Travelling George

George on a flight 

The children of Frankie’s class last year, J2.4, very kindly bought him, as a leaving gift, a lovely little St. Georges bear, whom he’s not unreasonably named George.  Frankie chose George as the one cuddly toy allowed to accompany him on his travels, and decided that we’d get a photograph of George in the different locations we visit. 

  

George at the Copacabana

Stepping out after breakfast one morning in the Pantanal, we thought we’d get a picture of George with a toucan.  There’s a tree just outside where a couple of toucans tend to congregate in the early morning.  However we noticed that there were at least four chaps there with large cameras, supported by elaborate tripods, each with a lens the size of a large fire extinguisher.  Our little Canon looked rather pokey by comparison.  I resisted the urge to mention that we actually have quite a reasonable Nikon camera at home that we decided not to take because you can never get anything else in your day-sack once it’s in.  One chap had a remote control device for his camera and was standing about ten yards away while his camera whirred away busily. Perhaps if they set up some sort of webcam he wouldn’t need to come out here at all, just send the camera on ahead and ask them to set it up for him.  On second thoughts, given the wifi is generally intermittent that might be tricky...

We waited till everyone had finished, lest we get blacklisted by the birding community*, and Frankie crept closer to the toucan with George for our snap.  Except the closer he crept, the higher up the tree the toucan went. So here’s what we ended up with.

* Apologies for our ignorance but we admit to having learnt a new word this month - birders - keen bird-watchers basically. Perhaps if the boys really get into this then there could be a Bader Birders on Tour in the future.......

A few other places George has been to so far in Brazil.....


with Ronaldo  at our delightful little Pousada in lovely Bonito......

- our friend Elder in Curitiba

On the Mountain train with our unforgettable guide from Curitiba to Morretes........








....... with Whisky at the Isla do Mel - a lovely little dog who is sadly blind, but was nevertheless lots of fun, and curiously would bark like mad when anybody sneezed! 

.......and with Nicolas and Lucca in Morretes and their unmistakeable VW van