and the rain eased off. We had about an hour and a half's walk to our camp and it was a lovely walk. About 30 minutes from the camp we were met by one of the cook boys who had come to meet us with a big kettle of hot orange juice.

Just 5 minutes from our camp was this beautiful lake with prayer flags and a small stupa. This was Kala Pokhari, literally black lake. It was simply beautiful in the afternoon sun. We admired it from all sides. Gio's picture shows the black lake aspect, while we looked back alone the path we'd come and it looked very different.   

While this was a tranquil spot we had campsite wars ahead of us. Find out more next time.

Lots of love, George, Yorkie and Gio xxx