Topic: the brown bear in the hills

[piersdad]

What about the brown bear dad.
It was a winters evening and the fire was giving out its warm glow, on the floor was a lovely bear skin with very long brown fur, as I cuddled up in its warm luxury dad began to tell the story.

It was summer in India in 1933 and he was able to get a permit to shoot a brown bear and organize a trip to the Himalayas and arrange a shooting expedition to find a brown bear.
Even in those days the bears were rare and they some times came down to the foot hills to supper on the odd human.

So, even though they were rare, they were also a nuisance to the poor plantation workers.
 There were about 12 workers that carried the supplies and several that would act as scouts to find the bear
And the trek to the foot hills began to where a bear was recently sighted.
The camp was set up in the confluence of 3 valleys  with 10,000 foot mountains each side  very impressive as the jungle reached up  to about half way  showing the tops  of the mountains with wisps of snow on them.
The base camp comprised of several large tents that had heavy cork insulated covers or ‘flys’ over them and under them it was cool in the heat of the day.
The evening was hot and dads tent was just apart from a large spreading tree.
So he asked if the evening meal could be served outside under the tree.
Just as they were about to serve the first course of soup (luxury camping that would be with servants etc)  a loud chattering was heard as some monkeys  arrived in the tree.
Well just as the soup was served there appeared from above some extra liquid and the monkeys were adding their own warm extras to the soup.
The monkeys were chased away a bit.
Well soup was definitely off so the main course of rice and meat balls was delivered by the cook.
That’s when the monkeys returned and started to throw smelly brown warm lumps at the food.
So with the food piddled and pooped on, the  menu for the night,, was a stiff whiskey in the hot tent.

The next day 6 scouts went up the 3 confluent valleys and started to look for the bear.
And it was early afternoon when a very frightened scout returned and told the sahib that they had found a bear approximately a mile or so away.
Dad and a rifle bearer then followed the scout to where the bear was hunting and soon a rustling in the undergrowth revealed magnificent brown bear and with his ‘Jefferies333’ big game hunting rifle he dropped the bear with the first shot.
Well that was all he had to do as the various servants and carriers etc retrieved the bear and his skin and eventually the skin was beautifully preserved and presented to my dad
So some 11 years later in a different country and a different time I was cuddled up in this same bear skin.
60 yes on I as looking through some of my fathers records and came across a map and there was a note.—shot brown bear here—wow I even had the map coordinates on it.
With modern wizardry I went to my computer and googled the co ordinates in
Wow! there I was just up the valley amid 10 000 foot mountains  where my dad shot a bear


Posted on: June 17, 2006, 09:55:34 PMthere were 6 kids in our family and we all loved to cuddle up in the bears furry skin on cold evenings
 some time there were fights over the warmest spots

Up date.
due to the long time since i was told this story  and due to recent  discovery the more correct story is
about a hymalayan red bear also believed to be the scource of the mythical 'Yeti'

hunting for a yeti


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[dbackfan]

Well, can't say I'm for hunting, but the story's description was good, as always in your writing.  Love the nostalgia of the ending, using modern technology to visit the actual site of your dad's adventure.  I felt some identity with the story in that I spent 2 years in Pakistan, once making a trip to the northern mountains and could see the peak of K-2 on the horizon.  The rickety multi-colored bus was loaded down with Peace Corps Volunteers, me included, and I wondered a few times as I looked out the window down a canyon wall if we would really make it.  I could see the tops of trees crowding slopes of the wall and caught sight of some kind of animals bounding around in the branches.  Someone identified them as monkeys.  Well, we made it up and we made it back (to Abbottabad) and I'll never forget the beauty of the mountains and the people.