Travelling North

Episode 40

2008-05-18T13:50:00.001-07:00

Episode 40

Miri is a large modern city and the centre for the Sarawak oil industry with many oil wells just offshore and a refinery onshore. The original oil well, now closed off and made into a tourist attraction stands on top of the highest point overlooking the town and a couple of the offshore oil platforms can be seen.

This original oilwell “the Grand Old Lady” as its known was bored in 1910 and abandoned in 1972 after yielding an average of 7 barrels a day for all of those intervening years. It was bored using an ancient Chinese method that somewhat resembled a giant corkscrew with a couple of Chinese ‘coolies’ providing the turning power. We walked up here in the late afternoon to watch the sunset, it’s the thing to do here, but it was cloudy in the west and barely a hint of colour tinged the horizon. Another night we saw a glorious bright orange sunset from the window of our hostel.

Large shopping malls abound and very larger housing estates encircle the older part of the town. The most interesting area is that around the Chinese Temple where there are a couple of markets and plenty of small Chinese shops. There seemed to be one hell of a lot of shoe shops here and also in the big shopping malls, perhaps the women here are like Emelda Marcos and each have a 1000 or more pairs of shoes.

Another thing we have noticed not only here but in Sabah too, is the vast number of small restaurants and cafes. An enormous number of people must eat out each day to keep these places in business, it’s certainly not the tourists here as there isn’t many of them. On the whole they are quite clean and the food tasty when it’s not too ‘chilly’ hot so that you can actually taste it. Most people throughout Sabah and Sarawak speak enough English to be able to tell you what the dish consists of and whether or not it’s very hot and spicy.

One day we did some walking in the Lambir Hill NP an hours bus ride from the city. A pleasant enough place for some walks and from the top of a high hill I got a great view of the surrounding countryside but there wasn’t anything special to see.

The principle reason to come to Miri is for access to Gunung Mulu National Park a short 20min flight away. Later we found out that a direct flight now connects Mulu with Kota Kinabalu three times a week, this would have been very useful to us if we’d known about it beforehand.

The flight was interesting as we flew over large areas of oil palm plantations that reach almost to the National Park boundary and great brown rivers lazily meander their way across the flat land towards the coast. There is a rather smart modern terminal and a few service buildings, a couple of houses and a couple of upmarket accommodation places at or near the airport. A very dilapidated old mini van waited to convey those of us who were going directly to the National Park a couple of k’s away.

This National Park, a world heritage site, is where the biggest caves in the world can be found. The limestone hills hereabouts are almost hollow and riddled with caves, many of them interlinked. These caves are home to millions of bats and swiftlets and we were rather hoping that we would be more fortunate here than we had been at Niah and see the bats emerging at sunset.

All the tracks near the headquarters are boardwalks and that was just as well because there had been a lot of rain over recent days and any tracks that weren’t boradwalks were hopelessly boggy and leeches too, were a problem.

Visiting the caves meant that we had to take guided walks so we booked one to visit Deer Cave and Lang’s Cave one day and to Clearwater Cave and Wind Cave another day.

First we went to Deer Cave and Lang’s Cave; this was a very easy 3k walk through the rainforest on a boardwalk, we kept a lookout for any wildlife as there is meant to be some around but apart from the bugs and insects we could only hear birds and frogs. The track through the cave was good and not as slippery as those in other caves we’d visited. There are many stalagmites and stalactites of all sizes but because of the birds and bats they are not very dirty, and certainly the smell is none to attractive. Nor is the floor, a close study of which reveals it to be thick no only with guano but also alive with cockroaches and other beetles that live on the guano; it was a heaving mass:

Like most of these caves their dimensions are staggering and in places the roof was 150m above us, with a stream many metres below. Our guide pointed out dark patches on the sides and roof and told us that each one was a group of hundred or thousands of bats. This one cave, Lang’s cave is home to more than 2million of them. Just how that figure has been arrived at I cannot say, God knows how anyone could possibly count them. There is possibly just as many swiftlets too, but they have not had their nests harvested so there has not been the resulting damage to the calcite formations as there has been at Niah.

Situated just a few metres from these two caves is a purpose built viewing area where people sit and await the evening exodus of the bats. At this time of year that can be from about 5.15pm till 6.40pm by which time it is almost dark. A CCTV camera is set up in the cave beside one of the sleeping areas and two monitors in the viewing area give a good close-up view of one or two bats ‘at home’. I saw one feeding her baby. There are also a number of posters that give a lot of information about the bats and make for some interesting reading whilst awaiting their evening departure. On the first evening we waited and waited and eventually they began to emerge when most of us were about to call it a night and head off, the sun had set and the light was fast going. David could see them soon after they emerged from the mouth of the cave as they rose up past the white limestone cliffs of the hills, but I couldn’t see them until they became silhouetted against the light of the evening sky. They formed long squiggles across the sky as they went off to their hunting grounds. Not one huge group but many small groups of probably a few thousand individuals, emerging minutes apart.

There are many species of bats that live here and they range is size upward from very tiny ones that measure about 25-30mm (when hanging in their sleeping position) and weigh only a few grams. Mostly these little creatures live on insects and some fruit. I think I read that there are altogether around 30 million bats in the Mulu area, and that they collectively consume thousands of tons of mosquitoes and other pesky insects each night.

I can’t imagine how bad those insects would be without the bats to keep them in check. There were a few mozzies about but not clouds of them so the bats must really have to work hard to fill their tummies. Later when we were sitting eating our dinner at the canteen we watched one little bat swoop around the electric lights catching the bugs it attracted, this one had a wingspan of 75-100mm.

As we walked back along that 3k long boardwalk in the pitch dark we could hear the ‘barking’ frog, it has a very distinctive “whooopt whooopt” call, but try and we might we couldn’t see one. We stopped and shone the torch around and tried to hone in one the sound but failed miserably.

Each evenings we spent in the park we came along and waited for the bats, one evening they didn’t come out at all and we wandered back quite disappointed, and on another evening they come out early in dribs and drabs and formed ‘donuts’ against the evening sky, and continued whirling in circles and they moved off over the rainforest.

A much longer walk that took us up and down a great many steps, through another cave, eventually arriving at even more caves where we joined another tour: These caves are all interlinked and are part of a system that is 128’s long and has some massive caverns, making the limestone hills almost hollow. In these caves too there are many stalagmites and stalactites that are much cleaner because there are very few swiftlets and bats living in this system. Why that should be I cannot say: One of these caves, Clearwater cave, has a very swift stream running through it that is still cutting a deeper passage. There are underground waterfalls and rapids.

A few hours boat ride upstream from these caves, then an 8k walk leads to the area where there are many limestone pinnacles up to 1750m high, and I would have liked to have joined a party to climb these pinnacles but was put off somewhat after hearing that a lot of vertical free climbing up ladders is involved. Also after many months travelling and not getting much exercise neither of us was fit enough for such a strenuous hike. The heat too was also affecting us adversely, David especially. At some point in the future I would dearly love to go back to Borneo and climb these pinnacles and Mt Kinabalu.

We flew from Mulu back to Miri, and from there back to Kota Kinabalu where we collected our stored luggage and then flew back to Banda in Brunei to connect with our flight back to Brisbane. Arriving in Brisbane fairly late at night our friend Helen collected us from the airport and took us back to her home at Burpengary. After visiting other friends the next day we made our way home on a holiday Monday. Fortunately the heavier traffic was going south whilst we headed north arriving back in Burnet Heads in the afternoon, it was sunny and warm and the beach looked very inviting. So after nine and a half months we are home again.

Signing off till next time – Lyn

Episode 39

2008-05-18T13:47:00.000-07:00

Episode 39

We left Kota Kinabalu on a lovely sunny afternoon and flew through heavy rain that delayed our landing for a few minutes, it had been tipping down in Kuching. We saw some new and quite large housing estates just before we landed. These estates are quite smart and somewhat similar to what you can see in many European countries and Australia.

Kuching seemed very quiet after Kota Kinabalu; it has a population of around 600,000 and Sarawak has a total population of around 2.3 million. For several centuries this region was part of the Sultanate of Brunei, then around 1849 it came under the control of Sir James Brookes, the first of the three ‘white rajas’. During the ‘reign’ of the 3^rd Raja Sarawak was invaded by the Japanese and this member of the Brooks dynasty fled to Sydney. At the end of WW2 with the surrender of the Japanese the area was placed under Australian Military rule until 1946 when the exiled Brooks decided to cede his ‘Kingdom’ to the British. Many turbulent years passed until 1963 when it was incorporated into the new Federation of Malaysia, along with Sabah and peninsular Malaya. Singapore too, joined the original Federation but pulled out within a couple of years.

The centre is much smaller and things appear to be less hectic than KK. The main business area is on the south bank of the river and across on the north bank, still very much under construction is the new State Legislature building that dominates the landscape. A group of large tourist hotels stand clustered together along with a shopping mall and some of the cat statues for which the city is famous are to the east of the centre; while a nice riverside walk heading west will bring you to the big market when plenty of fresh produce is for sale. On the other side of the road there is a whole block of shops selling Sarawak handicrafts and to walk along there is a real obstacle course, each shop is about 12ft (4m) wide and the pavement in front of each shop is a slightly different height to its neighbour to either side, so apart from ducking under all the wares hanging up outside the shop you must watch where you step as well or risk falling flat on your face.

This central area is predominately Chinese with plenty of little Chinese restaurants and two Chinese temples, all very similar to those we’ve seen elsewhere. A few blocks away near the bus station there is a large mosque with gold topped minarets and dome and almost beside it is a Sikh temple, also with gold domes. We didn’t go into either: Not far from here are two or three churches and a Hindu temple is a little way out of town. So you see, just about every religion is catered for here except Judaism that certainly isn’t encouraged and probably not allowed here as people travelling on an Israeli passport cannot enter Malaysia.

On top of the hill by the Civic centre we found a high tower and took a lift to the top where we got a view over the whole city. It is surprising how well the trees and other greenery hide the buildings. In the distance we could see the jungle covered limestone hills near the village of Bau where there are a couple of caves that we visited.

An hours pleasant bus journey through suburbs of Kuching passing, along the way, the Hindu temple, another Chinese temple, numerous shopping malls and smart housing estates as well as some quite seedy looking areas, a little bit of countryside and we arrived in the village of Bau. Here we changed busses then a short distance outside the town we got off and walked about a kilometre along to Wind Cave. After paying a small entrance fee and armed with a torch each we set off into the foul smelling cave; it is only one cave really with several caverns all interlinked.

This cave like many more we were to visit are home to millions of swiftlets and bats and the floors of these caves are thick with guano. The smell is not pleasant: As it was daytime when we visited the swiftlets were quite active and very noisy, don’t know how the bats could sleep with so much noise but I expect that they are used to it, they have been sharing the cave for thousands of years.

A good path leads into the cave and through it, up and down many stairs and in places it is pitch dark, that’s why we had our torches. This cave was huge and it was the smallest of all those we were to visit. Several hundred metres of pathway and steps lead from one cavern into another and then another until eventually we came out the other side. There are some stalagmites and stalactites in this cave but we couldn’t see much of them as our torches weren’t powerful enough. We did see some swiftlet nests and they had eggs in them. We also saw some of the bats clinging upside down to the roof of the cave: All those bats and birds are still dropping guano and that makes the pathways and steps very slippery especially where there is water dripping too.

When we’d finished here we asked the only other person around where to find Fairy Cave and he gave us a lift there fortunately, as it was a long way distant. This cave is more a huge open cavern though I think there are some small passages that lead back into the hill. We had first to climb up 150 or so steps to even reach the entrance, then up about the same again before we came to the small Chinese shrine that sits in the centre of the open cavern. It is a huge cavern and where there is plenty of light and the rain can reach there are lovely ferns, mosses and lichens. From a ledge high up on one side there is quite an extensive view over the deep green vegetation of the flat land surrounding these hills; some small areas of vegetable plots and bananas but mostly there is long grasses and shrubs and vines with a few scattered trees.

Another day we took a combination of a bus and motor boat to the Bako National Park where there are some nice walks. This NP is on a small peninsular so is surrounded by sea on 3 sides. There is a canteen and several forms of accommodation there but it was all booked out when we planned to visit so we just made it a day trip.

The motorboat jetty is situated on a tidal creek on extensive tidal sand flats so that when the tide is out the boat cannot reach the jetty, we had to get out in shallow water and wade through it then across the sand flats to reach the shore and the NP headquarters. We had been warned of all sorts of stingers we might encounter in the water whilst wading ashore but we didn’t gat stung.

A long board walk stretched over quite a large area of those tidal flats and near the boat dock we saw some monkeys playing in the mangroves and there were many small crabs rushing about across the sand too. Some way further on along one of the trails we saw a troop of proboscis monkeys but apart from them the only other ‘wild life’ we saw were small insects and bugs. Funny how you get quite excited about seeing such things when nothing larger is likely to present itself for ones viewing. There are several species of larger manuals in this area, some two or three species of native cat, mouse deer, squirrels, macaques and flying lemurs, and the wild bearded boar. Many of those species are nocturnal: It was very hot here and in the middle of the day nothing much moves, not even the bugs, only the silly humans hiking in the heat.

The vegetation ranges from the mangroves on the tidal flats, through the thick rainforest just above the shore line, then it thins quickly as you climb the hill where much more sparse vegetation if found. There are also some small areas of peat bogs where pitcher plants can be found. One trail ended on a high cliff overlooking a lovely sheltered sandy beach with a view to a distant headland across the bay.

Later in the afternoon whilst we were sitting in the canteen enjoying a cool, refreshing drink one of those wild boars, a considerably tame one, strolled past. Such a sight grabbed everyone’s attention and whilst we were all otherwise occupied a very cheeky little monkey, a small macaque, took advantage of the situation and snatched some food from plates left abandoned and any other item that took his fancy. Apparently this is a regular occurrence each afternoon about the same time.

Borneo is famous for its longhouses, and most tourists like visit one of these places. Longhouses are how most of the local tribes people used to live; many still do, though more and more are moving to individual houses. The longhouse is a communal house where many families live under one roof. The small hostel where we stayed in Kuching offered a 4 day trip to a longhouse quite a long way distant and so not as touristy as some closer to the city, so we took the opportunity to visit.

Trips to this longhouse consist of no more than 4 people usually as the first part of the trip is in a 4wd and that’s all the passengers it can carry. In our group there were two Danish girls and David and I. We set out about 7.30am one morning in the 4wd, our driver being someone who came from this longhouse originally and is a member of the Iban tribe. The Iban people are the tribal people from this area and make up a large percentage of the population of the city of Kuching.

After an hour or so travelling along the main road that eventually leads north into Sabah we stopped in a large town and our driver took us into the local market and gave us many different types of fruit to taste. Some small round fruit with a hard shell like skin that looks a little like snake skin is called ‘snake skin’ fruit and I found it quite pleasant tasting with yellow flesh and a fairly large seed. Another smaller, but quite similar looking fruit is very bitter. Dragon fruit I would have to say was the best of all. They are quite red in colour and somewhat resemble a kohl rabi in appearance. Sliced open the flesh is bright pinkish/purple with tiny black seeds, the skin peels back easily making them easy to eat. They reminded me of something I’ve had before but I couldn’t remember what until we saw the plant that they grow on. It is a cactus, and though it grows in a very different from to prickly pear, that is what the flesh of the fruit is similar to. A very popular snack food in these markets is pancakes spread with a sort of peanut flavoured jam, quite tasty really. For anyone with peanut allergies this is not the place to visit as most local food usually has peanuts as an ingredient.

After buying a great load of supplies to go with us to the longhouse we continued on our way and soon after leaving the main road came to the river where the road ends and where we now had a two hour boat trip up the river.

Our boat trip was in a long, narrow canoe type boat, where we sat on special little wooden chairs one behind the other with a lookout up front and our driver and outboard operator at the back. All the supplies and our packs were loaded on with us and off we set upriver. It was quite fast flowing and with many sandbanks and tight turns much skill is needed to negotiate the very long boat past all the obstacles. Of course the rain chose that time to come along, well at least in this climate its not cold rain, so getting wet really doesn’t cause a great deal of discomfort.

Certainly our arrival at the longhouse didn’t create any excitement, in fact no-one made any effort to come and help us take our packs and all the supplies from the boat, up the steep track to the longhouse. So we each struggled up heavily laden:

Many families live in one long house. They are all related to each other: This longhouse is nearly 100m long. We went up the steps at one end and along a central passageway. On our right are the enclosed private areas for each family, whilst on our left was a semi enclosed veranda with an open slatted floor made of planks or split bamboo. The planks are ok to walk on but the bamboo is not so easy being smooth and rounded. Beyond the enclosed veranda, about 4m wide, was an open deck where each family had their clothes line and at the end of the deck most had a little shed in which the toilet was situated. For some though, including the one where we stayed, the toilet was down the bottom of the small yard reached by descending some very basic ladder steps, walking past the garden, the fish pond, and coming to a small tin shed where there was a shower as well as the toilet and a small chicken coop. The fish pond was full of fairly large carp:

This longhouse was divided into 17 separate living quarters, each one roughly the same size. The enclosed private sections were much larger than we expected with one large room that serves as living room come bedroom, and beyond that a smaller room used as a kitchen with a door and steps to the outside. So, you have a structure that is not only about 100m long but is also quite wide, 15m covered, and a further 5m or 6m uncovered. The roof was a mixture of BHP colourbond steel and very rusty corrugated iron. The place had been built in 1987 on a plot of land that had first been levelled by a bulldozer brought in overland and across the river in the dry season. There are 105 people resident here but with 50 of them being school age children who are away at school there was only 55 left here. The chief is a wizened old man in his 80’s who formerly welcomed us to the longhouse in the evening.

Our host took us on a walk up and over the hills behind the house: Growing up on these hill sides are plantations of pepper, the real stuff that most of us use as seasoning at some time. The pepper is a vine that climbs up a tall pole, the seeds (peppercorns) form on small seed heads with probably a couple of hundred seeds. These seed heads are nipped off when the seeds turn black. I will describe more of the process later. Along with the pepper there are many rubber trees, which, along with the pepper provides most of the income for these people. Each family in the longhouse owns their own bushes and trees. Large pineapple bushes and some rather scrappy looking bananas grow here too. We also saw the palm that is harvested for palm hearts. This particular one produces many heads so that harvesting the heart doesn’t kill this palm as it does with some species.

When we reached a clear cool stream with a nice waterhole we had a swim and rest while a couple of men from the longhouse prepared us the most wonderful BBQ lunch. This consisted of fish wrapped in large leaves that the guide didn’t know the name of, then pushed into a large bamboo tube that was cut from a nearby bush. Palm heart was cut into small pieces, wrapped in the leaf, and put into another bamboo tube, likewise with the chicken, and even the rice, separate tubes for each item, then the tubes were filled with water, sealed with a bamboo plug, and placed on a rack made of green branches over a fire. After a good while cooking the tubes were carefully removed from the fire and the meal served up on more leaves, the perfect disposable plates. It has to be one of the tastiest meals I have ever eaten. It was unbelievably good!!! We returned to the longhouse via a different route following the creek until it joined the river then along the river bank, a cooler alternative in the afternoon heat.

The men from the longhouse usually work at collecting rubber or picking pepper in the morning. Any pepper picked in the morning is usually ‘stamped’ in the afternoon. This is done by laying the collected pepper heads over a coarse sieve with a collection box beneath and people climb up and stamp on it to remove the seeds from the stalk. After that has been done then it is taken out onto the open veranda and laid out on woven mats to dry in the sun. This means a constant eye has to be kept on the weather as a shower of rain can come along very quickly and the pepper is brought inside before it gets wet. To get white peppercorns the seeds are first soaked in water to remove the outer husk then dried in the sun.

With the rubber trees a gash is made at a 45˚ angle in the trunk, a little spout inserted at the lowest part of the gash and this directs the sap into a small container at the base of the tree. After a couple of days this gash seals itself and a new one is made below it a few days later. The collected sap is taken back to the longhouse and in a nearby shed some sort of acid is mixed with it, then its poured into a large tray and put out into the sun to dry. The resulting material is like a thick piece of cream coloured spongy rubber, which, of course is exactly what it is. With the recent hike in oil prices the demand for rubber has increased greatly too, along with the price, but I don’t think very much of it is filtering down to these people.

I expected to see vegetable gardens but apart from a few tomatoes and some hot chillies in some of the gardens there didn’t appear to be anything else, only a few ornamental shrubs. A variety of green veggies would easily grow here, especially snake beans and some of the cabbage family.

The women, and some of the men spend a good deal of time weaving mats, baskets and many other items that they either use at home or try and sell at handicraft markets or to visitors such as us.

One evening we were entertained with some dancing. This consisted of only a couple of basic steps repeated over and over again whether or not it was the man by himself or the man and the woman together. The woman’s costume was a long dress decorated with a great many silver discs, whilst the man wore a feathered headdress and a cotton loin cloth, his body is covered in tattoos. The music was provided by 3 musicians using wooden and bamboo instruments that they tapped or banged. Not especially harmonious:

An hour’s boat ride upriver brought us to the school and clinic. The school has about 150 kids from several longhouses attending. Most of the children have to board and only go home every 2^nd weekend. They start when they are 7 years old and finish at this school at about 13. Then they have to go further away to secondary school and only go home one weekend a month.

The clinic has a small 5 bed hospital attached with 2 nurses who mainly deliver babies. There is also a paramedic resident here. On the day we visited it was very quite with nothing at all happening and that’s the way it usually is apparently. Our host collected a load of medicines for others at the longhouse while we were here. The paramedic can prescribe drugs and keeps plenty on hand to dish out as required.

During our stay there had been a lot of heavy rain and our trip back downriver was very fast with the water higher than it had been and flowing more swiftly. The rain was tipping down yet again when we arrived back at our hostel in Kuching. We had all really enjoyed our longhouse stay and would recommend this particular one to anyone who is interested; Labang longhouse on the Skrang River.

The next day we caught a morning ferry to Sibu some 5 hours away. This was quite a pleasant boat trip that took us up the coast then along the estuary of the Batang Rejang (Rejang River). It was calm along the coast and once we entered the estuary we passed a lot of logs being floated downstream from the logging sites in the interior. Many sawmills are sited along this estuary where we could see massive stacks of sawn timber.

Sibu doesn’t really have much to recommend itself. It is mainly used as a base for people going upriver to the interior. The population is predominantly Chinese and a fairly modern, and quite pretty, 7 tiered Chinese Pagoda stands on the river bank. As we were fast running out of time we didn’t head into the interior but continued northwards and another 5 hour journey, this time by bus put us in the little town of Batu Niah where we spent a day visiting the caves in the National Park.

Here we met an English chap whom we’d met briefly back in Sabah. We all went to the NP together. We walked to the NP, then took the boat across the river, no bridge, and made our way directly to the small museum where we saw some interesting exhibits found in the archaeological dig in Great Cave and some of the paintings from Painted Cave. A replica of the skull that is claimed to be several thousand years old is on display here. Under the eaves of the building we saw some of the bats that had been the reason for our visit.

Then set off on the 3k walk to the caves. This was very easy walking on a good boardwalk. Along the way we saw many bright orange/red millipedes on the hand rails but that was just about the extent of the wildlife until we reached the caves. All the literature we’d read said that the caves were full of bats and that at sunset they emerge in great clouds so that is what we’d come to see.

These caves are massive too: The old archaeological site by the main cavern entrance is where the skull had been found. We had come prepared with torches to explore the interior of these caves.

There was a great deal of up and down very slippery steps inside the cave. We could here the noisy swiftlets chattering away in their thousands and watch them as they swooped around outside catching insects on the wing then returning into the cave but we couldn’t see any bats. Great long ropes hang down from the cave roof, these are used by the ‘birds nest’ collectors in the collecting season. These are the nests used in birds nest soup. The most highly prized ones are the white ones with the yellow ones selling for a lower price. The swiftlets make them from saliva.

This might be a National Park and the swiftlets supposedly protected but not only are many of the nest collected but we also saw a couple of people collecting guano. Yes, these caves stank just as badly as the ones back near Kuching. There are some stalagmites and stalagities but only the very large ones survive, no doubt anything at all fragile has been broken off by the nest collectors.

We were mighty glad we’d taken our torches especially when it came to making our way towards Painted cave as we had to pass through an absolutely pitch black passage a couple of hundred metres long. We could hear a stream running far below.

In Painted cave, a much smaller but still huge cave, we saw the paintings but they are very faded and indistinct though they do cover quite a large area along one wall of the cave. Some of these paintings have been cut out and taken away to be exhibited in distant museum: I walked through and out the other side but the trail went no further. These limestone hills are full of caves but there are only a few that are open for visitors

We waited around until dusk to see these bats but if there were any they didn’t make an appearance for us and we were very disapointed. It was almost dark when we started out on the return trip along the board walk so I was very glad that it was an easy walk. When we got back to park headquarters and across the river, the boatman was still on duty, we found that the gate at the entrance to the foot path back to the village was locked so we climbed over that and set off along the path. On arrival in the village we went straight to the little restaurant and had a lovely hot meal of noodles and veggies while the sweat still streamed off us. Surprisingly few mozzies and other night insects flying about:

Our next stop Miri:

Episode 38

2008-04-15T05:41:00.000-07:00

Episode 38

We stayed in a jungle camp on the Kinabatangan River south of Sandakan. Here we had some trips up and down the river in the early mornings and late afternoons. Back at Sepilok we had met and English chap David, who is a keen bird watcher (twitcher), we had got off the bus from KK together and stayed at the same place in Sepilok and he had come here too at the same time. This was very handy as he had some books with the local birds illustrated so that we could put names to what we saw. Our guide too, just one guide for the 3 of us, was quite knowledgeable about the birds as well as other creatures we saw.

In our forays up and down the river we saw some brilliantly coloured kingfishers, lovely stately white egrets, grey herons, several different hornbills, and quite a variety of other birds. I got to see most of them fortunately. One morning we saw a group of river otters playing on a mud bank. There were several boat loads of tourists just like ourselves on the river and as we all neared the mud bank the otters ducked over the ridge and down behind it, but they were quite funny and very like Meercats in that they kept popping up for a look about. We watched them for quite some time. They are dark grey in colour and have lovely faces.

In the trees along the river we saw a colony of orang-utans, or I really should say everyone else saw them but I was damned if I could. Plenty of long tailed macaques about and one group of silver langurs and another of red langurs, these are both smaller types of monkey the latter having quite a red coloured fur. Proboscis monkeys live here too and we saw a couple of colonies of them. These are the same type as we saw in Brunei back last July at the start of our trip. Each colony of these monkeys has one male and his harem of females and their young. One big male we saw in a tree right at the rivers edge, it was the best view we have had of one and they are quite a large animal. The big males have an enormous hooked nose that is supposed to attract the females and this one was sitting there facing us with his bright red penis sticking straight up. It is thin and about 300mm (1ft long) and stood out very clearly against the yellow of his fur.

The river is very muddy and silting up because logging further upstream is leaving the land bare and erosion is becoming a big problem there whilst the silt is causing problems further downstream. Plenty of crocodiles on this river too, same species as the Australian estuarine crocks, and just as big.

Each evening we went for a torch light walk into the jungle to see whatever we could. Again the guide was quite good and we saw several frogs, some stick insects, spiders and scorpions and some sleeping birds. The thing that really surprised me is just how vulnerable the birds are at night. One, a red trogon, had his head tucked in and didn’t move a feather when the camera flashlight went off, and it did so several times each night. Another one was a tiny Taylor bird, he was awake and looking at us, but he didn’t move either, he just blinked, but another night he was flying about. Also saw a family of Bulbuls high up on a tree branch huddled together, mum, dad, and the kid in the middle. As we walked along the path with just torch light the guide would sometimes tell us to move along very fast whenever we came to an area where there are fire ants. The tracks were quite muddy and we wore wellington boots and long trousers to protect us from leeches and mosquitoes, not that there was a great many of the latter, very few really, some people did get leeches but I managed to avoid them. Poison ivy grows beside the track too and our legs needed protection from it too.

In the daytime we took a long walk through the jungle wading through mud over our ankles to an oxbow lake where we saw more birds but nothing different to what we’d seen on the river. Again we saw a great many leeches hanging on the leaves just waiting for someone to come by and brush them. David got one on him but I managed to avoid them completely. On our walk back from the lake we were joined by another group and with the track being very boggy our guide decided to take us over to the river bank and called back to the lodge for a boat to be sent for us. This idea worked well up to the point when we all got near the river bank and the boat came along. Then one of the other group, a chap from Singapore strode off towards the boat and sank up to his knees in the mud. He provided a great deal of entertainment for the rest of us as we watched while first he tried to move one foot then the other. Eventually with the help of the guides and others and some cut branches he was extradited and we all made our way very carefully over more cut branches across the mud and into the waiting boats. That mud was deadly:

In this area there is also the pygmy elephant, but at this time of year they are deeper into the forest and not easily found. They are called pygmy elephants because they are the smallest of all elephants but they are not small, just smaller than others. Our lodge has an electric fence around it to prevent them from wandering through and destroying the buildings.

From here we took a bus to Semporna on the east coast and from there we went out to the island of Mabul and stayed at a backpacker resort there. We did have intentions of doing some snorkelling on the reef but when we got there we found the sun so burning hot that we did little but take a few short swims in the early morning and late afternoon.

This island is a very popular base for divers wanting to dive on the reed off Sipidan Island. It is supposed to be one of the ten top dive spots in the world. I had thought to do snorkelling there but as I said it was just too burning hot and we had got very white from our time travelling in Europe. Still we spent quite a pleasant few days there keeping out of the sun. The island is very small and a village takes up most of it, then there are several resorts: Ours was built on stilts over the water right behind the main part of the village but there were several others spread around the island. Two of them were built on stilts over the water but much more upmarket than ours, and a couple were on the shore set among waving palm trees and with a swimming pool.

The village has rubbish spread everywhere, plastic bags, bottles, cans, God knows what, it was strewn about all over. One section of the village kept their area clean, each day it was swept clean and the sand raked but by late afternoon it was covered with litter again. There was piped water all around the village and we saw the water treatment plant, not sure about the sewerage though, just what happened with it, but there was some sort of system in place. In front of our resort was a reasonably clean area for swimming and a short walk past the end of the village was another area for swimming but even these places had a lot of rubbish in the water so it wasn’t all that nice. The temperature of the water was good though. An oil rig stood just offshore:

Just what all the people do for a living in this village I have no idea, but they certainly breed plenty of kids, never seen so many kids in one small village as I saw here:

The tide rose and fell several metres so this meant that there was quite a fast flowing current and a couple of girls who went snorkelling found themselves a long way from their starting point and called out for some one to come and collect them. A boat quickly went and picked them up. Some of the divers did comment that there was a great amount of rubbish on the reef though they all agreed that it was really good diving. Most came back quite sunburnt:

Next we spent a couple of days at Mount Kinabalu staying in one of the hostels in the park there. It was a Saturday afternoon when we arrived and I had been a bit concerned that we might have trouble getting accommodation there at the weekend but as it turned out there was no shortage of availability. Staying at the same hostel we met a lovely lady from Germany named Gisela with whom we made friends.

I would have liked to climb the mountain but I really wasn’t sure that I was up to it, David even less so, but as it turned out we didn’t find any group that had any spare places. With this walk you have to take a guide and stay overnight at a hostel about 500m below the summit. The agencies who organize walks to the summit book all the accommodation in advance so that it is very hard for independent travellers to get any. You must ask around the different groups of hikers and see if any have got some of their party that doesn’t want to do the climb, or not turned up, that way you can take their place.

The view of the mountain in the early morning from the veranda of the cafe is beautiful. The cafe is at an altitude of 1500m approx, and the jagged tops of the mountain are around the 4100m, and with the sun glistening off the sheets of steep, bare granite rock that has to be crossed by the hikers, it looks quite daunting. Each morning we would sit and eat breakfast on this veranda and think about those souls on the mountains who had left the hostel near the top that we could see, at 3am, to climb the last 500m to see the sunrise from the top. By 9am generally, the cloud is forming around the top and obscuring it from view.

Even without climbing the mountain there are a number of trails around through the forest that make quite good walks though the map the office hands out seems to bear little relationship to the actual trails and we seemed to go in circles somewhat. We joined a short nature walk and the young guide pointed out a number of plants and gave us a run down on their uses. One in particular is called the kerosene fruit. This yellow fruit produces an oil that the native people use to light their fires. It has quite a pleasant smell: The guide thinks the tree belongs to the leprospermum family: One of the tall forest trees is related to the Australian eucalypts:

Another guided walk was through the botanical garden section of the park. Here we saw the smallest orchid in the world; the flower is only about 2cm across, and the rarest orchid in the world. The flower on this one had died and another bud not yet out, but at least we saw the plant. Apart from this plant there are some seeds in the Kew Gardens seed bank in England. That’s how rare it is:

Many of the plants have been used by local tribes people for medicinal purposes and in this garden scientists are experimenting with them to see if they do indeed provide effective medicines. Others are being tested to see if they have any commercial uses that may in the future, provide income for the local village people.

We saw a few different birds and David saw a couple of squirrels but that was it as far as wild life went so we went off to Poring Hot Springs some 40k’s away to have a soak in the thermal bathes. That was pleasant enough and while here we also did another ‘canopy walk’. This one was much more natural. With a tower at each end the actual walkway was made of aluminium ladders bolted together and a plant laid over the top, so that it was quite narrow. From each side a mesh net stretched upward to the rope at the top that formed a hand rail so that should you fall over you would just bounce off the net and still be on the walkway. It is very bouncy to walk on especially when you have several other people on it at the same time.

It was in 4 sections of about 50 to 60m each section. From the tower to a large tree with a platform around it, then on to another tree and so on: At one point we were 40m above the ground but still way below the canopy of the tall forest trees. We saw a few flowers below us and looked down on many lower trees but we saw nothing in particular. The big trees used as anchors are called ‘concrete trees”. They got this name because they are extremely hard but when felled they shatter so that they have no commercial use. Because of this they have been left alone.

The thermal baths at Poring were developed by the Japanese during WW2, the only positive thing their occupation did, so the locals say. There is one very hot pool that is really too hot to jump into so everyone just dips there feet into it from time to time. Then there are a large number of small tubs in groups of 4 and these can be filled to a temperature to suit the individual. Each has a hot and cold tap over it but they only run slowly and so take ages to fill. Each tub comfortably takes two people sitting in it or a family of 6 sitting around the edge. Then there is a fairly large cold water pool to cool off in. It was nice there and as the hot tubs are under cover we didn’t have to worry about being sun burnt.

We were a little lucky in the fact that in the forest near the spring there was one Rafflesia flower out: This is the largest flower in the world and can have a diameter of around 1m, though the one we saw was a little smaller, about 600cm dia. They only last about 5 days and this is not the season for them, they usually flower August to October: This plant had a dead flower beside the open one and nearby there was another bud, but it may be months before the bud opens out. The flower is red with white spots and has a large ‘bowl’ in the middle with the stamen in it. It is said to give off the smell of rotting meat to attract the flies that pollinate it but we couldn’t smell anything. These flowers grow in the same area as the huge bamboos that grow up to 40m high and have stems as thick as 14cm diameter.

Back in KK we booked a flight to Kuching in Sarawak for the next day.

Episode 37

2008-04-15T05:39:00.000-07:00

Episode 37

Haynes Motor Museum was started by the same man who started the Haynes maintenance manuals for cars. It is in Somerset and we visited it on a fairly quiet afternoon.

I think they must have got a job lot of bright red paint, Ferrari red, according to David, because a great many cars in one room were painted in the same very bright colour with a few others in slightly different reds. The majority of cars in this museum are classics; there are some vintage and veteran cars and some that are quite modern like a new Ferrari and Jaguar. Most are British in manufacture but there are several big American cars from the 1950’s, a few cars from Europe too, and one or two Japanese. All are presented in immaculate condition, a handful are actually replicas of rare cars and some are kit cars. One of those replicas was of the first car ever built back in the 19^th century. I think it is the same one that we have seen on display in a shop window in Vienna. I found it quite interesting to look at cars that I was familiar with as a child back home; cars such as the Ford consul and zephyr, the Austin’s and Morris’s and a few others. A couple of rooms were devoted to old motorbikes and David spent a good while reminiscing over those.

Heading towards Newport Pagnell and a visit with our friend Ria we passed by the white horse near Westbury. This is a large drawing of a horse that is cut into the steep hill side of the downs. I don’t know its measurements but it is very large and can be seen from quite a long distance. It is white as that is the colour of the chalk downs once the grass has been removed. The present horse dates from the 18^th century though it is believed that it was drawn over a much older one that possibly dates from nearly 1000 years earlier. The origins are very unsure but it could have something to do with winning a battle against the Danes. Some way further on in Oxfordshire we saw another, this one is quite different being more of an outline and quite stylized at that; its origins are said to be much older possibly as much as 3000 years old. It is not possible to see this horse properly from the ground so ideally the best way is to take a hot air balloon trip over it, but that would be a summer time thing anyway. It was threatening to rain with a bitterly cold gusty wind on the day we visited still the view over Oxfordshire from this point was very extensive, it looked very pretty with all the green fields and small villages.

As we drove along I noticed that the huge stacks of silage appeared to be almost untouched after the winter so presumably the winter as a whole has been very mild and the animals have been able to graze in the fields most of the time so have not needed the silage. There seems to be some very young lambs about a week or two old and many that are 2 or 3 months old but not much in between.

Newport Pagnell is a village that is part of Milton Keynes and as we drove through the area we passed the concrete cows that have been a feature of the area for many years. A great number of these cows have been stolen over the years and are no doubt adorning the gardens of Mediterranean villas or Reindeer farms in Lapland or maybe someone is putting together a farm of concrete cows, they come is a variety of sizes and painted black and white. The stolen ones have been replaced again and again; someone is perhaps encouraging the thefts so that they are kept in a job replacing them.

Ria, as per usual made us very welcome at her home is this lovely village. Her gentleman friend Brian took all of us on an outing into the Cotswolds one day. The weather was none too accommodating but never-the-less we had a lovely day with a visit to Stow-on-the-Wold where I had once stayed in the youth hostel many years ago and a walk between the villages of Lower and Upper Slaughter then a visit to Bourton-on-the-Water all of which I visited during my stay at Stow. The houses in these Cotswold villages are built of a lovely light cream stone, a very similar colour to our golden sandy beaches at home. When the sun chooses to shine the new building seem to almost glow, they are very pretty. As the stone ages it goes darker to a rich caramel colour or discolours with lichen and mould to a dirty gray colour. All the new houses are built using the same type of stone and usually in a style that blends in well with the rest of the village. Bourton was one of the villages that were badly flooded back in July, the weekend we first arrived in England last year; some of the buildings are still being repaired.

With all sorts of dire weather predicted for Easter we quite pleasantly surprised when Good Friday turned out to be a lovely sunny day but with a chilly wind, still got a couple of light showers through the latter part of the afternoon. Here, in England most of the shops and services are open for business on Good Friday and Saturday, but Sunday will be more like Christmas Day with virtually everything closed.

The weather stayed very changeable right up until the day we left England. We sold the car during the last week and the new owners agreed to take us to Heathrow early on Saturday morning. It was a fairly clear morning and the sun, a glorious orange ball, rose slowly over the tree tops. Heathrow was its usual chaotic self, at least we were departing from terminal 3, not the new BA terminal 5 where nothing seemed to be going to plan.

Our flight left on time and we got a bit of view of the suburbs around the airport before becoming enveloped in cloud that stayed with us the rest of the day as we passed over Europe. We landed in Dubai in the evening and this time got a short while to have a bit of a look about: Several great imitation date palms decorate the hallways and sitting under them on wooden seats, not camels, were some Arabs in white jelabas, their belongings in plastic bags beside them and tapping away at a wifi connected laptop on their knees.

Brunei was hot and sultry when we stepped out of the airport and into the tropical heat that hits almost like a physical force as you emerge from the air-conditioned customs hall. We stayed a couple of nights here but really didn’t see anything new before heading off towards Sabah in Malaysia.

A half hour bus ride, a couple of hours wait, then we passed through immigration and climbed onto the enclosed, narrow and long speed boat that would take us to Pulau Labuan, an island just off the coast of Borneo that is part of Malaysia but a Federally run duty free island, not really a part of Sabah or Sarawak. We had another wait before finally leaving and an hour later arrived in Banda Labuan, the town and port on the island. Unlike most of the other passenger we decided to stay overnight here before continuing on towards Kota Kinabalu in Sabah.

It was on this island that the Japanese forces in Borneo finally surrendered to the allies at the end of WW2. A large war cemetery here is the final resting place for a large number of Australian and British servicemen. We also visited a large Chinese temple that is currently undergoing extensions and we watched some craftsmen at work doing the bas relief on the pillars. They were making the dragons and flowers that wind about the pillars using a fine mortar. The ceiling was moulded and decorated using a vast amount of gold leaf and most of the rest of the interior was tiled in bright lemon yellow shinny tiles.

Took a fast speed boat ferry to Kota Kinabalu: The crossing was smooth but the air-conditioning was freezing, I needed defrosting when we arrived but once outside in the humid heat I soon thawed: this is a fairly big city surrounded by jungle and to the north is the massive bulk of Mt Kinabalu but I haven’t seen it yet. The mountain is the highest in Borneo and the highest in Southeast Asia at around 4100m. Not sure if I’m going to try and climb it yet, I haven’t had much in the way of exercise for a long time so I think it might be a bit too much for me. David probably wouldn’t be able to cope with that altitude though he has been up to that height years ago.

KK is a typical Asian city with a mixture of markets and market stalls selling everything imaginable and many things that are unimaginable and certainly unidentifiable. The smell of dried fish hanging in the stalls is overwhelming and permeates everywhere just as it does in the supermarkets back in Portugal. Mix with that the odour of a vast variety of meats and vegetables cooking on the small street stalls, the smell of spices and the general foul smell of the city and you about have it. The streets have been swept and are fairly free from garbage but not from cats, there are cats of all colours, shapes and sizes everywhere, even less flies than cats. Spread around the city are a number of air-conditioned shopping malls where its possible to find all the top brand names that you find anywhere in the world.

We walked through the late afternoon fish market and saw the massive array of fresh fish and seafood on offer from fish of all sizes to large piles of squid, many rays, and very large prawns. One wonders for how much longer this sort of catch can be sustained.

It seems to rain most afternoons or evenings, that heavy tropical rain that dumps an enormous amount of water in a short space of time then clears away leaving the air fresh and clean. Listening to the traffic report on the radio at the hostel it sounds as if Kuala Lumpur is badly flooded today and the traffic is in chaos, glad we aren’t there.

While in the city we visited the museum that is situated in some quite modern buildings not far from the centre of the city. There are some interesting displays on natural history, the birds, animals, insects, butterflies, fish and sea mammals. Probably far more here than we will get to see in real life: Some archaeology too; pottery burial jars that have come to light on a river bank and probably date from about the 16^th century, and other bits and pieces of pottery that is of Chinese origin. Evidence in some caves of human habitation in this part of Borneo for at least the last 3000 years:

A large display is devoted to the Japanese occupation of the Island during WW2; there were some POW camps here and of course the famous death march from Sandakan on which all the prisoners perished except for 6 Australians who I believed escaped that is how they managed to survive. It is only through them that anything is known of this march; apparently the Japanese didn’t record the event at all.

In the grounds of the museum we looked into a number of native houses that have been constructed. They come from a number of different tribes but are all quite similar in layout. Built up off the ground they have bamboo flooring that allows for the breeze to circulate through the floor, and they all have a veranda on the front and a cooking and eating area at the rear. The walls are timber or bamboo and the roof is a thatch with the rattan vine used to tie things together. In another building we saw a display on the railway that was once constructed here; there is still a small section of line that is used from Kota Kinabalu to Beaufort. The display covered the development of railway in Britain too. Another display I found interesting was one on radio, it even had an old radio studio and TV studio set-up in the room showing equipment from the 1950’s and 1960’s. A large area is an art gallery devoted to local artists covering a range of painting styles and some of the work here is very good.

I mentioned the POW camp at Sandakand a few paragraphs back, there is also a large Australian War Memorial there and this coming ANZAC day there will be a big service there.

We left KK one Friday morning and caught the bus to Sepilok over near the east coast. Our route took us along the main road past Mount Kinabalu that at the time of day we passed was covered in cloud. Our ticket cost included a small bottle of water and a midday meal at a roadside restaurant. The big air conditioned bus was equipped with video that showed a movie for those that wanted to watch it, I preferred the passing scenery. Fortunately the video wasn’t too loud nor the aircon too cold.

We passed through many small villages; in fact the road side has houses or stalls nearly all the way. In the vicinity of the mountain there are some valleys that are intensely farmed and roadside stalls hereabouts sell fresh produce from these farms. Most of the land has been cleared of its native forest, just as in every other country in the world, and where it is not being farmed the land has been invaded by thick, green fast growing shrubs and vines that are really pests and strangle or prevent any native timber from regrowing.

As we got a bit further to the east we came into the large oil palm plantations and wherever you look all you can see are the lines of oil palms marching off in all directions. Thick vines cover the ground and grow into the trees so there must be quite a lot of work involved in clearing this vine out of the trees from time to time. The plantations we saw ranged from those with mature trees to those that have just been planted. In one place we saw that they are harvesting the palm nuts, these come in large bunches that weigh about 10kg and consist of a great many roundish shaped fruit the size of a large marble, generally black in colour but shading to a yellow colour near the base of the bunch. I cannot say if one tree produces one bunch or several or how long they take to mature but I can say that the margarine here is made using palm oil and it tastes ‘bloody awful’.

At Sepolik we visited the Orang-utan sanctuary: This is one of the rehabilitation centres where orphaned young ones are raised and then gradually weaned from being feed by humans until they can fend for themselves in the jungle. The process takes about 7 years and involves many stages. The babies have to be fed every few hours and they must be taught the skills that their mothers would normally teach them such as climbing and what food to eat.

We watched a video on all this training but the only thing we could see was a feeding session. There are two feeding sessions each day and they take place a few hundred metres from the visitors centre. All us visitors and there was a great many of us, could go out to a viewing area where, at one of the trees there is a feeding platform and long ropes leading to it from the large trees in this nature reserve. The ropes are for the orang-utan to come along to the feeding platform so that they don’t have to come over the muddy ground or do damage to the lower branches of the trees by using them too much. The ones that come here for some food have been released into the nearby forest and can find food for themselves and sleep in the trees but have the reassurance of getting food here if they want it. Some days many come along, on other days only one or two may come, it is unpredictable how many will turn up.

Six different ones turned up for us as well as several long tailed macaques, another type of monkey: Orang-utans are similar to the chimpanzees and gorillas in that they have no tail. They have longish fur of a reddish brown colour. At a guess I would say they would be about 1200 to 1500mm (4ft to 5ft) tall and their arms are very long and stretchy and flexible for climbing and swinging their way through the jungle. I liked the way they would just hang onto the rope with one hand, feed on some bananas they were holding in the other hand and cast their eye over all us tourists who were watching them. The chap who brought the food also had a bucket of milk and each one that came had a drink of this milk. The macaques know an easy meal is to be had and make sure they get some too even if it means stealing some from an orang-utan who is departing with a handful of bananas.

Here at Sepolik there is also a rainforest discovery centre. A brand new short section of very heavy rigid ‘canopy walk’ has just been built and wasn’t yet open. We had been told that we could climb the tower but not walk along the walkway as it hadn’t been officially opened. When we got there we did what everyone else was doing and walked along it, not that there was much to see really, just looking down on the trees instead of up into them. Several towers have been constructed but only one short section of walkway about 100m long between two towers is finished. It certainly is not ‘low impact’. Big areas have been cleared for each tower and the area under the walkway has been cleared to make way for the heavy steel supports, it would dam near carry a train it looks that strong.

At this centre there are some walks and a lovely botanical section that has a massive range of plants that is divided into sections for each species. Small signs gave information about the plant, its habitat and how it may be used. I found it really interesting and we spend ages here. The display of orchids was beautiful even though it isn’t the main flowering season for them; there was an area full of pitcher plants too. These are wonderful plants that can grow on very poor soils because they obtain their nutrients from catching insects in its ‘pitcher’. Many of these are very tiny but here in Borneo they also have a very large one that has a ‘pitcher’ that can hold 3.5lt of fluid. These large ones are found in the Poring Springs area and it has been know for these plants to catch the local rats. The insects, and the rats too, are attracted to the plant by a sweet smelling solution that it excretes. They eat this solution and fall into the pitcher and can’t climb out because downward facing spikes prevent their escape. They drown and are dissolved by the liquid and absorbed into the plant. Very clever I think: The pitcher is really an extension of the leaf:

©Lynette Regan 15^th April 2008

Episode 36

2008-04-15T05:35:00.000-07:00

Episode 36

The high peaks of Montserrat are very aptly named for indeed the whole outline of the mountain does appear very serrated from all directions.

We drove up into the nation park where there are a number of hotels and a monastery at around the 750m level. From this point there are some paths upward and a funicular, a particularly steep one. Going down from this point there is a cable car and another funicular.

Being well into the afternoon when we arrived here we took the funicular up to its top station, a view point with great views over the city of Barcelona 50k’s away to the east, the Mediterranean, and the Pyrenees to the north. Unfortunately it was very hazy and we couldn’t even see Barcelona, let alone anywhere further away. We did a couple of short walks, all we had time for but because of the haze the views were not better at the higher points. There were a lot of people up on the mountain with backpacks and camping gear set for a couple of days of hiking I expect.

In some ways it resembled Torres del Paine in Chile except that the peaks here are more soft and rounded, but the whole place has a similar form. Here the rock is conglomerate and siltstone and sandstone, it was all once on the bottom of a sea. At some point in time it has been up-lifted and folded and the wind, rain, and ice have weathered it into what we see now. The high bare upper rock has formed into huge fat vertical columns. There are some that have been given names because of there odd shapes, the pregnant woman, and the elephant (that is a really good one), there are others that resemble faces and other forms.

On a warm sunny morning we drove into Barcelona. Parked the car in a parking station then we set off on foot to have a look around this city. Possibly founded as early as 230BC it has been occupied by the Romans, Visigoths, the Muslims before being retaken by the Christians in the 1140’s. Modern Barcelona with its population of around 1.5 million is a bustling city with some broad avenues, tree lined, and many narrow dark and dingy streets. In the oldest part of the city there are lots of narrow alleys too.

La Rambla is a long wide street with a pedestrian walkway down the centre that is lined with tourist stalls, open air cafes, buskers and very crowded, mostly tourists. Some of the buskers can be quiet entertaining. On either side there are shops that sell just about everything, hostels, hotels, a food market and a flower market. At the south-eastern end where it meets the water front stands a tall column as a monument to Christopher Columbus. Just across from that is the rather attractive looking Port building, possibly an old customs house but we couldn’t find out for sure. Then there is a very large and full marina and an aquarium amongst other things on the broad walks along the water front.

In a tent set up in this area we saw a display about the Barcelona ‘round the world’ yacht race that hasn’t quite finished yet. It started on the 11^th of November and the first yachts to finish arrived back here about the 9^th of February. They sailed down the west coast of Africa, around the Cape of Good Hope, through the southern ocean south of Australia, through Cook Strait between the North and South Islands of NZ then around Cape Horne and back to here without making landfall along the way. Each yacht had only two crew:

We meandered through the old city and admired some of the lovely old buildings. Although most buildings are around 10 stories high there are very few really high buildings in the city, and none of them are in this area. Most of these are 19^th and early 20^th century, though there are some older ones. Some have a tower at a corner or some sculptures around them. One had several pictures embossed on one wall. It was hard to get a good look at them as the street was very narrow and they were up quite high.

The Cathedral was completely swathed in scaffolding and gauze with a painted rendition of what it might look like on the gauze. It was closed at the time we passed by and no-one seemed too certain at what time it might re-open. A small section of the old Roman wall was visible too.

A little further on we saw a very pretty building painted in soft pastel shades that highlighted the sculptures and mouldings all around the exterior so that they appeared like cameos above the plaster surface. It was 2 to 3 stories high and also had stained glass windows. It was locked up tight so we did what everyone else was doing and peered through the large windows to see some of the interior. The lobby ceiling was vaulted and corded with the cording highlighted in a dark paint and the pink marble stair case had amber uprights in the balustrade. It is called Palau del Baro de Quadras and used to house a museum of musical instruments but no longer does so.

Probably the most spectacular site is the still unfinished church known as ‘The Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia’. Sort of looks a bit like a medieval cathedral that lost the plot somehow. It’s not very old, it was begun in 1882 funded by a wealthy publisher and with one architect who had simple tastes but he was replaced two years later by Antoni Gaude who didn’t like straight lines so everything is curves in one form or another.

One each end are a number of conical shaped spires that appear to me to be honeycombed, they reach about 75m above the ground. In the design there is to be one that will be double that in height: On the north eastern end that appears to be the oldest there are three recessed archways full of carvings that depict Christs birth and childhood. To me when I looked up at them I got the impression I was looking into caves. Apparently Gaudi did much of this sculpture himself. There is much scaffolding on the outside where there is on going work and even more inside where only part of the recently built transept can be seen. The tall pillars here appear to branch out after 20m and soar another 10m or more to give the impression of trees branching into shell like mouldings that form the inside of the roof. The floor is cluttered with the form work that was used to make those mouldings. There is plenty of light to see here as there are no windows in place yet and the roof is not complete. The remainder of the interior is all scaffolding except for one small chapel that is used for services.

In the crypt is a display of old photos showing progress on construction from its earliest years as well as plaster models of various parts of the building and lots of other information about the place and the people who had a hand in its construction.

Looking at it from the outside there is a vast contrast between the stone used in the early part of the constructions and the concrete being used now, as I’m sure there is a vast difference in the equipment that was used to the great cranes that are now being used to finish off the high towers. Although in recent years there has been quite a lot of progress in the construction it is not in imminent danger of being finished though with the number of tourists who visited the place there should be ample funds to do so. It was quite crowded now, what it must be like in the summer I dread to think; for those that dearly desired to visit the tower the wait was at least 1 hours. A view this place their website is: www.sagradafamilia.org

In the late afternoon with a thundering headache we headed back to the car, our need to escape the city out-weighing our desire to see more of it so before the traffic got too bad we headed off out of the city and back into the wooded hill to camp the night in the pine forest. The smell of pine and rosemary, a much nicer combination than the odours of the city:

Now we are heading up into the Pyrenees and across the border into France again. On Friday the 29^th Feb we are booked on a ferry from Boulogne-sur-mer to Dover and then back to Arundel. Heather, our long suffering friend there will by then, have returned from her sojourn in the sun in Borneo.

Climbing up through the Pyrenees we crossed the border into France. Along the way we passed a few resort villages, they are probably ski resorts except that there isn’t any snow here for skiing. Just to the north is one of the highest mountains in the Pyrenees, Pic de Conigou at nearly 2900m. On the east-west axis of the ridge there is a little snow to be seen on the high tops, the south facing flank is free from snow, the north facing flank, we later saw, has just a smattering of snow on the high slopes, not near enough for skiing. There were a few people about in the villages but also many places closed up. Lower down in the wooded hills we passed through a forest of cork and holm oak trees and despite the repeated signs for deer all we saw were two alpaca and a field full of mole hills.

In many of the villages we saw wattles in full bloom, I think most were a black wattle, the one with a fern type leaf, but a few were Cootamundra wattles or something very similar. On a couple of hillsides there were plantations of wattles, each of about 5acres (2 hectares), they stood out like giant yellow flags. The fruit trees are also in blossom, we passed through a valley where most were either in full bloom or starting to bloom. They were all shades of bright pink. In household gardens the purple magnolias are flowering too. A few more days of this really warm weather and the trees will be in leaf. I can’t believe that it is only February as I have not needed my pullover to walk about and I’ve been wearing only sandals, despite the fact that we pass people wearing heavy coats and boot. Being the weekend the cyclists are all and about, thousands of them riding up and down the mountains, perhaps they are all training for the ‘tour de France’.

David spotted a sign to a gorge so we went and had a look. It was very pretty; gray rock with green shrubs growing in the crevices and sheltered spots. A narrow winding road clung to the edge of the narrow chasm about 35m above the stream with the high peaks towering another 80m or so above. This is Gorges de Galamus. After about 4k the valley suddenly opened out into farmland.

I did notice that it appears to be quite dry in the mountains. The streams are a mere trickle, possibly that is normal at this time of year but if they are depending on melting snow to boost them in the spring then they are going to be sorely disappointed unless one hell of a lot of snow falls soon. There is barely enough up there at present to fill a tea cup.

Near the town of Millau there is a massive viaduct on the motor way. We saw it from a distance and passed right underneath. It’s a type of suspension bridge and the pylons reach 370m high; about 100m of that is above the road level. It is very long too: We had been following the Tarn River upstream past as series of dams with small hydro stations in a narrow, steep, pine clad valley. These dams are nearly full unlike the Spanish ones.

Not far further on we came to the gorges of the Tarn River. The Tarn and Jonte Rivers almost encircle an area of limestone plateau .There is a gap of about 15 to 20k’s between the sources of both rivers then the Jonte flows due west while the Tarn flows north, then west, then south, to a point where they join and become the Tarn near the town of Le Rozier. There are a number of caves in the area and a large sink hole but they are all closed at this time of year. We could drive through the gorges and they are really pretty with the shallow sandy river at the bottom, sheer limestone cliffs above with trees and shrubs growing out of nooks and crannies. A few villages cling to the sides of the gorges too, they blend in really well with their surroundings as they are built of local stone and have slate roofs that are discoloured with mosses and mould. There was a chateau too on the bank of the river.

Although the plateau reaches up to around the 1000m mark there was no snow and it was quite warm, some distance further north past the town of Mende where we got up around 1300m we saw just a little snow left in the sheltered areas. Looking eastwards towards the Alps we saw a few snowy high mountain tops but it was so warm here that I wondered how the snow had managed to last this long.

I will try and tell you something of the difference between the Spanish and French villages. In Spain most of the housing is in unit or flats in two and three story buildings in small villages, much higher blocks in larger towns; in France, in the area that we have passed though so far over the last few days, although there are some units or flats mostly there are more separate houses with small gardens. In Spain in most places the buildings were nearly all whitewashed though in the north of the country we did encounter many that were built of stone or were painted in earthy colours. Nearly every building had an orange/terracotta roof. In France they don’t go in for the whitewash, they use the soft earthy colours when the places are painted or use local stone. Most of the roofs are gray slate. Some of the slate we have seen is really thick, 3 to 4cm so the roofs must be really heavy, no wonder they always seem to be sagging in the middle.

In this area too we have seen some little stone buildings with large wood fired ovens in one end. We have not yet been able to work out what they are used for but perhaps they use them to smoke ham. In Spain there were many villages that specialled in their own locally smoked hams. The pigs there are fed on the acorns of the holm and cork oaks and produce a ham of distinctive flavour. In this part of France the forest is mainly deciduous oak and pine so perhaps the pigs here too are fed on the acorns.

The days continued to be warm, especially so for this time of year and the willow trees are coming into leaf and the forsythia beginning to flower, (at least I think it is forsythia), it is bright yellow. Plenty of sheep and lambs in the fields along with cows and horses and the spring crops are growing well. All the garden centres seem to be quite busy so I think spring must be in the air.

We have driven along beside and crossed over several canals, France is crisscrossed by canals; there aren’t many boats on them at present but when summer comes they will be crowded with pleasure craft. These canals must be stocked with fish; we have noticed a few people sitting in the sunshine on grassy banks fishing.

Since we have a time limit we have not been above to spend much time looking about places. In a couple of towns we have seen Chateaux and castles but most places are still closed. Even the tourist information places are mostly closed, yet those that are open have told us that they are quite busy with people phoning and faxing for information.

Driving northward across France skirting around Paris to the east of the city we passed through one after another pleasant French village. These villages we found quite nice they didn’t appear bland as those we had passed through on the way south. Each seemed to have a little character with a bakers and butchers and a coffee shop along the main road though we saw very few people moving about. In an English village at 10am there would be heaps of activity around the streets with people shopping or workmen attending to things but in these French villages it was hard to spot anyone; didn’t even see kids going to or coming home from school; what do they all do? Farmers on tractors are a common sight, usually we see them when trying to negotiate a very narrow road, they are invariably coming towards us with a huge great trailer or combine behind and we have to pull off into a hedge or something to let them pass.

The country was mainly rolling farmland with plenty of pasture and crops; we did pass through an area where there were quite a lot of dairy farms and another valley that was full of grape vines but generally it was agricultural country. The last couple of days we had a lot of drizzle most of the time.

It was on a dreary and cold morning that we caught the ferry back to England. We were almost back in Dover before we could see the white cliffs; the sea wasn’t rough but very gray and daunting looking. Low cloud and drizzle accompanied us all the way back to Arundel. The daffodils were all in bloom along with the primroses and hyacinths, the forsythia was coming out and the snow drops had virtually finished. Big areas of golden daffodils everywhere!

Since we’ve been back we haven’t really done much. Went down to Cornwall again, saw Sharon, David’s cousin who had been out to Burnett Heads in our absence and caught up on her experiences whilst there. We also went back for another look around the Eden Project. Again the weather wasn’t very nice with overcast skies. Here too the spring flowers were out in force with great swathes of daffodils from the tiny miniature ones to great tall giant ones. Some have the very deep almost orange centres whilst others are almost white. We came upon an area where several Australian tree ferns are growing. A small notice here tells that they were planted last year and gives the story of how they came to get here; it seems that they arrived in England in a consignment that didn’t have all the proper documentation so they were confiscated by Customs and Quarantine (or the British equivalent) and distributed to parks, gardens and charitable projects such as this Eden Project right around the country. Being a plant it seems that you don’t get deported if you come without your proper paperwork:

The Eden Project will celebrate its birthday on 17^th March; it opened to the public on that date in 2001 apparently.

The night we stayed with Sharon near Launceston there was a very bad storm on the north coast of Cornwall although we did get rain and fairly strong winds we were sheltered from the worse of it. When we visited Port Isaacs the next day we found that the road to the next village had been washed away to a large extent so there was no longer vehicle access into that village. At least that will give the residents a traffic free Easter. Port Isaacs is the picturesque little village facing a tiny bay that was used as a setting for the television series ‘Doc Martin’. The houses are built of a light gray stone with slate roofs, mosses and lichens grow on the roofs making them appear almost like tiny gardens. One narrow road descends into the village separated from the cliffs either by a stone wall or by some small houses and shops that cling to the cliff edge with a pounding surf bashing itself against the rocks below. For the privilege of parking your car on the sandy beach at the bottom, only possible when the tide is out, you must pay the princely sum of £2.

From the fast flowing stream that flows into the bay the village spreads up the steep hills on both sides with the houses accessed by a number of steep narrow alleyways. One of these is Temple Bar said to be the narrowest thoroughfare in the world at only 18 inches (450mm) wide in one part. Not only is it very narrow by it is also very low as a house is built over the top so that people like David have to bend to pass through the passage.

It was almost deserted on this blustery, cold and wet afternoon, we tried to find a postcard but the only place we found to be open was the post office and that was limited to just post office business as the rest of the shop was is the process of being redecorated and had nothing else for sale. We were told that most places would be opening on the 17^th for the start of the school holidays and the Easter break but on this afternoon the place seemed pretty well deserted.

Travelling along the north coast of Devon we called in at Clovelly where we found a car park above the ‘traffic free’ town that charges £10 for parking whether it be for 5mins whilst you pop into the tourist information office or 10 hours whilst you walk around the coast. To us this seemed a bit over the odds so we drove back out and went along to the next and much more tourist friendly town.

At a small place called Westwardho we watched the surf breaking against the sea wall. The 3 to 4m waves were rolling in and crashing against the wall sending spray high into the air. It must have been unusual as many local people were out photographing these waves. Many holiday units and a park full of demountable caravans are positioned just a few feet above the sea level and no doubt being sprayed with sea water from time to time. If sea levels should rise then it won’t take much for these demountables to become ‘house boats’. The wild seas continued all along that north coast of Devon.

Photos

2008-02-23T03:10:00.000-08:00

Episode 35

2008-02-23T03:07:00.000-08:00

Episode 35
Heading for Granada we drove through some rather pretty but very arid hills and mountains. We crossed a pass between two bare limestone mountain tops at around 1000m, then continued going up through a valley beyond. Passing through one large town and several villages all surrounded by olive trees: The olive trees are planted in rows marching up and over the hillsides like long lines of fat green soldier; there is little else growing, some yellow flowering gorse, some dry grass and wild herbs and some almond trees is about all. Any natural vegetation has all gone. Many of the olive plantations are fairly new and we saw a couple more of those tree shakers working harvesting the olives.
As we got nearer to Granada the land became even more arid and mostly it was almond plantations that we saw, though there were still some olives. I had read somewhere that Granada was in a green valley; well somewhere something was wrong because there is nothing green around here at present. Only some of the almonds are in bloom, and none are in leaf yet. A thick dust haze hangs over the whole place.
The main attraction in Granada is the Alhambra Palace complex standing on top of a hill with the modern city spread out below and the snow capped Sierra Nevada Mountains in the back ground. The Alhambra buildings have a reddish hue and are quite plain on the outside; it is their ornately decorated interiors that make them so famous, being one of the most visited tourist attractions in Spain. Built in the 13th and 14th centuries by the Moslem rulers of this part of Spain they appear very modest beside the grand renaissance Palace of Carlos V built in the early 16th century but never finished, its bulk stands right in the middle of the ridge and backs onto the other palaces.
Because of the great numbers of tourists who visit this site it was imperative that we start out early so we arrived at the ticket office just after it opened at 8am, bought our ticket and headed up into the grounds so as to be on hand when places opened at 8.30am. To visit the Palacio Nazaries (this includes all the Muslim palaces) we had been given a particular time slot in which to enter and that was 8.30 to 9am, so we got one of those audio guide things from a stall and went along to the palace and found that there were very few other people yet here. It had been best to come early:
The decoration of the stucco walls with their delicately moulded patterns of leaves, vines, geometric patterns and Arab inscriptions above the tiled plinths that reach nearly 1.5m up the walls are beautiful but then you see the ceilings and they are stunning. Different rooms have different types of ceiling. Some have wooden ones with small pieces of wood all inlaid to form stars, and all sorts of geometrics designs; they are not really inlaid as they are nailed with tiny nails onto a backing material, probably wood. The huge wooden doors are made in the same manner. Then there are the archways. Beautiful archways, some rounded, some the pointed horseshoe design, and some with mouldings that almost give a leafy outline within the arch. On the underneath of these arches there is what has been described at ‘stalactite’ mouldings. Little hollows and pinnacles that somewhat resemble what we saw in one of the caves we visited a couple of weeks ago. Much of these mouldings have been painted blue, traces can still be seen.
Then there are the courtyards always with a water element. In one a long pool that is nearly always calm as its sheltered from the wind, gives an almost perfect reflection of the tower. It is surrounded by myrtle hedges that are said to be fragrant but perhaps not at this time of year, I certainly can’t seem them. One courtyard has a fountain with the water issuing from 12 lions mouths but this is off for restoration at present so we couldn’t see it. Still the courtyard has 124 marble columns around the edge with a small pavilion at both of the narrow ends. The archways around that colonnade are all decorated with the stalactite mouldings. One of the rooms off here was believed to have been the place where the Emirs favourite concubine lived. On the floor, on both sides of a central fountain (gone for restoration) are huge white marble panels known as the two sisters.
One room has a domed ceiling of those ‘stalactite’ mouldings whilst another has a domed ceiling of the wood inlay in the form of stars that are said to represent the 7 heavens of Islam. Whatever it’s meant to represent its really lovely: Another room that is at present closed because of more restoration work has a leather ceiling.
The American writer Washington Irving lived in this Palace in 1829 at the time it was abandoned and in a very sad state of disrepair. It was somewhat due to his writings and an increasing tourist interest in such things that measures were taken to restore these palaces:
Having spent more than an hour looking around here we made our way out and along to the Palace of Carlos V. This is a square building but it has a huge round courtyard inside. Around that courtyard on two levels are stone columns and balastrading all made of some conglomerate rock. One the top floor is a fine arts museum with many paintings and sculptures by Spanish masters and a display of 19th century women’s dresses and gowns. The latter was a beautiful display: On the ground floor is another museum showing objects that have been found during archaeological excavations on this ridge. Coins, pottery, tiles, glass and many other things: Also one of the lions from the palace that has been restored. He is just waiting for his mates to be finished then they will all be re-assembled and put back where they belong.
From here we walked through the arched doorway known as the Puerta de Vino (wine door). This was the entrance to the Medina and where the merchants had to pay the tax on all goods brought into the Medina. Going towards the Alcazaba we were heading out the gate. We crossed a flat open area that was once a moat but has been filled in and large water cisterns are beneath and came to the Alcazaba with three towers and some ramparts on the end of the ridge overlooking the city. These date from around the 12th century and contained a military barracks, a public baths for the military personal, and dungeons. We climbed to the top of the watch tower and got a great but hazy view over the city.
Now we walked back through that Wine gate straight ahead past the Carlos V palace and came to a large church. It is also undergoing restoration and was almost bare; it stands on the site of a former mosque and next door we entered a house that was in the medina and there we could see the baths that once belonged to the Mosque. The house has been altered a great deal in recent centuries: Apart from this one house nothing else remains of the Median except what is being found through archaeological exploration.
Continuing along the ridge we walked through an avenue of cypress trees that have been tied and pruned to form the shape of high archways; on one side is an expensive hotel and on the other the Medina excavations. Then we came to a bridge over a gully and into the Gerenalife gardens. These were the gardens built for the pleasure of the Emirs or Sultans or whatever the Muslim rulers called themselves. These gardens contained more of the sculptured cypress trees along with beds standard roses, all pruned at present, and an arbour that would be covered in grape vines in the summer. Small gardens of pansies and pots and small beds of cyclamens provide a splash of bright colour at present along with the ever-present citrus trees with their yellow/orange fruit. Looking over the edge from this garden we look down onto the vegetable gardens that supplied vegetables to the royal households. They are still growing veg here; one plant looks very much like a thistle but it’s planted in rows and plenty of it so it must be good for something, the other veg we saw are broad beans. Looking over past the garden, accross the gully and there is the Alhambra straight in front of us with the Alcazaba towers behind it.
At the end of the gardens is the Sultans summer palace. A rather small place compared to the other but very cool and open. It has a couple of lovely courtyards one with a long pool and bordered by long gardens now almost bare and the other a much smaller one with a dead 700 year old cypress tree trunk wired up in one corner. From this point we made our way up a stairway with water running down channelling in the balustrade and people trying to take photos of it. Then a walk through some un-tamed garden area and another arbour this one with tall oleander bent to form an archway and so back to the entrance to gardens and the end of our tour hereabouts. We returned our audio guide and left.
Later we followed a suggested walking tour from the Lonely Planet book. This took us up some interesting narrow streets and cobbled lanes past an 11th century bathhouse not that we could see anything that looked remotely 11th century but then it was closed. We came to a view point where we got a great view of the Alhambra with the snow capped Sierra Nevada behind. Still very hazy: Passed an 11th century minaret with a cross on top, the mosque had been converted into a church long ago and the minaret into a bell tower. Then down through a street of tourist shops with a distinct Arab influence. We would have visited the cathedral but it was closed. The front of it is massive and has some beautiful carvings all in a caramel coloured stone.
I just mentioned those cobbled streets; I will tell you a little more about them: many are made with small rounded pebbles now worn a little flat on top and smooth and can be quite slippery. Then there is the cobbling with the pebbles that are a little longer and flatter and are laid narrow side up. Usually all cemented into place. These are often laid as a feature in a plaza or alley and can be in a special shape like a bird or an animal or just a geometric pattern and sometimes painted black or some other colour. You get this sort of cobbles in South American countries too. Another sort is when granite has been cut into small cubes and laid like pavers; it is not cemented in so that it easily comes loose even by someone tripping on it. It looks great when in good repair but as it does break up easily it usually has holes or edges that are falling apart. This we saw a lot of in Portugal and is another very common paving in Latin American countries.
Not far from Granada are the highest mountains in Spain in the Sierra Nevada and also a ski resort. The drive up is quite pretty through the hills but the dust haze was so bad that we couldn’t see any view back towards Granada. We were almost at the resort before we saw any snow at all and then it was only a little bit by the road side. Very little has fallen so far this season and what there is on the piste (the ski runs) has largely been made using the snow making machines. Apart from the runs the covering is thin and patchy. On the day we went up there a very strong wind was blowing so the lifts were not working with the result that no one was out skiing. Not much good for those people who rely on it for an income.
There is no road across the mountains at that point so we drove back to Granada and on towards Guadix to take a route over a 2000m pass. At that pass there was only some tiny patches of snow in some of the more sheltered spots and it didn’t look very recent. The lady in one of the tourist info offices says that good snow is still quite possible, it might come as late as May.
Continuing on around the southern flank of the Sierra Nevada we came to the area known as Las Alpujarras. This is an area of steep and deep ravines that descend off the southern slopes off the Sierras; there is some snow on the higher tops. Many of these mountain sides had been terraced in the days of the Muslims who grew mulberries on them to raise silk worms. Silk was a major industry in those times. When the Muslims were expelled in the 16th century and replaced with Christians from further north the industry died and so did the mulberry trees. No trace of them at all now; the terraces can still be seen but nothing other than a little dry grass is growing on them:
White painted little villages cling perilously to the steep terrain, the houses separated by twisting narrow lanes. I can’t work out what all the people do who live here though I think that a great percentage of them are elderly. There are a huge number of restaurants, cafes and bars along with plenty of hostels and hotels; however there does not seem to be a great number of tourists about at present though of course, in the summer it is very crowded with them.
All these little valleys, and there are several of them, flow into a larger on at the bottom where a great deal of citrus is grown. The cheapest citrus we have seen anywhere is for sale on roadside stalls in the principal village Orgiva; we got a big plastic bag full of oranges and mandarins for €3 ($5au). They are really sweet:
Then we were back amongst olives and almonds, predominantly almonds, the hillsides are a mass of white and pale pink blossom and we even saw a bus load of people picnicking amongst them, perhaps they were on an almond blossom tour. The road wended its way up through these orchards that are planted on so steep hillsides that all the nuts must roll right to the bottom. At 1300m we topped out and from the view point looked south towards the Mediterranean shinning in the sun. Between us and it was a steep descent and acres of plastic sheeting covering thousands of green houses and the dirtiest area of Spain with an almost dry river bed full of garbage, mainly plastic in one form or another. Generally speaking the country has been quite clean with garbage and recycle bins absolutely everywhere, never more that an few hundred metres from them.
If green houses can be so tatty as to be called shanty green houses then this is what these are. They are all shapes and sizes and though most of the plastic is clear there are bits of all sorts of other plastics that have been used to mend or patch sides and ends. Often that woven material that is used for fertilizer bags at home has been used and not only in white, but in green and black, some green shade cloth and the odd bit of hessian here and there. They are very ugly. As yet we haven’t been able to determine just what is growing in them, something tall, possibly tomatoes, the plastic is not clear enough to get a reasonable look.
The stretch of coast that we arrived at west of the city of Almeria is not a tourist area, it has a steep rocky shore and these plastic green houses. Out in the water there are a large number of small boats to be seen, they appear to be fishing boats.
With the coast not being all that interesting we turned back inland and drove up through more plastic green houses. Some are positioned just as precariously on the steep mountain slopes as the houses while there are plenty more on the valley floor.
As we climbed over the Sierra Nevada, the eastern end of them, we passed through a large area of very neatly terraced hillsides. Probably these were once all covered in mulberry trees now planted with almonds trees, mostly not yet in flower and the white painted villages stand out rather starkly amidst the dark of the surrounding terraces. From one view point all we could see was terraced hillsides and white villages with a deep gorge through the middle.
Crossing the Sierra Baza just a little further north we ran into thick fog then above the 1900m when we came out above the fog there was some snow. We climbed to just over 2000m and drove through a forest of pine trees, they have all been planted in rows and each one had a tiny patch of snow on its shaded northern side. On the north facing slopes there was a bit more snow remaining. We also saw 3 deer in this area. I think that they were red deer. Drove through fog again going down and then when we run out of it we saw spread out below a huge valley full of almond trees, we thought we’d seen a lot before but nothing like this quantity. Spain must produce a fair quantity of the world’s supply of almonds:
Before entering Jaen province we came to a large dam that is quite low and the country surrounding it is very similar to what the Americans term ‘bad lands’. An area of deeply eroded steep hills and ravines surrounded by higher mountains that are also steep and eroded, so that you can stand on the higher hills and look down into the ‘bad lands’. This is all very dry country and these hills have just an odd patch of dry grass or herbs (rosemary and thyme) and perhaps oak or pine tree to give a splash of colour to the otherwise red/orange colour of the soil and rocks.
In Jaen province we could immediately see how it could produce 10% of the world’s supply of olive oil. It is just about wall to wall olive trees. Even up the mountains they reach quite high on the rocky slopes and seem to thrive.
In the Sierra de Segura there are many view points where we could stop and look out over the lower hills towards the plains, it was very hazy so we couldn’t see a long way and the wind nearly blew us away, but for as far as we could see there were olive trees in any available spot. A few must have got the chop though as near the town of Quesada we saw a large solar farm under construction. It covers about 20 to 30 acres (8 to 12 hectares), the frames are all in place but only some of the solar panels have been put up. About a kilometre away there is another smaller area that is going to be another solar farm. We had seen a couple of small ones not sure if it was in Spain or Portugal but they only covered an acre or two, nothing on this scale. We had passed two large wind farms that weren’t working, not from lack of wind I can assure you.
One night we camped in the pine forest and in the damp morning air the smell of pine and wild rosemary filled the air. We drove out of the mountains and onto the plains of La Mancha, (Don Quixote country), this is wheat and barely country with many young crops in the fields.
Drove into the city of Albacete, it has some nice late 19th early 20th century buildings but not a great deal to see. One thing that did attract our attention was a shop window full of knives, all different, there were hundreds of them. There is a knife and scissor museum in the city but it was closed on the day we were there.
Heading north east from Albacete we came to the gorge of the Rio Júcar. This gorge is like a deep jagged gash across the flat landscape. We suddenly arrived at the edge of the cliff and the road descended in a series of hairpin bends arriving at the bottom beside a gently flowing milky aqua blue stream meandering its way past small farm plots, tall pencil pines and Spanish pine and bare gray frames of deciduous trees. The cliffs are sandstone in horizontal stratas, probably an ancient sea bed; the colours are soft, from white and grey through to a gently orange.
Alongside the stream there are a few small villages and many homes are dug back into the sandstone cliffs. One we saw was painted bright pink. In another village there were many shops with concrete fronts but dug back into the cliffs whilst on the other side of the river the houses climbed back up the almost vertical cliff one above the other. An old castle stood upon a pillar of rock at the bend in the river overlooking the village.
Heading roughly north from the gorge we passed through an area of low rolling agricultural land, plenty of young wheat or barley emerging and a vast area of grapes. Some of those grape vines are very old judging by the size of the base stem. Mostly they were cut back very low to the ground but in some fields they were on trellises.
Then we entered another gorge, not quite so dramatic as the Júcar but still quite impressive. This one was quite different, predominately red stone and not in strata; it still had some incredibly sculptured outcrops. A lot of pine forest along with the ilex or holm oak. I possibly had not mentioned it before but this oak is an evergreen, not a deciduous tree.
Making our way towards the city of Teruer we seem to pass through several more gorges, not deep, yet each one was a little different. As we neared the city we passed though a stone fruit growing area, the trees still asleep: It is a the poorest area we have seen so far. Most houses are not painted at all, just the colour of the raw brick or stone so they blend in very well with the redish hue of the landscape. Generally they are in fair repair; it’s just that the place has a much less affluent feel to it.
Teruer has seen better times apparently; over recent years the population has dropped significantly as people move to other places to find work. Just the same there is still a great deal of construction of new houses and apartments going on in the city. It’s a pleasant enough place with a cathedral dating from the 12th century. Its tower is the most notable thing; built in the Mudejar style and decorated with some green tiles it looks as much Islamic as Christian. The inside is said to be interestingly painted but the place was locked up tight so we didn’t get to see the inside. Around the town there are some lovely old buildings, probably 19th century, with ornate plaster mouldings around the facia and balconies, and fancy iron railings on those balconies.
We had seen a well decorated house in another town earlier. It has tiles laid in a decorative pattern around windows and doors on the ground floor, then on the 2nd floor it had a combination of tiles and painted art work with an ornate rounded balcony on one corner that overhangs the corner of the street. It has grabbed out attention as we drove through the town.
© Lynette Regan February 19 2008

Episode 34

2008-02-15T04:51:00.000-08:00

Episode 34
On a warm sunny day we visited the city of Cadiz. It sits at the north-western end of a long sandy spit with a rocky outcrop at the end. On the Atlantic side there are some lovely stretches of beach and on the inland side is a wide bay dotted with boats. At the head of the bay there was once a vast area of marshland but very little of it remains; most has been drained and built on but there is one small area that has been made into a Nature Reserve though I doubt that there is any great abundance of wild life there as it is probably badly polluted from all the industry hereabouts.
There is a festival on at present in the city, all the happenings are at night and for at least 3k’s the long straight road leading into the town has bands of decorative fairy lights strung across it, each band would have thousands of tiny lights and there was one every 40m or so. It would be pretty to drive up here at night I expect but the traffic would be horrific and parking impossible; apart from the fact that David doesn’t like driving at night anyway.
The city itself it quite a pleasant place with the usual abundance of churches and a Cathedral to visit: The cathedral is quite nice but not all that old only 19th century. It does have massive pillars inside and a high dome 50m above the floor. A climb to the top of the bell tower up another series of ramps affords a great view over the city and harbour. Ferries leave from here to go to Gran Canaria, and there is a cruise ship facility.
As usual we looked into a number of churches; we accidently came across some Roman ruins too: An old amphitheatre that is in surprisingly good condition without having been restored, though some of it has been built over. As luck would have it the one church of most interesting to see was the only one that wasn’t open, it has some paintings by Goya inside. Nearly everywhere we go there are public telephones but today because I wanted to use one I couldn’t find one, we spent a good half hour looking for one, then when we come to use the phone card we were told that it had expired, so we then spent another half hour or more trying to find a place to buy another one. Eventually we did so and made our phone call; how to spend an hour without really trying.
Arcos de la Frontera is a rather pleasant small town of white painted houses spread out along a high ridge with a church and an old castle on the highest point with cliffs below on three sides. In the 11th century under the Muslims it was of strategic importance. The view from the cliff tops is very extensive taking in the large fields of oats and pasture with many more fields in fellow, and along the river flats far below are large orange groves with gum trees on the river bank. High mountains to the north and east are part of another national park.
In this general area quite a lot of prickly pear grows. It can be seen along the sides of the road where it is sometimes used as a hedge. There would be very few animals that would brave attempting to make their way through that stuff. I don’t know if they have any ‘cati blati’ insect to control it but I have not seen any plants that are dead or dying.
On a blustery windy overcast day we drove into Gibraltar, that tiny British colony on the southern edge of Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar was one of the two Pillars of Hercules, the other one being a mountain on the Moroccan coast 25k’s distant; the ancients believed these pillars guarded the entrance to the known world. It is certainly an impressive great chunk of white limestone with almost vertical cliffs that drop directly into the Mediterranean on the eastern side. The western side is not quite so steep and has some dense vegetation that is home to the Barbary Macaques, the apes that live on the rock.
In the last thousand years the Moors, the Spanish and the British have occupied the Rock but Romans passed this way and it also is mentioned in some ancient Greek writings.
Back in 1972 we had driven up to the border and watched as the Spanish people on one side the border stook and shouted at their counterparts 15m away on the other side of the border. In those days the border was closed but it re-opened in 1985. Now you can just drive straight across with mere wave of the passports as you pass through. Then, more than likely you will be held up at the first traffic light you encounter because it is the one that controls traffic onto the airport runway. The road into the city crosses the runway there is no alternative as the runway stretches right across the Isthmus, coast to coast and is not very long.
With very little space available for a growing city the buildings reach quite a way up the steep slope of the rock and 12 story high rise apartments are beginning to line the harbour front. The steep alleyways have names like Dimino’s Ramp and Library Ramp. At the southern tip Europa Point there is a lighthouse and a view point. Offshore we could see many ships including two that were carrying Liquefied Natural Gas and ferries en route to Tangier or Ceuta.
The higher part of the Rock is a Nature reserve that is accessible by footpaths, a cable car and a narrow one way road hewn out of the cliff face that wends its way upward barely wide enough for a car. We drove up along this road, paid our entrance fee at Jews Gate and continued on up to St Michaels Cave. This is a huge limestone cave full of stalagmites and stalactites, and tourists. Trouble was we’d arrived at the same time as the morning tour busses, but within 15mins they had mostly departed and we had the place almost to ourselves.
The limestone formations are superb and there is a vast amount of them as well as many really thick columns. Of particular interest is a huge stalactite that had broken off at some point in time and become ‘cemented’ to the floor. The end of it has been sawn off and polished; it resembles an agate: It has many rings in its 1200mm to1300mm diameter, like the growth rings in trees that reveals its growth pattern. In periods when there has been a lot of rain the rings are a pale fawn colour; in drier times the rings are a deep brown colour, and two of three crystallized rings are believed to have been formed during times of glaciations (ice ages). One of the caverns is huge and holds an auditorium. Early last century another ventilation shaft was blasted out and during that process another deeper and extensive cave system was discovered. Human skulls 5000 years old have been found here.
A kilometre walk up hill from the cave brought us to the top of the rock with views all around. Unfortunately it was too cloudy and there were some showers around so we couldn’t see the Moroccan coast. The Mediterranean coast directly below was none too inviting looking; gray sand or pebbles I couldn’t tell which: The wind nearly blew us off the top.
Further round the rock we came to the ‘siege tunnels’: This is really one fairly long tunnel hewn out of the rock using small hand tools in the late 18th century. This was at a time with the British here were under siege from the Spanish and by digging this tunnel and mounting the guns in small galleries when they could fire down onto the flanks of the Spanish they managed to repel the Spanish invaders. Gibraltar has withstood many sieges over the centuries.
Some way lower down the Rock there are some WW2 gun emplacements that we had a look around before reaching the old Moorish castle that stands just above the city: The castle is really no more than a fortified tower with really thick walls. It bears the scars of bombardment it sustained during many sieges. This building dates from the 1200’s but an early castle here was destroyed.
All around this nature reserve we had seen many of the Barbary Macaques (apes) for which the rock is famous. They are quite a pretty golden brown colour and not very large, the size of a small dog, (corgi size) except for the old males that are larger and a dark gray colour. Some have become quite aggressive so we were warned but we had no trouble with them.
Before leaving we filled up with cheap fuel, it’s much cheaper here than in Spain and half the price it is in England, for the diesel we use anyway.
The Sierra de Grazalema are quite pretty mountains that we drove through along a narrow twisting road through hillsides covered in cork oak and holm oak trees with plantations of Spanish pine here and there. The Spanish pine is different to most pine trees as it usually has a rounded canopy and can often have a leggy mushroom shape. The mountains have some odd shapes and all have bare white rocky tops that look a bit like a light snow covering from a distance (to my eyes anyway). Its white limestone probably; and many outcrops resemble rock walls especially when they are leading up a steep ridge.
Following the valley of the Guadiaro River we looked out over lush green crops of oats close to the river while the lower hill sides were planted with olive groves and just a few orange orchards. A few small fields with almond trees in blooms and many more scattered along the road sides:
In the town of Ronda we had great trouble finding a place to park the car. It was Saturday afternoon and usually there is no problem, especially with the underground car parks they are often nearly empty, but not here, everything was full and there were people everywhere. Many were dressed in costumes and we decided that we had arrived just as some sort of festival activity was finishing. We did see some kids up on a stage wearing red ‘Santa Claus’ suits and singing Jingle Bells, this made us wonder if we have been caught in some sort of time warp for 10 months or so. David says it’s all the little ‘santa claus’ we have seen hanging up outside peoples homes come back to haunt them.
We had come to see the old part of Ronda that stands above the Tajo gorge of the Guadalevin River; this gorge proved such an effective barrier that the town remained under Muslim long after the rest of Spain had been reconquered by the Christians. It was not reclaimed by the Christians until 1498:
The 18th century Puente Nuevo connects the new part of the town with the older Moorish part with is narrow twisting, cobbled streets. As we crossed this bridge we looked down into the very narrow gorge beneath and to the river flowing over some small cascades 100m below. It is quite spectacular: On the one side the gorge continues another 100m then on the south bank it opens out into lush farming country while on the north bank the high cliffs continue quite some way leading to a ridge of high hills. On the other side the gorge runs several hundred metres upstream. It is crossed by a couple of other bridges one of which is a 16th century single arch bridge built in the Roman style.
This old Medina part of the town has a few houses or part thereof surviving from the Moorish time. One of them is now a museum and so we visited it to have a look around. It has a lovely courtyard with a well and columns and archways on two sides; all the rooms open out onto this central courtyard. This is a traditional Moorish style: Other houses have been added into the complex later so that there are two more courtyards within the one complex. One is in a traditional Mudejar style: It has triple semicircular arches on three sides enclosing arcades. The columns are marble and them the brickwork above is tiled with bright decorative tiles up to the height of the lintel below the 2nd story balcony. Heavy wooden doors etched in traditional Mudejar style carving open out through a horseshoe shaped pointed archway into sunny private gardens of myrtle hedges and citrus and oleander trees that overlook the cliffs and the valley beyond.
One large room upstairs, the Nobility Hall, has a Mudejar style coffered ceiling. It is crossed by heavy dark wooden beams that resemble the skeleton of an old wooden ship, inverted. Many of the end pieces are carved with decorative motifs. It is very beautiful.
As we meandered about the narrow alleyways we noticed that many of the houses had a coat of arms embossed on the lintel above the doorway. We have seen this in many places, it seems to have been a popular idea in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Another thing I will comment on is the fact that although there had been a festival with masses of people and loads of street stalls selling all the usual carnival junk there was amazingly little rubbish spread about. A few sheets of paper here and there, but in no way would you describe it as dirty. Absolutely no food scraps, no empty cans, bottles or take away containers; there was plenty of cigarette butts and one wino sleeping it off on a park bench totally oblivious to all the activity going on about him.
On the Guadalhorce River near the small village of El Chorro is the El Chorra gorge. The downstream entrance is very dramatic with two high mountains rising on either side almost vertically with just a very narrow gap through which the quite small stream flows. This gorge is up to 400m deep and only 10m wide in places. Also visible near the entrance is the foot bridge across the gorge about 50m above the stream. There was once a camino (trail) that lead around the cliff side and over that bridge then on through the gorge, but it was not maintained and part of the cantilevered walk that clung to the cliff has fallen away. Apparently it is possible to walk along through the railway tunnels but on the day we were here; there was a police guard stopping people from entering the railway tunnel. The rail line passes through several tunnels as it goes through the gorge.
From a view point on the other side the river we actually saw some people on the bridge and watched them come alone the walkway to the end then they abseiled down about 30m into a steep gully from where they could climb up under a railway bridge and join the track that we had walked along earlier to view the gorge.
In the same area as the gorge halfway up a high mountain with views out over mountains and valleys is a little church that has been hewn out of solid granite. Called the Mozarabe because an Arab who converted to Christianity in the 10th century was buried there: It has certainly taken some work to chisel it out; it has one end rounded and a couple of large ‘windows’ along one high wall: Some walls are not very high: It is about 6 to 7 metres long and 3m wide, on the other side of the windows another room has been chiselled out of the rock too, not quite so large. About 50m away we found another small room dug out of the rock. From what I’ve read I haven’t been able to work out whether or not it was this Arab who actually made this church.
From the top of the mountain there is an absolutely fabulous view over the village of El Chorro, the dam on the Gaudalhorce River, the large town of Alora further downstream and the mountains all around. We couldn’t see the coast but on a clearer day it may be possible. The same railway line that goes through the gorge crosses three large viaducts as passes around Alora.*
At Laguna Fuente de Piedra we went looking for flamingos. This is a lake where up to 1600 pairs are know to come and breed arriving at this time of year. However, this is not a permanent lake, some dry years it has no water, this year it has some water but is by no means full. There is a great deal of bird life just the same and we spent a while seeing what there was to see. If it hadn’t have been for the bitterly cold boisterous wind blowing we would have spent longer watching them. Even in the specially constructed bird hides we couldn’t escape the wind.
The lady in the information office had shown us what birds to expect to see and outside on the lake and around some shallow ponds near the lake we saw several types of ducks and shovelers, moorhens, gulls and stilts, just to name a few. Some lapwings with punk head feathers were meandering about too. From one of the car park lookouts we did eventually see the flamingos out on the lake but they were too far away to see individual birds, just a patch of pinkish colour out in the water. There are not many this year because the water is low.
On the drive around the lake we passed through large olive groves and came to a place where many people were working. There was a big machine shaking a tree while a fellow with a very long pole brushed it through the same tree, this broke a lot of the smaller branches off as well as the black olives. The fruit landed in nets below the tree and when the machine moved onto the next tree the nets were gathered up and emptied. There olive trees were really loaded with fruit.
We had noticed that the younger olive plantations had rows that were further apart than the older plantations, now we know why; the extra width allows the machine to be used because it is a very large machine. Even with this mechanical help this is still a fairly labour intensive job as there were many people to collect and empty the nets and relay them under trees still to be harvested.
El Torcal is an area of high mountains with eroded and weathered limestone forming curious formations a few kilometres outside the town of Antequera, north of Malaga. At an altitude of 1200m the blustery wind was much colder so we wrapped up in our winter woollies that we hadn’t worn for a few weeks before venturing out to walk around through some of these formations on a 3k hike. This took us into large bowl shape depressions, at bit like shallow canyons with the high white limestone pinnacles all around. They are in strata like pancakes piled high and topped with pinnacles. A few have fallen over:
To us some resembled faces, one a hand with two fingers in a V, a couple were like chess pieces and then some resembled some of the Muppets, Gonzo in particular. Our path took us from one bowl to another through areas that were very sheltered and the trees and rocks are covered in thick green moss, there are narrow chasms and tiny chambers. One area looked a bit like a city in ruins. There were a lot of birds too and we saw some green finches and chaf finches that we could identify.
It was late in the afternoon when we were quietly making our way back and we saw some animals grazing some distance off. At first we thought they were goats, then deer, but when we got a closer look at some we decided that they look like a cross between the two though I expect that they are just goats. They have the slender lithe shape of a deer but the horns of a goat. They also have the dark patch on the backside similar to some other deer we have seen. The information office was closed by the time we got back so we couldn’t ask in there. They are possibly Ibex as there are some of them in the Sierra Nevada mountains not all that far distant.
Also near Antequera are some ancient tombs. They took a great deal of effort to find as signposting leaves a lot to be desired and we never did find the tourist information.
Two of the tombs known as Dolmen de Viera and Dolmen de Menga are beside each other and they date from around 2000 to 2500BC; a third one some 3k’s distant is from a later period 1800BC. We visited the older ones first simply because they were the ones we found.
First we watched a video of how the ‘experts’ believe that the tombs were constructed. The video was in Spanish only but easy enough to follow regarding the construction. Whether or not it mentioned where the rock was quarried I can’t be sure but I don’t believe so. The ancients cut massive stone slabs and supposedly hauled them by teams of men pulling ropes according to the video. Some of that hauling would have been up hill as the tombs are on top of a rise.
First the site was cleared, then dug out to a depth of around 2.5m, then around the edge of that hole a deeper trench was dug, probably at least another 1/2m deep and a metre wide. It was into this trench that the upright stone slabs that formed the walls were dropped. When they were all in position then the whole thing was filled with dirt again so that the top slabs for the roof could be pulled across and into position; after that the filling was removed leaving an empty cavern. Some final landscaping was done by covering the top with a vast amount more dirt to round it off, leaving just the entryway and door for access.
The largest of these tombs had an open porch of around 3m long, then a covered entryway 5m long leading to the main cavern that was 17m long. The massive stone slab on the back wall of the cavern was 3m wide x 2.5m high (plus it was at least a half meter below the floor level) and 1m thick. There were at least 17 more slightly smaller slabs around the walls and I don’t know how many forming the roof. 3 central pillars help support the roof each of around 600mm square. Menga was the large tomb, Viera was about ¼ of the size and not as high. In Menga a well had been dug but that was done much later by the Romans, they had a cemetery further down the hill side.
The other tomb built several centuries later is very different. The walls are dry stone construction with stone slabs for the roof. A long passage leads through a trapezoid shaped door into a bee hive dome shaped cavern about 5m diameter, then another door, not in alignment with the first, a short passage, then a small bee hive chamber, only about 2.5m diameter. Each has a stone slab over a round hole for the roof and a flagstone floor.
© Lynette Regan 12th February 2008

Episode 33

2008-02-07T04:20:00.000-08:00

Episode 33
In Spain the shops close from 1.30pm to 4pm, with some closing a little earlier and others that don’t open at all in the mornings. This can be a bit of a pain at times but things are slowly changing. All the new modern shopping centres are open all day and during the afternoons they are almost deserted. In Portugal most stayed open all day with those that did close only doing so from 12.30pm to 2pm: In both countries they stay open until quite late.
We visited another lovely cave at Aracane, the Grutas de las Maravillas. This one has beautiful stalagmites and stalactites in the form of shells, drapes, curtains, floes and columns. One column looked as if it was wrapped in drapes. When back lit they are translucent and resemble alabaster. One series of vertical floes almost resembles a frozen water wall with the white crystals glittering in the artificial light. Another area looked like delicate while coral all over the ceiling, even on the bottom under the water there were small stalagmites though only a couple reached above the surface of the water. There were several pools and the water was crystal clear and several metres deep. Inside the cave was quite warm at a constant 17˚C, it was much colder outside. One lonely small green plant clings precariously to life high out of everyone’s reach; it can only exist because of the artificial light and the slight air current that passes here because it is fairly near the entrance.
South of here we crossed the Rio Tinto, there is a really big copper mine here run by the company Rio Tinto, and there is a town of the same name. This must be where the name of the company originated. There are several mines in this area.
El Rocio is a small town on the edge of the Donana National Park. Apart from the main road to the coast that runs across the edge of it there are no other sealed streets; they are either wide or very narrow and sandy. That sand can be quite soft in places too. In some ways its like the ‘wild west’ with people on horse back cantering through the street and horse and mules pulling carts. Just for contrast there is a large crane and excavator working on a new housing project, and a few very new large 4 wheel drive vehicles parked on the streets.
We took a tour into the National Park; there is no other way to visit it. I had first read about this wetlands area many years ago when I read Robert Mitcheners book ‘Iberia’. It covers around 50,000 hectares and there is also a Parque Natural on the opposite side of the main road that is protected too. It is a vital winter habitat for many migratory birds from Northern Europe. The graylag geese that we had seen in Svalbard are probably here; perhaps they recognize my bright red pullover. There is not a wide variety of land animals as it is mainly soft sand country with cork and holm oak trees, pine trees and gum trees and other scrub and dune grasses. This is no untouched wilderness; people have been raising horses and cattle here for about 2000 years. Eucalyptus trees were introduced in the mid 20th century so that the oil could be extracted from the leaves to provide another source of income for the people who live here.
The vehicle used for the tour is a Unimog and seats 20 people and although it was one of a group of 6 doing the tour we were lucky enough to have only a few people on our vehicle and an excellent driver/guide who, although he didn’t speak much English he was extremely good at finding and pointing out animals and birds along the way.
The trip began by driving the 33k’s south along the wide sandy beach past men working in the water up to waists digging for cockles. I have finally put a definite name to those shell fish we have seen people gathering for weeks now. It seems that you cannot buy them locally; they are all sent off to major restaurants and hotels in the big cities. At the southern end we came to the mouth of the Guadalquivir River. Large flocks of black backed gulls took to the wing as we passed. We then drove up along it some way before turning into the park proper. Immediately we saw some fellow deer and then some wild boar. The wild boar are a fairly small pig, a very dark gray colour and hairy. Apparently in the early morning they roam the beach digging for cockles, catching fish and even a slow bird or two.
In one area we stopped and looked at the houses the people used to live in here. They are a rounded A shape with a frame built from logs and branches of the trees and thatched with reeds. These houses weren’t meant to be permanent dwellings as the people moved around quite a bit.
On the marshes we saw flamingos, herons, and a whole array of other birds bobbing on the water. In some bushes we saw red kites and a buzzard flying over head. There were red deer as well as fellow deer, and there are wild horses too. Things we didn’t see are the Spanish Lynx, an endangered species with 200 of them living in the park, and the Spanish Imperial Eagle that is another endangered species. Rabbits are here too but the lynx keep their number in check, and there is a mongoose but they are rather difficult animals to even glimpse.
Spent some time in Serville: It seems a pleasant enough place with the Guadalquivir river running through it. Fairly large boats can still come upstream as far as here. There are some lovely plazas and pedestrian streets interconnected by narrow alleyways that can be like navigating a maze. A sleek modern tram glides quietly along the pedestrian areas through the heart of the city past the cathedral. At least you can see where the tram runs, the cyclists aren’t nearly as predictable and pose a much more serious threat to the humble tourist who unwittingly steps into their path.
Seville’s history dates from at least the Roman days. It was occupied by the Muslims for around 300 years and became the headquarters of a powerful Muslim state with territory from the Al Garve to Murcia. After 2 years of siege it was reconquered by the Christians in 1248. Then with Columbus’s landings in America it was given the monopoly on trade with the Americas and rapidly became one of the richest places in Europe. The city has had its ups and downs since then suffering two bouts of plague which killed vast numbers of people in the 17th and the beginning of the 19th centuries. In 1992 a World Expo was held in the city.
The cathedral here is one of the largest in the wold, the largest Gothic one apparently, so the tourist literature claims anyway. Built over the former 9th century Almohad mosque, it dates from the early 15th century but incorporates a few features from the mosque. The most impressive of these features is the tower; the former 76m tall minaret that is square but with gently tapering walls so that its smaller at the top than at the base. It does not have steps but a series or ramps going around the inside of the outer walls. This was done so that the muezzin could ride up here on his horse in order to call the faithful to prayer. A renaissance belfry was added in the 16th century to make it more Christian in appearance, finally a weather vane with the shape of a woman was placed on top bringing the total height to 100m. The view over the city with the river in the distance and the Alcazar Palace and its gardens immediately below is lovely
The main entrance is beautiful with intricately decorated arched doorway above which a pointed V flanked by decorated columns that lead to a balcony with pinnacles which is overlooked by a large rose window with decoration all around it. It is topped by more pinnacles with a small tower on either side one of which has a spiral column running up it.
Inside the cathedral in the main chapel is one of the largest altar pieces in the world, it stands 18m high and has over 1000 sculptures representing scenes from the Old and New Testament. Off to one side is the mausoleum of Cristobal Colon (Christopher Columbus). His coffin is held aloft by 4 heralds (figures) representing the 4 Kingdoms of Leon, Castile, Navarra, and Aragon. 80 Flemish stained glass windows don’t give a lot of light into the gloomy interior but with the help of artificial lighting and a magnifying mirror we could have a good look at the pattern on the vaulted ceiling.
There are many bells in that tower and on Sunday morning they ring loud and clear but not with any coordinated rhythm, just a cacophony of noise that is not easy on the ear when one is near them.
Another of the main sites in this city is the Alcazar Palace; it was built on the site of a Royal residence from as early as the 10th century. Although it incorporates many features from Islamic architecture most of what we see now is from the 14th century onward. The outer fortified wall probably dates from about the 10th or 11th century.
Perhaps the most impressive area is that surrounding the Patio de las Doncellas. Built around some long pools of water with a small are of grass and some trees it has lovely lobed arches leading off it on each side flanked by lower triple arches with fine plaster screens above them. The plaster mounding and the tile plinths are very Islamic in style. So to are some of the ceilings with mouldings in the form of stars to represent the heavens, especially in the room that was the Kings bed chamber with its domed ceiling.
A second and third story have been added all around this courtyard and these are the quarters still used by the current Spanish Royal Family whenever they visit Serville.
The Patio de las Munecas (dolls) is a much smaller courtyard and has several columns of pink, black and light coloured marble that probably came from destroyed palace in Cordoba. One of the column has three female heads somewhere on it that gives the Patio its name.
In one room upstairs, off to one side of the Royal quarters there are several huge tapestries hung on the walls. They are embroidered in silk, wool and gold thread. One is said to be of some battle in North Africa. Each would easily measure 6m x3m, perhaps larger.
All the rooms are huge and open with tile or stone floors and we both wondered how anyone ever got warm here, no sign of any fireplaces though probably there were wool carpets on the floors and perhaps hung about the walls. Although the winters here are not bitterly cold now, they were certainly much colder during medieval times.
Outside there are extensive gardens with fountains and planted with hedges of myrtle and the ever present orange trees. Walkways lead from one area into another and a two story wall with a covered walk, like a long veranda gives a good overall view of the garden. Apparently much of the original garden built on two levels was destroyed in the 1755 earthquake, the one that destroyed Lisbon.
Both the Palace and the cathedral had much scaffolding erected all about them. In the case of the cathedral they are in the process of cleaning the stone work on the outside and it is coming up a lovely light cream colour, when finished it will look really lovely. In the palace there is some restoration work going on and the main entrances is all enclosed in mesh that has a painted rendition of how it should look.
This area is the heart of Flamenco country so we thought it would be nice to see a show. There are many bars where an impromptu performance may happen but that is usually in the wee hours of the morning and so we settled for a more tourist orientated show at a somewhat more reasonable hour like 9pm.
We arrived well before the starting time and it was just as well that we did so, we got rather good seats without being right under the dancers. This was a very small bar with a miniscule stage so there wasn’t a lot of space for the dancers to move about. I don’t know if any of you know much about flamenco but I had always associated castanets with flamenco dancing but the dancers we saw did not use them.
Our show started with a man playing guitar and a woman ‘singing’; I use that term rather loosely as to my ears it sounded more like wailing, and she had a very painful expression on her face 99% of the time, she also clapped her hands and stamped her feet from time to time. The guitar music was pleasant but in no way was it melodic.
The first dancer was a woman dressed in a black dress with the frills at the back that can be opened out. She frequently pulled it up to open out these frills as she danced, pulling it so high at times that those people sitting right up under the stage would have had a good view of her panties, we got a brief glimpse from where we sat. She too, wore a painful expression as she danced to the accompaniment of the ‘singing and the guitar’. The hand and arm movements are very artistic, the hand clapping and foot stamping just noisy. The very fast feet movements only seem to last a short time, and although they are extremely skilful I don’t think that they are nearly as good as tap dancers like the ‘River Dance’ people etc. Certainly these dancers don’t keep up the very fast rhythm for nearly as long.
A man came on and did a solo dance, very similar to that which the woman had done, then the woman came back dressed in a different dress and they danced together. For the final set the woman who had been singing got up and danced too, and that was quite an accomplishment on that tiny stage, as the fellow playing the guitar was seated there too. The show lasted 11/2 hours by which time my head was thumping from all that wailing. David read somewhere that you have to get a feeling and understanding of flamenco to really appreciate it, well, I think I will pass on that pleasure. Yes, I would go to another show, but if I was equally unimpressed a second time I don’t think there would be a 3rd time.
In the small town of Sanlucar de Barrameda on the Guadalquivir river we visited a Bodega. Bodegas are wine cellars, they are all over Spain, wherever there are vineyards. In this area it is mainly sherry that is produced and in this town they specialize in a particular type of sherry called Manzanilla. They say its not really sherry; it has less alcohol content 15% and is made using a special process. As luck would have it we choose a small Bodega that uses traditional methods still. This is the La Cigarrera Bodega and it was started in 1758 and is now in the 9th generation of the same family.
To make the Manzanilla they buy fermenting grape juice from the co-operatives that crush the local grapes as they don’t own their own vineyards. The fermenting wine is then added to certain oak casks in the storerooms. Firstly, each batch of casks are stored in three layers, one atop the other but separated by a wooden block; they are not moved from that position. Each one is two thirds full of fermenting wine, one third air so that the yeast can breathe. From the bottom casks one third is removed, from the oldest ones this is the stuff that will be bottled and sold, the cask then has the same amount replaced from the cash above it, and so on, so that the new wine that comes from the co-operative goes into the top casks in the storeroom with the casks that have the wine that had been there the least amount of time. It is moved from one cask to another with a special pump that transfers it very slowly through a tube with many tiny pinholes so as not to disturb the yeast on top, this helps to keep the end product clearer so that it does not need filtering when it is bottled.
At the end of our tour that was really only through a couple of store rooms we got to taste several of their products. We tried the Manzanilla, a pale colour and quite dry taste. Neither of us particularly liked it, we also tried a couple of other dry sherry’s and didn’t really like them either but then we tried a couple of sweet red ones and found one that we both really liked so we bought one of them. Sorry, but I don’t think that bottle will make it home.
As a further point of interest Columbus sailed from here in 1498 on his third trip to the Caribbean. In 1519 Ferdinand Magellan also set said from here when he attempted to find a westerly route to the Indies. He succeeded in going round the south of South America but was killed in the Philippines after crossing the vast extent of the Pacific Ocean without bumping into anything. His pilot, Juan Sebastian Elcano, although very rarely ever acknowledged in the history books, became the first man to circumnavigate the globe by bringing home one of the five vessels Magellan had set said with, the Victoria.
In Jerez de la Frontera there is the ‘Real Escuela Andaluz del Arte Ecuestre’ (Royal Andalucian School of Equestrian Art). This is on a similar line to the more famous Spanish Riding School of Vienna, except that of course this one is not only in Spain but in Andalucía, where the horses mostly come from though some are cross bred.
One day a week it’s possible to watch the horses in a practice session and on another day they put on a show. As we were around on the day of the practice session we went along for a look. There is still a charge but that also includes a visit to the large home in the grounds and a coach museum, as well as a visit to the stables.
First we watched a video about the horses and the way they have been used through the centuries then we went along to the arena where we could watch the practice session. They are not practicing as in a rehearsal, but merely learning or practicing certain steps. For the hour that we sat and watched probably about 40 horses came and went from the area. The ones we saw were practicing the simpler steps, with just one or two doing a couple of high kicks, none doing the really fancy stuff but it was still good to watch. Most of the ‘dancing’ horses are gray in colour, or in the process of turning to gray, they are often 15 years old before they have completed the change.
They are broken in at 4 years of age and begin their training that can take up to eight years. They will then work till they are around 22 years old. All the horses are either Stallions or geldings, no mares kept here. With the most difficult steps, there are three especially difficult ones; a horse will only specialize in one of those three steps.
This is a school for riders as well as horses and there are a few international students here too, but to gain admittance here the student must be fluent in Spanish. Some come on a 2 year course others on a 4 year course. Some of the latter may appear in public performances towards the end of their training. There are 120 horses here, but some of them are carriage horses, and about 16 students and professional riders. A school for the carriage driving is run in conjunction with the riding school.
Outside is a circuit course where the horses are exercised, they didn’t do anything else but trot or canter around this course so it must be where they can relax and enjoy themselves as much as for exercise. Next to this is an area where the carriage driving is taught and practiced. We only got a very brief look at this which was a pity because I love to watch these beautiful horses go through their paces.
The large home that the guide called a palace is what I would call a ‘stately home’ or ‘mansion’ though it does have 3 stories above ground and one below. It was build 1860-64 for a Frenchmen by the name of Garnier. Only a few rooms on the ground floor are open to the public but they all have French doors that open out onto patios or the garden and the ones that were used for entertaining have beautiful painted and moulded ceilings. One even has 4 stags heads on the ceiling one near each corner. Downstairs is what used to be the kitchens there is more information about the horses.
We went into the tack room and the guide showed us the different saddles and explained there uses, the ones used in the performances on those horses that jump high are very heavy, 20kg. The stables were next and we could pat any horses that come up to talk to us; each one has its name, date of birth and parents names above the door of its box. By the feeding bowl some have special instructions on their diet from the vet.
In the carriage museum are many carriages from Europe, Britain and North America. One looks very much like an oversized baby carriage. It is of French design and was last used a few years ago when the daughter of King Juan Carlos was married. With the hood folded down in the wedding photos it looks even more like a baby carriage. Another one was especially built for King George IV of England. He was a big chap apparently and the wide seat was designed just to suit his shape. In front of the seat is a big splash guard made of wicker and also two mud guards over the back wheels that are wicker.
In another room there are some modern carriages with disc brakes and metal wheels that are used for modern carriage driving shows and competitions. Then lastly we saw the costume display with costumes from the 1800’s till present day. They have changed surprisingly little over that time.
© Lynette Regan February 5th 2008

Episode 32

2008-02-07T04:18:00.001-08:00

Episode 32
We drove away from Lisbon over a 17k long bridge across the estuary of the Tejo river, on a sunny afternoon after visiting several large shopping centres on the outskirts of the city in the vain hope of finding some gas cylinders to fit our little gas stove. In no other countries in Europe have we had any real problems finding a Primus or Coleman cylinder, or some other brand with the same fitting but it seems that ‘camping gaz’ has the monopoly here in Portugal as we have not been able to find any other brand. One person had suggested a particular large store and we spent a good deal of time looking for it and eventually locating it only to find that we couldn’t get them there either.
Now we headed south east towards Evora. Soon we were in amongst the cork wood trees. Yes, I finally worked out what they look like. It wasn’t difficult as you easily see where the bark as been stripped and the new bark is growing. On the first lot we passed the new bark was very dark, almost black with a reddish tinge, whilst the older bark high up on the smaller limbs is gray. We got out and had a close look at these trees. It seems that they belong to the oak family and are very similar to the Ilex oak we have been seeing all over the Iberian peninsular. They have an acorn that is almost identical, and the leaf is just a little less holly like. Mature trees reach about 8m high and all different shapes. Apparently these trees have a different feeding system to most other trees so that stripping their bark does not kill them.
Some of the trees have been stripped only up to the first fork, but other have been stripped along the thicker branches too. Looking at the base we could see that the cork was a good 50mm (2inches) thicker where it had not been stripped. When we broke off a small piece of that old gray stuff we found it to be a neutral pinkish shade on the inside, not quite the same shade as you see in the tiles, but then it hasn’t yet been treated with anything.
In souvenir shops we have seem lovely handbags made out of cork but I wouldn’t have thought that they would last very long, but I could be wrong. They have a similar feel to suede.
The grass grows quite well under the trees and we have seen sheep, some with lambs, cattle, and goats grazing in shady pasture. At this time of year the temperature is quite pleasant, chilly in the evenings and mornings but not too hot during the day but in summer when the heat is blistering it must be very good for the animals to be able to graze in such a shaded area.
Evora is quite a pleasant rural town with an old walled city that predates Roman times. Right on top of the hill, stands the remains of a Roman temple from the 1st century AD dedicated to Jupiter or Diana, depending on which piece of literature you read. This temple would have commanded a view all around at the time it was built but now it’s almost surrounded by churches and convents. In Moorish times it was used for public floggings and executions, and later a slaughter house, so it has had a varied career. Fourteen columns still stand though they are looking the worse for wear: In a convent that stands right beside the temple we saw a beautiful doorway, it is in a double horseshoe shape with thin twisted columns, a beautiful piece of workmanship; it opens into a small room with vaulted ceilings.
In another square we saw a small renaissance fountain, and lo and behold, in an electrical shop there we found gas cylinders to fit our stove. A brand we’d not come across before but who cares. The old boy in the shop must have thought Christmas had come early when we bought 3 of them. He spoke quite good English which isn’t all that surprising really as this is a very popular tourist town, not far from the Al Garve. There were or course plenty of churches to visit but we had a day off from Churches. An old aqueducto built of stone leads into the city. When we went for a look we saw that many of the arches have been blocked it and turned into houses. In a building that is now used by the local town council the remains of an old Roman baths has been found so we wandered in for a look; a big round stone pool with a ledge all the way round for seating and the bases of some stone walls and arches.
Near the town of Santiago do Cacem there are some more Roman ruins. There was a settlement here hundreds of years before the Romans came about 100BC, some ancient artefacts have been found from that earlier period. Most of the ruins date from the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. At the highest point of the settlement is the Temple, probably dedicated to Venus, and partly rebuilt, below that is the remains of the Forum and the remains of dwellings below that. Then in a gully there were two bath complexes one built at a later time to the other but they are side by side and have a common drainage system. Some lovely brick archways still intact can be seen here. Also a small single arch bridge across the gully: This settlement also had a hippodrome; it was on the flat land almost 1k away. It’s the only place on the Iberian peninsular to have had one and here they used to race both 2 wheeled and 4 wheeled ‘briga’ (a kind of chariot), thus the name of the settlement, Mirobriga:
When I look at these ruins and see the drainage system and the pipes they used to carry water through the houses and other accomplishments of this ancient civilization I often wonder what happened that all this knowledge and technology became lost for about 1000 years. The castles built in the 12th century don’t have as good drainage systems and under floor heating is only now becoming more accepted except for places like Korea where it has been used for God knows how long continuously. The glass too is another thing; what we have now is not that much better than what the Romans made: In some things we really haven’t progressed much at all.
Along the way all through Portugal we have seen old windmills, all a similar round dumpy shape, painted white with a black roof, and with the frame for the sails but none with sails up and working. Here, just a short distance from the ruins we saw another, and although it didn’t have the sails unfurled they were there, just all rolled up. The elderly man who greeted us and showed us around said that it wasn’t working because there was no wind; perhaps it’s too calm at this time of year here but other places we have seen them there has been plenty of wind. This is certainly a working mill, it is used to grind maize now, for what purpose I can’t say but probably for stock feed I should think. We climbed up inside and saw the mechanism and the mill stones and even some bags of corn awaiting the wind that will provide the energy to grind it.
At Sines we reached the coast again; though the guide book says this is the ugliest town in Portugal because of the oil refineries we didn’t find it too back. It’s not a large town and it faces a nice south facing bay with a small port full of fishing boats and a large marina full of expensive pleasure craft. Like most of the better towns the houses are all white washed plaster with orange terra cotta roofs and they look quite pretty as they tumble down the hill sides towards the bright blue of the sea below, and a deep blue sky above. In most of the towns the streets and gardens are full of citrus trees loaded with ripe fruit. Mostly they are a small orange that are quite nice to eat but there are also some lemons too. We had picked and eaten a lot of oranges from those street trees.
Further south near Porto do Covo there are some lovely beaches but the surf in huge and the beach steeply shelving so I think it would be quite a dangerous place to take a dip. I did go for a paddle and found it a degree or two warmer that further north, still needs to get a couple more degrees warmer before it will seriously temp me in for a swim.
Heading towards the south western corner of the country we passed through an area of large vegetable farms with fields of cabbages, or something like a cabbage that doesn’t get a hard dense heart. We have seen a lot of them in the shops but I don’t know what they are called. Also large strawberry farms with berries growing in the fields and hydroponically in plastic green houses.
Also in this area in amongst the eucalypt forest there are wattle trees and many are just beginning to flower. Further north I had often seen the wattle but none in flower. Some of the eucalypts are heavily in bud too and I have seen a few with small white flowers. There are some very pale pink flowering fruit trees that I think might be pomegranate trees beginning to bloom and the white flowering deciduous trees that I think are probably almonds as I read that it flowers in January in this area.
As we neared the south the coast got very rugged with high cliffs and tiny coves with sandy beaches. Many of these coves had jagged sea stacks just separated from the cliffs and in one place we saw where the gaps between the stacks had been cemented and closed in to form, not so much a safe harbour but an area of calmer water at the bottom of a boat ramp so that the boats could be launched and retrieved easier and safer. All the small fishing boats were up on dry land well clear of the high tide.
On the most south westerly corner of Europe at Cabot Sao Vincente there is an old lighthouse, there was once a fort too but not any more. Whereas at Fortaleza just a few mile away there is some of the old fort built by Henry the Navigator in the 15th century still standing. This is the most western part of the Al Garve and we have hit the tourist areas and despite the fact that it is winter and there is only a tiny fraction of the number that you get in the summer there is still plenty of them. About 20 motorhomes were lined up in just one car park, God knows what it must be like in the summer when there is at least 10 times more tourists than now.
Lagos is rather a pleasant small town at this time of year with a population of around 20,000, but in summer that swells to a massive 200,000, and I just can’t imagine it. There are big blocks of apartments that are empty at this time of year. To wander around the narrow streets now is quite pleasant but I would not like to do so in the summer. We saw the old slave market building; it was used as such up till sometime in the 18th century I read. One of the main narrow streets was being dug up and we could see some old stone walls in the holes so we asked a girl we saw and she told us that the street was being dug to replace some pipes and that her group of archaeologists has been called in because ancient foundations had been found. Since then they have found some old Roman walls and medieval walls, Roman pottery and other bits and pieces. They think that one building they found is where the Romans used to make a fish paste.
On the hill top in Silves there is the lovely red stone walls of the old castle that was built by the Moors, the stone almost glows when seen from a distance with the light at the right angle; it has many towers: Almost nothing of the interior is left but it has had two Moorish palaces at different times and it had large cisterns for water and granaries. Some of the foundations of these things can still be seen. Possibly not for much longer though as there is a lot of construction going on inside the walls; not quite sure what they are building but the sign says something about improving tourist infrastructure, so I expect it’s an excuse to increase the entrance fee that is very reasonable at present. With 8000 visitors a day in the summer I expect the one toilet is a little overworked at times.
Sancho 1 besieged the castle in the 12th century: The occupants withstood the siege for several months until their water and grain ran out. Sancho there negotiated a surrender agreement but apparently his army didn’t honour it and most of the moors were killed. But it wasn’t for another 50 years or so, into the 13th century before the Christians again took control of this region.
In some of the hills here the wattles are almost in full bloom and between there yellow blossom and the smell of the eucalypt (gum) trees you would dam near think that you were in Australia; the clear blue skies and warm days only add to the picture. Have also seen silky oaks (grevillea robusta) and callistemons growing in various places.
Another rather nice town on the coast is Tavira. It also has an old castle, well, the outer walls of one anyway with a tower from which you can get a nice view over the town and along the salt marshes that are separated from the ocean by low lying sandy islands. It has an old medieval bridge that is not really as good as the old roman bridges we have seen. A tuna fishing fleet is based here too.
Just near the castle in the old water tower in the old town is a ‘camera obscura’ and we went and had a look. We had not been to one before though there used to be one at Picnic Point in Toowoomba, so I don’t know if you are familiar with how they work, I wasn’t. This one we visited is inside the old water tank and in the centre of the top is a lens and mirrors. The picture is projected in colour onto a large round disc in the centre of the room that we can move around so that as the camera moves around the 360˚ of the horizon we can move around inside and always see the picture from the bottom upward. The girl who was operating the camera was from Uruguay. As she moved it around she pointed out all the different places of interest around the town. We thought it was quite good.
These low lying off shore islands are nature reserves but that seems to mean very little as one we visited was very well populated. This was near Faro, and we could drive across the bridge to it though there wasn’t far you could drive once you got there. The car parks were nearly full at this time of year; don’t think you would ever find a parking spot in the summer. We walked along the boardwalk towards the eastern end of the island. It was a bit cool and breezy but pleasant and there were lots of people kite surfing up this end of the island so we went to watch them; they were all wearing wet suits, the water was dam cold.
All along the way we walked there were houses and shanties on small allotments. I doubt that there is any organised sanitation like sewerage and I saw no sign of septic systems. Nearly every one, tin shanty or smart house, had a satellite dish on the roof. Some had chickens, one had geese, most had cats and dogs too. The only way any nature was reserved was some fencing off of some of the sand dunes to let the grass grow. There was also a no fishing sign but we did see people who had collected buckets full of little shell fish.
I have now decided that it is only the almond trees that are in bloom. We stopped and looked at several and they seem to vary in shade from almost pure white through pale pink to a fairly bright pink. Perhaps they are slightly different species but all the flowers look the same shape and they have the most beautiful perfume.
Spring is in the air here and the storks are beginning to mate. They love to nest on top of the electricity poles, though we have seen one on a crane and a few on old buildings. They are very clever the way that they can balance a large nest on top of a pole with no more than 150mm (6inch) diameter. Mostly they are in pairs with just a few already sitting on eggs by the looks of it. We did see one lone chap do some sort of dance, don’t know if it was meant to attract a mate, if so it didn’t work.
One last thing I will mention about Portugal before we leave there. They certainly know how to build dams. All over the country there are dams both large and small, a great many of them have hydro electric stations attached. Most of them at this time of year are well below full but should fill within the next couple of months if they get the usual winter/early spring rains, but that of course, is in the lap of the Gods, or perhaps being Portugal I should say the Virgin Mary as it seems to be her who is the subject of all their devotion..
Having crossed back into Spain we saw many huge orange groves, including large areas that have been planted within the last year or so, all on raised beds with drip irrigation. In the same area too are large place green houses. Many of these have strawberries both in the ground and hydroponic, other have some other fruit of vegetable I have not been able to get a good enough look at to recognize, and many have cherry trees that are in full bloom. Have seen these in the open too as well as those under plastic. We are fairly certain that these bright pink flowering trees are cherry as they are pruned differently to those that I know are almonds. With the wattles and gum trees in flower too the local bees must be working overtime.
© Lynette Regan 30th January 2008

Episode 32

2008-02-07T04:18:00.000-08:00

Episode 31

2008-01-22T03:01:00.000-08:00

Episode 31
Again we headed to the coast to have a look at it further south. Once again it was wet and dismal when we did so: Roughly we were due west of Coimbra, perhaps a little to the south and we drove through a large area of pine forest with soft sandy tracks heading off over dunes towards the ocean. We could hear the roar of the waves on the other side of those dunes.
Came to a medium sized resort town that was dam near deserted; we did see two cars on the street and in a car park there were 3 others. One cafe was open. All of the holiday units were closed up tight, all the shutters down and gates locked. The beach was wide and sandy for the most part with one rocky headland and thundering surf rolling in from the Atlantic. Although it wasn’t nice weather it really wasn’t cold, only chilly. I didn’t try the water:
A few k’s further south and we came to another place with just a shade more activity, well, a few more cars anyway, and two or three shops open though I must say that the units and villas appeared to be just as tightly shut. After this we turned back inland and headed for the town of Batalha where the King of Portugal had an Abby built to honour a promise he made to the Virgin Mary for her help in his wining a decisive battle against Spain.
The Abby, and what a decorative piece of architecture it is! Was begun in 1388 and took over 100 years to construct, though one chapel was never finished and still remains without a roof. Constructed in limestone it is showing quite a bit of deterioration from pollution and acid rain. Its caramel coloured with a dark mould growing on it in places. Inside the wear of many feet on the limestone has worn away some steps to the stage that something will have to be done about them very soon, and the dripping of water in another part has also worn down some floor stones leaving deep holes in them.
This is a very large building and has towers, two not finished; flying buttresses topped with turrets and all around is decorated with fine fleur de lis. A great many stone carvings adorn those exterior walls too. Inside though is a different matter, its quite plain really with massive multi columned stone pillars that reach up very high to the vaulted roof. Here the lime stone has retained its much lighter colour and even though there are only small stained glass windows it seems quite light.
In the centre of one side chapel is the tomb of King Joao 1, he who had the place built, and his wife Phillipa of Lancaster (daughter of the duke of Lancaster who aided him in the battle). Around the walls of the chapel are the tombs of his sons including that of Prince Henri the navigator who discovered the Azores and Madeira.
The exterior of the one of the cloisters is just as highly decorated with fancy stone screens along the verandas, carved stone pillars and fancy gargoyles. In one room is the tomb of the unknown warrior guarded by a couple of perfectly still military sentries. Another cloister adjoined to the first through an entryway is very plain, yet built at the same time. All have the same terra cotta tile roofs that are still the principal roofing used all over Portugal to this day.
In the unfinished chapel there is the most beautiful arch doorway with stone carving in the columns and around the arches. Although this doorway seems to be protected from the rain the other parts that are open to the elements are beginning to wear away, though I suppose it has lasted 600 to 700 years without a great deal of decay. It truly is a beautiful building:
There are many limestone caves in the hills just to the south of Batalha and we visited one of them. By chance this happened to be the one at Mira de Aire, and it’s the one with the largest caverns and was the first one discovered back in 1947, some of the others weren’t discovered until the 1980’s. This cave gets a lot of visitors in the summer months but we were the only ones on this morning. Inside it is lit by coloured lights that are positioned to highlight little nooks and crannies that hold small stalactites or some other thing of interest. Just enough light to illuminate the concrete steps and path so I didn’t trip over anything. Down we went, past a waterfall that is about 20m high, down past little pools that people just love to toss coins into, down past small clusters of stalactites. The stalactites are not large and don’t form columns here, in fact there is only one or two stalagmites, but there are large flows over the side walls and along the bottom. The limestone in these flows has formed a crust over the surface that is hollow underneath in places. All the time we could here water flowing through a stream. At one point we could look down a hole about 60m to the water at the bottom.
Nearer the bottom there were more stalactites forming shells with fringes and shapes like harps but it was the size of the caverns that was the most impressive thing. They were huge and we went from one down a few steps to the top of the next one and so one, each one at a lower level. At the bottom we were 110m below where we’d entered, in probably the biggest cavern with a ceiling about 30m above us. Here in some little pools there were some man made fountains with coloured lights playing. From here we took a lift that put us outside still well below our starting point.
These caves are nice and I’m glad I saw one, but they are nothing on Jewel Cave in Western Australia, that one is the most outstanding I have ever seen.
Next we came to Fatima: This is the place where 3 young girls, shepherdesses, saw a vision of the Virgin Mary sitting on the branch of a holm oak tree on May 13, 1917. Only one of them could hear what the VM had to say and that was that she would make 5 more appearances on the 13th of each month until October. Two of the girls died in the Spanish flu epidemic a couple of years later but the third one became a nun and was still alive a few years ago, I forgot to ask if she still is. The poor oak tree suffered too, souvenir hunters brought about its demise though a new replacement was planted a few years ago.
A huge square with a large Basilica at one end and a just completed massive round, very modern style church at the other, and two smaller chapels one of either side half way between, covers the area that was once a meadow where sheep grazed. One of the side chapels, the chapel of the Apparition, is where the tree once stood; the new tree is not in the exact same spot. This square can hold hundreds of thousands of people but today there were probably only 60 to 70 about. Like Lourdes the faithful flock here hoping for a repeat performance or miracle cures.
Another thing we saw just a few k’s away was more dinosaurs footprints. These were larger and more ‘paw’ shape. They are is a layer of rock that has been uncovered during quarrying so they have been a little damaged but if it hadn’t been for the quarrying then they would never have been unearthed at all. There are 3 distinct sets of tracks going off across the rock. The type of dinosaurs that made these tracks was an herbaceous one and very large. These prints are about 600mm across. Wouldn’t like him to step on my toes:
Spent a while wandering about the town of Santarem, many parts of it are in similar state of decay to its Brazilian counterpart on the Amazon. Really the only thing worth seeing is the view from what was once the castle walls on top of a steep escarpment overlooking the wide fertile valley of the Tejo River. Pity it was misty and hazy with some showers around, really couldn’t see very far at all. The main churches that didn’t look is a good state of repair from the outside were all closed anyway, so to a ‘time’ museum with lots of clocks.
The one thing we saw a lot of in this general area are the tile pictures. Mainly in blue and white tiles they were all around the market place depicting scenes from long ago. Similar tiles are also used for window decoration, and we also saw some tile ‘pictures’; one was a landscape another was a more religious theme.
A lot of melons and strawberries are grown around here and we saw large fields that are being prepared for planting with sheets of cream plastic laid on top of raised beds. Big irrigation systems are currently standing idle across the fields. Plenty of vineyards in various stages of being pruned and the ever present olive trees. There are some cork around too so I read but as yet I have not been able to identify a cork tree.
In the town of Alcobac̨a we had a look at the huge monastery. It dates from the late 12th century and is one of the most important religious sites here in Portugal. It’s not an attractive building; it has a frontage of about 100m with the church right in the centre with a stone entrance, fairly plain, but most of the rest is white washed plaster with a terra cotta tile roof. It fronts a very large open Prac̨a (square). The church is very plain inside with high vaulted ceilings.
Up to 999 monks used to live here at one time and apparently they lived very well indeed, according one British writer who visited here. Not sure if there are any monks here now, but I don’t think so. The town is very tourist orientated with a street facing the Monastery full of sidewalk cafes and the side streets full of tourist shops. Unlike Batalha just a short distance away with its beautiful abby and very little tourist infrastructure:
Visited a small walled town called Obidos: David had seen the long aqueduct from quite a distance away; it leads right up to the city wall though the last few metres are missing where it was possibly removed when the road was built: It leads back into the hills three k’s to a spring and was built in the 16th century. It was a gift from the Queen of Austria.
This walled town is another of narrow lanes and stepped alleys. Some streets are wide enough for cars, but only one way traffic and not through the gate we entered by, that was pedestrian only. Once inside there are a large number of artisan shops and souvenir shops. A popular item seems to be the tile pictures that we have seen a lot of in this area. They are really lovely with sailing boats being a popular theme.
All the houses are whitewashed with blue paint around the bottom and look quite pretty though some are in need of a refresher coast. Naturally there are several churches and we looked in them. Two had tiles all around the walls and the only parts not tiled was the frescos. At the north-eastern end there is an old fortress and there had been some sort of stage and stalls set up in there probably for Christmas and New Year functions; the whole area was covered in some white stuff that was meant to be artificial snow. We climbed up on the walls and walked along some way with a good view out over the countryside then when the path got too narrow we climbed down again.
More tourists here than we’ve seen anywhere so far. Being within 100k’s of Lisbon I expect that some of the coaches are day trips from Lisbon. A large group of school kids wearing orange and yellow paper hats: Several foreign cars in the car park too.
Out on a small peninsular connected to the mainland by a narrow sandy isthmus is the town of Peniche. Along the north shore of the Isthmus are sand dunes and a lovely beach with a gently rolling surf. It looked so good that we went for a paddle, boy! Was that water cold; it took my breath away as it washed over my feet. The day had been so warm that we had got out our sandals:
This was a quiet and sleepy little town after all the tourists at the last place. Everything was closed up for the lunch time break when we arrived but opened up again at 2pm. There is another fortress here that was used by Salazar as a prison especially for political prisoners.
From a high vantage point we sat and watched the sardine fishing boats returning to port. These are modern boats not the old brightly painted wooden ones. Further around the headland we came to the lighthouse and could see several offshore islands. These islands are a nature reserve but there are some fishing families that live on them too. Just below the cliffs here there are a number of rocky sea stacks. With the warm sunshine and deep blue sea, it was really lovely.*
Followed the coast around to a town called Cascais, it’s a distant beach suburb of Lisbon almost. Linked by commuter train that runs every 20 mins most of the day we thought it would be a good place to stay a couple nights while we had a look around Lisbon. So that is what we did.
We started in Prac̨a do Comercio, a large square with colonnaded buildings on 3 sides, open to the waterfront on the 4th (south). It had a lovely arched entrance to the commercial centre of the city through the north colonnade. This is the Baixa district; built on a grid design it was all rebuilt after the 1755 earthquake that flattened the city. In fact most of the city was destroyed and ideas were put forward to abandon the site altogether and build a new city elsewhere but in the end it was rebuilt. The streets in the district have been named designating the trade that went on in them. Names like Goldsmith Street, Silversmith Street, cobbler street etc. Many buildings are all very much alike, mid to late 18th century and square concrete blocks though there are some very attractive ones sprinkled about if you look about as you wander along.
That district ends as the land starts to rise and beyond that past the lovely Rossio railway station with its 2 horseshoe shaped entrance doors there is a wide avenue, 90m wide and 1000m long, it rises steadily uphill leading into a large parkland area, Parque Eduordo 7th, named after the English King who visited in 1903.
Just as the avenue starts at the lower end there are some high steep hills off to the sided and up these funicular run linking the higher suburbs with the lower ones. There are at 2 funiculars: A large part of the not so steep areas of the city are serviced by trams, very modern looking ones except for a few of old wooden ones on certain routes, for the rest of the city there are busses, and a metro system.
A large red brick round building with blue onion domes, built with a definite Moorish influence is the ‘bull ring’. In Portugal the bull is not killed so I have been told and read. Under the bull ring is a large underground shopping mall. A walk along a long straight road from here brought us to the Gulbenkain museum. On display here is the once private collection of art and artefacts put together by the ‘Father of the oil industry in the middle east’. It is a beautiful collection that includes Persian and Central Asian carpets, both wool and silk, Egyptian pieces that have been raided from tombs including a gold death mask. Ming and Qing dynasty china, and enough paintings and sculptures by European masters to make any gallery drool.
We had taken one of those open topped busses for a tour around the city and to get acquainted with it somewhat. We got off and waked about and looked at things then caught a later bus, they run every 20 mins and it was really good. As we went along the audio guide gave us some of the history and told us something about what we were seeing. We passed part of the old aqueduct; it runs for some 30k’s and was not damaged in the earthquake.
In Belem, a waterside suburb 6k’s west of the centre that used to be the main port back in the era of discovery, a quite new monument stands at the waters edge; representing a Caravel in shape it is to honour the discovers, people like Henri the Navigator, Vasco de Gama, Pedro Cabral etc. Behind this 150m further back is a huge Monastery that was built especially to honour Vasco de Gama who is entombed there. Built with money raised by a tax on the spices that could then be brought back and sold to the rest of Europe after Vasco de Gama discovered the passage to India and the far east.
It is a beautiful building built in the Manualine style with highly decorated entrance archways and around the windows, plenty more ornamentation around the roofline and towers too. It is built in a light coloured stone. The interior has low vaulted ceilings at the entrance then in the Nave, the high vaulted ceilings are supported by decorated pillars that look almost like palm trees as they meet that vaulted roof. It’s quite impressive:
We rode around on the buses and old trams, though there are modern ones too, just that the routes we took only the old trams ply. Saw the castle that has been rebuilt to a great extent since I sat on the old ramparts with my friend Vicki when I was last here in January of 1970. Rebuilt castles don’t have the same ambience as the ones that have been left in their ruined state. This one was destroyed when the Moors were finally beaten and driven from Portugal.
There is an elevator that goes from the Baixa district and lifts you up about 6 stories through a wire mesh cage and deposits you at the top on a bit of a viewing platform with a steel walkway that connects to a street in the Barrio Alto district next to an unfinished church. The church has been in that state for a very long time. From the top of the elevator you can then climb up two more stories of winding narrow steel steps and come to a cafe and a higher viewing platform where there is a great view of the city below and the rebuilt castle on the hill opposite.
We looked in souvenir shops and sat in cafes drinking coffee and eating pastries. Lisbon is a very pleasant place for such past times. They made the best pastries here, it used to be London that had the wonderful pastry shops, and perhaps they are still there but so expensive now, while here a coffee and a pastry is probably cheaper than in would be in Brisbane, and certainly cheaper than Sydney. We also rode the funiculars and had to laugh when, as we were sitting waiting for it to depart we saw some cars driving up and down its path, they just squeeze in and can manage to turn into side streets. This is quite legal but they must give way to the funicular. Along these routes too, there is a narrow pavement on both sides and houses and small shops line both sides. Can’t say that I would like to live overlooking a funicular:
Many of the drivers are women, same with the trams and busses. The tram drivers do have a lot of problems with cars parked in their path. They are extremely good as they edge past a parked car with barely a millimetre to spare. People tend to just park anywhere though there are marked zones and parking and no parking signs, these signs are mostly ignored and only once have we seen anyone that actually looked like a traffic cop. Still, we would hate to try it ourselves as they may ignore the locals and target foreign cars, this happens in lots of places.
One thing in particular that strikes us in Lisbon is the number of beggars on the streets. On Sunday morning there were a lot out and about, especially in one area, but on Monday there were even more, on the train into the city and the everywhere we went. The vast majority seem to be older people too.
© Lynette Regan January 22nd 2008

Photos

2008-01-19T12:03:00.000-08:00

Episode 30

2008-01-18T07:11:00.000-08:00

Episode 30
At the southern end of a flat sandy peninsular is the little town of Sao Jacinto, as villages go its not much, it does however have a very nice wide sandy beach facing the Atlantic Ocean with some low grassy dunes. The wild gray surf was crashing on the beach when we went for a look. From what we could see it looks as if there may be a life guard on duty here during the summer months.
The road follows the edge of the lagoon and there are some large flash looking houses facing this none too attractive outlook. It’s got muddy marshy shores where we watched some people in small boats dig for some sort of shell fish. Using a pole 5 to 6m long with a rake and a net on the end they would push it out into the water, work the rake back and forth in the mud, then haul it in so that the net collected what the rake dislodged from the mud. Not very much usually, though at another point a bit further along small bags of shell fish were being loaded from the boats into a small refrigerated truck. David said they look to be whelks, but as I don’t know what a whelk looks like I can’t give an opinion.
In the town of Santa Maria de Feira we saw a castle that stands on a hill overlooking the town. It has a couple of towers and high fortified walls. There are underground passages that connect the different parts of the battlements and a long straight Roman road that leads from it up and over the hills beyond. Not that we could see much through the misty rain. At least it wasn’t cold here.
Now we headed back inland to the town of Arounce. Here we saw the old convent where there is an organ in the church that has 1352 notes and is occasionally played by a visiting expert. We could only look at it through a gap in a curtained petition as that part of the church was all closed off.
We drove up into the Serra da Arada (mountains) through more pine and eucalypt forest. It should have been a trip with brilliant view over the mountains and valleys but the fog filled the valleys and over much of the mountains too: In just a couple of places we saw pretty small villages clinging to mountain sides with all about them small terraces on which grapes and citrus are growing; and on the surrounding hills, pine forest. Looming through the fog on the high tops are several new wind turbines, they were working despite the quite gentle breeze blowing. Workmen were preparing base for another one.
Two stone huts beside a water channel both had horizontal water wheels in them, neither were working but it wouldn’t take a lot of effort to get them back in working order, a third hut just a little higher up the hill no longer had its waterwheel but it did have a brand new stainless steel holding tank beside it, for what purpose who knows!
In Sao Pedro do Sul we saw another castle on the hill overlooking the town, but like the one yesterday it looks better from a distance than up close. Some way further on at the town of Celorico do Beira we crossed a little dry stone bridge that Napoleon had marched his troops across in the early 1800’s, probably at the same time he had his horses stabled in the church in Porto. Near here too we saw an ancient Visigoth burial ground. Here small graves have been dug out of the granite rock, the body was then placed in the grave and a granite slab, hewn from another rock, put over the top. There are 11 graves here, one of which is obviously that of a child. They date from the 8th or 9th century AD.
In the town of Trancoso there is another walled city and a small castle that was once occupied by the Knights Templar. Those fellows sure got around: The castle and city walls are in good order having been restored several times over the centuries the latest being in 1940. In fact most of this small old city in is good repair, except for an old ducal palace that was once the home of a Polish princess. About the main thing to see here though are the old houses that were the homes of the Jewish community that fled here from Spain. All of these houses have two doors, a large one that opens only onto the downstairs room that was for trade and a smaller one that leads to the top floor where the family lived. One such house has a Lion of Judea embossed on the outside wall, it is thought that this was the house of the Rabbi. Several other have small rough crosses scratched into the stone work above the door; this was done by the Inquisition to show that the family had converted to Christianity. Again it was a very clean old city.
I noticed that there is a number of very good quality shops in the commercial parts of this walled city and that they had taken over 2 or 3 of the small pokey little shops and combined them into one of a decent size. But with the low ceilings and small window display space they still feel somewhat confined.
Heading north towards the town of Villa Nova da Foz Coa we came into a very mountainous region yet again. Here the steep hills had to a large extent, been terraced from top to bottom. Many of these terraces are very new and in fact we saw them still under construction in a couple of places. Those new terraces have been planted with either olives or grapes. You can easily pick out the more modern terraces because they are longer and more even and follow the curve of the hill having been made with modern earth moving equipment. However, there are still quite a few large olive groves and vineyards that aren’t terraced; these mostly have older well established trees and vines.
We took a drive around some of the tiny back roads and passed through several villages that are just how I remember those I saw in 1970, and even these mountains seem somewhat familiar. It is really an extremely pretty area but the main thing we came here to see is the old stone carvings that were discovered here in the 1990’s at the time a large controversial dam was beginning construction. That construction was halted because of the discovery.
These petroglypths are believed to be up to 28000 years old, but not all of them are the same age. They are also one of the biggest sites ever to have been discovered in Europe, there are more than 100 different sites spread along this valley of the Coa River. All these sites are on open exposed schist surfaces, whereas all former discoveries of this kind of drawing have been in caves.
Three different techniques have been used to make the drawings. The one that is perhaps the hardest to see because it is so fine like a single pencil line is a very fine single stroke groove. It must have been made with an especially hard and sharp piece of flint to cut into the schist surface as it did. The second method is the thicker outline left by short sharp strokes; and the third is by tapping a sharp pointed piece of flint with a hammer, just as you would with a chisel. In fact one of these tools was found by an old fire place in the vicinity.
Our guide took us to a number of different rock faces and at each one only a small area of the surface has drawings, some are done over the top of the older ones. Considering the time span the weather seems to have had little effect on them though the rock has cracked and crumbled in some places so that parts of the drawings are missing. The surfaces the ancients carved on was the vertical face of the schist, whilst some carvings done in the 19th century are on the horizontal face and are deteriorating much more rapidly. The animals that are represented are horses mainly with some deer, goats and bulls, some are very large whilst others are very tiny drawings. I did read somewhere that there is also a drawing of a bison amongst these, an animal that has been extinct from Europe for a very long time.
One of Portugal’s top Port Wine producers is in this area and we considered going to have a look. Another couple that were on the petroglypths tour wanted to do so too, so they phoned up but there was no reply and the place turned out to be in a very difficult to get to location so we all gave the idea a miss.
On a high plateau we saw Castelo Rodrigo standing on a hill top overlooking the village below and a vast area of farmland all the way to the Spanish border. Inside the fortified walls there was once a palace from the 16th century. Not very much remains and most of that has been rebuilt: The whole place is floodlit and at night it is probably quite a site but not at this time of year. The Portuguese don’t waste electricity; they only use it when there are plenty of people around to appreciate it.
A short distance further on and there is another fortification on a hill top with a commanding view. This is the military fortifications of Almeida: Here there are some impressive gateways into the walled compound; there was once a moat too, and a couple of drawbridges. Inside the walls is the old barracks building now a row of flats with washing hanging under the arches, and not sprucely painted as in the brochure photo.
As we drive around this part of eastern Portugal we see more ruined castles; they seem to date from a similar period around the 12th century. Several contained palaces within: Roman bridges and roads are other things we keep seeing, oh, and old olive presses that are no longer used can often be found as a centre piece in a roundabout or town prac̨a
In the city of Guarda we were all set to have a look about, we parked the car and set out with map in hand and dressed in our wet weather gear as it was tipping with rain. After a long walk up hill all the way we eventually arrived in the old city centre and dam near got blown away. The maps and literature got wet and the wind blew them to bits. We got more from the tourist office but the same thing happened again.
The cathedral was about the only thing we actually saw, built of gray granite it has high flying buttresses topped with small turrets and a fringe of fleur de lis. Inside is very plain compared with all the other cathedrals and churches we’ve seen in Portugal, no gilded carvings here or highly decorative altars and chapels though there is an impressive sandstone carving on 4 tiers as an altar piece featuring the apostles and other religious scenes and topped with Christ on the Cross. Another interesting feature inside are two pillars with twisted columns, all the other pillars are made up of straight upright columns. These twisted columns also appear on the west door. I can’t remember ever having seen it before.
I am sure there were other things to see in this place but David was very cold and extremely cranky so I just gave up the battle with maps and the weather and we went and had a hot coffee and a lovely pastry before heading back to the car, putting the heater on and warming up.
In the smaller town of Belmonte yet another castle stands on the hill, in ruins naturally, but with a big crane that looks as if it’s maybe being used to reconstruct some of the ancient wall. I could be wrong: This is another town that had a large medieval Jewish community, but unlike most of the others even though these people appeared to convert to Christianity many secretly keep up their Jewish faith. After the revolution of 1974 that ended the dictatorshop they were once again allowed to openly practice their faith and now they have a new Synagogue here is this place. There must be quite a large Jewish community all through this area because they produce a Kosher wine and olive oil.
This town also has one other claim to fame; it is the birth place of Pedro Alvaras Cabral. Ok! Ok! I can hear you all asking just who the heck was he? Well my friends, he was the fellow who discovered Brazil. In fact if memory serves me correct, and it probably doesn’t, he was the one who sailed into Rio harbour and thought it was the mouth of a river hence naming it Rio de Janiero. Anyway this chap was the son of the prominent family here and was born in the castle. He and his family are entombed in the church just below the castle walls. This small church has some faded 15th and 16th century frescos too.
There is one tiny ski area in Portugal: Its in the Serra da Estrela National Park on the highest part at a place called Torre ( tower), its only 1993m above sea level so in the late 1800’s the king at the time had a square tower built there to bring the height up to a more impressive 2000m, what good that was going to do I really can’t say. It certainly isn’t an attractive addition.
With snow beginning at around 1400m there was quite a good covering up near the top and being a Saturday there were big crowds out and about making the most of the short snow season they get here. It had been sunny right up till we arrived then some cloud came over and we were wandering about in thick fog that drifted and almost cleared a couple of times. The snow was powdery in places where it was thick but where it was thin it had an icy crust and hundreds of people had small plastic toboggans and sleds and were having a great time sliding down icy slopes. Wherever there was enough snow to slide on whole families, including the dog were doing so.
Right on top of the mountain there are a number of small shops and the main things they sell are hams and cheeses, probably from this local area. Also on sale were woolly slippers as well as some other warm clothing and there were a couple of cafeterias. The one and only ski lift was doing good business with a continuous flow of people getting off at the top to ski back down, but we have no idea how far down it went as the fog was far too thick to see. As we drove down the west side of the mountain we saw a few ski hire places several kilometres from the lift area. Only had to drop a little in altitude too, and we were back in sunshine for a little while at least.
Headed east again to the Spanish border to another town with a thermal springs and public baths. As we headed in that direction the rain tipped down yet again, the fog persisted and the wind blew small branches all over the road. Then when we got there we found that the baths are closed to the end of the month. We called in to see the castle and village of Monsanto; it is built of granite rock and sits in amongst huge granite boulder but alas, the rain was so heavy and the fog so thick we could barely make out that we were in the village.
In the town of Oliveira do Hospital the church there has a huge lime tree in its yard. Its asleep at this time of year, this is not a citrus lime tree, but is still impressive. Its 25m high and 4m round the trunk, in summer it must provide great shade.
It’s really quite surprising how large some of these villages are. They seem quite small from a distance but when we arrive and drive through they turn out to be much larger. They all seem to have very narrow cobbled streets in the centre that doesn’t do the suspension any good at all. In many gardens I have seen persimmon trees loaded with bright orange fruit, and large loquat trees quite heavily in flower.
The old university city of Coimbra is a pleasant place with its steep narrow lanes leading up the hill past the old Cathedral to the University that sits right on the highest point overlooking all else.
This premier University of Portugal was established here in 1537; through the preceding 3 centuries it had been moved back and forth between here and Lisbon. During the 20th century many new buildings and facilities have been added most of which are in other parts of the city.
Perhaps the most interesting part of it to see is the old library. This is a magnificent building on the inside though it’s quite plain from the outside. With stone walls over 2m thick it keeps the temperature a fairly consistent 20˚C and this is necessary to preserve the books that are kept here. There are over 200,000 volumes that date as far back as the 16th century.
The inside is divided into 3 rooms with archways separating them. The books are lined on shelves all around the walls; floor to balcony, then from the balcony to the ceiling. Making a total wall height of about 7m or so: Above that it the cornice decorated with gold leaf and a frescoed ceiling in each room: There is also much carved and gilded decoration around the shelves and pillars. Several large intricately inlaid tables are on display, they are made of mahogany, rosewood, ebony, and jacaranda.
The shelves are make of oak and this provides some protection against insect infestation, but there is also another factor that helps keep the insects in check, it’s the bat colony that live in the hollow wooden pillars that look like stone. At night the bats come out and eat any insects that dare to be about. Special leather cloths are placed over the tables to protect them from the bats.
Another special room in this university is in the main building, it’s the “Room of cowls”; this is the room in which doctorates are awarded. Other major university functions are held here too. It has a lovely ceiling that is painted in small panels. No photographs were allowed in these buildings:
St Michaels Chapel stands next to the library and it has an impressive organ and a brightly painted ceiling that reminds me of some brightly painted plates that I’ve seen in many different places. Painted in bright blues and oranges on a white background on the rounded Romanesque ceiling: A baroque clock tower stands in the corner of the square overlooking all:
The new Cathedral was closed but we had a quick look in the old cathedral, it’s quite a plain Romanesque structure with the only thing of note being the large clam shells that hold the holy water. There are several of them spread around the place inside.
© Lynette Regan 14th January 2008

Episode 29

2008-01-18T07:10:00.001-08:00

Episode 29
A brilliant sunny day, except where we were in Chaves. This town is in a valley and was enveloped in a heavy fog; a hot spring feeds into the river at 78˚C so I suppose that helps to create the fog: You would think that with a nice supply of hot spring water there would be some pools open for bathing, not on your Nelly; the spa complex was shut up tight and seems only to offer ‘treatments’ anyway. I think the place is missing out on a lot of tourist Euros by not having public bathing pools.
Apart from the spa the place doesn’t have a lot to offer. There is another old Roman bridge that loomed through the mist as we approached; it is much shorter than the one over the Lima River but still functions as a traffic bridge taking one way traffic out of the old city. Walking along beside the river was one of the warmest spots in town because of the hot spring. The battlements of two old fortresses remain and from the high one it’s possible to get a good view of the city but not the day we visited. The houses in the narrow cobble streets often have narrow wooden balconies on the first floor that overhang the cobbles, some neighbours could just about shake hands across the street. Often you see the weeks washing hanging out to dry on such balconies but very few people had any out today, like me, they probably had little faith in it ever drying in such weather.
Despite the sign stating the opening hours and we were well within them, the tourist office remained firmly shut but we managed to find our way around quite well as at least there were street manes on the corners, that helps a lot.
As we drove out of town on the lookout for a supermarket that we never did see we passed several shops selling copper stills. Now what do they distil in those stills do you suppose? No tourist office open to ask so some time I will have to try and find out. There must be a big demand for the stills though as three shops within 60m each had a large display of them for sale.
Out of town and the fog, we are once more in the higher drier part of the Portugal. The elevation is around 800+m and it can get very cold here. The high trellises for the grapes have given way to the low growing varieties that are used for wine making. Red wine and port are produced in this area I read somewhere. Many of the hill sides are covered in almond trees and some chestnut trees both of which are asleep at present but in February/March it is said to be just a mass of white almond blossom. Hopefully we will see some further south where they bloom in January on the Algarve. Some small fields of green that I think is oats and rye crops offer a little relief from the bleakness of the winter landscape. Apart from the nut plantations and just a few olive and pine trees many of the hills are bare and quite barren. Any native forest is long gone, though I have seen some ‘broom’ shrubs
Part of the area through which we travelled on our way to the town of Braganc̨a is in a fairly newly created Nature Park. Just what this is supposed to mean I cannot say, but I think it protects the few native animals that just might happen to have survived until now. One of these parks in Portugal does have a small population of wolves the only place in Western Europe where they have lived continuously since ancient times, but I don’t think it’s this one. The villages through which we passed are only tiny but they usually have at least one coffee shop and a small grocery store, and always a church. Often they are very close together with only 2 or 3 k’s separating them and I wonder what the people do here as I’m sure the agriculture can’t support them all. In fact you see very few people about at all, maybe a tractor with a trailer going along the road, or someone driving three cows through a village, a sheppard on a hill looking after 4 sheep or 5 goats, and an odd donkey peering over a wall.
We’ve seen several milking cows lately but the only milk we have been able to buy for some time now is UHT. In some places in Spain we could get fresh milk but not everywhere. There is however, a wide variety of locally produced cheeses and yogurt is available, but I don’t know where it’s made. Smoked ham is said to be a speciality of this area but I haven’t tried any yet, have to find a shop open first.
Another place that was wrapped in a cotton wool fog was Braganc̨a as when we visited it on New Years morning. The cobbled streets were slick with thin ice and any sound was muffled because of the fog. With hardly another soul around we wandered the streets and easily found the Cidadela looming through the mist; the old fortified city with imposing high walls that once had 13 towers around its length. One large square tower has been restored and it houses a military museum that was, of course, closed. One of the towers used to be called the Princess Tower because a Princess was once imprisoned here for being in love with a Troubadour.
Within the walls, right on top of the hill is a pentagon shaped building, the Domus Municipalis; a council chambers, and below this is a huge cistern that holds water from a spring and run off water. The place was built in the 13th or 14th century and held a very strategic position right on the border with Spain.
A great many Jew settled here during the time of the Spanish Inquisition having fled across the border from Spain. The church in Portugal didn’t bother with the small places in the provences. Many of the people bear Jewish names but the Synagogue no longer exists so they must have all converted to Catholicism at some point in time.
After having looked about as best we could with the fog we found about the only cafe open and went in for a coffee. There were only about 4 other in there, all men and some of them engaged us in a one sided conversation. One spoke a little English, he is a maths teacher, another one kept telling him things he wanted translated to tell us, and a third one was a keen Rolling Stones fan, about the same age as Mick Jagger. They we all drinking beer or wine and thought we were weak only having coffee, they wanted to buy us a pork roll each but we couldn’t come at that as the pork was barely warmed on either side, just a little too rare for us, so we made excuses of a very large breakfast that was fairly true anyway.
Our drive to the border town of Miranda do Douro was through a world enfolded in cotton wool with visibility down to about 40m most of the way. We passed through a couple of supposedly interesting villages of which we could see nothing. Then just as we approached Miranda the fog lifted leaving heavy cloud and a thick haze but at least we could get a look at the gorge that we had come to see. The gorge on the Douro River forms the border with Spain at this point. A strategically placed narrow dam wall holds back the water and floods the deep narrow gorge to a depth of 50m or so. The only vegetation of the steep slopes being the small stunted ilex oak trees, a tiny olive green leafed evergreen shrub, the leaf being similar in shape to that of a holly tree.
Here too, is an old castle, well the remains of one anyway, an explosion in 1762 during the Spanish Wars, blew away a good bit of the castle, and some 400 people were killed. It must have been some explosion as the walls were 3m thick, you can see this from what is left standing.
Turning west again we passed through a mountainous area with gorges and steep sided hills many of which were planted with olive groves, the trees planted in straight lines up and over the tops of the mountains. Some of these were quite old plantation too with trees that had thick twisted and gnarled trunks: As the Jews have a saying that an olive tree never dies, I wondered just how old these trees might be.
Just travelling along quietly without another car or soul around and suddenly with a gentle ‘thup’ and the back window shattered. Well that altered any plans we might have had: With the showery weather we had and the risk that the glass might fall out at any time, we started looking for a place to get it attended to. In the next town we found a wreckers yard but they couldn’t replace the glass only, they would have had to replace the whole back hatch door and with a green one, our car is white. They suggested we head back to Braganc̨a where there is a Citroen dealership. Which is what we did but it was at a garage not the dealership where we got it done, by which time the day was over, daylight had long gone and the rain settled in with grim determination, the cold too.
In one small town the pride and joy of the place is a granite pig. This pig sits atop a high pedestal in the central square for all to see. It’s carved in a light cream coloured granite, is said to be a male pig and believed that it was some sort of fertility symbol to the ancient people who carved it in about 500BC approx. This village Murc̨a, also boasts another Roman bridge, just a single arch one along with a rock paved Roman road that is in good condition for several k’s. We would have walked along its length but it was just too wet to take pleasure in such an exercise. In the town of Mirandela some 30k’s to the east stands another Roman bridge, that one is quite long and has many arches.
This whole area produces a lot of wine and olive oil. Apparently the olive oil is especially good and has won gold medals at international competitions. There are certainly enough olive groves in this area they cover the hill sides.
In the steep hills outside Villa Real we came to an old Roman Temple. There really isn’t much to see, and probably never was though it is believed that three small temples were here, one of each of the granite boulder that constitute the temple. Looking uphill, there are 3 outcrops of granite in a slightly curved line each about 50m apart. The lowest one has inscriptions carved into it, 3 are in Latin, one is in Greek but they all tell of the Roman senator who was a high ranking local official in this area dedicating the temple to the Gods, Serapis in particular, though several others are thrown in for good measure including some from the local indigenous tribes.
Each of the 3 boulders has holes of various sizes carved out of the rock. Each of these holes had a specific purpose and all to do with the sacrifice of animals, or so the literature says. Small holes were for the blood offered to the God of the underworld, larger ones were where the intestines were burned, another larger one where the meat was cooked, and yet another one for cleaning up after. The highest most of these rocks, on top of the hill, has 4 large rectangular holes, the size and shape of coffins and a set of steps carved into the rock leading up to these holes. The beast was brought here to be prepared for sacrifice so I heard and read but just how or what was done isn’t mentioned. To us it all looked the right size for sacrificing humans but we were assured that wasn’t the case. This all dates from the end of the 2nd century AD: Never seen anything like it before:
Not far from here we came across some ‘standing stones’. Just a few standing in an elongated curve, possibly part of an elongated oval: Then on a hill top just a few k’s away there is a stone lined tomb built into a man made mound, something similar to what we have seen in Scotland. No dates or information on any of these but it would be my guess that they are all Iron Age, perhaps around 300BC.
In this area the grapes seem to have taken over and they are growing up and over the hillsides, and down in the valleys. Small areas have been terraced but mostly not. There are also a few apple orchards, and I saw some persimmons growing in household gardens. Just a few citrus too: Along the road you never seem to run out of the village, it’s continuous.
The city of Lamago has a similar religious monument to that at Braga. Here it dedicated to Nostra Senhora de Remedois (our lady of the remedies?). To get to it also involves climbing up steps, this time over 600, passing fountains and statues along the way. The view from the top should have been great except for the drizzly rain and foggy conditions.
The fairly small church at the top is mostly 18th century though there is a small part from the 16th century. The rounded ceiling is painted in blue and white and around the walls are mosaics in blue and white tiles with gold trim that tell the story of Jesus at aged about 12 when he was an apprentice carpenter.
Travelling down the Douro valley towards the city of Porto the rain and foggy conditions continued otherwise it would have been very pretty. All the way the steep mountains sides are terraced, very small ones mostly; in the higher areas there are apples and other stone fruit, some pine forest and always some grapes: As we got further down stream and lower in altitude there are citrus and grapes and eucalypt forest. All along the way we twisted our way back and forth over the mountains descending to villages along the river bank only to climb back high over the next ridge. The river is quite wide, and in one village we saw a small marina with several power boats moored there. Never really get out of a village, no more that 60m or so at the most between the houses along the road unless there is a strip of forest.
The city of Porto near the coast and the mouth of the Douro River is not the prettiest place in Portugal at all. As we drove in we passed rundown areas with boarded up and decaying buildings with much graffiti on the walls, though the streets weren’t dirty with litter. Pulled into the first parking station we came to and took the elevator down and came out into the food court of a big, quite new shopping complex on four levels, this opened onto an upmarket shopping street that had a surprising amount of people about for a Sunday morning, or any morning for that matter.
One of the first things we saw was an old wooden tram car; at least it was well maintained. After finding the tourist office in one of the main squares beside the Camara Municipal (town hall) up the hill at the top of the prac̨a, we set out, map in hand to have a look about this city:
A short walk brought us to the Sé, (the cathedral) and the bishops palace, the former is a very drab looking structure and the latter is of white painted plaster with the decoration around the windows and doors both have a great deal of scaffolding erected around them. From the terrace here we could look down and across much of the old city that is world heritage listed though I really do think that in this case that old city is past the point of preservation. It seems to be in quite a rapid state of decay with rickety old buildings all of which have the terra cotta tile roofs, some very wobbly, that really must leak like sieves in this moist winter climate. Many of the building are in eminent danger of falling down too. Wandering down the narrow alleys towards the river we did find that they were quite clean too, bit of doggy do, nothing like France, but they didn’t stink as I expected they might. Perhaps the recent rain had washed them well.
From the terrace we had looked down on a public laundry; a square building with open sides and full of laundry tubs, not a laundrette. We thought we’d take a closer look, but we didn’t find it as we meandered down the alleyways. Came out on the waterfront of the river Douro (river of gold) and saw several tourist cruise boats moored by the esplanade. A large steel arched bridge was just upstream. It had a vehicular bridge on one level and on a much higher one was a train line and a pedestrian walkway. In clear weather the view would probably be great but today, well, at least it wasn’t raining at this point in time.
We came to an old church that has been deconsecrated and was once used by Napoleon as a stables for his horses. The Igreja de Sao Francisco is nothing special from the outside, quite plain really and dates from the 13th to 15th centuries. It is the inside that is special; it was redecorated in the 17th and 18th centuries in the gilded, ornate, lavish Rococo style carvings. Between 400 and 800kgs of gold was used to gild this place. These carvings just ooze off the walls; the only bit that isn’t covered is where Napoleon had them removed to make room for his horses. Not really supposed to take photos but I think David sneaked a couple of shots.
We did come across a part of the city that had been rebuilt in the early 1900’s in art Nouveau style and it looked quite nice, but that was outside the preserved old city. Then over near the main market there is another large area that has been rebuilt in the last few years with smart new buildings but not skyscrapers. In this central area of the city, the street where we’d parked was the upmarket street with several brand name stores and most were open when we arrived back there in the late afternoon. The whole area was alive with people. Like Spain these people tend to do everything in the late afternoon and at night. Mornings are slow.
It was across the river and a couple of k’s south where we came to the wide streets and some flash shops and shopping centres in amongst an area 8 storey apartment blocks, a sea of them.
I had thought that in Brazil when we had seen many buildings with tiled exteriors that it was done to help preserve them in the hot humid climate but now I know that it’s a Portuguese style of decoration. A great many of the buildings in this country have tiled exteriors, something I didn’t notice when I visited many years ago. Predominately the tiles are blue and white. Often they are in the form of a mural or mosaic called an ‘azulejos’, azule being the word for blue. Some are really quite beautiful and the train station in Porto has a huge interior one that covers three walls. It’s in two parts, a battle scene is one and the other is the development of transportation, though it all needs a thorough cleaning to see it properly.
© Lynette Regan January 6th 2007

Episode 28

2008-01-07T08:15:00.000-08:00

Episode 28
We travelled along some of the northwest coast of Spain; the road we followed was a bit disappointing in the fact that we didn’t see much of the shore, just for a few short stretches here and there. Can’t say that it was a particularly nice stretch of coast, it was in the vicinity of Vivero west towards La Coruna. Sometimes we saw a small stretch of sandy shore, usually in a small bay and there were some large towns with marinas crowded with pleasure craft of all sizes. Two nice surfing beaches we saw from a distance but we couldn’t seem to get near for a closer look.
The hills immediately inland from the coast are covered in eucalyptus plantations, tall, straight, thin, and growing very densely packed. The eucalypt forest cover a huge area, in just a few places the big trees had been harvested and then left to revegetate without replanting.
We went into the city of La Coruna to see the harbour that the Spanish Armada set sail from in 1588 on its ill fated voyage to England. What we saw was a marina packed solid with large yachts and a fleet of fishing boats. In a small plaza we came across a bronze statue of John Lennon, just as well there was a notice to tell me that because I would not have recognized him. In another large plaza there is a statue of the local heroine Maria Pita who somehow or other was instrumental in stopping Sir Francis Drakes invasion of the town in 1589 (I think).
In a rather nice building on this plaza, and I have no idea what the building is, the ground floor had a rather unique nativity scene set up. It incorporated all the things you would expect to see in a 3 dimensional format with painted backdrop that was meant to represent Jerusalem on one wall, Bethlehem on another and a seascape on the third. Also it included many local and Spanish identities, like the local heroine dressed as a serving wench in a pub serving two other local characters. Picasso was sitting there painting a picture, and the sheppards were sitting around a camp fire while the sheep were sleeping beside them and an angle was hovering above. The whole thing was really meant for kids but it seemed that it was the adults who were the most interested.
It was Christmas Eve and the narrow pedestrian streets were crowded with Christmas shoppers, it seems that the Spanish are no different to the rest of us and dash about madly on Christmas eve fearful that they have forgotten something.
A very wet Christmas Day saw us in Santiago de Compostella. It is believed that it was here that St James is buries. His body having been transported here after he died in the 1st century AD: It was rediscovered in the 9th century and the first church built here in the 10th century. Because of this it became a place for pilgrims to visit and there are two or three different caminos that all end up here. A caminos is a walking trail meaning the ‘way of the pilgrim’: Santiago means Saint James:
The Cathedral is not all that large and was first begun in the 11th century in the Romanesque style most of which is still apparent but much more has been added in other styles since then. The main altar piece is very decorative and has much gold leaf and features many women both naked and scantily dressed. There is much more gold ornamentation around the outside of this main chapel. The original facade that is now under the cover of a newer larger one is the work of the 12th century master sculpture Maestro Mateo and features Christ risen and the four evangelists as well as angels, musicians and Santiago. It called the Portico de la Gloria:
We walked around some of the plaza and narrow streets in what is supposed to be a pedestrian zone and nearly go run over by cars several times. Only a few other people were out and about and though we saw many cafes and restaurants open elsewhere none were so in this central part of the city. The rain was so heavy that the water was several inches deep as it rushed down the cobbled streets seeming to easily avoid the many drains positioned to take it away.
The little resort town of O Gove is on a small peninsular and to reach it you drive across a causeway. Driving west towards it we passed some beaches that would be your worse nightmare to live near. Slimy mud covered with green algae and an assortment of flotsam that gets washed in on the high tide and stuck there, the smell was putrid. When we reached O Gove we saw more mud flats and many people out in the shallow water of the receding tide equipped with a container and a funny looking two handled shovel. We stood and watched them for a while. The shovel thing is used to scoop in the mud and rather than a solid spade it has a sieve that lets the mud fall through but catches any lumps and those lumps are some sort of shell fish that people were collecting. Further out in the bay in the sheltered water we could see lots of platforms, these are were a variety of shell fish are farmed, muscles, scallops and oysters. The people digging were possibly after those that escape from the farms, there are usually some escapees.
Further round the island we came to the town proper and here we walked out on a jetty where we could see a great many of those platforms. In the summer a couple of tour boats run an excursion out to have a closer look at the shell fish farms, two of those boats were tied up here at the jetty. In the little harbour there were dozens of small wooden boats with a centre seat and a couple of benches, specially set up to go out with the necessary equipment to collect those shell fish I expect. All these little boats were painted up in bright colours and on this bright sunny day they looked really pretty bobbing on the water. Looking down directly into the water it appeared to be very clear and we wondered if the green algae is something to do with the shell fish farming. These shell fish are raised for the export market as well as local consumption so they would be checked for any contaminants I would have thought especially seeing as Spain is part of the European Union.
According to the Lonely Planet book this is a resort town, a bit like Blackpool in England but we saw no sign of amusements here though there certainly was an abundance of hotels. Just why people would want to come and holiday here I have no idea because the beach is horrible but just a few mile away back on the mainland on the Atlantic coast we came to some lovely sandy beaches: A gentle surf was rolling in, there is a life guard tower and showers on the beach neither of which are operating at this time of year, the sun was shining brightly and two people were walking along the sand. Some way further on at another beach with better surf we did see two lads surfboard riding. Inside the next bay south in the calm water there is more of the platforms and the shell fish farms. The weather, once the rain had cleared is certainly warmer than in the mountains, it probably got up to about 16˚C, though the light breeze kept it from getting really warm.
This area of Spain is not where the foreign tourists come in their droves; this is where the Spanish come for their holidays. We have seen only one resort hotel and that wasn’t a really good one, not like you get on the Mediterranean coast, the “Costa Lota” or the “Costa del Crims”. There is however a great many small family run hostels and hotels.
On a bright and sunny morning with frost on the ground we crossed into Portugal with just a sign and an old customs shed by the roadside to mark the spot. What a boom this European Union is to us travellers, no border formalities and no currency exchange, such an improvement on the old ways. I don’t know just how many hours I have stood in queues and waited at border crossings or to get visas at embassies but it must amount to several days so I’m all for the expansion of the EU it makes life just so much simpler. It does the banks out of some profit too from exchange charges. But it does have a down side, the fact that these countries are getting more expensive by the minute as prices catch up with their more northern counterparts.
Driving down the valley of the Rio Lima it was built up most of the way with small towns and the hillsides are terraced and planted mainly with grapes grown on trellises about 170/190mm high that form an overhead canopy. The grapes stems are not allowed to branch until they reach the top, then they can spread all over the trellis and the bunches of fruit hang down and can be easily harvested. Saw them being grown the same way in Taiwan: Along with the grapes there are plenty of citrus trees and these are just loaded with bright orange fruit and the ground is littered with the fallen pieces. A few olive trees around too: Some small patches of forest with pines and eucalypts, they seem to like living in Portugal and Spain.
Like Spain there is a vast amount of road construction going on here. New roads recently opened or still under construction and not on our maps or in the Sat Nav maps. All the new motorways seem to be toll ways, so far we have managed to avoid the toll ways but its not easy as they are not clearly marked. In Spain even the minor roads have been upgraded over very recent years and it might prove to be the case here as well.
Our first major city was Viana do Castelo on the north coast. Here we found quite a pleasant old city centre with narrow cobbled streets and small shops. Along the river we found a wide open parkland with some gardens and there is a small marina. On the hill behind the town stands a Basilica so we took the funicular railway up to it though we could have walked or taken the car. The Basilica is modern and of no particular interest but there is a lift and a climb up some very narrow winding stairs to a viewing platform on top of the dome and the view is worth the climb and the 80cents. All the coast south of the river mouth is wide sandy beaches where the Atlantic rolls in, north of the river mouth the coast is rocks, well as far as we can see anyway, though all the information I have seen says that its a wide sandy beach all the way to the Spanish border. For the 1st Kilometre leading back from the shore there is agriculture with just an odd farm house, not even the town spreads right out to the mouth of the river. There does not appear to be any holiday resorts in this area. Just as we were about to go back down in the funicular a group of teenage boys came up in it bringing their mountain bikes, I always though that mountain bikes were meant to be ridden up mountains, not just down them.
The town is quite clean and tidy, there is not the huge amount of construction going on here as there appears to be in Spain, but in some ways the buildings seem in better repair. In Spain there are huge cranes everywhere and the amount of construction is staggering. Here it does have almost a 3rd world atmosphere, and I’m not real sure why: A big fruit and veggie market with all the stalls run by women just as you would see in Asia or Africa. Many of the older women still carry their goods on their heads, but I haven’t as yet seen any young ones doing so. Hundreds of tiny little shops just specializing in a few items, no big department stores though there has been a new shopping centre recently built that includes a supermarket and a number of speciality shops just as you would find in England or Australia.
Although there is still frost in the mornings and snow probably in the high mountains the days are getting warmer as we head further south. Portugal is on the same time zone as Britain, and one hour behind Spain. In western Spain it was getting a bit ridiculous really with the sun setting soon after 6pm but not rising till after 9am.
Ponte de Lima has a lovely old Roman bridge with many arches. It is about 150m long and 3m wide and as I strolled across I could just imagine the Roman legions tramping across in formation, shields held in one hand and spear in the other, helmets gleaming in the morning sunshine, and the swish of their leather garments. Too much imagination me, that’s my problem. On the far side stands a small square pavilion open on three sides and its pillars each have claws at the bottom, it dates from the 13th century and was built as a shelter for pilgrims. Not in wet windy weather obviously:
In the main praςa (plaza) a group of youngsters, 6 to 20 years olds and wearing Santa hats were going around standing outside each shop and singing a few bars of Jingle Bells, then a few bars of another song, over and over again whilst one of them went into the shop cap in hand, requesting a donation. It got a bit monotonous after 10 mins and they were still at it an hour later. The girl in the library told David that it happens each Saturday; Good Gracious!
It was very heavily overcast and trying to drizzle with rain as we reached the city of Braga, the religious capital of Portugal and the smog and haze had reduced visibility to about 200m. The city was busy with Saturday shoppers and is a maze of winding narrow streets that got us quite confused and to make matters worse we never did see one street name in the whole place. We got a map from the tourist office when we found it and fortunately it had little pictures of the main places that helped us identify each place that we came too, even then it wasn’t easy as many are built in a very similar style so I had to check detail to make sure.
The municipal buildings, the Bishops Palace and others have white painted plaster exteriors, there is much stone or concrete ornamentation around all the windows and doors, and there is a little narrow balcony with steel railings outside all those doors. All are two stories high and the type of ornamentation varies so as I said I had to look at the detail to work out which place I was looking at. The churches are mostly quite small but are usually richly decorated inside. Its no wonder these Catholic countries are the poor cousins of the rest of Europe, the Holey Roman church took all their money and a great lot of it went on the decoration of the interiors. The most important church in the city is The Se, the church of Santa Maria; it stands on the site that was once a Mosque in the days of the Moors. Built after the Christian reconquest the south door is from the earlier building. It incorporates a number of styles and is a bit of a rambling place inside, but has a lot of ornamentation on the exterior roof. Its built is a dirty yellowish stone, but that dirty colour may well be from the smog etc.
Under the shelter of a long arcade we came across another group busking in the street. These people were all adults of mixed ages and they were singing, clacking castanets, and a fellow was playing a clarinet to accompany them but they just seemed to sing the one song over and over again for the enjoyment of quite a large crowd.
One of the main religious attraction of the city is just a few k’s outside, it’s called Bom Jesus, and I have not idea what that means translated. But its a church and it sits atop a high mountain that overlooks the city, if only you could see it for the smog and haze. There is a great long stairway leading up to it with fountains all the way up. Looks very impressive from below: Apparently in summer its a popular place for a weekend picnic so perhaps its just as well we’re here in the winter without the crowds. A funicular runs from the bus stop at the bottom of the mountain, but by car we arrived at the start of the stairway.
It was fairly early in the morning when we walked up the steps pausing on each landing to look at the statues, one was a woman with the water pouring from her eye sockets, perhaps she is meant to represent the weeping Mary: Joggers out on their morning run frequently overtook us. We arrived at the church at the top just as Mass finished so we entered as the congregation left. Its not a particularly large church but it has a striking 3 dimensional altar piece. Centred around Christ on the cross with Mary, a Roman soldier and several others at the feet of Jesus. It is framed by two columns each topped by an angel supporting the ceiling. The scene was brightly backlit by orange light so photos don’t come out well.
Beyond the church is quite a large area of parkland with several small pavilions and grottos. Two hotels are within a few metres and at the top of the hill is a small lake with a few row boats. Pine trees and some eucalypts are the dominant trees in the forest; I did see a few yew trees too. Plenty of birds about and bird song filled the air. As we looked back over the city the sun came out, there were a few patches of fog in the valleys.
At this point I have seen enough churches so I think its time for another trip into the mountains to look at something different for a bit. There is a good National Park here supposedly but the weather isn’t really suitable for rambling about in the woods. The girl in the tourist office says that it never gets this cold usually, so much for global warming!
We headed east along a scenic route towards the town of Chaves. Wending our way around the mountains we could look across the valley and see small villages on remote hill sides. In the valley floor a series of small dams meant that there are lakes with villages around the shores. The hills beyond the villages are quite rugged and are part of a national park. Very bare, rocky and stark in appearance.
In one small village we parked after nearly getting jammed in the narrow lanes. Then following the sign to a waterwheel we set out walking giving a wide berth to the local cows that were wandering the lanes. These cows have large curved, twisted and extremely pointed horns; they could do a lot of damage if they had a mind to, though they did appear to be docile.
Eventually we came to the stream and a set of large stepping stones across it, also there was a really good stone slab bridge. Off this, on a side stream are several stone buildings that once held waterwheels. David had a good look around and decided that there could have been 3 waterwheels here altogether. In one shed we found an old quorn stone once used for grinding flour. Following a track along the stream we came to another stone shed that also looked as if it may have housed a waterwheel, then further on we came the medieval bridge, this is what we’d come into the village to see in the first place. It has 3 arches each a different size, the smallest on one side and the largest on the far side, there are buttresses to break up the strong flow of the water against the stanchion, just as the Romans used to build and it is still in good order and used by farm traffic.
Made our way back up through the village of stone houses and cobbled lanes without meeting the cows this time, and just as we got to the car we were approached by an elderly lady wanting a lift. I sat her in the front seat whilst I sat in the back and we took her about 6k’s up the road to a small village just below a huge dam wall.
We let her out where she asked and she hugged me and kissed me, then we drove onto the dam wall and sat in the sunshine to eat our late lunch. This is a very high and very wide dam wall yet the dam behind it is not as large as one might expect. Below the wall there is a hydro station.
© Lynette Regan 30th December 2007

Episode 27

2008-01-07T08:14:00.000-08:00

Episode 27
Still wending our way around the mountains of this dry region looking at various dinosaur foot prints and a petrified tree trunk, a conifer tree it was too, we kept seeing more wind turbines. A small patch of snow was on one ridge top beside some of those turbines. In one place we also saw some large sets of solar panels:
Suddenly we came into an area where some of those small terraces are being cultivated; some were just ploughed and left in fellow whilst a few others had some trees growing on them. The trees were asleep and it wasn’t until we saw some close to the road that we could work out that they are almonds. Just a few late nuts still hung on, or had dropped to the ground. It looks as if these trees can tolerate a very dry climate. Down in the villages where there was a little water we saw small allotments with vegetables growing, huge cabbages, and some sad looking silver beet. One valley was full of olive groves interspersed with a couple of almond groves, it looked really pretty from our vantage point beside the petrified tree.
Out in the mountains the stillness was often broken by the tinkling of cow bells, but it wasn’t only cows that were wearing them, some horses too had them tied about the neck. An occasional gun shot would ring out too, there were a lot of men out hunting but we don’t know if they were hunting deer or wild pigs, both inhabit the area. We did see a couple of pigs by the road side but there didn’t appear to be anything wild about them. The only donkey we saw was being used as a pack animal. In the area around Arnedo we came back into the wine growing area and saw a couple of Bodegas but neither was open, mostly they only deal with the trades people; they aren’t interested in the passing tourist trade. Not that there is many tourists at present, we are a bit thin on the ground.
On Sunday very little is open. We did see just one small service station, and the restaurants and bars were open but no shops at all. In France we had found that the only places to get petrol on a Sunday were those that had credit card facilities at the pumps; you couldn’t buy fuel using cash anywhere except perhaps on the toll ways, and those we didn’t use.
The nights are freezing and every morning there is heavy frost on the ground, in many places it doesn’t melt at all during the day. In just a couple of high places around the 1400 metres we have seen just a little snow. Even in the sun the temperature only rises just a few degrees above freezing.
As we drove up along one small river valley we passed 3 hydro electric stations, the one most upstream had a dam above it and the water level was very low, about 30metres down and this had left a ‘drowned’ village exposed again. From reading the sign, (it was in English too) I understand that it is not uncommon to be able to see this village. Its only a ruin now, it has been underwater for nearly 50 years. The dam was first started in 1935 but not completed until 1959, its slow construction due largely to the intervention of the Spanish Civil War and WW2. In this general area too, we saw one small frozen waterfall, and the river further upstream was frozen on the sides.
One evening there was just a little light snow down at our level but in the morning we could see that there had been quite a dusting on the higher tops. The frost was thick despite the dense low cloud.
Then we left the mountains behind and came out onto some flat plains, a wide river valley. A light wind melted the frost but the temperature in the large town of Aranda de Duero was a mere 2˚C and that was being generous. We saw a lot of vineyards and many fields that lay in fellow, probably wheat or barely I should think as there was big stacks of straw bales here and there. The heater in the car was on overtime as we passed along here. Oh! And we saw another very large wind farm out on these plains, pity they couldn’t generate electricity from the cold too, today it would do well:
In the small city of Palencia we stopped to see the cathedral. On the outside it is nothing special, rather austere in fact, as are most of the churches in Spain that we have seen so far. One portal is quite nice but several of the statues are missing. Inside the place is much bigger than you expect. It is rather unusual in that it has two transepts and two main chapels. One bishop was having a small cathedral constructed but then another bishop took over and didn’t really like the 1st ones ideas so he had more added. The alter pieces are both outstanding, one has carvings that depict the life of Christ and reach right to the beautiful vaulted ceiling, whilst the other has more paintings than carvings but is just as impressive in size and workmanship. One of the side chapels directly behind the main chapel has a magnificent silver alter that I think is beautiful. Another thing I really like is the intricate and delicate bas relief at the entrance to the crypt.
The fellow at the entrance had taken time to tell us about the cathedral when we entered seeing as we didn’t read the Spanish in the leaflet we were given. The crypt has one section right at the end that dates from the 7th century, while the rest of it dates from the 11th century. The rest of the cathedral dates from the 13th century onward, but there has been some sort of church here from the time Christianity came to Spain in the 2nd or 3rd century AD. Some restoration work is underway on the interior.
Next we visited the old city of Leon. There has been a settlement on the river bank here since the 1st century AD when the Roman army had a camp here. It was on the ancient route to the Roman gold mines about 150k’s to the west. An Asturian King made his capital here in the 10th century, and some time later it was sacked. In the 13th century it was a capital again until the union with Castile in 1230.
Of course there is another Cathedral here to see. I suppose the most impressive thing about this one is the kaleidoscope of colour all those stained glass windows present. The glass is from the 13th to the 16th century and there is a massive amount of it. Some of the panel we noticed were the same design but in different colours. Three huge rose windows, one over the main portal, and one at each end of the transept, all extremely impressive. The carving at the entrance to the choir stalls was intricate and there is a lovely silver urn under the altar that contains the remains of Santa Froilan, the patron saint of Leon. We visited the Basilica San Isidoro a big dark and gloomy place on the inside with a very impressive altar piece of many religious paintings. There are many tiny narrow streets lined with shops selling just about everything, bars and restaurants that we walked around and we came to a lovely fruit and veggie market in one plaza.
One thing I must say about these towns in Spain that we have seen so far, they are quite clean. The streets are free of rubbish and doggy do, and even in the countryside there seems to be very little litter. The villages are untidy in the fact that buildings are often tumbling down or have never been completed, rubble and junk is left hither and non but no matter how tatty and in need of maintenance places are they seem to have been swept clean. The toilets I have used here are generally easier to find than in France and usually cleaner too, though in neither country have I found that hot water is available and sometimes the cold water is liquid ice.
Heading north out of the city towards a National Park we soon came into some mountains that had a dusting of snow. We climber up over a pass at 1536m on a road that was very slushy and slippery with icy grit and virtually no other traffic: With heavy overcast skies we kept on for fear that it might snow heavily at any time or clear and freeze over. At no point was the snow deep but it did look as if it was quite recent, and we did pass the snow plough going the other way, but not working. The mountains were very pretty in a bleak gray sort of way. Rock climbers would love them for their vertical rock faces and many rocky outcrops and pinnacles; we didn’t see any ski runs or resorts:
As we drove down the valley of the River Sil we passed a couple of coal mining towns. There were some coal stacks, not large ones by Aussie standards, and the smell of coal gas was strong in the air; also a haze partly caused by coal dust I should think. Following the river Sil we came to the city of Ponferrada with its ancient Castle perched on a hill overlooking the river and the modern city.
This castle dates from the 12th and 13th centuries and was built by the Knights Templar. Its open to the public and so we paid the small entrance fee and looked about some. Only a small section dates from that early period; the tower of the Catholic Monarchs and some of the ramparts. The foundations of many other structures can be seen in the middle and there has been a lot of construction done recently, but not yet open. This construction is very modern in style and materials so its not a reconstruction of the old castle but as I couldn’t read the Spanish language signs I don’t know the purpose of it.
A rather nice clock tower sits atop an arched gateway that was probably one of the city gates in some long ago time. This old town has some nice traditional streets that are pleasant to look around and seem largely deserted while the modern city is a bustle of activity just across the river.
On our way to the Roman gold mining area of Las Medulas we passed an interesting carved tree trunk. We later found out that it has only recently been placed on display. It has a Knight Templar in it, a crescent moon with a face in profile (a man in the moon), and a Star of David.
Las Medulas is the site of the old Roman gold mine. It was worked from around 70AD to late 3rd century AD about 200 years. The exact amount of gold taken from here is unknown and estimates vary greatly from 1500kgs upward. Likewise with the number of people employed in the mining, it varies from a few thousand to tens of thousands. Some believe that slaves were used other say that there were no slaves here, and so it goes on. Apparently all agree on the technique used for the mining and this is the first time I have ever heard of this method. Let me explain as best I can:
Water from the high mountains was harnessed in dams and reservoirs: Channels and aquaducts were built to carry it downhill and increase its force. Small tunnels were dug into the mountain to be mined, then the water released and sent down the channels and into those small tunnels; the effect of the water and the compressed air in front of it caused an explosion and whole sections of the mountains were blown out. This was then sent on down over sluices that used branches of heather bushes as filters and the gold was trapped in these filters and the mud and debris washed on. At this stage the biggest of the rocks were removed and thrown off to one side so that now you have small hills of these rocks. I had better explain that the gold here is in the form of dust and small nuggets and it’s trapped in the soft red conglomerate of which the mountain consisted, probably once a river bed or something. This method of mining is known as ‘Ruina Montium’, and it was coined by a traveller who saw these workings.
This mining has left a unique landscape: There are lots of pinnacles of red conglomerate that resemble some of those weird pinnacles you can see in the national parks in Utah in the US. What we had was a mountain what we have is red pinnacles: The mud and debris also altered things. It blocked up the stream that flowed through the hills and formed several small lakes that have developed their own eco systems over the past nearly 2000 years. As we wandered though this hollowed out mountain we saw a couple of caves that have been formed by the explosions I’ve mentioned. Around the walls there can still be seen some of those tunnels that were used and in one place one of these tunnels is open to the sky so that when heavy rain falls it continues to erode the rock in a similar fashion but to a much lesser extent, than when the Romans forced the water through.
Another thing special to this area is the ancient chestnut trees; they are between 400 and 600 years old and still bearing. The old gnarled stumps are large and you can see where thick limbs have been sawn off but the new wood on them now is probably only a few seasons old, and although the crop has been harvested there are still a few nuts lying on the ground under the trees.
The little lakes, they are little more than puddles, are home to several species of Salamander, some frogs, toads and eels. There also seems to be plenty of birds about and David saw a robin. In all our wanderings around here we only saw 2 other tourists all day.
We found one of the roman hill top forts, but all there is to see is a small section of reconstructed stone wall and the foundations of some other stone buildings that I doubt are 2000 years old. These forts were also used as towns where the people lived who grew the food, made the tools for the mining operation, and all the other things that were necessary to keep the place functioning even in Roman times. This area was on the western fringe of the Roman Empire.
After the gold mining area we headed west towards the city of Orense, but not actually wanting to go there but trying to find the gorge on the Sil River. By accident we got onto the wrong road and didn’t realize it until we were almost on the Portuguese border. We ended up by doing nearly a full circle that took us over several mountain passes, the highest was only 1052m and it quite a pretty route. The country changed quite a lot, in the south west we came into an agricultural belt with many young crops that I think are oats. A large number of poultry farms in that area too. Then as we came up the western slope of another pass the trees are still wearing their autumn colours so it was quite pretty.
Eventually we found the gorge. It seems to start quite suddenly as most do, just on the outskirts of a village. We came up the hill then it was there right beside us, dropping away from the road side. Sadly the view is somewhat blured by the thick smog that is hanging around and you can only get an idea of what it’s really like. The walls are very nearly vertical, and are of a gray rock, the Sil River at the bottom is fairly wide, I don’t know if its a dam or just the river but either way it’s well below its usual level, you can see this by the mark of the rock face. Even here it’s somewhat warmer than in the higher mountains and the prickly gorse is still heavily in bright yellow flower. We didn’t get to see any more of that gorge as next morning it was filled with fog and even though we hung around for quite some time it didn’t lift or disperse, in fact it stayed with us the rest of the day, just clearing in a few places.
In Lugo we walked around the old Roman Wall. This is now a world Heritage Site and the best preserved Roman Wall in existence: The city was founded in 15BC and named Lucus Augusti, the Wall was built in the 3rd Century AD. It is 2.2k’s long and had 85 semi circular towers spread around its length. Only the rounded bases in the wall is all that is left of these towers, though they stood up to 3 times the height of the wall. Of the gates only one is original, or rather how it used to be. The others have been widened and some new ones made from the late 19th century in to the early 20th century. There was a moat all the way around 5m deep and up to 12m wide, it has been filled in and built on so that no trace is left of it what-so-ever. The afternoon joggers were making the most of the wide sandy walkway on top of the wall pounding their way around it.
Some of the buildings in the city are from medieval times and the Cathedral dates from the early part of the 12th century though it took many centuries to complete and is a bit of a mixture in styles. Apart from the main chapel and its distinctive altar piece it is a very dark and gloomy place. It has a rounded ceiling rather than the more common vaulted type.
The narrow alleys, and the medieval buildings described in the brochure sounded much better than they actually appeared. One ally looked especially grimy and stank of stale urine, and the trees without their summer foliage don’t cover up near so many faults.
It was the afternoon of the Sunday before Christmas that we visited and a few of the shops were open and most of the bars and restaurants though I fear that they were doing very little business. Not one single soul was sitting at the outdoors settings, though I do think I saw a couple of people in one of the bars. Just a few other hardly souls wandering about; probably by 5pm though the locals would again be out and about in droves: The Spanish love to do everything late in the day, in the mornings some people are about but not early, after 2pm they all disappear till around 5pm ready to go all evening. We have found however, that some shopping centres, ones that stay open, have been quite busy through that otherwise quiet time of the day.
Just a word about shopping at this point: Legs of ham must be incredibly popular; in all the supermarkets and butcher shops there are hundreds of them hanging up. They have all been cured, but by a variety of methods as they came in a range of colours. Some are as you would see at home, others are much darker to almost black, or a greyish colour, a few look almost green. All the salamis and that type of thing came in a similar range of colours. Then there is the thing that really puts me off, the dead birds still feathered and all lined up in the chilled display case next to the rabbits still furred. Not quite my thing I fear. The range of cheeses is brilliant though David isn’t impressed as he can’t find a mature cheddar. In France we had bought an 800g Brie for around $6 AU, God it was good! Fruit and veg seemed to be cheaper and of a better quality in France, but its still quite good here. The range of booze is mind boggling and very reasonably priced, I saw a hazelnut liquor today, might get one of those for Christmas. The diesel that we buy for the car is cheaper here than in France or England but it does seem to have gone up 2c per litre today.
© Lynette Regan 23rd December 2007

Episode 26

2008-01-03T07:20:00.000-08:00

Episode 26
Still heading south we discovered after studying the map that we are basically heading in the general direction of Lourdes so we might as well call in there. On the way we passed through a small area of vineyards and apple orchards. All the apple trees are going on trellises. This was in the general area of Auch. Each time we came into a town it started to rain heavy then it would clear and the sun come out when we were out in the country again.
It was a sunny but chilly day that we spent in Lourdes: This city sits in the foot hills of the Pyrenees Mountains, and above the town the high peaks had snow on them. The town centre is much more attractive than all the other cities we have passed through in France. I suppose the fact that the place has around 6 million visitors annually might have some bearing on the way it presents itself. Perhaps the city fathers encourage the use of paint, they also need to encourage the use of the ‘doggy do’ bag as a walk around the streets involves a ‘doggy quick step’ to avoid that ‘doggy do’.
Of course the main reason so many visitors come here is because of its religious significance especially for Catholics. In 1858 a young girl by the name of Bernadette claimed that she saw a vision of the Virgin Mary in a small cave. Above that cave a Basilica has been built though the cave sits below the wall and is open for all who wish to visit it. As caves go its not very large or impressive; quite a shallow open cavern really. There was a spring running through it but the water from it has been diverted and feeds many taps where you can have a drink or a wash in the ‘holy water’, if you so desire. We each had a couple of mouthfuls but didn’t experience any miracle cure.
The Rosary Basilica stands at the end of a large open plaza and atop the cave. As you come from the town you approach across the plaza and as you do so some very impressive mosaic tile murals confront you. They look very new and are of religious scenes mainly with Jesus as the central figure. The Basilica has a central dome and on top of that is a huge gold crown, behind that is the entrance to the crypt that you reach by going up some steps onto the roof of the Basilica, then on top of that crypt is another Basilica, The Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. To one side of the crypt and almost directly above the cave is a small Chapel where mass is held frequently and in several different languages.
Inside the Rosary Basilica we found that all the walls and the dome, the roof and the inside of the archways are covered in murals made of tiny mosaic tiles. From the transept around the Nave to the other side of the transept a series of panels depicted the life of Jesus including the crucifixion and his ascension into heaven. This dome is the one that is topped with a gold crown on the outside.
The crypt has a number of tombs in it and the other basilica is quite plane compared to the first. It is smaller but has twin towers in front and a central spire and high stained glass windows. There are many more shrines around this area.
With just the few people that were about on this lovely day, probably less than 100, we tried to imagine what it must be like in summer when the place is bursting at the seams. Glad we came in winter and not yesterday when it was teaming with rain.
A castle sits on top of a pinnacle of rock with sheer sides all around almost in the centre of the city. We were going to visit it but like most things in France it closes at midday and doesn’t reopen until well into the afternoon, so we didn’t go up into it. We did get a really good view of it briefly as we were driving out of the city but there was nowhere to pull off the narrow busy street to take a photo. We had walked around many of these streets, tiny narrow lanes, and up and down narrow sets of steps, during the morning but hadn’t come across a view anywhere near as good as this one.
As we headed west along the north flank of the Pyrenees we got some good views of the snowy tops of these mountains and some stunning views down some valleys. We could cross in Spain at any one of a dozen places but we are aiming to do so near San Sebastian on the coast.
After a very frosty morning we drove into Biarritz on the Bay of Biscay. There was a good surf running but I didn’t see anyone in surfing. We didn’t actually go into the city, it was a little to the south that we pulled into the beach. It was a pleasant sandy beach but with the rocky outcrops that would be hazardous if you were surfing. Plenty of people walking their dogs along the beach front but the car park was deserted. It was still very chilly outside despite the bright sunshine, about 6˚ to 8˚C, so not exactly sunbathing weather.
We headed on across the Spanish border, I didn’t even see a sign, to San Sabastian. We had planned to spend a bit of time here to have a look around but in the end we didn’t do so. We drove into the city getting onto the wrong road a few times. There is a great deal of road construction going on and also the maps in the SatNav are not all that accurate and roads run very close together or over the top of each other so it got quite difficult but we eventually navigated our way into the city centre and it looked vaguely familiar, I had been here in 1970.
We drove around the city centre that was packed with people and parked cars. The streets are very narrow and the cars are parked on the side often leaving room for only one vehicle to pass in a two way street. Couldn’t find any parking stations and David got quite stressed so we headed out without seeing anything. Another one of the problems was that with the narrow streets and the tall buildings, about 6 to 10 stories, the SatNav kept loosing contact with the satellite and going dumb on us. It was all just too much for David, so we got onto a highway and headed for Pamplona.
Driving into the city we passed through the old city wall with an enormous arch it in that straddles the 6 lanes of the highway. The old city is where they have the ‘running of the bulls’ each year as part of an annual festival. Its origins date back to Roman times:
It’s a pleasant enough place the old city; quite compact with many tiny plazas a few larger ones. Narrow streets and lanes many of which are shared zones with vehicular traffic that doesn’t always know what ‘shared’ means. I was pleasantly surprised at how clean the place was, and not just in the old city, but in the new part as well, and we didn’t encounter one piece of ‘doggy do’; that was nice: Some of those lanes that the bulls run through are very narrow too, and they cross the small plaza in front of the lovely City Hall.
We walked around and looked into a few churches, Mass was underway in a couple so we beat a hasty retreat. An interesting old building was ‘the court of auditors’; some of it dates from the early 16th century. It was used continuously as part of the local government finance division until the early 1800’s then again since 1980. The old cobbled stone floor is done is small stones in geometric patterns and has been kept in good order. An old free standing wooden safe was on display too.
There are a few pieces of the old city wall that have been maintained. One part includes the ‘French Gate’ because it is the gate by which people entered the city if coming from the direction of France. Here, there is an old wooden draw bridge complete with winch and chains. It is used as a bridge by traffic using this entrance, and that’s only a small amount.
From the vantage point at the top of the wall we looked out over the new city, block after block of apartments. Not more than about 6 stories high and some up market areas that are just 2 story villas or townhouse type apartments. It is really high density suburbia. About 5k’s from the centre we passed a brand new suburb still under construction. Some of the blocks are finished and being lived in but many more are under way. It was a sea of cranes; at a guess I would say it is going to house about 20,000 people when complete. Parks, shops, and other amenities are being built as part of the development.
A game unique to this area, Navarre, Basque Pelota, is played on an indoor court. We went into a gallery where we could look down and watch it being played. As there was only 3 people on the courts I can only explain what we saw. One chap was just practicing by himself by throwing the ball up against the wall and hitting it back with either his left or right hand. The other two people were playing against each other and I suppose it is a bit like squash where first one hits the ball then the other one has to return it and so on. The ball made a loud clacking noise on the floor and it didn’t bounce very high, I have no idea from what material it is made. There is also another version of this game played with something like an oversized chinese soup spoon as a bat.
Just outside the old city is the Citadel. Built in the shape of a regular pentagon it was a walled fortification built between 1571 and 1645 for Felipe 2nd of Spain. It is now an enclosed green park and at festival time is where a great many of the visitors bunk down for the night in the open air.
We visited on a glorious winters day, crystal clear deep blue sky with a temperature of -4C displayed on the digital clock at 9.30am that we saw on our way in. This area south of the Pyrenees is much drier than on the French side. There is some agriculture around here and just a few grapes.
As we headed for Logroña, another city to the west of Pamplona and also on the camiño de Santiago (a walking and cycle route to Santiago, a pilgrims way) we passed through many villages. Initially they appear to be quite small but when you drive into them you realize that they are really quite large in population if not area. Usually there are several blocks of apartments of about 3 or 4 stories, separated by very narrow lanes, and the houses are crowded all together. No one lives on the farms, just like in Japan and several other countries I have visited everyone lives in the villages. I hadn’t really realized just how alike Spain and Mexico are. This Iberian peninsular is very dry, although I have travelled here before I really hadn’t noticed it as much as this trip. The type and quality of building are also the same, understandable really because it is the Spanish who colonized Mexico and took along their poor building standards.
Soon we came into the wine country of Rioja: Lots of vineyards all around in a wide river valley, the only trees seem to be the olive trees planted in groves and dotted about the countryside. Some of the grapes are grown on trellises but many are not. They are just left to grow with their vines appearing to be fairly vertical. We can see this from those that have not yet been pruned. When pruned they are cut back to the main stem completely and that is only about 1ft (300mm) above the ground. Some of these vines appear to be very old judging by the thickness and gnarled appearance of the main stem. Same can be said for the olive trees too.
In Logroño we spent a few hours having a look around. It seems to be a pleasant enough place. Wandered down a couple of old traditional narrow shopping streets, no traffic, lined with small shops on both sides and apartments above them. Many of the shops were small deli’s selling speciality hams and cheeses, but there was also just about everything else you could imagine, including a shop selling everything in miniature, it all looked like it should be dolls house furniture but I think it was meant to be ornaments, though I wouldn’t swear to it.
Of course there were several churches to visit. Again we come across mass being read so made a hasty exit. The front of the Cathedral is really outstanding with the carving and bas relief of religious persons, in a tall curved facade above the entrance. It was closed so we couldn’t go inside. Another church has several gold altar pieces. The main one was huge, but all were very impressive; I am fairly certain they were covered in gold leaf and extremely intricately carved. The biggest was about 20 ft(6m) high and 12ft (3.6m) wide. Yet another church has a strip of bas relief across the front above the door. All of these churches are within a few metres of each other.
It was a clear sunny day but the temperature was not a lot above freezing. When you got in the shade you found that any place where water had dripped or run was frozen solid and quite easy to slip on for the unwary.
The girl at the tourist information had been very helpful and gave us maps of the city and the whole area and suggested a few places we might like to visit. So we headed off in a somewhat southerly direction to visit the spa town of Arnedillo. We travelled through an area thick with vineyards and past many bodegas (wineries), most seem to be closed, maybe that’s just the time of day that we passed I’m not sure but most things are closed from 2pm to around 4pm, though it varies somewhat.
This quite small village is in a very narrow valley and the main centre of the village is well below the main road. We had to wait a while for the tourist office to open at 4pm so we wandered about some. We came across an old press for olives. It works something on the same principle as a grinding wheel for flour but instead of the top quern stone being flat there are two cone shaped stones meeting together at their pointy ends and they roll around the bottom stone pressing the olives. The oil drains into a gutter then into some sort of container.
Walked along the riverside path and climbed some steps and came to an old tunnel. It was lit and open so we walked through it. Later we found out that is was an old railway tunnel and its over 600m long. It goes right below and behind the village that tumbles down the hill side. We came out not far from where we’d started our walk. When the tourist office opened we found out where we could have a dip in some warm water pools in the river, but it is only very shallow so you really just sit in it. There is no place to change your clothes nearby, and believe me, you wouldn’t want to walk too far in that temperature in a wet swim suit, it’s in the shade and the frost hadn’t melted on the grass. The one big hotel here has some spa pools too but they are extremely expensive to use unless you are staying there, from €16 to €21.
I really can’t work out what all the people do for a living in these parts. Some are employed in the farming and rural sector but what the rest do is a mystery. There are some big industrial estates around the big cities but it doesn’t seem near enough for the huge populations there is. Of course many are employed in the tourist industry but there’s not a lot of tourists about now and lots of the smaller places are closed.
In many of the villages in this area there are dinosaur footprints and believing that it would be a nice change from looking at churches we set out to see some. At least we got to see some pleasant small villages. A few consisted of just a few houses though we didn’t see many people about. Some of the sites involved a walk of several k’s but in the lovely sunny weather that is ok; walking in the sun it gets quite warm but if you pass through an area that is shaded then it can be near freezing with frost on the ground and frozen streams in the valleys. At one place we saw some kids playing with a radio controlled model ‘monster’ truck and they had it on the ice on the edge of the stream. In the middle the stream was running, only frozen on the shallow sides.
Some of the dinosaur prints are exceptionally well defined and clear. Each area has a large number of prints and the quality seems to have been determined by the consistency of the mud at the time they were made. All are in what was once a lake with a muddy shore, or perhaps it was drying up at the time, it’s quite easy to see that it was mud as it’s only silt stone now. It’s also believed that it was a far warmer and wetter climate than now. Many of the prints, some of the clearest are of a large 3 toe splayed foot, very similar to that of a bird. The largest ones seem to have been made by a more rounded toe animal. Around the sites there are numerous information boards but they are all in Spanish and though I can make out a little of what they say most I cannot understand. We did work out that the prints are believed to be 110million years old. From the prints it has been determined that there were several different types of dinosaurs together here; some were herbaceous whilst at least one species was coniferous. One print is 75cm from toe to heel, and because the prints lead across quite a large area the length of the stride is easy to measure. That helps with determining the size of the animal.
Another thing we saw was an old clay tile kiln: It is a bit overgrown but you can still see how it was built. Apparently there was also a spring very near it, but now the area is so dry the spring has long gone and the people that used to live here and work the land have left too. All through these mountains the hillsides have been terraced at some point in time. Very well done too, with neat stone walls creating small flat areas that could be cultivated: This covers a very extensive area, bigger than I have seen anywhere in Asia. Who built them and what was grown on them I can only guess at; there didn’t appear to be any information about that on the signs around the sites. I would have thought that olives and grapes would seem the most obvious but there is not a single olive tree or grape vine anywhere near them that I can see so I have come to the conclusion that it was probably wheat or some other cereal. Why they are no longer used? Well perhaps its just too dry now, it does seem very arid with just a bit of dry grass, some low growing thorn bush and a very occasional small tree that I think is a holly tree, one with tiny leaves. Wild roses, now covered in bright red rose hips abound in a few places and are just as dense as blackberry brambles and probably more thorny.
Another thing that abounds here are wind turbines: We drove up to one collection high on a hill top and found that when we looked around the horizon there were several other clusters of them on most of the high ridges. We estimate that we could see at least 200 such turbines. David said he could hear a low pitched roar from them but I couldn’t here that, nothing new for me.
©Lynette Regan December 15th 2007

Episode 25

2007-12-28T08:10:00.000-08:00

Episode 25
After spending more than 2 weeks in Arundel with Heather while David did a few jobs on the car, all of which involved a great deal of cursing and swearing at the way the French have done one thing or another in the building of the car, we finally set off for warmer climes on an absolutely brilliant Monday morning. Not a cloud in the sky though it must have been colder than it felt because there was ice on the sunroof when we left shortly before 8am. We drove to Dover via the motorways as much as possible and had a good run missing the worst of the morning rush hour fortunately.
The clear sky stayed with us to Dover where there was some cloud over the channel. The white cliffs fairly sparkled in such bright sunshine; I have never seen them look whiter. Once out into the channel we could clearly see both Dover and Calais though the cloud was getting thicker. Off the ferry at Dunkerque, this was the cheapest fare we could get, we only had around 60k’s or so to travel to reach Oostende where we were heading to visit our elderly friend Elizabeth whom we’d met on our Antarctic trip 2 years ago. Using the SatNav we were doing just fine until we came to join a main road heading east only to find the east bound entrance closed and no diversion signs. Spent the next half hour or so travelling around tiny county lanes between and around canals until we eventually reached another main road and joined that. We still managed to reach Oostende before dark then got a flat tyre in the middle of the city. All this area is very flat with many canals to drain the farmland. This area is known as Flanders and has been the site of many battles over the centuries.
That evening as we sat with Elizabeth in her lovely unit with a view over the harbour at Oostende we watched the lightening flash and fill the sky with white light: It rained a little but most of the storm went elsewhere. As we watched the lightening a small group of surfers in wet suits and clutching surfboards walked past.
Oostende is quite a pleasant small city. I had once come here back in 1970 on a ferry from Dover but now that service doesn’t run, but there is a service to Ramsgate in Kent according to Elizabeth. I had not found it when I did an internet search. The harbour entrance is being widened at present so that cruise ships can call here. The population of the city is around the 80,000 though it seems somewhat larger to me. Elizabeth had booked us into a hotel in one of the city squares and our window looked directly down upon the skating rink in the centre of the square. Market stalls were set up most of the way around the outside of the rink and all the trees have been lit with white and purple lights for Christmas and these colours were reflected in the ice from the rink. It looked really pretty. In summer the ice rink would be a shallow pool, with a band stand or something like that in the centre.
The St Peter and Paul Cathedral is very ornate, and there is a separate tower beside it too that was left standing after some siege, but I could find no history or any information what-so-ever written in English, so I can’t tell you any more about it. The church entrance faces the railway station, 200m away because the fellow who was king at the time it was constructed insisted that he must face the church when he exits the station. The railway station is located near the ferry terminal and a covered walkway links the two.
There are several small squares around the city, and some pleasant parks and gardens one with a floral clock. The beach is wide and sandy and a new promenade is still under construction along the sea front. Many blocks of smart, and mostly new apartments overlook the promenade and the beach. They are no more than 6 stories high but they do stretch was quite a long way along the coast. A race course for horse racing is also located along the seafront.
As Elizabeth has massages and therapies during the days and rests a great deal we had much time to ourselves to explore the place. Of course we had to find a garage and get the tyre replaced. The flat tyre was ruined by the time we could find a place to stop and change it. One day we drove into Bruges, a beautiful medieval city only 25k’s distant. It was a fairly wet day, but then it has rained a lot since we arrived here. Once we found a place to park the car our first stop was the Ice Sculptures Exhibition near the railway station.
This turned out to be in a specially chilled tent of all things. Naturally it was like walking into a freezer as the temperature must be kept well below freezing to prevent any of the exhibits from melting. I did think that it would be housed in some insulated building that would have been much more energy efficient than a tent. Especially seeing that also included in our entrance fee was a visit to a polar exhibition in a neighbouring tent, and this exhibition was focused towards Global warming. Not much of it was in English but it was fairly easy to follow.
The ice display was stunning: As soon as we entered we were on a narrow path that weaved around and about ice sculptures up to 3 or 4m high. Some were cut from clear ice, other from white ice and just a few coloured lights were used with subtle effect. There were oversized animals hewn in great detail. An ice cabin complete with a man at a table having a drink, all in ice. The logs of the cabin were cut from white ice whilst the door frame was clear ice. A small chapel and a grave yard with crosses was near the hall of ice mirrors, perfect reflections. An ice bar where you could buy a cold drink, I think hot chocolate would have been more the thing. The bar tender wasn’t made of ice but I expect he needed his thermal underwear to prevent himself from freezing. There was even an ice slippery slide made on a similar design to a water slide. We climbed up and went for a slide down on the little mats provided, it was fast fun.
In the city centre the two main squares are bordered by lovely old buildings many of gothic design. The squares themselves were a hive of activity with a busy market taking place and all the trees lit with silver and purple fairy lights, once the daylight started to fade it looked lovely despite the rain that was steadily falling.
The provincial government building on one of the squares was painted white with a lot of gold leaf trim, whilst another ornate building on the same square was painted in a dark colour giving a lovely contrast. An old basilica offered quite plain facade beside an ornate gothic one.
St Saviours Cathedral is a lovely old church, very plain, dating from the 1500’s with a beautiful organ and stained glass windows. The museum on one of the squares has a lovely tower and over 300 steps to the top from which there is supposedly a good view over the city, however you’d need a better day than the day we visited. Many canals wend their way about the city and in summer there are many excursion boats but they, like the summer have finished for this year. As we wandered around the streets we often came across an old house or building that stood out from its neighbours. There are many old places that have been preserved some have a small sign on them that gives a date of construction or what it might have been used for. One such place was originally a palace, it was built of small red bricks and had a round pointy roof tower. Another was a merchant’s house from the 15th century, it was 3 stories high but each storey is only about 6ft, no high ceiling like we are used to.
As we drove back to Oostende in the gathering darkness the rain bucketed down so hard we hardly see the road. David cursed the fact that there were no ‘cats eyes’ or reflective paint used for the road markings, he couldn’t see where he was supposed to go but managed to negotiate his way safely back. Wonder they don’t have a whole lot more accidents as the traffic whizzed by us as if we were standing still and throwing up sheets of water as they passed. No reflective strips on the railings separating the exit ramps from the motorway either and twice we nearly took an exit ramp when we didn’t want to. In fact in the rain and the dark the railings were next to impossible to see. Our road marking in Aussie are just so superior to these.
It was an even wetter day that we left Oostende and headed south through the Flanders countryside past fields where water lay in sheets and big stacks of beets stood beside the road. Past many crops of cauliflowers, and leeks and apple and pear orchards. Stopped at a roadside stall and got some lovely apples and pears quite cheap. We crossed from Belgium into France, though I missed the sign, with no border controls between these countries now it’s easy to miss the signs.
With some bright sunshine about we decided to spend a few hours in the old city of Chartres. Here the ancient Cathedral dominates the highest point and looks down upon all else. I could not find much information in English so I can only say that there has been a church here from around the 11th century but it could well have been long before that. It is a fairly large cathedral but nothing on the scale of Lincoln. It has two spires in front, one has a really tall ‘witches hat’ type roof, while the other is more of a tower with a steep pointed roof on top, they are both roughly the same height. High vaulted ceilings inside and a round window at each end of the transept. Quite plain architecture.
A stained glass image of the Virgin dressed in blue and known as the ‘blue virgin’ is in one of the windows and it survived a fire in the late 12th century that destroyed nearly everything else. All around the outside of the choir stalls there very good carvings that tell religious stories.
A stroll through the narrow streets with lots of small shops selling everything from fine chocolates to high fashion clothes and plenty of coffee shops, bars and restaurants, brought us to another church, St Pierre’s. It was closed. From here we walked along the canal with plenty of ducks eagerly awaiting someone to feed them, a couple of sleepy swans, and huge willow trees that most provide lovely shade in summer. Some old buildings along the canal are just about to tumble down they are in such a state of disrepair. Along the side of yet another church, St André, we could see that there had once been a large arch bridge across the canal. Just a small section remains incorporated into the wall of the church.
We read a sign about the Jews who once lived here. In the 11th century they were restricted to just one quarter of the town and in the 14th century they were expelled from the town altogether. One street is called Rue de la Massacre and a Pont (bridge) de la Massacre, and another pont says something about an ancient abattoir. There was once a tannery along the bank of the canal and a stained glass workshop. The textile industry was important here too. During our walk the sunshine gave up the battle and the rain tumbled down so that we got nicely wet.
Along the way we have passed through a great many villages. None of them are especially pretty and they don’t seem to have quite the character of the English ones. There is always a large church in the centre and usually a small square. There seems to be plenty of small shops but there doesn’t seem to be many people about. A few cars parked about but never anyone walking around the shops. Where are they all? Even when we have found a shopping centre and a supermarket there is only ever just a few people about no matter what the time of day:
Plenty of Christmas decorations around the place though. We have seen Santas outside of buildings, climbing up the walls, propped against road signs, above the streets and over the entrance to supermarkets. One we saw outside a house looked as if he was hang gliding without the hand glider.
I really should mention at this point that we have seen quite a few wind generating turbines not just today and not just in France but also up in Scotland and in Belgium. There was several along the coast from Dunkerque and up into Belgium and then we have seen several more groups of them as we travel south. Anything from 2 to 12 in a group: Up in Scotland we saw a lot too, usually only 2 to 4 in one area.
We travelled along the Loire valley from Blois to Saumur. This is supposed to be a really pretty area but I don’t suppose we are seeing it at the best time of year and the fact that it was tipping with rain didn’t help. The river though not really in flood appeared to be well above its normal level. Whether or not this is normal for this time of year I cannot say. The road we travelled along ran along the top of a levee bank so it seems that floods are expected here at some time. Beyond the narrow flood plain, a few hundred metres wide, there are low chalk cliffs. These cliffs are riddled with caves and the locals have made good use of them enclosing the mouth to make storage rooms, garages, and even homes. We saw shops, bars, restaurants and even a hotel all dug out of the cliff face.
There is a lot of bushland and trees growing along the river bank. At present some of those trees are standing in water. All are asleep but there is big clumps of mistletoe growing in them. The farm land is quite green and I have seen sheep and cattle grazing and a lot of new young crops that may be wheat or barley. There are also many fields growing another crop that I have not been able to identify. The villages we’ve passed through are just as bland as I mentioned earlier. The French don’t seen especially keen on maintenance and if something has been repaired then you can easily see where it was done..
After some thought I have finally decided that what is most lacking in these villages is paint. The buildings have been painted in earthy fauns and yellows but that was a very long time ago probably when they were built and nothing been done since. Don’t buy shares in a paint manufacturer in France: Shutters on windows that are not only falling off their hinges but falling apart too: Of course the insides of these places may be very nice I haven’t been inside any to see.
We passed a few Chateaux but none that were open to visitors from what I could see. Mostly they seemed in a similar state of disrepair as the rest of the buildings.
It was a Sunday when we came into Limoges and we intended to park the car and go for a wander about expecting the place to be quiet. Silly us! To start with it was tipping down with rain yet again, the streets in the city centre were full of parked cars and many streets were shut off because of a large market. Funny thing is we could see very few people actually walking about. We abandoned our plan and kept on going. I can’t honestly say that it looked to be an attractive city but then the rain kind of blurred things a bit too:
We have now left the flat country behind, Limoges is built on hills and from here on the hills got bigger, steeper, and the road wended it way about them. As usual we were following the smaller roads; all motorways in France are toll roads anyway so we didn’t want them. Making our way towards Tulle we passed through some large pine forests where there were large stacks of logs awaiting transport to a mill. Near Tulle we saw a lovely old railway viaduct with many arches. In summer it would have been almost completely hidden behind the foliage. Also in this vicinity we saw a new motorway bridge across a ravine. It was very high and quite long with the concrete pylons reaching down onto the floor of the ravine hundreds of metres below. Quite spectacular!
Tulle seemed quite a nice old city clustered along the river bank with high steep hills on both sides and the houses steeped back up them. The rain was tipping down yet again so we didn’t stop here either.
In one small village we crossed the upper reaches of the Dordogne River and soon came to the spectacular village of Rocamadour. This village clings to the steep high cliffs on one side of a narrow ravine. Quite suddenly you come to the top of a ravine and there, off to the right is the village built into the cliff edge. The road begins to descend soon entering a very small tunnel before doing a u-turn and heading back towards the village. We parked the car in the small car park at the entrance to the village. At this time of year there is only a few other cars here. In summer this car and bus park would only cater for a miniscule percentage of the vehicles that come here. There is a huge car park at the bottom of the ravine to accommodate the masses.
A very narrow street, one way traffic is possible, is lined with tourist shops, cafes, restaurants, etc, mostly closed today, being Sunday. This street slowly descends along the edge of the ravine for quite a way but the shops give out after a while and private houses carry on downwards. Above the shops is an old Chateau and high on the edge above everything else is the church. Steps lead right up through the Chateau to church, it’s quite a climb. There is a lift that operates part of the way, and a funicular railway that services the other part but neither of them is working now. You would wonder whatever persisted anyone to want to build a village in such a place. I expect that it started out as a monastery at some time in the dim and distant past. In summer it must be packed.
© Lynette Regan December 9th 2007

Episode 24

2007-11-30T03:39:00.001-08:00

Episode 24

2007-11-30T03:39:00.000-08:00

Episode 24
We travelled south east from Lincoln and passed through Kings Lynn then north past Sandringham House, one of the Queens residences. This is all fairly flat agricultural country. We have seen many fields of cabbages or cauliflower and big stacks of beets in the fields. At Hunstanton there are cliffs about 15m high facing the sea: They are quite unique, the top couple of metres is white chalk, under that is a thin strip about a half metre deep that is red chalk and under that is the deeper red of sandstone. Red chalk is very rare apparently.
Just outside the town we saw a small ruin so I went off to read the notice board beside it. This ruin is all that is left of a 13th century chapel built in memory of St Edmund. This fellow was an Anglo Saxon who was a one time King of East Anglia from 855 to 870AD. He was captured whilst in a battle with the dames and executed by them by means of a barrage of arrows after he was tied to a tree. He was 29 years old. After being executed at Thethford he was then entombed in Bury St Edmund and years later he was canonized. He became to the first patron saint of England.
As we passed through the lovely small villages we noted that the buildings and fences are constructed of small pebbles mortared together, this is the only stone available in this area. Some of them have thatched roofs too. Plenty of pheasants and partridges in this area too, in fact we have seen a great many all over the countryside, and several that have been road tenderized.
The coast around Cromer is a fairly popular holiday area so we stopped for a look at the beach but were sorely disappointed. There are cliffs here too and a narrow strip of murky looking sand lapped by an even murkier looking sea. Every couple of hundred metres along the beach there is a breakwater built out into the sea, for what purpose I cannot say. The coast between the villages is lined with many caravan parks full of demountable mobile homes. These demountables are very popular in the UK and we have seen a great many all over the country from the Outer Hebrides to here.
I must mention that English Beach resorts are not quite like we find at home. Along the shore you will find many amusement arcades, bingo halls, and souvenir shops along with the usual cafes and restaurants. Often there is a long pier with more arcades built on it. I expect this is because often the English weather is not what one really needs to spend a day on the beach so people have to spend their holiday time entertaining themselves in some other way under cover out of the rain.
Spent a while having a look around the Norfolk Broads. This is an area of small lakes, marshes and waterways sandwiched between Norwich and the east coast. It’s not so easy to get a look at the lakes. Most of them are surrounded by privately owned land, houses and farms, and there is also marsh land that is full of tall reeds etc. All the riverbanks are lined with boats of all sizes, mostly quite large, and there are boatyards galore full of even more boats hauled out of the water for the winter. One wonders how they can all possibly fit onto the lakes; it must get awfully crowded out on the water in the summer.
We did preserver and found our way to the shore of a couple of these broads (lakes) and found that they were covered with birds. Mostly sea gulls but there were plenty of black moor hens, a few ducks and some geese, one of which we hadn’t seen before. It was standing room only for the birds and we wondered how they could all exist, there must be plenty of food for them here. There are a lot of woods around these broads and it is a very pretty area and popular holiday destination. Thought of taking a boat trip about here but when I enquired I was told that they only run now where there is a coach load booked; yesterday there was 3, but no more for several days.
After seeing the cathedral at Lincoln we decided that the lesser ones would be somewhat of a let down so we didn’t bother with Norwich or Bury St Edmund. Instead we headed on towards London as our bright sunny day became heavily overcast. We crossed the Thames east of London over the Dartford Bridge; the tunnel is for north bound traffic only. The view was very hazy so couldn’t see much. Took a more scenic route than the motorway that led us through the Kent countryside past orchards and oast houses (used for drying hops) but we didn’t see any hops growing. We passed through the pretty towns of Tonbridge and Royal Tumbridge Wells both chock-a-block with Christmas shoppers. From a couple of high points along the way there were good views over the surrounding area but no where to pull off the road and take it in.
In the fading light well after sunset we arrived back in Arundel at Heathers home. She greeted us with her usual enthusiastic welcome and her warm home is very welcoming. Derek the cat greeted us with some enthusiasm whilst his brother Trevor who is far more reserved rushed for cover.
Seeing as an election was coming up we went up to London one day so that we could go and vote then we spent a few hours wandering about. It had been quite a pleasant morning when we set out to walk to the train station in Arundel, the sun had been shining and the birds singing. By the time we got to London it was tipping with rain and we got quite wet looking for the right bus stop for a bus that would take us to Australia House in the Strand.
When we got there we found a larger area on the pavement where a special security tent had been set up and barricades erected to cater for large masses of Australians rushing along to do their public duty and vote. However, when we came along on this wet Monday, mid morning, not another soul was about and the security people were glad to have someone come and relieve their boredom. Inside it took merely a few minutes to fill out the envelope form and do our voting. A couple of other people came along whilst we were there. This poling station had been open all the previous week too.
Just along from Australia House is the lovely restored church of St Clement Danes. This is the church of the song ‘oranges and lemons’ fame; Oranges and Lemons say the bells of St Clements: After WW11 it was nothing but a burnt out shell but has been restored and is dedicated to the RAF. Inside all the crests representing each airfield are embedded in the floor. Around the walls is a great amount of information relating to the RAF and the names of every member who has died in service right up to the present time.
Back outside on the street we came across a very tiny shop sandwiched between much larger buildings. This is the Twinning’s Tea and Coffee Shop. It was bought by the founder of the company Thomas Twining in 1735 and has been continuously owned by the same family every since. He first started business in 1706. Almost next door to the tea shop is an old pub, dating from a similar time and on the glass in the front there is some interesting embossing; a few animals, especially pigs, and a naked man chasing them: They are only small so you have to look for them.
Walked some way along the Enbankment and for a while the sun came out, then suddenly it started raining again and it kept like that all day. Bought some lunch from a convenience store and was surprised that is wasn’t incredibly expensive, then we sat in Leister Square and ate it while some workmen were preparing to erect a Christmas tree or Christmas lights in the square. Had a wander around Soho and found the Chinese area, a tiny ‘china town’; then we came to Covent Garden. Now it’s really just a town market with stalls selling all the normal market stuff that you can find in any number of places but originally it was the site of the Monks gardens in an abbey or convent. Nearby is the church of St Martins in the Fields; of course the fields are long gone along with the monks gardens, all replaced with tarmac roads, concrete and glass structures with the never ending roar of traffic all about.
With the rain tipping down we took some bus rides. Just hopped on the first bus that came along, got the front seats upstairs and sat there as we made our way along the Strand, then Fleet Street, up past St Pauls where there has been a lot of new building in the vicinity in recent years. At some point we went along Treadneedle Street and ended up at Liverpool Street Railway Station. Caught another bus that took us back over a similar route then through Trafalgar Square, up to Picadilly Circus, then up Regent Street to Oxford Circus and we got off at Marble Arch. This arch was originally constructed to be part of Buckingham Palace but when the Palace was completed it was found that there wasn’t enough room for it so it was decided to use it as another entrance to Hyde Park to compliment the gate at the other side of the Park. Now in stands on a concrete island surrounded by roads at the intersection of Park Lane and Oxford Street: caught another bus back to Victoria Station and the train back to Arundel where we walked back to Heathers in the dark with the rain pouring down and got soaking wet.
Apart from that trip to London we haven’t really done much at all. When the weather was good enough David did some work on the car and got it ready to go off to Spain. It took quite a while as he couldn’t find any place undercover to work. Now it’s ready so we will probably go in the next few days.
© Lynette Regan November 29th 2007

Episode 23

2007-11-18T08:51:00.002-08:00

Episode 23
Paid a brief visit to Loch Lomond: We only went up along the eastern shore for a short distance and stopped in one place where there is a National Park office, not open, and did a walk up a hill and got a wonderful view over the lake: It was just about sunset when we got to the top but the sun disappeared behind a cloud before actually setting and we didn’t get any colourful sunset. On the south-western shore there is a large town that is almost a suburb of Glasgow now. Many islands dot the lake but I think that now there are many other lochs around Scotland that are just as nice and certainly less populated.
Went into Edinburgh for a few hours, it was a Saturday and the place was packed. All the locals seemed to be out shopping in the city centre and there were hoards of tourists too. We really didn’t see much just wandered along Princes Street, that’s the main street, there are shops on one side and for the most part parks and gardens on the other that descend the slope. The railway line is at the bottom then the steep slope up the other side that becomes high cliffs topped with the castle battlements. It has a foreboding appearance with the dark rainclouds behind as there was today.
Walked along the Royal Mile that leads to the castle entrance and gave away any idea we might have harboured about visiting there, the queue for tickets was so long it would have taken at least a half hour just to reach the ticket booth. No way was I about to battle that crowd to look around any castle; I’ve seen plenty of them anyway. Goodness knows what it must be like in the summer:
We did however go and see the small state of ‘Greyfriars Bobby’ the little dog that spent all his latter years on his master’s grave. The graveyard is just a few metres from the statue. The only other site we saw of any note was St Giles Church that we passed along the way. After three hours we’d had enough so when we got back to the car we left the city. Far too crowded for me, perhaps a Sunday would be quieter but I somehow doubt it.
We headed south from Edinburgh and came to the small town of Selkirk where Sir Walter Scott spent many years, first as a child when he was recuperation from Polio and later when he was a magistrate and presided over the court here. The courthouse is on the cobbled Market Square in the centre of the town with the bus stop right outside and plenty of roadworks all around. Fortunately for us it was a Sunday morning and no traffic but the bus had just deposited some passengers on the court house steps when we wanted to take a photo.
From here we turned east and somewhere or other we crossed back into England but it was an unmarked crossing. Now we headed to Bamburgh where David spent his childhood summer holidays.
It was quite a bright sunny day with a bitter wind blowing and it had brought out a lot of people to enjoy the sunshine. From a distance we could see Bamburgh castle sitting on a prominent hilly headland with the Farne Islands just offshore. Holey Island where there is another castle was clearly visible too. Just south of Bamburgh there are grass covered sand dunes and wide sandy beaches and it was on these beaches that David used to play in those holidays. He thinks he recognizes the place as there is an old building on top of the dunes that used to be the coast guard lookout.
As we drove down the coast we passed many more castles, it was a popular spot to build one back in the 13th and 14th centuries. The small village of Seahouses is no longer a small village, its quite a large town. Continued on south taking the motorway through Newcastle and Middlesbrough: Then we headed to Whitby the home town of Captain James Cook and also another famous seafarer William Scoresby and his son William Jnr:
William Scoresby explored the east coast of Greenland in the early 1800’s, we had been in Scoresby Sound back in August when we did the cruise on the Polar Pioneer. Both William Senior and William Junior had innovative ideas to help make seamen’s lives safer and better that were soon adopted by others. William Junior did a lot of experiments with magnetic compasses that improved the way they worked.
David and I had last been to Whitby in 1994 when we had my mother with us so we were sort of vaguely familiar with the place but it has grown enormously since then and a new road bypasses the old village centre and takes you straight around to the new car park beside the Abby. A great 6ft high stone fence surrounds the place now so that you can’t see it properly unless you pay to go in and at the time we visited it was closed apparently it would open later in the day.
The old town is much as we remember it with the swing bridge that encloses the small boat harbour crammed with pleasure and fishing craft. Could have taken a 3 hour fishing trip for £15 which we thought was quite good value.
From Whitby we drove up onto the Moors and stopped to take in the brilliant view back over Whitby and the coast, then continued on. Saw some more standing stones in the distance but didn’t bother walking right up to them. We were trying to find something called Mallyn Spout, whatever it was, when we came into the small village of Goathland that looked sort of familiar. Then we saw the Aidensfield Garage and we realized it was the village where Heartbeat had been filmed.
The only place with an Aidensfield sign was the garage and beside it were a few of the old vehicles that were used in the filming; now they are quietly rusting away. The village is making sure its getting some return from its TV fame with a car park that charges £2 whether you park for 10mins or 10 hours. We went and parked outside the village on the grass verge with several other cars. As it turned out Mallyn Spout was just near here too, it’s a small waterfall that you come to after about a 1k walk downhill and along the river. It is quite pretty but no Iguazu.
From another viewpoint a few miles further on we got a terrific panoramic view of much of the moors and they really looked pretty in the bright sunshine. Early in the morning they had been covered with white frost.
Spent some time in the large coastal town of Bridlington south of Scarborough: It has a lovely old Church Priory; although it was closed we had a look around the outside and saw some very odd looking sculptures: They were humans but two looked a bit like clowns and another I though was a lion till I looked more closely and saw it was meant to be human, yet another was a monkey but its head was more like a skul; weird: We didn’t take any photos cause David had left the camera battery on charge in the car. Here too we saw the old Baile Gate, a gate in the old city wall but only the gate is left, no sign of the wall. It too was all closed up.
We walked around the old town and saw that several of the shops had closed down and there were very few people on the streets but later on we drove through the thriving and bustling modern city centre. Came to a small harbour full of boats and a lovely sandy beach with the gently lapping waves; it would have been very inviting except for the temperature. Next time we saw the coast there were cliffs and a very murky looking sea below. The cliffs were soil not rock and look to be eroding badly, the sand was full of soil from the cliffs and the sea appeared to be muddy too.
We crossed the magnificent Humber Bridge from Kingston-on-Hull to the south bank of the Humber River. This bridge is a single span suspension bridge, one of the largest of its kind in the world. Not as large as the Golden Gate but still very impressive. From a view point on the south bank we could appreciate its full size. It has a toll of £2.70 which isn’t too bad really as it would cost more than that in fuel to drive upstream to the next bridge and then back again on the other side.
As we continued south along the coast and came to Grimbsy: This seems to be a big port with no special attractions. It did however, have one of the largest undercover shopping malls we have come across for a long time. Two shopping streets have been made into precincts and roofed over then multi story car parks built with direct access into the precinct.
Further south we came back to better beaches where they were lined with beach huts on a high levee bank. They looked quite pretty, each painted a different colour and all had slightly upturned corners on the roofs that gave them a somewhat oriental look, this was heightened by the presence of a pavilion between some of them with the same oriental shaped roof. A large holiday camp was along here too. The sun was still shining so that helped make things look cheerful too.
Went into the small city of Lincoln: It has a population of around 80,000 and has the third largest cathedral in England, and a very beautiful cathedral it is too: As it isn’t on any of the major roads that cross the country not a great many tourists come here so that there were very few of us in the cathedral for the 11am tour today, just 3 in fact. Our guide was a local man who really seemed to know the building well and pointed out several things that you would never notice on your own.
To start with the first church was built here soon after William the Conqueror invaded England. It was begun in 1072; it burnt down a few years later or at least the roof burnt as it was built of wood. The next church was rebuilt very shortly after then in 1185 most of it was destroyed when it was rocked by an earthquake. The following year a monk named Hugh became the Bishop and he decided to rebuild the church and make it his seat so that it became a cathedral. It was begun in 1192 and Hugh died in 1200 so he didn’t see it completed. Over the following 150 years more was added and that is what we see now. The lower part of the western entrance is the original 11th century part with 3 Norman arches. It is possible that there were earlier churches on this site from around the 5th century AD but any trace of them is under this building.
There are numerous stained glass windows; on the north wall they depict stories from the New Testament whilst those on the south wall it is the Old Testament that is represented. There are several large round windows too. All the stained glass is from Victorian times but two big round windows with coloured glass are earlier than that. There is one at each end of the Transept, on the northern side is the Deans Eye, and it is 13th century and has just been restored at a cost of £2 million. The one on the southern end is the Bishops Eye and is 14th Century. It can be seen from the Bishops Palace.
When they rebuilt the cathedral in the 13th century they built the central transept first and then built the Nave going back 40m to adjoin the original facade that was left standing but somehow it got a bit out of alignment and the vaulting centre is about 600mm (2FT) out of kilter.
During the years of the Civil War when Oliver Cromwell raged about the land much damage was done to the sculptures. The heads of many were broken off. In the 17th or 18th century when some restoration was carried out a new sculptor replaced many of those heads but he just made men’s head and didn’t bother to look if the statue was that of a man or a woman with the result that many of the sculptures have male heads on female bodies. Cromwell had the bronze removed from the grave slabs and this was used to make cannons. In the reformation of 1560 much looting and damage was done too. Originally there would have been much gold and silver and gems used in the decoration but this was taken and destroyed during the this time.
Some of the other sculptures around are two lovely little owls, a man ramming a sword down the throat of a dragon, and out the front are some erotic nude sculptures. In the choir stall there are many wooden sculptures, many added over the centuries and one of them is of Queen Victoria. Also a famous one is the Lincoln Imp that can be seen in the Angles Choir. He became famous when a copy of him was made as an ornament and presented to some famous visitor to the cathedral.
The choir stalls and the Chapter house were both used for the filming of ‘The DiVinci Code a few years ago. Many of the specially made props and some of the false walls that were put in around the Chapter house are still there. There is also a cloister attached but there was never a monastery here.
In a small side chapel there is an area for each of the armed services. Also in that chapel is a special stained glass window depicting the Australian Explorers, it has Banks, Bass, Flinders, and Franklin. All of these people came from around this area.
In the afternoon we had the opportunity to do a roof tour that took us up part of the front tower and out onto the parapet where we could look down 40m to the ground and see where the buttresses were built that support the 4m thick walls at 5m intervals. Where they couldn’t be built right beside the walls there are flying buttresses that adjoin the wall where the support is required. There was once spires atop the three towers. The one central tower that is approximately 80m high had a spire about the same height again that made it the highest structure in Europe, probably the world from 1311 to 1549 when it fell down doing a lot of damage to the north Transept. The two spires on the front towers were taken down later.
Our guide took us inside the roof where we could see the huge oak ‘A’ frame beams that support the roof. Most of them are not standing up vertical as they should be, they have quite a lean and one of the towers has quite a lean too. Many of these wooden beams have been replaces because the ‘death watch’ beetle has been merrily feeding on them for centuries. Bach in the early 20th century there was a lot of shoring up and new buttressing added to the towers to stop them from falling.
At present it costs about £30,000 per week to keep up the maintenance on the place. They certainly aren’t making that from the few visitors who seem to be around at present but of course there are many more in the summer. Most of the materials used in the original construction were local except for the marble that came from Dorset. The limestone for repairs and replacement still comes from the same quarries it did originally.
There are several old gates around this high part of town that were once part of a city wall. Some Roman ruins including a well are visible in one area; they date from the 1st century AD. Going down the very steep hill that leads to the modern city centre there are some more lovely old places. The Jews house and the Norman house both date from the same time in the 12th century. A few old Tudor style buildings that would date from the 15th or early 16th century I expect are along here too. Most of the other buildings in this street would be 18th or 19th century.
We thought we might as well visit the castle too, especially seeing that it has one of the 4 original ‘copies’ of the Magna Charta still in existence.
This castle dates for the latter part of the 11th century though only a very tiny part of the existing structure if from that era. Like most castles it has been altered, added to, and partially destroyed over its lifetime. It has been built on the site of previous fortifications built by the Romans and possibly others over the intervening centuries.
In the 18th and 19th century it was a prison and during the middle part of that century it was decided that prisoners would be more likely to reform if they were in an individual cell and not allowed contact with other prisoners so the place was altered to accommodate all these solitary cells. The solitary cell was quite large and contained a bed, a basin and tap and a latrine. There was a separate area for women prisoners and another area for the debtors prison. Debtors were considered not so bad so they didn’t have solitary cells. This solitary business extended to the chapel too where each seat was separated from the next one by a wooden partition with a little door in it. The prisoner could see the Chaplain at the pulpit but not his neighbour. Those prisoners who were condemned to death could all sit together at the back as they were considered to be beyond redemption. The debtors could sit together in the front.
During the time the prison was in use a great many prisoners were executed. These were public executions on one of the towers where the townsfolk could see the condemned receive his punishment. The body would then be taken down and buried in the unconsecrated ground inside the Lucy Tower. A small stone bearing only the initials of the deceased was then placed at the foot of the grave.
King John agreed to the provisions of the Magna Charta (great charter) in 1215. He placed his seal on 41 copies of it on a day in June of that year after the Barons of England banded together and wrote the charter as they could no longer tolerate the demands of the King. Each copy was written by a different scribe so that they are not identical because the writing is different and sometimes a word is spelt different of a slightly different wording is used. They are written in Latin, the official language of the time. King John didn’t sign the document with a quill but a wax impression of his seal was attached with silk ribbons to each copy. Then they were despatched each to a separate county and to the cinq ports.
The clauses within the charter are really quite basis and it’s a bit of a myth that it’s the basis of our democratic parliamentary system; that was really to come later. The Americans claim that it’s the basis for their constitution and Bill of Rights and certainly many of those things would have had their origins in the Magna Charta.
The real document was there in a glass case together with a translation for us to peruse if we so desired. There are only 3 other copies now in existence, one is in Salisbury Cathedral and two in the British Museum in London.
After this we climbed up the Observatory Tower for a look over the city. It was a cold and bright sunny day and we expected a clear view but were disappointed to see that a thick layer of smog hung over the whole river valley. The cold air has pushed it low and looking back up the valley we believe that it has come from the industrial cities of the Midlands as there is not much heavy industry around here to produce such pollution. We strolled along the top of the wall and got a good view of the Cathedral then went and had a look at the grave yard in the Lucy Tower where the executed prisoners are buried. At least one of them was innocent, a woman accused of poisoning her husband. The lodger, on his own deathbed, admitted to doing the deed.
The last place we visited was the Bishops Palace. This was built at the same time as the Cathedral under the instructions of the same Bishop, Hugh. It too has been added to and altered over the centuries. Some of the rooms still exist though it suffered badly in the civil war years of Oliver Cromwell and his band of merry men. Captain Berry, one of Cromwell’s men lived here for some years and converted some of the rooms into stables for his horses. Still visible are the hearths of the five big ovens that were in the kitchen where all the food was prepared for the Bishops household and any guests that were being entertained. Big feasts were quite common apparently. I read on one sign that each member of the household was given 7 pints, that’s about 4litres of beer and 2 lbs (nearly 1kg) of bread each day as well as the normal meals. They should have been quite fat these people, if they ate all that.
One room downstairs that is in reasonable shape used to be a communal room with a large fireplace and a well. You can see the brick work in the vaulted ceiling but it was once plastered over and the whole room was painted in bright colours. What used to be the gardens still exist but with just some lawn and trees now. A lot of fresh produce used in the kitchen was grown here and herbs for medicinal as well as culinary purposes. All that beer that was consumed was made on the premises too.
© Lynette Regan 16th November 2007

Episode 22

2007-11-18T08:51:00.001-08:00

Episode 22
Aberdeen, a city of gray granite buildings often described as very bleak and forbidding but I found it not bad at all. Perhaps we were lucky in the fact that the sun was shining even though the breeze was bitterly cold.
The centre of the city seems mainly to be around the area of Union Street, quite a long street lined with these gray granite structures all roughly of a uniform height about 4 to 6 stories. Didn’t see any really tall concrete and glass 20th century monstrosities, thank goodness! There are a number of streets that run off Union Street and some interesting tiny side streets and pedestrian walkways.
We wandered about a bit generally just admiring the architecture and getting a feel for the place. The oldest building in the city is a large stone house dating from 1545, known as Provost Skene’s house . It is hidden in between much more modern larger buildings but some kind soul led us to it. Wonder of wonders a few rooms are furnished with 17th and 18th century furniture and they are open to the public free of charge.
One room is a dining room and the antique furniture, china, glassware and cutlery would be worth a fortune. A beautifully carved wooden cabinet, extremely heavy and probably oak stands at one end of the room, late 18th century. Then there is a 17th century bedroom and dining room, this one had more basic furniture. The real gem though is upstairs where a long room that was once a chapel has a wooden plank ceiling that is painted in panels with religious paintings that are distinctly catholic from the time the house was built and they survived the reformation of 1560 when many such things were destroyed. In fact these paintings only came to light again in 1951 when the place was being renovated, the room had been divided into smaller rooms and a false ceiling had been installed. Since they were rediscovered the paintings have been restored and now visitors can see them. They are very dark though and not easy to see what they are. The last room we saw had a display of evening wear from the 20th century but not a particularly good one, mainly women’s gowns but also a couple of men’s outfits.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the city is Old Aberdeen. For many centuries this was a separate town, and is the older of the two. The oldest area is around the lovely St Machars Cathedral and the street known as The Chanonry where the church Canons once lived. There is also a hospital here that was built in 1801. The first church here became a cathedral when the seat of the bishop was transferred here in the 11th or 12th century but the current Cathedral dates from the late 13th century being built in stages from that time over the next 2 centuries.
There are some lovely gardens here too along the edge of the River Don and a lovely arched bridge from the early 17th century. The arch in this is like that of a church window with a point in the middle and that makes it very unusual indeed. By the time we made it to here our lovely sunny day had disappeared into thick cloud and light rain.
Also in Old Aberdeen is the university centred around Kings College. This college is also very old, the 3rd oldest University in Scotland from the early 16th century. Only a couple of bits of those earliest buildings still exist. We wondered about the place a bit and had a look around. There were students everywhere, in fact in the whole of this Old Aberdeen area I think we saw nothing but students and a couple of other tourists taking photos like ourselves.
The streets of the old city are all cobbled and with the fallen autumn leaves spread all over the pavement it proved quite treacherous in places. The council was making an attempt to clean up the leaves with sweepers and blowers at work but one good stiff breeze would bring down another avalanche of leaves and the place would be just the same again.
On the water front the harbour was very busy with several large ships in dock including a large cruise ship. Off shore from here are a great many oil platforms and this city is the major service centre for them so much of that sea traffic would in some way be connected to the oil industry. Despite all the adverse publicity I had seen about the city, and we nearly didn’t bother coming here, I really quite liked it. Though I do think that perhaps on a dismal day those gray building might be a bit depressing.
On our way towards the Caingorns, and actually within the National Park boundary, (not national parks as we know them in Aussie) we came to one of the old railway stations on an old line that used to service this area, the valley of the Dee river. The line was built in the mid 1800’s soon after Queen Victoria and Prince Albert bought the Balmoral Estate that is just a few miles further on up the river. The line is closed now and the old route is a walking and cycling track, the station building that we came to Cambus O May is now a private home. Just a few metres upstream from it is an old suspension bridge that was also built around the same time as the railway to provide a safe crossing for people over the river as some had been drowned whilst crossing at the ford not far from here. The bridge that we see now is actually a replica of the original and crosses only the river whilst the original had also provided a crossing over the railway tracks. That is no longer necessary; the tracks having been removed. In 1988 it was decided that the old bridge needed substantial repairs and it was cheaper to rebuild the bridge in the same style than to repair the existing one, so that is what they did. We walked across it and it’s quite wide while the river below is flowing very rapidly and looks quite deep. A little girl was drowned here a couple of years ago.
Queen Victoria always used the train whenever she visited Balmoral and Queen Elizabeth used the train right up until the time the line was closed in the mid 1960’s.
Some way further on we came to the Balmoral Estate. We didn’t see the castle though it may be possible to do so from some other vantage point. We did come across the whiskey distillery that seems to belong to the estate. Royal Balmoral Distillery: If we had been around on Saturday we could have visited the castle for £8 each.
This valley has quite lot of woods and pine forests but as soon as we turned north and left it we passed into an area almost totally devoid of trees. The rounded but often steep hills are covered with heather and grass. To look at the hillsides from a distance it looks as if the heather has been cut in swathes. Sharp edged geometric patterns, curves and straight lines, cover the hillsides; its most strange. The heather is a brownish/tan colour, the grass a straw colour and then there are gray patches too that appear to be dead heather.
Passed through some pretty little villages: We stopped and had a look around at a couple of them though each is different they are also quite alike too. From Grantown-on-Spey we followed the Spey River up to Aviemore. Here we came across the Cairngorm brewery where we tried a few of the local brews. With names like Nessy’s Monster Mash, Santa’s Sledge Hammer, Wild Cat, Witches Cauldron, and Sheep Shaggers Ale it had to be worth a visit. We tried a few of these brews and bought 4 different ones to take back to Heathers. Just a short way further on as we were heading up Cairngorm mountain we came to the Reindeer farm and there we came across another few brews on display; one was called Reinbeer: We had a close up look at the 9 reindeer in the pen here. The rest of the herd are out grazing somewhere. These few very in age from this years calves to the oldest one, Comet, who is 12. That is about 96 in human years. These are the ones that will be working in the Christmas sleigh rides later on. They all still have their antlers and one still had the velvet on its antlers. All seemed totally disinterested in the tourists and ignored us.
The road went on up the mountain and came to an end by the funicular railway station. Its maintenance month this month so the funicular is not running but we could walk on up to the top of the mountain if we wanted. It was extremely cold with a fierce, bitter wind blowing and I decided against the idea. It was just too cold to contemplate. A small Christmas market is set up here selling all the usual Christmas junk and there is a shop selling some warm clothes at horrendous prices and a cafe. They were all lovely and warm inside so we lingered here for a while and looked about.
Last year they got heavy snow late November, it soon melted and they didn’t get any more till February so that sort of stuffed a large amount of the Ski season. This year snow is predicted for this coming weekend and they are hoping that they get a better overall season than last year.
Back down off the mountain we came to the old Ruthven barracks. They have lost their roof and a few of the walls have fallen somewhat but overall they are in reasonable shape. Built in 1721 after the Jacobite uprising they consist of two buildings facing each other with a parade ground in between. Sixty men in each building, ten to a room and two to a bed, they had to cook and clean for themselves. The officers’ quarters were separate in a watch tower. Some years later a stable was built and some cavalry were stationed here to patrol the roads the military built.
The barracks successfully defended themselves against a band of Jacobites in 1745 but surrendered to them when attacked again early in 1746 before the battle of Culloden.
For someone who doesn’t even like whiskey I’ve been to an awful lot of distilleries, the latest one being Dewars ‘world of Whiskey’ in the small town of Aberfeldy not far from Perth. As tours go this was by far the best as it not only included a tour of the working distillery but also a good museum on the history of this distillery and the family that developed it.
Unlike the others we visited Dewars primarily produce blended whiskeys. The business was started by John Dewar in 1846 when he opened his own shop in Perth after working and learning about whiskeys in a relatives shop. He actually pioneered the blending of whiskeys to produce a more subtle taste that would appeal to the upper classes more, those who normally drank wine, port, brandy, etc. A few years later he brought his son John into the business then died a year later. Son John brought brother Tommy into the business, and this was the best thing that could happen as Tommy was a born salesperson and he sold it everywhere he went. He spent 2 years travelling around the world in the late 1800’s selling and promoting their whiskey while John managed the business at home and with the help of a blender by the name of Cameron developed several award winning blends.
It was to supply themselves with a supply of consistent basic whiskey for their blends that they built this distillery in the late 1800’s. This distillery now produces between two and three million litres of malt whiskey a year, most in used in their own blends but they do sell to other blenders too. Their blends are also made up of wheat based whiskey and that from a wide range of other distilleries. Originally the malting was done here too but now, like nearly all the other distilleries the malting is done at places that specialize in it, doing each batch to the specifications of each separate distillery. No two are the same apparently. I hope none of the dispatchers get the consignments mixed up and send one to the wrong place, would be ten years later possibly before the mistake was discovered, what a bummer!!!!
In the museum we saw a film made in 1927 of the making of whiskey; Tommy had the film made as a promotion. It showed the growing and harvesting of the barley, the malting process, the milling, the making of the wort and the distilling process, then onto the storing, bottling and packaging, then the shipping of the end product. I was quite surprised at how automated the bottling and packaging was even then. In some things we haven’t progressed all that fast.
Also in the museum we saw that Dewars had won a medal at some Queensland international exhibition in Brisbane in 1897. There was also a photo of Bert Hinkler and the Dewar’s and in the article it said that Bert had delivered some of their whiskey that he’d carried with him on the flight from here. Dewars had been one of his sponsors.
The company is no longer owned by the Dewar family, it is now owned by the Bacardi family, but there has been another owner in between.
All these distilleries we’ve visited and we still haven’t bought a bottle of whiskey:
We sat in a picnic area, in the car as the wind was bitterly cold, on the side of a hill with a view of hills and mountains all around. Cairngorm was off in the distance and another mountain beside it, both of them had a very faint dusting of snow that wasn’t there yesterday. As we sat and watched another very heavy cloud passed over and dumped some more snow on them. When we drove off and over the hill that cloud caught up with us and we saw a few snowflakes in the air but nothing was settling this low down. Earlier in the day the wind blowing the leaves off the tress was creating flurries of swirling colour like large colourful snowflakes.
Time for another castle: This time its Stirling Castle the one time seat of the Royal House of Stuart. It sits atop a high bluff overlooking the town of Stirling and a large expanse of countryside. In ages past it must have been quite a strategic location not only for the defensive position but also because many roads crossed here. It is believed that there has been a fort here at least since Roman times and most likely earlier.
What we see of the castle now dates mainly from the 16th century, although there is one small section from the 14th century. In the early 14th century Robert the Bruce destroyed all the existing fortifications after he won a decisive battle near here when he engaged English troops who were on their way to relieve the garrison that occupied the castle. The first part of the present castle was built later that some century.
Probably the most attractive building in the complex is the French Renaissance style palace that was built during the time of James V (hope I’ve got the right James). He married Mary of Guise and her fathers wedding present to them was the building of this palace. Sadly all the remains for us to see is the outside with its sculptures, ornate windows and decorative style and the gutted interior. For several hundred years the castle has been a military barracks until the 1960’s and all the lavish furnishings and fittings of the Royal households have long since disappeared. At present it is in the process of being restored but this has been going on for a long time and will continue for many more years. We could wander around inside this palace; it is built around a central courtyard. In each room there is a notice telling us what its purpose used to be and pointing out things in the overhead beams or special stonework in the walls and some of the fireplaces. With the roof beams in one room the current architects cannot work out how the original ceiling was connected to it. There were some tapestries that used to hang in the Queens bed chamber and currently new ones are being made. Three of the completed ones are presently hanging in the chapel.
When we went into the chapel we had a look at these tapestries: One of them depicts the hunting and killing of a unicorn. In the top part the poor unicorn is being stabled and is surrounded by soldiers attaching it, in the lower part the unicorn is dead and slung over a horse. Apart form the tapestries there is nothing much to see in the chapel.
The other really big building in this castle is the Great Hall: It is now open after about 30 years of restoration though there isn’t much to see in it either. It was here that great banquets were held. One special one was the Christening of the son of Mary Queen of Scotts, can’t remember his name, may have been Charles, anyway Mary borrowed £12,000 from the merchants of Edinburgh to hold a banquet after the Christening. Imagine how much that is in present financial terms. That was the 16th or 17th century. The only things to be seen here really are the 5 huge open fire places that must have consumed a forest at a time, or a complete peat bog, and the oak beams in the roof that are all new and David says that many of them are splitting. There were no nails used, oak pegs were made and used to hold it together as it did in the original one.
The battlements that we stood on to look down onto the lawns below and the city are the most recent additions, 17th and early 18th century: The towers by the entrance arch are older but there were also two more towers beside them but only one base is still visible. All were much taller than what they are now.
A short distance down the road from the castle is a large town house, Argyle Lodgings, and as our castle ticket also covered a visit here we went for a look. This house, or at least a small part of it was in existence at the beginning of the 16th century and had additions built onto it over the next century or so. It is believed that the original owner was probably a wealthy merchant as this would have been a very desirable address so near the Castle.
At one time it was going to be made into a “Poor House” to house the cities homeless but then it was sold to the Duke of Argyle instead and he made some extensions to it. Later it became a military hospital so it too suffered a similar fate as the castle and all the furnishings etc disappeared. In the 1960’s it became a Youth Hostel, but now it too is slowly being restored. Probably the old kitchens are the part that has survived best. The big old ovens where a whole beast could be roasted on a spit can still be seen, so too a small domed bread oven inside one of those big ovens. Over the front door is the coat of arms of one of the owners of the house. It has an American Indian and a mermaid on it.
© Lynette Regan 10th November 2007

Episode 21

2007-11-18T08:34:00.000-08:00

Episode 21
Whilst in the Wick area we also visited the old castle Sindair Girnigoe that stands right on the shore of a wide bay north of the town. It was once the seat of the Earl of Sindair. At present it’s a crumbling ruin with enough still standing to get a good idea of how it must have looked in times gone by. It was begun in the 14th century with a defensive wall around the land side and a sea gate. Over the centuries it was added to and modified and ended up by being quite large; I could find no date for when it was abandoned. Some scaffolding has been put up around some parts and I read that there is some plan to stabilize it and perhaps restore some parts, though it doesn’t appear as if much has been done at this stage. In fact it looks as if some parts may well have fallen into the sea. The rough winter sea and storms are its worst enemy:
One of the earls of Sindair got it into his head that his son wanted to murder him so he imprisoned the son in the dungeon and let him starve to death; charming family!
Off shore from Wick we could see 2 oil platforms one much larger than the other. Near the larger one we also saw two wind turbines. I wonder how the hell you would anchor them to the sea floor as they looked just the same as their land based counterparts.
So we finally come to John O’groats on the north-eastern tip of the Scottish mainland, its not the most northerly, that distinction belongs to Dunnet Head a few miles to the west on a big peninsula. David and I were here back in 1971 and its grown a bit since then. Back then there was only the old hotel with its rounded towers looking like a pretend castle and a couple of farm houses and sheds. Now that hotel is closed up and decaying rapidly but there are number of tourist shops that have sprung up, a post office and general store, a new hotel and a couple of reasonably priced bed and breakfast places, even a couple of new houses, its beginning to look like a big village. Down on the beach there is a small boat harbour from which there is a ferry to the Orkney Islands in the summer.
All this though is a good mile or so from the real point where the lighthouse stands. There has been a lighthouse here for around 200 years but its only be automated since 1993. It overlooks the Pentland Firth a very hazardous stretch of water. Just down the coast a short way from the lighthouse there are some sea stacks just off the cliffs. These cliffs, like so many around Scotland are alive with birds in summer when Puffins, guillemots, awks, and kittiwakes are nesting on them.
Drove out to Dunnet Head, the most northerly point where there is another lighthouse standing atop the cliffs there. It was built by Robert Stevenson, the grandfather of author Robert Louis Stevenson in 1831 and was automated in 1989. The glass in front of the light is 105 metres above the sea yet it has been broken several times by stones tossed up by the waves. From a lookout above the lighthouse we got a great view out of the islands and the whole of this northern area as it is relatively flat, with gently rolling hills.
Came to the town of Thurso, this town, like Wick and the village of Reay are all old Norse villages dating from around the 9th century, the names have become corrupted from the original Norse over the ensuing centuries. This town has some rather nice old Victorian buildings and is a pleasant place to stroll around for a while. A few nice churches are dotted about the town. Its only small but seems to be growing despite the fact that the nuclear power station at Dunreay just a few miles away was decommissioned in 1994. There is some restoration work being done there now we saw when we passed.
Near the old power station there are a few big wind turbines that I expect supply electricity to some of the area. I also noticed that on the roof of a new large supermarket in Wick there were 5 small wind generators all whizzing like mad. I did read or hear somewhere not long ago that these large ones cause the death of a great many sea eagles, an already highly endangered species.
Went looking for some burial cairns that were marked on the map but didn’t find them, nothing unusual in that and they all look much the same so I don’t suppose I missed a lot, its just annoying with they aren’t well signposted.
Came across a herd of deer, don’t know if they were red deer, roe deer or fellow deer, but I don’t thing they were red deer. They had the big light coloured patch of their backsides, apart from that light faun patch they are a similar colour to the dead bracken they were amongst. They were mostly females with some fawns; one of them was still suckling her fawn even though it was nearly as big as she was. There was just one stag amongst them so they must have been his harem though I thought the rut would be over by now. They just stood there and watched us watching them; perhaps if we’d got out of the car they might have gone off in fright but they didn’t seem nervous. The males antlers weren’t very big. A short way further on we saw just two stags on a hillside, they both had larger antlers than the fellow with the females, one of these chaps antlers were very large but they don’t get the big ‘racks’ like the reindeer do.
Apart from the usual hazards of sheep and cows on the road we also had ducks. Some were mallards, but they were all domestic ones. They didn’t want to move out of the road just stood directly in front of the car and wouldn’t move. We finally got around them then pulled off to one side and called them and they waddled over to us. On these very narrow roads it’s a wonder they haven’t been skittled.
Came to Smoo cave on the north coast; That name is another corruption from the original Norse name: This is a very large cave and the road actually goes over the top of the cavern. It sits at the end of an 800metre long 30m deep and narrow sea chasm with sheer sided cliffs. Possibly the whole length of it was a cave at some long ago point in time. Now the mouth of the cave is 10 to 12 metres wide and about 4 or 5 m high. The cave goes back a long way and high up on one side lit by artificial lighting are some ferns. The most striking feature though is the 21metre high waterfall that drops into the cave. A wooden walkway and viewing platform allows you to get a good view of the bottom of the falls. To see the top you climb back to the top, cross the road and take the little walkway and the bridge over the stream is really over the top of the waterfall, you see it drop away immediately below. About 80m after exiting the cave the stream enters the sea in the chasm.
There are some fine golden sandy beaches along this northern coast and when we came to Durness we saw a sign ‘award winning beach’; now what the heck is that supposed to mean: The tourist office is closed for the season so we couldn’t ask there. Anyway, out there in the surf, and it was quite a good surf we saw two fellows on surfboards and one on a boogy board. They were wearing wet or dry suits: I don’t know what the water temperature would have been, I didn’t go down and try it but the air temp was about 11˚C and the chilly wind would have lowered it to around 6˚C so it was a tad chilly you could say.
A great many of the sea lochs all around Scotland have fish farms in them and as we drove around this part of the coast we saw many of those farms.
Now we started heading back south across moorland with peat bogs and bracken and heather covered hills, here and there are some areas of deep green where there is a pine forest usually with a cluster of golden larch amongst them. Followed a long glen leading from loch to loch with fishing being a popular pastime along the way; one long loch, loch Shin is really a dam and has a hydro electric station below the wall. You’d think that in this country with so many lochs that they wouldn’t want to build more water storage but they do. Took a long walk around the Balblair forest and met lots of people walking their dogs and other out riding their mountain bikes on the specially built trails. From a high point we got a great view over the glen and the lochs.
Went into the little town of Edderton to see yet another standing stone, this one is supposed to have a Pictish (from the time of the Picts before the Norse) inscription on it, and we did find it in the middle of a field with high sheep proof fencing all around and no stile or kissing gate to provide access so we didn’t get a close look at it. Some way further on we found ourselves back in Tain, we had passed this way on the northbound trip but hadn’t gone into the town. This time we went and had a look at the old toll house that stands right in the town centre. It’s a lovely old building but being a Sunday nothing was open for us to find any information about it.
On the peninsular between Dornoch Firth and Cromarty Firth we came to a RSPB hide in a wetlands area. This is a nature reserve for the migrating birds, mainly wetlands species. It covers 1600 hectares and this hide provides a good opportunity to watch some of them. Overhead we had seen large flocks of swans passing and even larger flocks of geese. We had thought that they were graylag geese but according to the posters in the hide they were more likely to be pink footed geese. The swans are whooping swans. With the aid of the telescope provided in the hide we could also see thousands of other birds, some we could identify whilst others were too far away to see properly. Spent at least an hour here probably much longer watching these birds many of which have come from their summer breeding grounds in Russia but others like the lapwing live here permanently:
In this same area we came across a church where there is a grave slab with an early Pictish carving. It’s a Christian carving from the 8th Century and it’s kept inside the locked church so we only got a glimpse of it through a dirty window.
In the town of Invergordon we looked a lot at the murals that decorate the sides and fronts of many of the buildings in the business centre. Each one has a different theme, one is a bagpipe band, another the fire service, yet another has all the birds from the reserve. It was something different to standing stones. At Beauly we had a look at the old Abby. This ruin is really in quite good shape, you can see the black from a fire that must have destroyed the roof and other parts, and there is no glass in the windows but most of the red sandstone block work is in good condition It was a very large Abby:
We came back into Inverness and spent a short while looking around again. St Andrews Cathedral was the main object of our attention. It has square towers now but from a painting inside we see that it once had tall spires. In the front it has a magnificent stained glass window. The city seemed just as busy on a Sunday afternoon as it did on a weekday; we’d thought it might be a bit quieter:
Had a look at the old battlefield at Culloden when German George’s forces soundly defeated Catholic Charley’s and brought to an end the Jacobite rebellion on the 16th April 1746. It’s just an ordinary field like most others in Scotland; an old cottage on one side is said to have survived the battle, its called Leanach cottage. There is a large stone in one place saying that the English are buried in that area and a large cairn says that the Scottish fatalities are listed under their clan names. Little signs say that a certain place is where the front line was, and I wonder who marked that place, surely no-one came back the next day and marked it thinking that in 250 years time people will want to know this. Probably some one 100 years after the even decided that’s where it should have been. Gee I’m a cynical B----, am I not.
Also visited the old Pluscardan Abby: This Abby is now occupied by Benedictine monks and part of it is open to visitors. These monks have only been there since 1948, before that for many centuries it was abandoned. It has been restored and is quite like the one we saw at Beauly in design. The chapel has some lovely stained glass windows. It is situated out in the countryside on the side of a ridge covered in dense woodland, and took quite a bit of finding. Some historical sites are well marked while others are not.
Forres has a nice town centre with a building that looks like another toll gate in the centre, and in Elgin we saw the old ruined Cathedral. It must have been a huge building, much larger that many I’ve seen, or so it appears to me.
There are also many castles but we haven’t bothered to visit any more. We did however, see another stone slab. This one is just on the edge of Forres and stands in a glass enclosure. It is of Pictish origin from the 9th or 10th centuries and very elaborately carved on all 4 sides. One side depicts a battle in several panels; no one knows what battle it was but believe it must have been very important to have been immortalized in this manner. The stone stands 6m high and was found lying in a field but it didn’t say when.
In this area east of Inverness we have seen a lot of whiskey distilleries. Nearly every decent sized village has one and we saw the Glenfiddick, Glenlivit and Dewars distilleries all within a few miles, there were others too.
©Lynette Regan 5th November 2007

Episode 20

2007-11-18T08:33:00.000-08:00

Episode 20
Some blue sky and sunshine finally arrived as we came to the small village of Gairloch on the loch of the same name. Here at the small jetty we saw a cruise boat docked. It was called the Hebridean Princess and was about the same size as the Polar Pioneer. While we were there a few of the passengers got off and went for a walk around the village.
This is a very pretty village with the calm loch waters and many small islands. The mainly white painted houses were spread over a long way close to the shore. It probably looked even better than normal to us as there was blue sky and sunshine after so much wet weather.
A short way further on we came to another small village called Poolewe, on Loch Ewe. This area was a high security Naval area during WW11 when it was used as the base for the sending of conveys that went through the Barents Sea to Murmansk and Archangel in Russia carrying vital supplies to the besieged Russians. Nineteen conveys left from here:
It is a well sheltered deep water loch and at times was filled with ships. It was bombed by the Germans on at least one occasion but the bombs missed the 2 ships that were in harbour at the time. A submarine net was places across the entrance to the harbour and two launches stood by to open it when boats needed to pass in or out. In recent times an unexploded bomb has been found on the sea floor. Its still there:
All around the shore most of the old gun encampments and watch towers can still be seen. It was said to be a lonely life, a posting here, for those that came from the city as the villages here were really tiny. The winters were bitterly cold and it wasn’t unusual for the men to have to break the ice on a stream to get water to have a shave. I also read that one fellow said, and I quote “after 6 months you started talking to yourself, after 1 year you started talking to the sheep, after 18 months the sheep started talking to you.
It was a Sunday when we drove around this part of the country and it was just as well we hadn’t needed any supplies or fuel as we didn’t see one shop or fuel place open. This is the only Sunday we have found absolutely everything closed. There were plenty of people out fishing:
We came to the Corriehalloch Gorge. Its only a small gorge and you don’t even realize its there until you walk down the path through the waste ground that is cleared pine forest then suddenly the ground opens up in front of you and a 30m deep chasm is between you and the other side. Pine trees and oak trees cling precariously to the vertical grey, moss and fern covered rocky sides of the gorge and a stream boosted by recent rain tumbles over a waterfall then rushes off towards the sea. A small suspension bridge spans the gorge directly over the top of the waterfall, it was built in the 1880’s, and a cantilevered observation platform juts out over the chasm further downstream offering a great view of the falls and the bridge. Overhead we watched some birds of prey, don’t know what, perhaps buzzards, as they rode an air current circling higher and higher eventually disappearing into the wreaths of misty cloud that were forming overhead. There were 3 of them:
There was a great lot of pine forest around this area, some big area had been cleared, don’t know if they replant of let the self sewn ones come up, but we saw no sign of young trees emerging.
We passed a big dam that was very low and remembered that someone had told us that the summer and spring had been fairly dry, pity it hadn’t lasted into October. The dam was down a good 15m. I expected to see a hydro station below it but there wasn’t one. We had seen one earlier in the day on a much smaller dam, loch Kerry.
We circled back into Wester Ross and visited the little town on Ploctown; this is where the TV series Hamish Macbeth was filmed in the early 90’s. It’s much bigger than it first appears and is said to be ‘postcard pretty’ but it was raining heaving again when we arrived so it looked merely dreary. We stayed the night in the area and had a look at it again the next morning when there was some blue sky and sunshine about. It certainly looked much better with all the prettily painted houses clustered about the shore and plenty of colourful little boats bobbing on the water in the bay.
We took the bridges and crossed back to the Isle of Skye and went down to a place I had found marked on the map as ‘Otter Haven’; it seemed from the name that it might be a place to see some otters. A drive down a dead-end road and a walk of a mere kilometre brought us to a specially constructed hide from which to view any wildlife that cared to show itself: Some information charts were pinned to the walls showing all sorts of creatures that we might see both in the sea and on land. There was also a visitor’s book for people to fill out and include what they saw. Of those that had written in the book, not many of them had seen otters. The last person to write had been two days ago.
We settled down to watch, each with a pair of binoculars. Almost immediately David thought he spotted one, but if he did it vanished very quickly. For around two hours we sat there and scanned the water till our eyes felt like sandpaper from looking through the binoculars. We saw a lovely grey heron, a curlew, black backed gulls, shags, cormorants and a whole range of other birds, but no otters, nor seals for that matter. Some of the visitors had seen seals and otters. Several showers passed over while we watched, the tide went out quite a way and left the little lighthouse immediately below the hide high and dry, but not an otter did we see.
The only thing that gave me some satisfaction about the whole exercise was that we finally found out what sort of trees we’d seen that looked like pines but turned yellow and lost their needles. I had suggested a larch but wasn’t sure, but in the hide we saw some information on the trees and learnt that I had been right, it was a larch but it’s a hybrid; a cross between the European and Japanese larch. They are often planted in clusters in amongst the pine forests so that you get the effect of a deep green of the pine then this large area of bright gold on a hillside or in a gully that is the larch.
Drove around the Sleat peninsula and saw a couple more piles of rock that were once castles. One had a couple of walls still standing and two brick archways but not much more. Then we took the ferry from Armadale to Mailaig back on the mainland. This is a bigger town than I was expecting, and another one that is clustered around the shore of the bay and backed by high hills all covered in the golds and russets of autumn foliage. Continuing in a southerly direction for a while we followed the railway line and admired the lovely old stone arched viaducts and bridges along the line. One was small foot bridge over the line, some were one or two arch bridges over streams or a road and one had several arches.
In a glen we saw 5 beech trees that are all that is left of 7 that were planted to honour 7 prominent people who assisted the Bonny Prince in 1745/46. Two have been damaged in the bad storms of 1988 so 7 new ones have been planted but are still only small. Here too we saw an old lime kiln where the farmers used to burn the limestone to make fertilizer for the fields. Much of the old woodland all around these parts were destroyed to make charcoal for smelting iron or burning lime, it’s the only thing that will burn hot enough for such things.
We came to several more places where otters were supposed to live and spent much more time searching beaches and in another hide but still have not seen one, and now we will be out of their habitat from here onwards.
Now we were heading up through the central part of Scotland following a series of lochs and rivers that cut the country in half from North Sea coast to Atlantic coast. Soon we came to the start of the Caledonian Canal at its southern end. Here a series of 9 lochs lifts the level from that of the sea loch to that of the canal that passes through this lower end of the Glen. This place is called Neptunes Staircase. There are also 2 swing bridges here, one for the road the other for the railway line.
The Caledonian Canal was designed by Thomas Telford at the beginning of the 19th Century. It was completed in 1822 by which time many of the ships then in use were too big to pass through the canal. It is 96.4K’s (60miles) long, of which 35.6k’s (22miles) is man made canals. There are 29 lochs and 10 swing bridges. We crossed at least 3 of those swing bridges as we made our way northward toward Inverness at the northern end of the Canal and Glen Ness.
A monument to the Commandos was something we came across along the way. These elite forces were formed in 1940 made up of volunteers from all the services of the British and Allied forces. They were trained in the Highlands around this area then sent to undertake special assignments in all theatres of the War. The most noticeable part of their uniform was their Green Beret.
Just off the present road there is an old suspension bridge not used any more. It’s called the ‘Bridge of Oich’ and crosses the river of the same name. Opened in 1854 after its predecessor got washed away in a flood it is of a special design that even if it wasn’t joined in the middle neither side should fall down, its called ‘double cantilever’ and was designed by one James Dredge.
Then we came to Loch Ness: This famous loch is 38k’s long and up to 230m deep. Apart from the famous monster that nobody ever gets a good look at it is also a favourite place for seals and ospreys that come to feed off the trout and salmon. Along the shore there are a few small villages with plenty of hotels and souvenir shops trading of “Nessy’s popularity. Apparently one of the first recorded sightings of Nessy was by St Columba in the 6th Century, so poor old Nessy is getting a bit long in the tooth so to speak. Definitely didn’t put in any appearance for us.
While in Inverness I just happened to be passing the town hall when I was stopped by security and asked to wait a minute before passing as someone ‘important’ was about to come out and get into a car. It turned out to be Princess Ann. Of course I didn’t have the camera with me.
Inverness is rather a nice place. It has some lovely old 19th century buildings in the city centre and along facing the river bank. There is a narrow strip of parkland either side of the river and all is overlooked by the Castle atop the hill built of pink sandstone and recently sandblasted so that it really shows the colour well. It is now the Inverness Sheriff Court House. There was first a fort on this site in the 12th century, then a castle that was destroyed just after Bonny Prince Charleys defeat at Culloden in 1746; this present castle dates from 1834. Culloden is just outside of Inverness.
Went looking for a place called Black Rock Gorge; managed to find a caravan park of the same name but couldn’t find the gorge so we gave up and headed on north again. A couple of caves along the coast were something else we thought of going to see but the rain was tipping down still and all the tracks are just so waterlogged that we gave the idea a miss and kept on. Kept looking for signs to some of the ruins that were marked on the map, several castles and brochs, but mostly they were unmarked so we missed them.
In the little town of Dornoch on the north shore of the firth with the same name we stopped to have a look at the Cathedral and found a few other interesting sites too. As cathedrals go this is a vey small one built on the cruciform style.
Gilbert de Moravia was bishop of Caithness in 1222 when he decided to move his diocese from Halkirk to Dornoch and to build a cathedral there on the site of a very early Christian church. The Irish priest Finnibar, he became St Bar, had built a church here in the 6th century, this is the same St Bar that had founded the little church ruin we had visited on the island of Barra. Gilbert financed the building of this cathedral himself and used local stone and glass in the building. It was consecrated in the year 1239. More modern stained glass windows have replaced older ones and the organ is from the 18th century though it was completely rebuilt a few years ago.
In the tipping rain we walked around the small town, the bishop’s palace across the road from the cathedral is now a hotel and there is a museum nearby too but it wasn’t open. A short walk to the outskirts of the town and we found the ‘witches stone’; it marks the site of the last ‘burning at the stake’ of a witch in Scotland in 1772. We were a day late in find this, a day after Halloween.
Also found the old town well that became so polluted with seeping sewerage that cholera became common. It was in the late 19th century that reticulated water from a loch in the hills brought clean fresh water into the town. One area is called Littletown. This is where many of the families came to live after the big land clearances of the late 18th and early part of the 19th century. They came here and built tiny sod houses with turf roofs, but later when things improved many replaced them with small stone houses and several can still be seen around here.
When we visited the tourist info office here I asked the girl what people did for a living in this area. It is a much better agricultural area than most other parts of the highlands with plenty of rich green pastures and great stacks of plastic wrapped silage rolls. It’s not as mountainous here, more rolling farmland with open fields and patches of woodland. The girl told me that farming and tourism are the main things along with some fishing. In the summer it gets very busy with tourists but for about 6 months it’s very quiet, from now till Easter there is only the odd straggler like us. In the high mountains there are some winter sports areas but not around here.
Some way further north we passed the heap of rocks that was Skelbo castle, nothing much to look at there, then later we came upon the more impressive Dunrobin castle. Although not a really pretty castle from the outside it does boast 189 lavishly furnished rooms and lovely gardens and a falconry. A drive of 500 metres through a beech wood dressed in the bright gold leaves of autumn brought us to the castle. However, it was closed for the season and the falconry master was off on holiday too. Of all those rooms only 17 are open to the public on a tour. This is the home of the Duke of Sutherland, at one time the biggest landowner in Europe with 1.3 million acres of land. It was one of the dukes that ordered much of the clearing of the crofters in this area and there are a few other places like Littletown where they settled. A great many migrated to America and Canada back in the 18th century then in the later clearances of the 19th century many went to Australia and New Zealand and well as the US and Canada. They were moved off the land owned by the big landlords so more sheep and cattle could be grazed and to provide better hunting opportunities for guests to hunt deer and pheasant or fish for salmon and trout.
There were some good cairns and more standing stones to see but they all involved walking over very soggy ground in pouring rain for a mile or so and we didn’t really feel that we needed to do that so we gave them a miss. Same thing happened too when we went to see where the old gold mine used to be at Baile de Or. This is 8 miles inland from Helmsdale and is where some Scott’s man who had returned from the Australian gold fields found gold in 1869. Not much gold was ever found here but fossickers still try their hand at panning in the stream every summer and some manage to find just a little.
At Wick we went in search of the castle and found just another pile of stones quite near the shore. The shore here is a rock shelf that stretches out 50 metres or more to where the waves bash themselves against it and throw up large plumes of spray. This is a very grey and dismal looking North Sea.
© Lynette Regan 1st November 2007

Episode 19

2007-11-18T08:32:00.000-08:00

Episode 19
On a dreary wet day when I had bought a book detailing the walks on the island and had plans to do some of them we found ourselves visiting Dunvegan Castle the ancestral home of the Macleod’s. The current Chief of Clan Macleod is the 30th and they have lived in this castle since about the 13th or 14th Centuries. As castles go its not very impressive, not even an attractive building really and there isn’t much to see inside though the grounds are quite nice: For the entrance fee of £6 each it is very poor value, but it was something to do on a wet and windy afternoon.
The curtain wall, that’s the rock wall built just above the shore was the first thing to be built here and was done so by the Norse in around 1200, then part of the tower and some other parts of the castle were built around 1300, but just about all of what you see dates from the first half of the 19th century. There is a beautiful oak dresser in the dining room with a carved front, and a couple of lovely Chinese lacquered tables, bit of silverware and some other bits and pieces but not very much.
Just a few items that belonged to Flora Macdonald who married one of the Macleod’s; and a couple of items that belonged to the Bonny Prince himself: The Macleods though, did not support the Bonny Prince in his attempt to gain the English throne.
It was one of these Macleod chiefs whose tomb we had seen in St Clements church on the Island of Harris just a week or so ago.
Outside, when it wasn’t raining we wandered about the gardens. There were some hydrangeas in bloom in a colour blue that I have never seen before, almost a turquoise. In the centre of the round garden is a blue leaf gum tree of some sort that has been cut off several times so now has many trunks. It is one of three such gum trees we saw in the garden. Nearby were two araucaria trees, one a massive old tree, the other a young seedling.
A walled garden had some herb gardens but no vegetable garden as I had expected. Did have a few fruit trees growing against the wall: In the fern house all we could see were geraniums and pelargoniums: Two 8m high waterfalls fed a stream along which a water garden was growing. A woodland area up on the hillside overlooked the round garden and the shore line. When it started raining again we headed back to the car.
We also came upon the ruin of a small church where the MacDonald Clan had massacred the Macleod clan in retaliation of a previous massacre. This was a place where we were going to do some walking but the rain was tipping down.
By chance we passed a sheep skin tannery. It is just a small building and they buy sheep skins from a meat works, mostly they are lamb skins and the lambs have never been shorn. All the equipment used is from early 20th Century except for the tanning acid that is a modern product. Most jobs are done by hand and some are quite messy like cleaning the fat off the skins after they have been soaked. It is scraped off with a large scraper that’s a bit like a machete.
The skins are soaked, and scraped, and soaked and washed and dried, then put through a carding machine after which they are trimmed and ironed. Takes about 2 to 3 weeks to complete one batch: Upstairs is the showroom and we could see the finished product. They sell them at quite a reasonable price too, cheaper than those I have seen in New Zealand. One of their nice woolly hats would have kept my ears warmer in the Arctic.
On yet another wet and windy day we did a short walk to the Neist Point lighthouse. The Bed and Breakfast place that is part of the lighthouse has closed for the season and so to the coffee shop still there was quite a lot of people doing the walk, it surprised us how many. We set out wrapped up in all our water and wind proof gear. It wasn’t all that cold but the wind was ferocious trying to blow us backwards, sideways, or forwards depending on the twists in the track. It was only a short walk to the cliff edge just below the light. Here we could see some very thick basal columns, vertical ones that formed the edge of the cliff with some broken off ones forming a bit of a giant stairway.
With this wind blowing the sea had some mighty swells and troughs and was throwing itself hard against the rocks below or onto the pebbles of a small beach in the bay on the other side. In the distance we could see the hills on the other side of the bay and also some waterfalls tumbling their way over the edge into the sea. There were at least three such waterfalls, one was quite high, probably 150m at least. Another one in front of us in the car park was catching the full brunt of the wind and the spray was being blown well back up onto the land just to run down the stream and do it all again. The grazing sheep seemed totally unperturbed by the gale force wind and the procession of tourists dressed in all sorts of weird and colourful clothes passing their way.
For want of something better to do on another wet and windy afternoon we visited another whiskey distillery, this time it was the Talisker distillery at Colbost not Talisker, that village is 4 mile down the road. This distillery was started by two brothers in 1830 at a cost of around £3,000. Ten to twenty years later it was only worth £1,000 but by the end of the century when the remaining brother sold it £25,000 was the settlement price.
Here they produce around 2,000,000 litres of whiskey per year. But by the time it’s sat in the barrels for 10 years, (that’s the minimum here, just as it is in Oban), and lost 2% per year through evaporation, well, I’ll let you work out how much is left. Several kids on this tour so there must be some other schools on mid term holidays now. In fact it was quite surprising just how many people there were waiting to do a tour here. The brochure had said that at this time of year the tours were by appointment only and that nothing went after 3.30pm, however, we were the last to get on the 3.15 tour, and after we finished it looked as if the 4.15pm tour had even more people on it. Think that it must have had something to do with the weather.
This is a much larger distillery with five stills altogether, and they are a little different in shape to the Oban ones. The stream that passes right by the door is the source of the water for the whiskey; it comes from a natural spring a little further up the hill. Malting barley from the mainland is used as hardly any is grown on Skye now. There are no more people employed in the distillery here than there was at Oban, only 8, but there are many more employed in the administration area and as tour guides.
Went down Glen Brittle with the intention of doing a bit of walking, weather permitting, and we were lucky enough that, although overcast it wasn’t raining. The camp site had closed for the season so with no alternative a few motorhomes and some campers had set up on the foreshore area where there was some nice short grass and no charge.
The one walk that was supposed not to be too boggy was out along the southern shore of the lock to a point. So we set off along the track. It was ok, bit boggy in places but easily avoided. Had a few small burns (creeks) to cross, the biggest one had a little bridge, when we found it. After then we followed a 4wd track that we came too so that was easy going for around 3k’s, but then that veered off the wrong way and we were left with a multitude of sheep tracks. After about another 700m we came to one very wet peat bog and couldn’t find a path that wasn’t sodden so we gave up only a few hundred metres from the end of the point.
When we got back nearly back we took a short cut down to the beach and came to a deep ravine and little waterfall, then a scramble down some rocks onto the sand. The last lot of rocks that get covered by water at high tide were also covered with small muscles, billions of them clinging onto whatever bit of rock they could. There are also a few periwinkles and some cockles. One part of the beach was white sand streaked with black, but on the northern end it was just black sand, especially above the high tide mark. The high mountains beside us and what we’d hoped to get a decent view of are the black Cullins. High, nearly 1000m and rugged, they are favourites with rock climbers. They were living up to their reputation of being shrouded in mist and cloud despite the fact that day had begun fairly clear and the sun had been shining.
As we passed Lock Sligachan we could see the old stone wall on the sea floor, the tide being quite low at the time. This stone wall was built long ago as a fish trap by local villages. It worked well catching herring and salmon. The local landlord though took exception to it and partly destroyed it as he wanted to save the fishing for his rich paying clients. Judging by the number of sea birds swooping around it, it still works to some extent trapping fish.
Another side road we took led us down the other side of the Cullins mountains, the Red Cullins this time. These two ranges of mountains were formed at two different times. The red ones are more volcanic, but I can’t remember which are the older. The red Cullins are mainly granite with a red shading, not that I can see the difference, they both look dark to me.
I did a walk up into these mountains: David had hurt his foot somehow a wasn’t up to it so I set off on my own. It was a good path but getting a bit late in the day. I walked about 3k’s climbing past 2 small waterfalls and up a steep slope until I came out onto the shoulder of the mountain with a terrific view back the way I’d come and straight into the full force of the wind that was being funnelled between the mountains. This was a sheep field but I honestly don’t know how they weren’t blown away, I could not possibly walk against the wind so I turned around, took a photo, the sun was shining and it looked really lovely with blue sky, the loch and the village on the other side, then stated back down. I had a great deal of trouble with the gusting wind nearly blowing me over. Took me ages to get down that zigzag path to the stream, after that I was out of the worst of the wind and it was an easy walk back to the car:
Since then its rained heavy almost continuously; it had been an almost full moon the evening after the climb with bright moonlight most of the night then around 6am it started raining and just got heavier. Although we have a ticket for the ferry from Armadale to Malaig we drove over the two bridges that now connect Skye to the mainland at Kyle of Lochalsh, our plan, if you could call it such, being that we look around this north west part of the country then head over to Skye again and take that ferry and have a look around there.
We stopped and had a look at the outside of Eilean Donan Castle on Lochalsh. It is said to be the most photographed castle in Scotland, though it really isn’t much to look at. It gets lots of tourists now because of the tour busses heading for Skye passing this way. The original castle dates from the 13th century, like a lot of others around here, but it was blown up by King George’s troops at the time Spanish forces had been there supporting the 1719 Jacobite uprising. It was not rebuilt until 1912 to 1932, so one can hardly call it old; it doesn’t even look all that impressive either. It sits on a small island that it completely covers and is connected to the mainland by a arched bridge, that’s the nicest thing about it. From what I’ve read there’s not much to see inside either so we didn’t bother battling the coach loads and going in.
We did drive over some pretty hills with a brilliant view of Loch Duich at a time with the cloud lifted and some blue sky and sunshine made a brief appearance and gave false hope that the weather may clear somewhat. Ha Ha!! Came to Glenelg and looked for some old barracks that should be there but didn’t find them but up a small valley from there we did find some old Iron Age Brochs. One is in quite good condition considering its 2000 years old. With about ½ of it still standing we could get a really good idea of how it looked. It is almost identical in shape to the one I described that we say on Lewis. This one was about 6.2m (20ft) high with the outside wall sloping inward but the inside wall vertical so that the chamber between the walls gradually narrowed with almost no gap at the top. The stairs in the chamber probably didn’t go right to the top. This one too is thought to have had a second storey. The stone work is a bit different because the stone here is more flat and slate like, on the islands it was a more rounded stone.
The bit that really amuses me is that much of the structure has been reinforced with steel so that it won’t collapse onto the unsuspecting public whilst they are scramble over it, but the thing has stood there for 2000 years, how long will the steel last???? The stone slabs don’t go rusty:
Saw two more of these brochs further up the same valley and there was also supposed to be a chambered burial cairn that I couldn’t find.
In the Applecross peninsula we took a narrow, twisting, steep road that climbed up past a couple of waterfalls in a series of switchback hairpin bends and reached a height of 632m above sea level according to our SatNav, the highest road in Scotland, so I read somewhere. From the top we should have had a great view out over Skye to the Cullin Mountains but all we saw was rain. Someway further along the coast we stopped and when I opened the car door the wind ripped it out of my grasp and damn near off its hinges.
On yet another wet afternoon we called into the visitors centre of the Beinn Eighe Nature Reserve and had a look at their display. Its the oldest nature reserve in Britian having been set up in 1951. At that time there was just a little of the pine forest left most having been logged during WW11 for use as ammunition boxes. Some re-aforestation has been done here and there is a diverse range of insects, animals, birds etc that live here. With the help of a hidden camera, a feed box, binoculars, a bird book and a monitor we could watch some birds at the feeder. Chaffinch, Green Finch and Great Tits were having a great time eating peanuts. Hardly their natural food I would have thought. There are some lovely walks in this area but not in this weather, it’s just too wet.
We had also read about a tree planting scheme on the Applecross peninsula where 1500 hectares had been planted with 1.5million trees over the last few years. It has been fenced to keep out the deer and sheep because both types of animals will kill the young trees. The species chosen are all native to the area and the seeds have come from trees that are growing there.
Much of the original forest has disappeared with the formation of the peat beds; the peat holds too much water and most trees can’t grow in it. Trees from the rest of the land have been harvested over the centuries for their timber for many different uses, from boat building and houses to making charcoal for industry.
At Strathcarron we got talking to the fellow who runs the shop and post office there, I asked him about Otters. He has lived here for 14 years and only twice seen otters, so I don’t fancy my chances.
©Lynette Regan 27th October 2007

2007-10-24T10:35:00.000-07:00