suzmaruk travels

Saturday, 19 November 2011

travel map

Wednesday, 2 November 2011

Heading fo Spain

We are in Conil in the south of Spain. It is between Gibraltar and the Portugal border and near the port of Cadiz. We were here three years ago and enjoyed it so much we decided to come again for a month before heading for the Algarve for the rest of the winter. At the site we are staying, La Rosaleda, it has good Wi-Fi covering the whole campsite and it is the first freely available internet that I have been able to use since leaving the UK. So this is the opportunity to relax and update my blog for this year’s attempt to follow the sun.


Jacob's Ladder to Kinder Scout

We left Scotland early in September and slowly made our way south. We had several stops to do some walking. Our first stop was at Edale in the Peak district of Derbyshire; this is where the Pennine way begins and we had wanted to come back here from the time when we did that long distance path. We spent a weekend exploring the ridges overlooking Edale and Castleton and climbed Kinder Scout. Next we made our way to north Wales and did two walks that had been tackled by Julia Bradbury in her series of hikes for her BBC TV programmes. One was in her Canal walks and took the towpath from Llangollen to the Pontcysllte Aqueduct. The Pontcysllte Aqueduct, ‘the stream through the skies’, an engineering masterpiece was built by Thomas Telford. This wasn’t a big transport canal but a feeder canal taking water from the River Dee at the Horseshoe Falls to supply the Ellesmere Canal. There were some holiday narrow boats on this stretch but they had difficulties at times when coming in opposite directions on this narrow waterway. These barges were all powered by diesel engines but at Llangollen there were some tourist boats that were towed along the bank by large shire horses. The other Welsh walk was in Julia’s series on walks along old railway lines that had been closed by Beeching in the 1960’s. This one took us from Dolgellau to Barmouth on the coast. It was an easy stroll along the tarred over railway track and followed the river Afon Mawddach with its multitude of bird life. At the mouth of the river we crossed over a long railway bridge to Barmouth on the other side.

The Pontcysllte Aqueduct

The stream in the sky

Horse power on the Llangolen canal

Foot bridge over the River Afon Mawddach

Afon Mawddach estuary

Railway bridge at Barmouth

Caen Hill locks

From north Wales we headed for Cardiff and spent a weekend with Margaret and Justin. I ran the time trial in the park that Margaret does every week. It was 5 km and I managed it in 26 minutes. Not bad as I haven’t been doing much running training recently. When we left Cardiff it was for another of the Canal walks, this was on the Avon Kennet canal and the highlight was at the start, Caen Hill near Devizes, where there is a series of locks one after the other to the top of the hill. The line of 16 locks that raised the canal 235 feet were described by Julia Bradbury as ‘one of the Seven Wonders of British Waterways’. Once a narrow boat starts on the locks it has to keep going, there is no stopping point in between. We stopped on the steady climb up the hill to watch people operating the lock gate system. They are all manual and it is hard work opening and closing the gates by pushing on the long arms to manoeuvre them into position. The walk from Caen Hill along the towpath ends at the Regency city of Bath on the river Avon. We spent a day in the city and toured the many beautiful sights and buildings that are highlighted in many of the Jane Austin novels.

Heading for Caen Hill locks

A heron on the Avon Kennet canal

Bath Abbey

Royal Crescent, Bath

Another view of the Royal Crescent

Moira had booked the ferry while we were in Cardiff and we left the campsite we were staying at on the canal and made it to Dover for the crossing that same evening. When we got over to Calais we spent the night in the aire overlooking the harbour, it was very busy and we had to squeeze in to one of the few remaining spots. As we travelled south through France we were rewarded by remarkably sunny and warm weather and surprisingly they were enjoying a similar Indian summer in the UK. We were able to keep in touch with the happenings back home through our satellite reception of the BBC and other UK channels right down to the south of France. The small satellite dish was sufficient and I didn’t have to set up our big 1.5m monstrosity until we got to Conil. While travelling the big dish was strapped to the towel rail in the toilet and it was out of the way there.

Beautiful lake beside the aire

The old town of Saint Jean d’Angely


The aire at Saint Jean d’Angely

Through France we camped at a few places where we had stayed at before, Le Crotoy on the river Somme, St.Valery en Caux situated below towering white cliffs, Le Sap a little village with the aire beside a delightful little duck pond and then to Soustons Plage. This last place was one of our favourites near Biarritz and the Spanish border. It is next to a large lake with a path around the perimeter. We walked the path, cycled it and I ran the route on numerous occasions. Moira got the chance to try out her new electrically power bicycle and is enjoying it enormously. We stayed at Soustons Plage for 15 days and I managed to get out every day for a run, my longest was 15 km. It was a fairly cheap fortnight here with the aire costing only E6 per night and that included electricity.

When we left France we decide to head to the south of Spain as directly and as quickly as possible. We didn’t want to travel down the Costas and for a change went down the centre using toll roads and motorways all the way. The route took us to overnight stops at Palencia and Caceres both on the Ruta de la Plata. This is the route that crosses the plateau that covers the middle of the country. There is a walking route that follows close to this road, the Via de la Plata and is another of the numerous variations of the Camino de Santiago and joins the ‘French’ route, the one we walked a few years ago, at Leon to make its way to Santiago de Compostella. We are going to do some research into this pilgrimage route and may do it in the spring before we return to Scotland.

I was expecting the site at Conil to be busy with lots of people already here for the winter but it was quiet with lots of spots available for us to choose from. We took our time and got a place that was in the sun for most of the day and it had a clear view for TV reception. Also as I mentioned earlier we had an excellent Wi-Fi signal. Now we have an iPad we can pick up the internet on it as well as our laptop. Moira also has the newspaper downloaded each day and we don’t have to go searching for a shop selling UK papers. A few days before we arrived there had been a lot of rain here and the pitches were muddy, but now the sun is blazing down and it hasn’t taken long for the clay soil to be baked hard again.

We are planning to stay here for about 6 weeks then move on to Portugal and the Algarve. We have booked into the site at Albufiera from the middle of December and will be there until March. We are looking forward to lots of warm sunny days while it gets cold and snows in Scotland.

Sunday, 25 September 2011

The Tall Ships Race, Greenock, 2011

Greenock was the assemble point for the Tall Ships this year and from there would head for Lerwick in the Shetland Islands for the start of the race to Norway. The Tall Ships last visited Greenock 10 years ago and we arrived from South Africa two weeks after the event. Everyone was raving about how wonderful it had been and what we had missed. This time we were determined to see the whole thing and made certain that we were back from our cruise to Norway on time.

All the ships were to be assembled at James Watt dock in Greenock by Sat 7 July and there would be lots of attractions other than the ships like displays, funfair and musical entertainment while the vessels were tied up. Before that we drove down the Clyde coast the day before and watched some of them sailing up the river. It was a bit disappointing as they made their way using diesel power and none of them were under sail.

On the Saturday, all the ships had arrived and were tied up at the docks. We walked down from the house to the quay and although it was mid-morning, already it was busy with long queues to get aboard some of the ships that were open for visitors. We didn’t bother waiting but just wandered about enjoying the sights of these magnificent vessels. Some of the big ones had the crew up aloft tying up the sails. We had our normal lunch with us in a day pack; sandwiches and a flask of coffee. We weren’t going to part with our money to the expensive stalls that had set up selling fast foods.

(What confused me about the whole event was how it helped the economy of the town. I had read in the local newspaper that a councillor for the district stated that the attraction would bring in huge numbers of people and they would spend a few million pounds. This may be the case but the people gaining from this bonanza weren’t the local businesses. All the stall holders were from out of town and are what the Americans term as ‘carpetbaggers’. Later I walked through the town and it was deserted, none of the local shops were gaining probably the opposite with most of the regular customers viewing the ships. We spoke to my brother David about it later and he told us that the last time the ships were tied up at Customhouse Quay and the Waterfront which are close to the town centre and this did help the local businesses. This time that area is closed for the construction of the new Arts Guild Theatre and could not be held there.)

We didn’t bother visiting the event on the Sunday but went for a walk there on Monday. It was much quieter than at the weekend, but they had more security at the gates examining bags for alcohol and aerosols which I assume could be used as an explosive. On a board listing prohibited articles, vivuzelas and flags were banned for some reason. There weren’t any queues to board the ‘open’ ships, so we went on board one of them, the Mir a Russian ship, and it was very interesting especially the glimpse we got of the bridge. This wasn’t basic as in days of Nelson, but highly computerised with radar and GPS systems as well as a sophisticated communication network.

In the evening we went to an open air concert on the quay. It was very crowded but we made our way down to near the front. The group performing was Deacon Blue, a Scottish group from the 80’s. They were supposed to start at 9:00 but it was 15 minutes late when they appeared. But not right away, they had to have a couple of idiots, who were trying to be funny (but failed miserably), to introduce them. As it turned out the group were rubbish as well, just a noise with a thumping bass that seemed to vibrate the insides of my stomach. We listened for about half an hour before deciding that was enough and heading home. After the concert there was to be a firework display which we hoped to see from home but because of the bend in the river it was completely out of sight.

On Tuesday we were out early to see the ships depart and sail down the river, on their way to the Shetlands for the start of the race. At the James Watt dock they were preparing to go and the crews were aloft unfurling their sails. We made our way down the Waterfront to the esplanade and on the way there was a display by the Red Arrows aerobatic team to give the ships a magnificent send off. Unfortunately about a month later one of the pilots taking part was killed when his plane crashed at another of their displays.

We made our way further down the river to the esplanade and the Battery Park to get a ringside view as the fleet made their down river. Others that had a close up were those on the Waverley paddle steamer that accompanied the ships on their departure. One surprise was a cruise ship that left its berth at Princes Pier just as the first of the sailing vessels appeared. It was well down the river ahead of the fleet and the tourists on board must have been very disappointed to have missed the pageant.

There were huge crowds all the way down the coast who were rewarded with a wonderful sight, with most of the vessels in full sail. It had been a great weekend and as last time the weather was exceptional, unusual for Greenock which is famous for its rain.