Pottering in Portugal

Greeting readers, we hope you didn't think the blog had ended as it hasn't - hopefully that's good news for you. We've simply been incredibly busy having fun, travelling (of course) and running the Bears Unlimited business, so we decided to have a bit of a sabbatical from the blog.

Keep checking the site though as we'll try and write often enough to keep you interested and make it worth your while checking for new posts.

We've clearly got a bit of catching up to do, so where do we start? Perhaps the New Year would be a good place. While Blighty was wet and windy, albeit not that cold, we jetted off to the Algarve, arriving on 2nd January (we couldn't arrive any sooner as there was a race meeting at Fakenham on New Years Day which we couldn't possibly miss!)

As you can see from our first photo, you don't have to travel far to find sunshine and blue skies in early January.

The rocky Algarve coast with its cliffs and sandy beaches was a real joy and we were out and about exploring and researching material for the Friendly Planet guide, almost as soon as we arrived. In the evenings we swam in the covered pool at our apartments, watched DVDs from the library, played pool in the Holiday Property Bond clubhouse and tried one or two of the local wines. It was heavenly and a great way to banish the January blues.  

We were out and about every day, and made good use of our Cicerone walking guide. We were particularly fascinated by the cork trees which we encountered on several walks, as we'd never seen them before.

As you can see, only a section of cork gets harvested at a time and the harvesting is a very organised process. The number on the tree indicated the year of the last harvest (in our picture 2008) and 10 years will be left between harvests, to allow the cork to grow back even better than before. We shall always look at cork in a different light now.

Towards the end of the week we went over to the west coast and here there were some simply huge seas. Sorry, we had to use humans to provide some scale, but us travelling bears, are just too small in relation to swells of this size.

We'd like to say that we were out there surfing, but it would be a lie. Perhaps if we'd had action bear Chelmer, with us, he'd have been tempted, and might have encouraged us, but we decided our duty was to keep our minders company ... honest!

Cape St Vincent was definitely worth a visit. It's the most southwesterly point in Portugal and it has a big lighthouse ...

... and it's a great place to sit and watch the sun go down. As it was getting cold outside we sat on the dashboard of our Corsa hire car. We like Corsas as we have one at home.

We hope you've enjoyed our Portuguese highlights and will join us again sson.

Lots of love, George, Yorkie, Rocco, Rosa and Douglas xxx

Meerkovo to Suffolk

Greetings Norfolk and Midlands Branch.  My name is Sergei and I'm from Meerkovo, a small village just outside Moscow.  I was head of the principal design group of the Mir(kat) Space Program but heard that one of my new Minders needed some help keeping up with Bears Unlimited computermabob demands, especially when the servermabob goes down and it's all paws to the keyboard, so I headed for pastures new in Suffolk and have been settling in after my long journey.  I felt very at home when I 1st laid eyes on all the computermabobs at home and at my Minder's work and I look forward to meeting you all soon.  Simples!

Miri Moves On

Boating Bear Eddie here to report on a very important responsibility I, and able sea bear Louis, had today. We had to prepare our much loved Mirror dinghy Miri to go to her new owners and home on the Norfolk coast, not a million miles from our Bear Cave.

We hadn't used her for a number of years, as my minders had found her a bit small, and she'd been succeeded first by Tarka (who was, no prizes for guessing, an Otter dinghy) and then by Skylark, the Wayfarer we're currently using. We'd been looking after Miri, as she was safely stored in a garage, so warm and dry, but it wasn't really fair on her to keep her away from her natural watery environment for so long.

About a month ago we decided we should try and find her a new home, so we got her rigged and took lots of photos for an advert. I recommended that we put our advert on Apollo Duck as this is a great website for buyer and sellers of boats to meet.

Even though she is a very old boat, we all thought she looked great in the photos we took, and we hoped there would be at least one person wanting to give her the good home she deserved.

We were in luck; the same day the advert was published we had a call from someone who had a holiday home near Brancaster. He was learning to sail along with his two sons and felt that a Mirror would be the right boat for them. We couldn't agree more, and a deal was done.

Today was the appointed day for taking Miri over to join her new owners, as we'd got a towing hitch and they hadn't. I got up early to give Miri a final check and a pep talk, then directed the Bearmobile back to hitch up up.

It was a poignant moment when she came out the drive for the last time, but once we got to Brancaster and she met her new owners, who were very excited by her arrival, I felt a lot better and knew Miri was about to get a new lease of life and be kept very busy.

If you're a boat, being in the water is what it's all about, so we left her in Brancaster with a big smiles on our faces.

Lots of love, Eddie, Louis and all at Bears Unlimited xxx

Our Easter Weekend

We hope all our readers have had an excellent Easter break and haven't eaten all their Easter eggs yet.

Sorry we're a bit late with our Easter greetings, but we've been very busy bears, attending Easter services and also having a great time with our friends from the Suffolk and Midlands branches, who we've been delighted to have visit us this weekend.

We spent Good Friday in the Garden of Gethseme, which you see above, and other places on the road to Calvary including Pilate's Palace and the scene of the Crucifixion itself (not pleasant).

Happier times came on Saturday, when our visitors arrived and we enjoyed an outing in the Sheringham area and a fine meal together. It was also great to see the Suffolk Branch's wonderful photos of their adventurous trip to Peru - they're only just back and still getting over their jet lag.

Those of us with lots of stamina and owl-like tendencies, stayed up 'til midnight for the Easter fire and lighting of the Paschal candle which was quite thrilling.

We were at full strength on Easter morning proper (Sunday) for rousing Easter Sunday celebrations of the resurrection. We sang our hearts out and admired the wonderful floral tributes around the church ...

... every year one of the talented flower ladies does a massive floral decoration in the shape of a cross. It's always slightly different and we always look forward to seeing what is unveiled - we're never disappointed.

The great thing about Easter flowers is that the simple tributes are as interesting as the intricate ones.

We enjoyed sitting on the window sill with the garden tomb on our left and the 3 crosses on our right, with lilies and spring flowers in between.

In the afternoon we we went walking again, and enjoyed the grounds of Felbrigg Hall and some fresh sea air on Cromer pier.

In the evening it felt like it was Christmas again, as we tucked into turkey with all the trimmings - delicious. Lamb might be more traditional, but some local post Christmas turkey bargains were too good to pass by.

Today we've finished off the Easter break with one of our favourite things to do, a visit to the races at our local track, Fakenham racecourse. There was a huge turnout and lots of exciting action. We were excited to spy Dr Richard Newland, trainer of the Grand National winner, among the trainers. However, after the National winner, a winner at Fakenham eluded him yesterday and his horse did not run at all well. That's racing for you. As for us, we had 2 winners so went home happy, but we'd have enjoyed it anyway. It was just sad to wave goodbye to all our visitors, but hopefully we'll see them again soon.

Lots of love

All at bears Unlimited xxx

Final Thoughts

So how was the walk for us? Hopefully you'll have picked up from our posts, our enthusiasm for this great walk, which is one of the British classics. We had a real ball walking it and loved almost every minute - we say almost, as it wasn't all plain sailing.

Arriving at Robin Hoods Bay was a particular achievement for Wooly, who achieved his ambition of becoming the first sheep to walk the Coast to Coast walk. He'd already been crowned the first sheep to walk the Cumbria Way and we all wonder where his silver hooves and unquenchable ambition will take us next

There were 3 things which made our Coast to Coast pilgrimage quite special.

The first was the excellent route, and we have the incomparable Mr Alfred Wainwright to thank for this. It is interesting that the route is not actually a National Trail, probably because Wainwright always referred to it as 'a' Coast to Coast walk, not 'the' Coast to Coast walk. He was offering a suggestion, and all walkers are free to choose their own variation. We thought his route was so good, and kept us off the roads, so we stuck pretty faithfully to it, and were pleased we did.

As it is 'a' Coast to Coast walk, the way is not officially signposted, unlike National Trails which are. However, there are lots of way markings, some official, and others very informal. Our direction indicators ranged from the traditional wooden finger posts to these traffic cones which, if you look hard, do say Coast to Coast with arrows pointing the way ...

You had to keep your eyes open, as some direction indicators were quite small and subtle, such as this one, built into a stone wall ...

The second great ingredient of our trip was the fantastic Bed and Breakfast accommodation we  enjoyed. We've talked about many already, as they played such an important part in the journey, providing a warm and friendly welcome, comfortable beds and hearty cooked breakfasts.

We enjoyed the sheer variety of accommodation and this covered both the buildings and our hosts. It was so exciting to arrive a journey's end for each day and to discover what was in store for us. We were invariably pleased, and we even got to make some new friends ...

We'd didn't select the accommodation, and we were glad we hadn't as there was no way we could have done so well. The organisation we have to thank for booking us some great places to stay was the Coast to Coast Packhorse.

This brings us to the third, and most important ingredient of our trip, and this was our choice of the Coast to Coast Packhorse to arrange all elements of the trip for us. They booked our accommodation, arranged car parking, in their 2 minibuses they transported us out to the start and back to our car from the end, and each day they picked up our luggage and moved it on for us.

It was a friendly and efficient service and it ran like clockwork. We wouldn't choose anyone else and would recommend them to anyone considering the walk. As many of our Bed and Breakfast hosts told us, they are a 'country mile' ahead of the opposition.

Thanks Packhorse for looking after everything, allowing us to get on with the walking and having one of our best walking holidays ever.

We look forward to doing it all again one day, perhaps in another 18 years!

Lots of love

George, Yorkie, Gio and Wooly xxx

Journey's End: Robin Hoods Bay

While it would have been lovely to linger over, and savour, our final few miles, this wasn't actually an option as we had a deadline to keep. We were due to catch the Pack Horse minibus to take us back to our Bearmobile at Kirkby Stephen at 4.00 p.m.

As we had nearly 16 miles to do, we'd hoped to breakfast at 7.30 a.m., so as to be on our way at 8:00, but were told breakfast was at 8.00 and we didn't feel like arguing. However, our landlady assured us we would easily be in Robin Hoods Bay by 3.30 so we decided not to worry and to take the time needed to extract the last ounce of enjoyment from our last cooked breakfast.

We were still on our way by 08:30 and it was a good job we hadn't skimped on breakfast, as it was a long and steep road climb out of Grosmont - about 2 miles of 1:3 gradient, it was a good job we were now well honed walking machines.

After the road we had moor walking to Littlebeck, then it was into some attractive woods which included this very old hermitage (it's Gio perched on the poles to check it out) ...

... and also the impressive Falling Foss waterfall. We then alternated more road walking with more moor walking which included some very squishy sections. The sea came into sight and with it the realisation that we really were looking at the end.

We approached the sea via a caravan park and found ourselves on a delightful stretch of coast path. The views were wonderful and the sun was shining and the sky was blue. It could hardly have been more perfect and quite different to the windy and stormy weather as we set off along the coast from St Bees 2 weeks earlier.

We had made excellent time, reaching the coast at lunchtime. We therefore stopped on the coast path to enjoy a leisurely lunch and to admire the spectacular rock formations.

As it was such as lovely day and it was a Sunday afternoon, there were loads of people out enjoying the coast path. We were pretty certain though that most had only walked a mile to two and certainly not the 190 miles we had walked.

The saying that all good things come to an end is never truer than with the Coast to Coast walk. As the coast path ended we found ourselves strolling down a tarmac street with lots of other day trippers getting underfoot. It wasn't quite as exciting as the footpaths we'd covered, but it was still the C to C route until ... the beach was in front of us and the path had quite literally ended.

On one side there was the fairly modern map of the route, telling us we were at journey's end, on the other was a pub with the more classic end of the walk plaque which has been there quite a few years ...

... our female minder thinks she remembers it from her first walk completion around 18 years ago.

We had the traditional dipping of the boot in the sea and we sent a postcard or two, then there really was no reason to linger. The walk was over and our minibus transfer was waiting and ready to go whenever we were, so it was hello and goodbye to Robin Hoods Bay, giving credence to that old adage that it is better to journey than to arrive. The journey was what it was all about, and we had arrived.

We'll look back and reflect, next time.

Lots of love George, Yorkie, Gio and Wooly xxx

More Moor then No More Moor

As we left the Lion Inn, it began to really feel as if we were on the down hill stretch to to Robin Hoods Bay. There were only 2 days to go and neither was going to be particularly long or hard. We were determined to enjoy every last minute and so we did.

The first 3 miles weren't the best of the walk though, as they were, unusually for a National Park section, along a road. It wasn't that busy, but the cars were driving very fast, especially a group of hot hatches who were clearly racing.

It was a relief to get back on a moorland track and to enjoy the piece and quiet of the countryside. As our walking was along a very flat track it was a surprise to come across a trig point, a reminder that though flat, the moors are quite high.

As you can see it was another glorious day and we weren't the only ones enjoying the sunshine and heather. Our friend Mr Mole also thought it was a great day for a stroll and joined us for a section of the route. 

After the mole, we had the company of a horse and rider and then, all of a sudden, we came to a gate and the moors ended. We looked ahead to rather different scenery, but as you can see from our next picture, it was still very pleasant. 

From the edge of the moor it was downhill to the river at Glaisdale. As it wasn't quite lunchtime and we hadn't got far to go after Glaisdale, we took advantage of an outdoor table at a pub serving a rather fine pint of York Brewery's Guzzlar. 

Our next section of path took us through woods and beside the river Esk. At Egton Bridge we practised our pole vaulting again across another set of big stepping stones. 

Our destination for the afternoon was the railway village of Grosmont. We reached it via the old Barnards Toll Road. Wooly checked out the list of tolls to see if we owed anything. Horses and hearses got mentioned, but not sheep and bears, so we put our wallets away. 

As we came into Grosmont we discovered there was  steam gala on, and the station was just yards from our bed and Breakfast. Our landlady actually told us to keep our window shut to keep the smoke from the engines out. We had plenty of tine to go and see them on the platform though, but we preferred the engines we see at home at our local North Norfolk Railway. 

We ate at the Railway Tavern that night, and we were sad to think this was our last night on the Coast to Coast walk. 

Lots of love, George, Yorkie, Wooly and Gio xxx