Bears Unlimited

Up and Away Again

2009-11-11T22:32:00.004Z

We've been busy bears since our early return from Spain. Infact, we've hardly spent any time at all at home. We've had a lovely time visiting friends and family all over the country and enjoying some wonderful hospitality.

You know us though, it doesn't take us long to get itchy paws and we thought about how best we could use our minders' remaining sabbatical time for a new adventure and a new chapter for the Friendly Planet Guide. We made our decision and then realised that, although the bearports were still valid, one of them expired less than 6 months after the return from our planned holiday. It therefore needed renewing and quickly.

We therefore wasted no time in leaping into one of the bearmobiles and heading for the Passport Office at Peterborough. We found it in plenty of time for our appointment slot.

Thanks to the helpfulness and efficiency of the very nice staff, we were sorted in no time at all and free to look round the city of Peterborough.

We headed for the Cathedral and were very pleased to find that it wasn't locked a la Spanish style and even wanted people to come and visit. This was a notice we approved of.

We returned home to get on with trip preparations and packing.

In fact since starting to write this blog at Gatwick airport we have travelled a few thousand miles and are now at our trip destination. All we will say for now is that we are having fun getting wet in the sun.

More will be revealed soon (but perhaps not too soon with internet rates of 6 pounds stirling an hour - we're sure you'll understand).

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

The Not So Good Bits

2009-11-11T21:54:00.007Z

We don't want to dwell on the lowlights of walking the Camino too much, but there are just a few we want to get off our chest and we are sure we will feel much better for it.

1. Our biggest bugbear, locked churches. Spain was much more of a culprit than France. It really made us growl to find, time after time, locked churches, bang on one of the world's most famous pilgrimage routes. They were even locked on Sunday.

Here was all too familiar example.

And then, on the rare occasions we did get in, we found the amount of gold and ornate decoration quite off-putting ...

... or we'd sit through a service conducted entirely in Spanish, or French, with the only words spoken in English, being a warning that non Catholics were not welcome at the Communion table ... more growls.

2. Plastic Pilgrims. Our hackles really rose when we encountered able bodied 'pilgrims' not bothering to put the effort into walking, but taking regular short cuts by bus, while pretending to be walkers. It's a good job we don't know names, but the 2 hot water bottle girls will know who they are (not that they're likely to ever read this blog). It was also disappointing to find the Le Puy route in France so busy, especially with groups of daysack walkers with full vehicle support. This put pressure on the accommodation so that it was necessary to book ahead. We didn't want to have to do this, not only because of the language difficulties, but also because we wanted the freedom to take each day as it came and stop when we were ready, rather than at a place determined in advance.

3. There were some stretches in Spain that needed a bit more scenery and something to look at other than a bit of soil. We were also not too keen on the 'sendas' (paths running alongside main roads) such as this one ...

... as we much preferred to get further away from the traffic.

4. Ipods going to sleep and not waking up. We were quite reliant on our Ipods for blogging, music, games and electronic books, so it was a real disappointment to see a screen looking like this ...

... not once, but twice, once on each Ipod. As the only solution was to reconnect to the parent computer several hundred miles away, it was very frustrating, although it was good to be able to call on the hammer treatment from Fred of the Suffolk Branch.

Thankfully, we have now loaded the software fix so hopefully, when we return to Spain to finish the walk, this problem should not occur.

And finally ... there was the rather big lowlight of not being able to finish to walk this year due to our minder's stress fracture. This was a whimper, rather than a growl, as it wasn't his fault. On the positive side it means we can all look forward to some more Camino walking before too long.

Lots of love, the Camino Bears xxx

Reflections on St James and ... Caterpillars

2009-11-10T16:12:00.011Z

So far, in our highlights, we've mostly talked about things which were incidental to our pilgrimage, albeit very welcome accoutrements (we do like that word!). But after all, our walk was, first and foremost, a pilgrimage, so how was the actual pilgrimage in the highlights stakes?

We've already mentioned the pleasure we had meeting fellow pilgrims and of course, had we been able to make it to Santiago this trip, arrival at Santiago cathedral would have undoubtedly been a highlight, even though, because of swine flu, we couldn't have kissed St James' feet!

We really did like all the reminders along the way that the route we were walking was more than just another 'GR' path. Because the Camino is the way of St James, and his emblem is the scallop shell, the path was frequently adorned with scallops which came in all materials, shapes and sizes. In terms of natural scallops, we thought this wall was pretty special as it was covered in scallops, many of which had pilgrim names and messages written on to them.

As for man made scallops, we really liked these metal ones which did wonders to what would otherwise have been a rather dull path, leading into the city of Logrono.

While the scallop shell was a potent reminder of St James, there was nothing quite like seeing him in the 'flesh', or should we say nuts and bolts.

This was our favourite image of him made out of old car parts: spot his exhaust pipe staff!

I (Giovanni) was lucky enough to have my own pilgrim's passport, in which I, along with my minders collected stamps from the places we stayed along the way. It was a very special moment for me when I received my first stamp from the cathedral at Le Puy.

I was so proud to be finally officially starting this great walk, which we'd been planning for years, that I had to have a picture taken with my first stamp. By the time we stopped, I had many pages of stamps, at least one for every day of our trip, and I can hardly wait for the time when we will return to Spain to complete the walk to Santiago, as we will then be able to exchange our passports for Compostellas.

We'll be back soon, to tell you a few of the disappointments we experienced along the way - there always have to be downsides. Sorry if we've gone about this the wrong way round, as we really should be ending on a positive note.

For now, at least we can end positively with a favourite picture of ours. It doesn't belong in this post and should have been included in the last one, in the food and drink highlights section, but we forgot it. We want to include it now, as we were extremely appreciative of this special camino fuel, sent all the way from England to the French town of Condom.

We will always be very grateful to Fred's Mum for the wonderful parcel of marshmallow Colin caterpillars she posted to us. You can see from our photo how much we enjoyed them.

Back soon, love from the Camino bears xxx

Camino Highlights Part 2

2009-11-08T13:32:00.000Z

We could extol the virtues of the Camino for hours, but the rest of the Norfolk branch say we must be succinct, and that highlights does mean the best bits. Bearing this in mind let us continue.

In this post we want to include some of the quirky aspects of the trip, but first we simply must mention food and drink.

Rarely have we eaten so well and enjoyed such good wine and beer. Unfortunately most of the time we were too busy eating to think about taking photos, so have little photographic evidence. It is strange that, although we would say we dined better in France, two of our highlight pictures belong to Spain.

The first we have mentioned previously, and it is the Irache wine fountain. Free wine and fine tasting wine, not some inferior plonk - what more is there to say, except that we loved it. Thank you Bodegas Irache.

But, as our second picture shows, we did drink things other than wine. We all loved big steaming glasses of cafe con leche. Gio drank it as often as he could, but Yorkie and I liked to slip in an occasional Spanish brandy.

We turn now to artwork along the way. Even though we passed through some wonderful scenery, we were always excited when we came across a new installation. Here are some of our favourites ...

Ermintrude was no ordinary cow on the Aubrac plateau. When you pulled her tail, she nodded her head. We tried not to do it too much in case it annoyed her, but it was irresistible.

We had great fun being part of this pilgrimage montage on the top of windmill hill, more properly known as Alto de Perdon. There were some huge wind turbines turning quite close to us, which tells you we had climbed to a high point and it was windy.

We're not normally city bears, preferring the big outdoors instead, but we did enjoy Pamplona, especially taking part in our very own enactment of the bull run.

You would all have been very proud of us. We sat, as cool as cucumbers, just inches from those thundering hooves and we didn't flinch at all!

Back soon, as once again this post is going on far too long.

Love from the Camino Bears xxx

Our Camino Highlights

2009-11-07T20:17:00.010Z

Our walk along the Camino was our trip of a liftime, and before the memories fade too much, we want to share some of the highlights with you all.

1. At the top of the list is the wonderful new friends we made. All the lovely encounters we enjoyed made the pilgrimage so much more than an ordinary walk. Despite all our cultural and language differences, our shared identity as pilgrims, gave us so much in common and broke across all the barriers.

Here is Luc from Belgium, one of our special friends, who we hope to see on one of his frequent visits to England.

2. We will always remember some of the marvellous accommodation we stayed in.

One of our favourites in France was the gite Montalibet in a small village called Lichos.

It was a lovely old stone building and was owned by some special people who invited us to use their swimming pool and sun loungers and gave us aperitifs and a superb meal. We then retired to bed on a characterful mezzanine floor.

In Spain we thought the albergue at Boadilla was rather special. We could see why it was called 'Shangrila' in Travels with my Donkey'.

The accommodation was in the grounds of some former farm buildings and many historical features had been retained including a pair of threshing sledges. The grounds were simply delightful as you can see from our pictures and our host was a charming Spaniard who was great fun.

3. We enjoyed walking through some wonderful scenery, especially in France.

We loved the alpine scery and the Aubrac plaeau which reminded us quite a lot of Derbyshire.

4. We passed through some delightful villages with some great photogenic qualities. Two of the finest were Espallion ...

... and Estaing ...

It was a shame we passed through these 2 places briefly and weren't able to stay. Of course the sunshine and the blue sky might have coloured our view.

It's becoming apparent to us that we have far too many highlights to fit into one post, so we'll break here and bring you part two soon.

Lots of love, the Camino bears xxx

Gio's Camino Crosses

2009-10-30T18:51:00.010Z

Gio here, with the first of some reflections on our wonderful walk. From the moment I first heard about the Camino, I was really taken with the historic nature of the route, and thought it would be really amazing to walk the same route that has been walked by thousands of pilgrims for over a thousand years.

All along the way are many reminders that the route is walked by pilgrims with religious motives. I particularly liked all the crosses that appeared, quite frequently, along the way, and I'd like to share some of my favourites with you.

Some you simply could not miss, as they were large and prominently placed on the path.

This was one of my favourites, as its very simplicity made it all the more powerful as a symbol and I liked the fact that you couldn't ignore it as you passed by.

Other crosses were tucked away to the side of the path. Many of these were iron crosses, but I much preferred the wooden ones such as this one ...

... especially when they led the eye to a lovely pastoral scene, as this one did. The only thing I found a bit disturbing was the piles of stones that were put on, or around, the cross. I kept thinking, this is a cross not a cairn, but I read somewhere recently, that pilgrims leave stones to remember loved ones who have died. If this is the reason for the stones being left, then I think I can just about accept it.

Some of the crosses are very old. My next one, which we encountered when walking between Figeac and Cajarc, was reported in our guide book to be the oldest cross in the region, but sadly it gave no estimate of how old.

As we sat beside this cross, looking at the weathered stone, we had a real feeling that it had stood there for centuries. I really like this cross.

My last cross is a rather more modern one, and certainly not lacking in green credentials.

It is an ingenious piece of topiary and I think it makes a great statement.

I hope you have enjoyed sharing my photographic cross collection.

Lots of love Gio xxx

P.S. sorry our blog layout has gone haywire. When we've worked out why, we'll try and fix it.

The Best Laid Plans

2009-10-26T17:41:00.005Z

It's been quite a while since we last posted and it's hard to believe how much has happened in just a few days. Of course, if you've been following our minders' blog you will know all there is to know.

Our walk out of Boadilla was a rather wet one. It was the first time since we started walking in September that we had set off in the rain. Fortunately the rain had raised temperatures so we didn't get cold, and our spirits were raised as we walked along an old canal, since as regular readers will know, we are big canal fans. It was sad to see a fine lock staircase no longer in use, and with lock gates at the top end only. It was quite a spectacle, but we were prised away by the promise of a nice, hot cup of coffee.

The rain continued all day, but fortunately our lunch problems were solved by a nice lady at a hostal we passed, who cooked us plates of pasta with cheese and tomato soup! Being rather wet on the outside, provided us with a good excuse to book into another private room at a hostal, at the town of Carrion de los Condes.

In the end this turned out to be a wise decision for more than the original reason of spreading out wet gear. Our male minder, who had been having some foot troubles for a while, thought we should see if a day off helped. Thanks to our hostal room, we had somewhere warm and dry, with a TV with a good sports channel, to hole up the next day, while we anxiously hoped for foot improvements. The extra day gave old friends a chance to catch up with us, and this is exactly what happened. We were very pleased to see our Belgian friend, Luc, walk in to the restaurant where we were having our pilgrims' meal, and spent a happy hour catching up on each other's news.

Unfortunately, the day off, didn't improve the bad foot, and during one of the most miserable walks of our life the next morning, (17km of the straightest, red earth Roman road, with nothing of interest on either side to view, and an icy gale blowing right into our faces) we came to the conclusion, reluctantly, that finishing the camino on this trip simply wasn't going to be wise, or possible.

At the albergue, at the grandly named village of Terradillos de los Templarios, which wasn't so grand in reality, as there wasn't so much as a bar or a shop, our minders monopolised the PC offering the internet, so we couldn't get near it to write a post. They did have important business to do though, as they were researching ways to get home and successfully booking a flight.

They did well, and the next day we had an amazing travelling day. First we all walked the 12 km from Terradillos to the next town of Sahagun. From there we caught a train to Leon, and from Leon, caught a bus for the three and a half hour ride to Santander. By this point it was gone 7.00 p.m. so we checked into a lovely 3 star hotel for a bit of pampering. You should have seen the toiletry range - it could have kept us occupied for the whole weekend!

In Santander we occupied our time before our flight back to England using the 'tusbic' scheme. This allows you to register and leave a deposit on your credit card, at which point you can release a bicycle and cycle round the city for no fee at all. You can return your bici to any of the stations round the city. We kept well clear of the traffic and mixed it with all the promenaders who were walking along the water front and the lovely sandy beaches. It was such a great scheme and should definitely be introduced in England.

So now we are back in England, rather sooner than we expected. Rest assured we will be putting the extra time to good use and hopefully embarking on another adventure soon, so watch this space. In the meantime, we will be planning to share some of our camino photos with you and hopefully will get to visit some of our many friends.

Lots of love the Camino Bears xxx

Making Good Use of All that Wind!

2009-10-19T19:35:00.004+01:00

So here we are again, to continue from where we last left you in Burgos.

As we object to paying to enter churches, just as much as we object to them being locked all the time, we decided to wait to visit the cathedral until the pilgrims´mass at 7.30 p.m. We were quite willing to attend the mass, but would also use the opportunity to have a free look round.

We had not bargained for the spectacle that was in store for us. See our minders´blog for full details, but we ended up as three small bears in a very big ceremony, with lots of robed clergy, multiple archbishops, even a cardinal, and lots of incense swinging (or whatever you call it). We were disappointed that our Spanish was inadequate to tell us what was happening, but a switched on minder worked out that it was probably the inauguration of a new local saint, called Raphael.

The next day we had to leave at 8.00 a.m. so out we went into the cold and dark, and promptly got lost trying to find the way out of Burgos. As it was Sunday morning there weren´t too many locals to ask ´donde esta el camino?´ but fortunately a kind local spotted us, before we saw him, and put us on the right route.

Not long after Burgos we started to climb into the much talked about high meseta. It is supposed to be a very bleak and isolated crop growing area, and very monotonous, but we loved the peace and quiet, big skies and landscapes and the birds, including some scary vultures. We are also very impressed by all the wind turbines which adorn every hill top in numbers too great to count (next time we can´t sleep we will picture the wind farms and try counting the turbines). Many of them seem pleased to see us and wave their arms madly at us, so of course we wave back.

Today we are staying at at small town called Boadilla. There is a swimming pool but it was too cold to use it, even though we have lsot the chilling east wind. When we looked in at the albergue bed concentration, it was a bit depressing, so we took what the owner said was a good choice: a room in the main house. As we opted for non ensuite, it is a real bargain, and although more expensive that an albergue bed, it is still no more than the cost of a bed in a youth hostel at home, so a real bargain, especially as we get sheets and towels provided. It is so much more relaxing to have our own space to relax in. The only touble is, that just like in Travels With My Donkey, when Tim Moore discovered that a brandy was so affordable, he realised he would want one every night, the same is likely to be true with us and hostal rooms. On the plus side, we can still have a cheap pilgrim meal, and as tonight, get to take this together with all the other pilgrims - tonight again with our Slovak friend whose name is a bit complicated. We just don´t return to their dormitory with them afterwards.

We are sure we will sleep well tonight.

Lots of love, the Camino bears xxx

Our First Marathon

2009-10-17T17:09:00.010+01:00

We hope all our readers have been avidly following our minders´blog as that will give you all our news, as, strangely enough, we do all walk together and share the same experiences.

Tonight´s quick post is coming from a very new pilgrims´ hostel, right in the centre of Burgos. It was only opened last year so is very modern, and has nicely partitioned bed areas on 7 floors. As we were early arrivals, we have beds on the first floor.

It is only a stone´s throw from the hostel to the very fine cathedral and there are lots of expensive hotels nearby, so we feel very fortunate to have accommodation for a minimum donation of €3 - we did actually put in a bit more.

The walk into Burgos was an interesting one. We started off climbing a stony sheep path up a hill, then we came down, crossed some agricultural land, then walked right round the airport perimeter fence, before walking the last 8km into the city centre through parkland beside the river. As it is Saturday, the Spaniards were out in force, walking, running or cycling, and they do seem to be taking more exercise than the average Brit.

We were pleased to arrive at lunchtime as our paws are still recovering from our marathon walk of two days ago when we unintentionally did a marathon length leg of over 40km. We had already set ourselves a challenging target, without allowing for the fact that our chosen hostel was shut. There was no other choice but to walk on for another hour to the next town. Fortunately when we got there we did find ourselves an excellent room, with a complimentary carafe of red wine which soon revived us, as did the massaging shower.

The big change over the last week has been the change in the weather. Still no rain, and clear blue skies and lots of sunshine, but there is a biting wind from the east (Siberia?) and first thing in the morning and in the evening, it gets very cold. Our wardrobe has now completely changed and all of the winter clothes we have been carrying around unused for weeks, are now becoming essential wear. As we set out yesterday morning we were surprised to see frost on the grass, and it was the same today. Possibly our Helvellyn high altitude has something to do with it. Needless to say we are now drinking more cafes con leche than San Miguel!

20 minutes on the internet machine doesn´t last long so we must now say hasta luego!

Lots of love, the Camino Bears xxx

Red Wine Heaven

2009-10-13T16:05:00.005+01:00

So it does seem that life without an iPod is perfectly possible (it helps to have an MP3 player on your phone though!): this trip is supposed to be about living simply anyway, so we need to start putting theory into practice. Today we are reporting from a back room of a small shop in the even smaller town of Navarette. It is the first place we have stayed in the region of Rioja - we crossed the boundary today - and we are looking forward to a glass of the local vino later.

Talking about wine, we need to bring you up to date with news since our stop on Saturday at Puenta la Reina, and most of it concerns wine. With our meal in the hostel we were served wine in a pint glass, and what´s more, the glass was three quarters full! We certainly had a good night´s sleep after finishing it while watching basketball on the T.V.

Then the next day we managed to time our arrival at the famous Irache wine fountain for mid afternoon. As there is free red wine on tap, it was a much better time to pass than just after breakfast. We had to wait a bit for our wine tasting as, upon entering into the enclosure with the fountain, one of our minders managed to lose a trekking pole through some iron railing into the winery works area below. Being a Sunday, this was completely closed off. We all had to initiate an elaborate fishing exercise to retrieve the pole, by hooking another pole into the loop of the handle and raising it very slowly. By the time the rescue operation was complete, both we, and a small audience which was watching with bated breath, agreed that we had earned a sample of the wine.

The critical tap is the one on the left: the one on the right is for water! We did not expect wine being given away for free to taste as good as it did. Even Gio, who is usually quite abstemious, got stuck in and slurped his fill.

If you go to http://www.irache.com/ you can see the webcam which is focussed on the fountain and you might see some other pilgrims, or locals, indulging.

From the fountain, we continued for another couple of hours to a small albergue run by a Dutch evangelical organisation. A team of 5 lovely Dutch people looked after us, and about 14 other pilgrims, extremely well and cooked us a lovely paella. We have never heard such good English being spoken as was spoken by those Dutch friends. The place seemed to attract English speakers, and among our fellow guests were 4 Americans and an Australian. We also re-encountered Johannes, the German-Swiss chap who we last saw well over a month ago, when we shared a mobile home with him, only about a week into our trip. It is a very small world on the Camino.

Last night, after a week or sharing dormitories we treated ourselves to a $40 private room with ensuite facilities. It was nice to be able to let our fur down without disturbing anyone, and after 2 long days of 30km we thought we´d earned it. We also had reason to celebrate as our GPS clocked up our 1000th kilometre as we walked into the town (Viana). We have actually walked further, as there have been times when the GPS accidentally got shut down, and when batteries have run out.

Late this morning we passed through the big city of Logroño which was nearly as big as Pamplona. We did a couple of hours of sight-seeing and shopping, mainly food and pharmacy, and also purchased a trendy belt for one of our minders who can no longer keep her walking trousers up without one! The camino was routed extremely well and kept us out of the traffic except for the very centre and we went though some lovely parkland areas.

We think that´s most of the news for now,

Lots of love, the Camino Bears xxx

Hammer Treatment Required

2009-10-10T19:52:00.003+01:00

Growl, double growl and thrice growl: it´s a good job that our paws aren´t letting us down as technology certainly is.

Yesterday we published (using what we thought was a working wi-fi connection) a post telling you all about our first impressions of the Camino in Spain and how it differs to France. Our iPod clearly thought it was posted, but the internet doesn´t seem to think it has received anything, and we rather think our fine work is lost, never to be seen again.

Then at lunch time our bear iPod died in exactly the same way as our minders´did a few weeks ago. It requires the Fred hammer treatment to bring it back to life, but we have decided this time to be brave bears and to try and live without it for the rest of our trip, rather than try and manage the travel logistics again. It does mean that our posts may start to dry up and only appear when internet terminals are available. We trust you will understand and we will try and catch up when we can. In the meantime keep reading our minders´blog (see friends sites) for all the news.

In a very brief summary, before our twenty minutes run out, what we were hoping to say to you was:

a) we are enjoying the walk in Spain and especially the fact that there are a lot more off road paths than in France.

b) our hopes that October would be a quiet time were completely wrong. It is very busy and the 100+ bed dorms that we though we would have to ourselves are nearly full. Everything is well run though and a good spirit prevails and everyone mucks in well together. The crowds do take a bit of getting used to though.

c) there are lots of new friends to make and lots more nationalities than on the Le Puy route. We had a great Pilgrim meal 2 night ago with a Swede, a Belgian and a German. Fortunately everyone speaks English, which is just as well as our Spanish dictionary died with our iPod.

d) we really enjoyed Pamplona yesterday and it is a fine city. We staged our own, out of season bull run, and we will share the photo with you when we can. We even managed to get our fur cut!

We´ll be back when we can,

Lots of love, the Camino Bears xxx

Bienvenidos en Espana

2009-10-07T13:44:00.002+01:00

Growl, technology has failed us again. We emailed a photo from our phone to this blog at the French/Spanish border, or what we thought was the border, but sadly it didn´t work. We will try and paste it in later.

We had a good, but steep climb up to the Orisson albergue yesterday and had a bit of a party in the evening, with lots of people and the previously mentioned champagne. It turned out it was an English speaking American, not a Brit, so we remain very much a rare breed and in the minority.

We continued our climb at 8.30 this morning and we are pleased to report the rain did not materialise either yesterday, or today, other than a few spots which came to nothing. The ascent was a lot less steep today, but we did have to contend with some very strong wind which required us bears to put safety ropes on, otherwise we´d have been blown straight back to Le Puy.

We got to the fence that marked the border around 11.00 a.m. but were not quite sure where the exact crossing point was. We certainly did not need to show our bearports. After consulting out guide books we eventually decided it was a cattle grid and wooden gate - very low key - and took some photos there. We did see helicopters circling overhead, possibly looking to see who was coming and going, but we seemed to be acceptable.

We took the easy descent to Ronscevalles and are now waiting for the Abbey to open, while having a coke and using the internet in a bar.

Lots of love the Camino Bears xxx

Another Milestone Achieved

2009-10-05T18:31:00.002+01:00

Today we have reached St Jean de Pied Port which is the gateway to Spain and so, we are almost at the end of our French journey. France won't let us go that easily though: we have to cross the Pyrenees, climbing over 1300m to leave France behind.

Thanks to the safe arrival, and collection, of parcels from England - thanks Midlands & Suffolk branches - we can start our ascent tomorrow. We will spend the morning in St Jean then set off for a refuge about 700m up. We have heard that an English woman will also be there and is taking champagne to celebrate her birthday, so it could be a fun stay!

The internet cafe is closing soon and we are hungry, so we must finish now. If you read our minder's blog you will find out the latest Poddy disaster with the charger which may keep us off air for a bit.

Love from the Camino Bears xxx

Marking The Way

2009-10-05T12:22:00.000+01:00

We have walked close on 500 miles now and, apart from a couple of exceptions recently, have had no problems finding the way. So how do we do it without having a separate rucksack full of maps?

The secret is that we follow the red and white blazes which now, mark out GR footpaths in Europe. In our case we are following the GR65, which is, in France, more commonly known as the chemin de Saint Jacques or Compostelle.

Up until this week, every hundred metres or so, we would see a white stripe on top of a red stripe, reassuring us that we are on the right path; and a red and white cross at junctions, indicating directions which are the wrong way to go. This week, however, the blases have been few and far between, which means the potential for getting lost increases considerably.

Putting a marker every few metres, on a path running for 500 miles in France, is quite a tall order and checking and refreshing the signage doesn't just happen by chance.

This year, knowing that our minders were due to do the walk, Bears Unlimited very own French bear, Gilbert, tendered for the way-marking contract and, being the shrewd business bear he is, got it.

Since Gilbert is rather an urbane and chic bear, he didn't fancy doing the job himself, but he did know exactly who to sub-contract the job to.

He consulted his list of B.U. Contacts and found a team of Polish bears ready and willing to check and refresh the blazes. Gilbert does have rather a fine brain and we hope you will understand why he chose Polish bears for the route.

Firstly, and most simply, Polish bears are very hard workers and take great pride in their craftsmanship.

Secondly, he reasoned that as the white and red stripes resemble the Polish flag, the best thing he could do would be to employ workers who were passionate about Poland and who would seize every opportunity to adorn the countryside with mini Polish flags. This would allow him to ensure that enough blazes were being painted, as too many would not be a problem for walkers, whereas too few would.

Mind you even Gilbert didn't reckon on this level of enthusiasm from the Polish bears!

It's a fair bet that no-one has got lost on that section of the route over the Aubrac plateau!

Quite often the red and White blazes appear in conjunction with other chemin de compostelle markers. These occur in all shapes and sizes and we'd like to model a few of them.

Here George models one of our favourites. The blue plaque with the yellow scallop shell gives the distance from Santiago in kilometres. The first one in Le Puy said about 1550 km and we haven't seen one for several days now, but the last we saw was about 932 km. Unfortunately many have been vandalised by, we presume, unscrupulous pilgrims, who prize off the blue plaque as a souvenir. No doubt the same ones as the grape and fruit scrumpers!

Then you have much simpler signs, of which we model two examples: the disadvantage of the first is that you have to know which way you are going as the arrows point both ways - in theory you should recognise where you have just walked!

We think we will have to stop this post after one more example otherwise this post will take forever to send. We're sure you'll have got the gist by now anyway.

There was one particular department, Gers we think, which included the red and white stripes on a metal plate with the scallop shell emblem of the camino/chemin. We particularly liked these and also the yellow information boards which gave times to places and told non walkers/cyclists to keep off the paths.

We have some more fine examples of camino signage for another post, if our readers would like to see more.

Love from the Camino Bears xxx

Meeting Our Own Kind

2009-10-01T20:00:00.000+01:00

Having told you about some of the human friends we've made, we need to reassure you that we are making friends of the furry kind also, and to introduce you to some of them.

The first is really for Travelling Moose and members of his hosehold which does now include two fine elks.

So here we are with Monty, the Podally gite elk. He had an amazing gift for doing the splits which we don't think we could emulate and live to tell the tale. He was also more nimble and sure footed than us, which he needed to be as he lives on the edge of a crockery display. We're pleased to say we managed to visit without smashing anything.

Our next two friends were fresh air freaks and seem to live permanently out of doors.

Although the weather has taken a bit of a toll on them, they need to be outdoors as they have a very special role of welcoming pilgrims to the village of Marsolan.

The gite we stayed in was just round the corner, so we kept on popping over for a chat, while our minders did boring things like washing clothes. As a result we got to know them quite well
and were very impressed by their dedication to duty.

Love from the Camino Bears xxx

Forging Friendships

2009-10-01T11:17:00.000+01:00

As you might imagine, this far from the start of the route, the numbers of pilgrims has rapidly diminished and they are becoming a much rarer breed. This was probably one of the reasons we got lost a couple of days ago: we hadn't a trail of pilgrims in front of us to follow!

However, in some ways the quality of the pilgrims we do meet at the overnight stops has gone up. Last night, at the pleasant town of Aire sur L'Adour, we stopped at La Maison de Pelerins (pilgrims' house) which was a really authentic pilgrim place, run by a pilgrim, for pilgrims. We found ourselves there with our charming French friends, Seb & Anne, who have stayed at the same places as us for three nights on the trot. We were delighted when they asked if we would like to join them for a meal to be cooked in the gite by Seb.

We dined in style, also with a Breton who was on his own, on turkey tagliatelle, cooked in cream and goat's cheese, with green salad. It was delicious and the camaraderie was equally good, especially when we finished off the evening singing English pop songs (mainly Beatles numbers) to Anne's piano playing. The spirit of the camino had surfaced yet again.

It was with us again today this lunchtime, as we sat outside the church at Miramont-Sensacq eating our lunch. A man came out his drive and over to talk to us. He told us he was the Priest, and when we told him our minder was also a priest, he asked us if we would like to come over for a cafe, and to receive the Parish stamp in our pilgrim passports, after we had finished our lunch.

We did exactly this and spent a pleasant time talking with the Priest (in French) in his house and drinking not only his coffee, but in the case of one of us, his armagnac also. Pere Roger, it was lovely to meet you and compare parish notes!

Another special moment, that will remain with us a long time, came yesterday (sorry we're jumping about in time) when we found a note for us left by the 3 friendly Canadian girls, on a noticeboard along the way. It had been left by them on their last day, several days earlier (see our minders' blog for full details). It was great to know they were thinking of us and wanted to say goodbye: we were especially thrilled that us pilgrim bears got a specific mention.

Tonight we are staying in a village called Pimbo, at a 'Centre d'accueil communal'. It is a building for pilgrims run by the local commune. Effectively it is a whole apartment, with all facilities (including real soap powder for our washing) and although there are 5 beds in the dormitory, we have the whole place to ourselves - simply marvellous! Thank you to all pilgrims who have done the extra 5.5 km to reach the town.

We have just cooked ourselves a meal, as we are completely self-contained, and we have been sitting out on the elevated terrace eating it, looking at the incredible views which stretch for miles. They are fast disappearing now as it is getting dark, but is still warm enough to sit outside. It is probably too late now to go and pick the figs we were told to help ourselves to.

Love from the Camino Bears xxx

First Wrong Turn

2009-09-29T14:37:00.000+01:00

We did a little more than 20 miles (nearly 34 km) after leaving Condom, and even though the last 7km was along a shady disused railway line (lovely as it is still very hot) it was still a bit too far for our paws and we decided to keep distances shorter in future.

Our good intentions went a little astray today when our planned 23km was extended after we missed a right hand turn and walked at least an extra 2km along a road before realising our mistake and turning back.

The turn we missed probably was marked, but you have to be looking out for the blazes and we had been a little distracted by a double bee sting suffered by our minders. We were all walking along, minding our own business, when 2 aggressive bees rushed out and attacked our female minder, buzzing round her ear and delivering a sting. Our other minder beat us to the rescue and in trying to remove a second bee from the face, got stung by the same bee on his arm. It was an unprecedented show of aggression which took us all completely aback.

Correct course resumed, without retracing all our steps, the rest of the walk today was very pleasant, and similar to yesterday's. Most of the time we were walking through vines laden with grapes. They extend as far as the eye can see and caused us to wonder how much of the earth's surface is covered by grapevines.

We were fascinated to see a machine in operation which automatically picked the grapes. It straddled the vines and must have been quite delicately brushing off the grapes. We also passed some grape processing factories and caught a real strong whiff of grape juice and saw skins flying out a machine.

When we're not walking through vines we're often in sunflower growing territory.

Most of the sunflowers have been harvested now, leaving a bit of a barren wasteland, but ocassionally you meet a escapee, such as this one which caught Gio's eye. We regret not doing the walk when these huge fields were full of smiling yellow faces: it must have been quite a sight.

P.S. We're quite excited as at tea tonight, our French friend Seb (a movie maker) who we've talked to over the last 2 days, specifically asked for our blog address! Welcome another reader.

Love from the Camino Bears xxx

Condom Capers

2009-09-26T16:25:00.000+01:00

Yesterday afternoon we walked into Condom and 24 hours later we're still there, enjoying a well earned rest day, only our second in over 300 miles. We're wondering why there are so many English (non pilgrims) here. Could it be something to do with the novelty value of the name?

When we called at La Poste yesterday afternoon we were a bit surprised to find our Poddy was not there, especially as a man at La Poste told us post from England normally only took 3-4 days. However, we subsequently discovered you have had post strikes at home.

Anyway, the story has a happy ending, as when we reported in to La Poste this morning, it was to find there were not one, but 2 parcels waiting for us. What a relief! We went into the Cathedral (our favourite of the trip so far) where Gio lit a thanksgiving candle on behalf of us all.

We are very grateful to the Suffolk Branch, not only for the resurrected Poddy, but also for the special consignement of edible caterpillars they have sent us. They will give us a real boost as we set off on the trail again tomorrow.

Back to yesterday, we checked into a basic, but perfectly fine, 1 star Logis hotel by the river. After doing our laundry, which the proprietor's wife kindly agreed to hang in their garden (there is no laundrette in Condom) we went back into town for a beer as our demi-pension meal wasn't until 8.00 p.m.

We were a bit hungry, especially Yorkie, so we bought and tucked into a packet of peanuts. Just as we finished them, one of the bar staff brought a dish of nuts to our table, followed by a small dish of chips. Of course we ate them all, but on returning to the hotel and seeing the meal that awaited us, and the other pilgrim who was there, we seriously regretted tucking in so much.

We had quite simply one of the biggest meals we have ever had. We had a lentil and vegetable soup; a huge plate of salad with charcuterie and lots of melon and apple; a dish of chicken with braised grapes (we had to watch out for the pips), carrots and mushrooms; then we had a spaghetti bolognaise and then, finally, we had a fruit and armagnac ice cream dessert! We were secretly rather relieved when it ended. Being bears though, we had no problems sleeping on a full stomach.

Today, as well as looking round the town, drinking oranginas, shopping and visiting a cyber cafe, to try and get some more photos off the camera, we have been strolling in the sun by the river (we had to stroll slowly, not walk as it is a day off from walking).

Hopefully we will be refreshed and raring to go tomorrow for a long stretch into Eauze.

Love from the Camino Bears xxx

To Be A Pilgrim

2009-09-25T14:51:00.000+01:00

We have had an interesting couple of days since we last wrote. Yesterday's walk was quite leisurely, with time for lots of breaks, which was just as well as in the afternoon the heat returned with ferocious intensity.

We hadn't pre-arranged any accommodation, as we were attracted by the 'accueil pelerin', special pilgrim only hospitality, listed in our book as being on offer at Miradoux, where we planned to finish. These places work on the basis of voluntary donations, so that people in need are never turned away because of their inability to pay.

It was also a no reservations place, with a philosophy that we approved of: that a place is reserved for those who have not reserved.

We asked the lady owner, Therese, if she had spaces for us and were shown to a private room with double bed (with sheets, unlike gites d'etape) and a sink, so our minders were instantly happy. After dumping our sacks 2 beers were produced for us and a laundry basket came out with the instruction that we were to put out our dirties for washing.

Therese is a very colourful character who is the embodiment of all that the camino is about, and it is people like her who make this pilgrimage an experience that is far more than just a walk.

She must be in her 60s, has a bit of a walking disabilty, so has not been able to walk to Santiago herself, but instead has made it her retired life's work to look after pilgrims, including bears.

Here's me (Gio) with Therese after she stamped my pilgrim passport and wrote in a lovely message.

It is not quite the nirvana it first sounds, as her house is very ramshackle and cluttered, and needs a serious amount od of D.I.Y. But things like that aren't really important are they?

Although she is only supposed to have 8 places, 13 humans and 3 bears, sat down to dinner, and everyone was staying!

We had a lovely salad to start, served with bread and pates. We thought that was it, as we thought Therese had said we would be having a simple meal together. But no, out came a huge roasting tin full of pork and chicken, and dishes of potatoes and haricot verts. Yorkie did his best piranha impression, but even so there was lots left over.

As we left Therese's to head for today's destination of Lectoure, we found the route was a lot shorter than we expecting due to a change in the routing of the GR65, and so we had arrived by lunchtime. We had a black spaniel escort for 11km of the way and we just couldn't get him to go back home. We did manage to hide and lose him in Lectoure, only to bump into him again, in a bar, an hour later. Fortunately he didn't seem to recognise us second time round.

Lectoure kept reminding us of Hannibal Lecter, so we decided we didn't want to stay there and pressed on another 9km to a village with a lovely gite, where we have a 4 bed room and facilities to ourselves and we can smell a delicious meal cooking. We think this was a rather good move and it also means we can get into Condom tomorrow, a day early, hopefully to be reunited with the missing poddy.

Love from the Camino Bears xxx

Reminders of Home

2009-09-22T18:56:00.000+01:00

Yesterday's walk was quite tough on our paws and legs, so we were very glad to arrive at the Gite Saint Martin, home of none other than a Mrs Georgina Sykes.

You will appreciate that when we saw that name in the Miam Miam Dodo (our accommodation bible - it means something like, munch, munch, sleep) there was nowhere else to book.

It was really great fun staying there with Mrs Sykes, her ex rally driver French partner, Anthony, two girls and Shaun, the huge Alsatian dog. As there was a party of 6 French, self-catering in the gite, she decided we would be better off in the main house, and gave us one of her chambres d'hôte, and we also had a glass of iced tea on arrival: it was delicious, much nicer than we were expecting. It was a great welcome.

We were the only guests eating, and we sat at a huge table feeling like royalty as we dined on wild boar pate and a bowl of fine chilli. We happened to be chatting with Anthony when our wine ran out, and he immediately brought us another half litre - what hospitality!

After her daughters had gone to bed, we chatted to Mrs Sykes until 10.00 p.m. She is a very colourful character and we were regaled with tales of previous pilgrims who have stayed with her, and her frustrations at many aspects of French culture. We were very sad though to learn of some of the cases of donkey/mule mistreatment she has had to deal with. It does seem that a lot of pilgrims are completely clueless, but we don't think we fall into that category - we hope not!

We were quite sad to leave Mrs Sykes this morning, but the pilgrim motto of 'ultreia' ever onwards, beckoned us on, so we set off for large town of Moissac. We got there at lunchtime so treated ourselves to a hamburger and fries (French style) after looking round the famous cloisters.

In the afternoon we had a walking treat: we walked along a canal all the way to Pommevic where we are staying tonight. It was nice, easy, flat walking and, while sadly there were no narrowboats, we did see a few plastic pigs on the way, and several automatic locks.

The towpath was so good that our minders did a large chunk of it in their Crocs. They said their feet really appreciated being set free from their boots.

Love from the Camino Bears xxx

The Grass Is Getting Greener

2009-09-21T12:31:00.000+01:00

We all really enjoyed reading the Suffolk Branch's post and finding out their I.T. secrets: it put a big smile on our faces, which will be even wider when the resurrected Poddy returns to us.

Yesterday lunchtime we reached Cahors and had plenty of time to look round after claiming our 2 bedded room in the youth hostel. We were bowled over by our evening meal which, sorry French people, wasn't French cuisine. We had a delicious Tex Mex pizza which was basically chilli on a pizza base, with an egg at the centre. It definitely should be introduced in England - please note Chef Oakley. We followed it with a big helping of tiramisu and washed it down with a couple of glasses of red wine. We were very happy.

We have had showers over the last couple of days, but this lunchtime we experienced our first serious rain. We can't complain after nearly 3 weeks of dry walking, and we are now beginning to see some green grass again.

We still managed to arrive at tonight's gite in the dry though, and a French couple we have met before, have kindly offered us some room in an industrial sized washing machine for our mud splashed trousers and socks.

Since leaving Conques, the way has not been quite so sociable,
as we have not seen some of our earlier friends, and most of the people now walking are non English speaking, French, Germans snd Austrians. We have only had a party of 6 Canadian ladies to chat to, mind you, they do talk a lot!

Tonight, at Montcuq, things have changed and we have just had our most sociable meal in quite a while. We have met our first English person, who comes from Oxford and has teamed up with a lovely young Swizz-German man. We sat with them at the evening meal and also with our 2 French friends who are sharing their washing machine with us. Because our new English friend speaks such fluent French, we were able to include them in the conversation and enjoyed a great Franglais entente cordial.

The other important news is that we have completed more than half of the French leg of our trip. We hope the rest is as good.

Love from the Camino Bears xxx

No Green Grass

2009-09-19T15:51:00.000+01:00

We have been very relaxed bears over the last 2 days: we have had some leisurely starts and shorter walking days with longer lunches. It has all been very civilised, although the accommodation has been fairly basic - not that a pilgrim bear needs much more than a shower, some food and a bed.

We are going to have to improve our spelling in French of our name though, as in both of the last 2 gites we have had our name on the door of our room spelt as Sykrs - so we're worried about being taken for Germans.

The mornings are definitely turning autumnal and are cool and misty. This morning, just as we were about to leave the gite (the last persons to do so), there was a heavy shower, so we waited until it had stopped and the sun came out.

No doubt the farmers will be pleased by the rain as the land is completely parched and we haven't seen a blade of green grass for days. All the animals are having to eat hay or silage as there is no grass for them to eat. The cows also have salt licks in the fields and they have sculpted them into such interesting shapes that we reckon we could organise a great art exhibition of salt lick sculptures.

This lunchtime we sat outside a church in the village of Bach (yes, we did hum a suitable piece of music as we entered) and watched lots of leaves and conkers falling off some chestnut trees. There were several cars parked underneath and there fairly frequent bangs as conkers landed on the metal roofs. Blue Bear would not have been pleased if it had been the bearmobiles underneath.

As we finished lunch there were rumbles of thunder and dark clouds gathered rather ominously. We sheltered in the church during a 3 minute shower then set off again as we hadn't too far to go.

We managed to walk fast enough to keep the storm just to the edge of us, until about 3 km from tonight's gite. We had light rain until we passed the 300m to go sign, when it started to get heavier, so we raced for 'Poudally', the gite, and arrived not too wet.

This is a private gite and a real gem. It is a very old building but the young owners have clearly lavished a lot of love and attention on it, not to mention money, and it is lovely inside. When we went into our room we were very amused by the lovely brown hen sheltering just the other side of our glass door.

We'll probably have to wait until tomorrow to post this as we are in the middle of nowhere, with no wi-fi, but as it's stopped raining now we'll hopefully go outside soon to take some photos and find the donkey we've heard braying.

Love from the Camino Bears xxx

Can we fix it? Yes we can!

2009-09-18T22:23:00.004+01:00

Hi all - Suffolk Branch here. The IT department has been on standby in case the Camino Bears ran into trouble & we swung into action on receipt of the SOS from France. Our minder tried the technical approach to fix the errant iPod to no avail so Fred whacked it with a hammer until it behaved itself. Success!

The iPod is now winging its way back to France (to Condom - no sniggering at the back please) although as the jiffy bag was too small for Fred to squeeze into, despite his best efforts, he's now on standby again in case of any more problems.

Bonne chance!

Suffolk Branch

Our Day Off

2009-09-16T18:09:00.001+01:00

We enjoyed our rest day in Figeac and found lots to do. We spent 2 hours in an Internet cafe area of what seemed to be a local college, got the bent glasses mended (for free - a wonderful optician) and posted the dead Poddy to our Ipod doctor in England. We bumped into our Aussie friends again and had lunch with them, then did some shopping and went on a walking tour of the old town which has some really old medieval bits.

It is strange how you can be all alone in a big town and then hear someone calling your name. On our first evening, in the dark, we were walking by the river to find the precise spot outside the launderette where we knew there was wi-fi, when our minders heard their names being called, and sure enough there was one of our French friends, Jean-Marc, who we hadn't seen since Conques. We don't understand why our female minder got all the kisses and not us though!

We started walking at about 8.00 a.m. this morning feeling suitably refreshed and ready for the longest walk of the trip so far. Although we are now walking at a much lower altitude than our first few days, where we were at 900m+, we still manage to keep to the higher ground where we can see for miles in all directions. Of course there is always a big descent into the place we are staying and a big climb out in the morning!

Today, as with the walk onto Figeac, we felt like we were walking through a Medieval museum. We keep seeing really old barns with haylofts, old well houses, many still with the bucket ready to be lowered, and lots of tiny store places with old wooden carts and implements inside. It hasn't been so sunny today, so we managed to persuade Yorkie not to risk descending in a well bucket for a swim.

We started walking over a limestone plateau today, with very rocky ground, dry stone walls an lots of deciduous trees which look lovely as they change to their autumn colours.
We look forward to another 20km tomorrow.

We've walked more than 20 miles today to reach the town of Cajarc which has the accommodation. Tonight we are in a basic gite, but for €8.20 for a bed, we have plenty of beer and food money, so naturally we are now enjoying our first beer of the evening.

Must handover the Poddy now as it is being shared.

Love from the Camino Bears xxx

We Conquered Conques

2009-09-14T17:48:00.001+01:00

It seems a long time ago now, but we walked into Conques 2 days ago and had a relaxing afternoon and night there. Conques is a bit of a staging point, and was the end point of their walk for a lot of people who started out with us from Le Puy.

As it is a rather bijou place, with lots of historic significance, we kept spying lots of our friends that we'd seen for a few days and then rather neglectfully lost. Re-union conversations ranged from a minute or two, to over a beer (on the case of the Australians Mike & Bob) depending on how good their English was.

By arriving before lunch we managed to get beds in a dormitory in the Abbey accommodation. It was nice accommodation and food and aided lots more conversations with new people. We were very proud of our female minder who managed a dinner conversation with a lovely French lady of over an hour, and it was 75% in French!

We joined the monks of the Abbey for Vespers and Compline, which included another Pilgrim blessing. Both were lovely occasions but again it was sad that there were only 3 monks at both offices although we did spy another, younger, one on Sunday.

Yesterday we resumed our Camino and walked to Lininhac-en-Haut where we had another night in a mobile home at a camp site on the banks of the River Lot. This time we had the home all to ourselves and we also had a very nice meal which included a lovely salad, galette, filled with meat, potato and cheese, and apple tart and ice cream (no moose this time so you can come out of hiding!)

Today we have reached Figeac, another major milestone, and we have booked onto a very cheap (but nice) hotel as we are having our first full day off tomorrow. Hopefully we will spend some time in an Internet cafe and get some photos for you. Sadly we have just had the other Ipod crash, so we must hand over this one, so the main blog can continue.

First though, all 5 of us want to wish Meryl & Nick a very happy wedding anniversary today.

Love from the Camino Bears xxx