On Top of the Malverns

Hello everyone!  It's Endon Bear here!  As this post is about an adventure which includes some climbing, Sonning asked if I would like to write it and I said "yes please".

The day after our visit to the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Railway, our humans drove west, crossing the big River Severn at Tewkesbury, then went north-west to the Malvern Hills.

It was a very bright and clear day, but very windy too.  Polar hoped they could find somewhere for a good walk and, luckily, there was a carpark near a path which led all along the highest ridge of the hills.

Polar and Grizzly said we should stay in our bag to start with, as it was a long walk up the hill to the ridge path, and they were worried we would blow away.  In fact, even Grizzly was worried that he would blow away at one point!

Although the high wind was a nuisance to us, this lovely kestrel was finding it very helpful as he hovered right in front of us, looking for small creatures to eat.  We made sure little Waverley stayed safely hidden in the Bear Bag!

When we reached the ridgeway path, Grizzly did very well to start with and reached the top of one of the hills, but the next one proved to be a little too high and steep a climb for him, especially in the strong wind.

He found a comfortable little bench and the other bears stayed with him, in our bag, but I went to the top of the next hill with Polar, because I am a Mountaineering Bear, trained by Munro and his team at Bear Lodge in the Highlands of Scotland.  

From the top of the hill we had amazing views.  We could see the huge hillfort known as British Camp and all the way across Herefordshire to the mountains of mid-Wales, while to the east we could see the floodplain of the River Severn and the Cotswolds.

"One day, I would like to climb all of those hills and mountains!" I said to Polar.

"It would be great to explore the hillfort," said Polar.  "Hopefully, when it isn't so windy!"  

When we reached the summit of our hill, where the wind was very strong, Polar tucked me into her camera bag for safety while she took her photos.  Then it was time to make our way back down to Grizzly and the other bears.

My bear friends prefer climbing trees to climbing hills and mountains.  Fortunately, there was a perfect climbing tree near the path back to the carpark, with a long, level bough we could all sit on.  Hanley Bear was first into the tree and called to the rest of us to join him.

Little Waverley spotted something interesting and called me over to see what he had found.  It was a cluster of the tiniest toadstools we had ever seen!  Aren't they lovely?

Sonning and Huddlesford climbed up too, and soon we were all having fun on the big birch tree, as we could make the long bough bounce up and down if we all jumped together.  

But we couldn't stay here for more than a few minutes, as we had a long journey home ahead of us.

We climbed down from the tree and sat in the sunshine, in a sheltered spot out of the wind, until Polar came over with our bag and we could all climb in.

On the way home we had tea and cake at Tenbury Wells, then drove up the A49 road past Ludlow and another range of hills called the Long Mynd.  I thought they looked good for climbing too!

Polar says we might have a little break near Church Stretton one day, so we can explore this area too but, for now, it looks like our humans will be grounded for a while due to that wretched virus.  

So I will have to practice my climbing closer to home.  Maybe we could visit Mow Cop Castle?