Nearly There...

Well that's it folks!
The latest 'Bear on Tour' trip is nearly over. I say latest and not last because I can remember a conversation between Steve and I, probably two years or so ago, Africa was still fresh in the memory, we were quaffing wine and looking at some photos from his time there. That had been his last trip and he had hung up his back-pack up and said "enough is enough and it's about time I blah blah blah..." He mentioned that he'd not been to South America but quickly dismissed it as expensive, a long time off from work (which was changing for him at that time) and probably a couple of other excuses. I knew at that very moment he was going, even if he didn't. We said no more about the Americas, opened another bottle of wine and moved on, but I knew.
Time passed and South America wasn't mentioned. He was in touch with his long time buddy, Pat whom he'd met way back on his first trip down under. Pat got Steve into photography and passed on his passion for travel. A two week holiday from work was taken and, where most of us would book a jaunt down to one of the Costa's or the Greek Islands, a quick dash round The Middle East was on the menu for these two.
The trip was a great success on what can be achieved on annual summer leave. And for a while Steve convinced himself that all was needed to visit 'closer' destinations was a couple of weeks off work. The photos taken on the trip were stunning. The bug was back.
Pat had introduced Steve to digital photography but there was much iffing and aahrring about buying a digital camera. "Why should I spend all that 'hard earned' on another camera when I've already got a decent one? Anyway going digital is selling your soul to the devil!" I pointed out that going digital would be essential when touring South America...
Within a week he'd been on the net, sold his soul to the devil and called various places trying to find the best flight to The Americas!
He was going.
And, here we are twelve months after departure. Lots of countries and places visited, loads of photos and I'm damn sure, a helluva lot a stories to tell. So all that remains is, to wish 'The Bear' a safe trip back to Blighty and to thank you all for checking in from time to time to check on the progress of The Bear's LATEST trip...