Meet the Beach Boys

As we left the quaint harbour of Portbradden with its sweet little church, we commented to each other on how bear friendly the local council was. They had thoughtfully put their Causeway Coast path footpath sign at a height suitable for walkers with short legs. See what we mean? Yes, that is the ground just inches below us.


Unfortunately, just after this point the coast path was closed - they'd obviosuly had some bad winter storms. We were not ready to turn back though, as we had already had glimpses of what lay ahead and we were quite excited by it. We therefore, took to the road and followed it along to the next bay which had so captured our interest.

This was White Park Bay, and you'd have to have been there to appreciate its attraction to a pair of action bears. The wide sandy beach extends for a good mile and a half, and, what's more, it has some great surf. It looked quite big from the top of the cliffs, and as we descended to sea level, past the local Youth Hostel, it began to look seriously big. We were a bit dismayed to find signs warning us that it was dangerous to swim. However, we are trained lifeguards and strong swimmers, and we had promised ourselves a surf, so we were not to be deterred, especially as our minders said they would keep a safety watch.


And so, despite it being early February, we headed for the waves, and, take note we weren't even wearing wet suits. If that doesn't qualify us action bears, I don't what what does.

It was lovely having the beach all to ourselves. We bet it's a bit different in summer.

Lots of love, surfer bears George & Yorkie xxx

A Very Wee Church

As our coastal exploration continued there were more surprises in store for us.

The first was this rather incredible bear sized church, which was even better than the shrine to the tuna which we found in Greece last year.


This is St Gobban' Church, said to be Ireland's smallest church, located in the equally small fishing village of Portbradden. Sadly it is privately owned, but as we don't approve of 'private' churches, this didn't stop us getting a closer look, even if we did have to trespass a bit. Have you found us in the picture? Here's a close up for anyone who needs glasses and isn't wearing them.


We looked up the Greek word by the door when we got home, although we were fairly confident, having studied a bit of ancient Greek, that it meant 'welcome'. However, one of our minder's biblical Greek dictionaries said it meant 'sing' (which we would happily have done, had they provided a translation) while another suggested it meant 'world' or 'mankind'. We don't suppose there are too many Greek scholars will be reading a bear blog, but if there are, and they can clear up this confusion, do post us a comment.

After that cultural interlude we became adventure bears again. Keep reading to find out how.

Causeway Coast by Paw Power

After exploring inland on the day we walked the Moyles Way, we thought our next walk should be along the Causeway Coast. We had already seen, on the day we arrived, that the Antrim coast is very spectacular, but you miss a lot from the car, so we were looking forward to exploring the coast on paw.

We thought it might also be a bit drier underfoot than our boggy walk, but there we were wrong. The coast path was almost as boggy and a lot muddier!


Still, at least when we wanted a rest there were some nice dry rocks to sit on and admire the view. The reason we're not looking at the sea in our picture, is not because we were posing for the camera, but because we were transfixed by a rather spectacular waterfall coming into this rocky bay.

In our next picture you can see it in the distance (or at least get the impression of white water) from the other side of the bay.


Being a rocky coastline there were some great opportunities for us to be action bears and do a spot of rock climbing. While our minders paused to ransack their rucksack for some chocolate raisins we tackled a serious climb up a craggy sea cliff.


I'd like to point out that Yorkie was only ahead of me because I'd lingered to see if I would get offered some of the chocolate raisins - I did! - and they were worth being beaten to the top by Yorkie.

This was quite an exciting day out so we'll continue our adventures next time.

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx