Twixt Here'nThere

A spasmodic, serendipitous, journal to show what's happening or not in England, Spain, Portugal and wherever else perchance to roam. Travel, languages, sailing, religion, sex and politics, living abroad, the Pacific Ocean including Easter Island. News from: 'Navasola', in the hills of Aracena at Fuenteheridos; Cabanas de Tavira in Portugal; the cool cool banks of the muddy Humber; and from Pedro (Coelho), Max (Happydays), Tigger, Georgina (my Georgi girl) and Theo and friends in the Great Wen.

Friday, June 22, 2007

Absenteeism
Have I been 'away' so long? With the fairies perhaps? As I've commented here before, keeping a blog on a daily basis is something of a tedious chore unless you live constantly by a net connected computer - which I don't.
And, there's sometimes so little to say at such frequent intervals. Then again, leaving it for 3 months, as I seem to have done, leaves too much to fill in and it's a chore once more.

Where have I been? A month in Spain for the whole of April when Georgi and I with Teresa Farino ran a week's "Natural History of the Sierra de Aracena" tour/trip/course?/holiday. Fully booked with 7 clients, five of these happy at the end of it but 2 not so happy as, despite the clarity that this was not a one-specialism tour, they weren't really happy unless they were bird-watching. Still, it was quite an experience for us, we've learnt a lot through Teresa and "lessons have been learned" as they say.

If we did it again, I rather fancy we'd go for the much less exhausting level of input of the kind found here for example.

May must mostly have been in London or Humberside, returning to Spain and Portugal on 2nd June with a flight to Faro to be collected by Josie and David. A day in Cabanas and then off to Fuenteheridos. Twelve days there passed quickly including a further 4 day trip back to Cabanas and the drive back on the 'scenic' route via San Telmo.

Then, instead of flying back from Seville on 14th, I waited until the 16th to drive back with Colin in his 'retro' Chrysler which he needed to return to the UK from Cabanas. From 14th until 17th it rained virtually non-stop in Western Andalucia and Extremadura but this stopped once we were north of Salamanca. (We stopped in or just before Salamanca, in Angouleme and finally Calais after being caught for an hour or so in the heavy traffic, much of it from the UK, making its way home from the Le Mans 24 hour race.)

It must be time for tea and I'll add a few more links or pictures to this 'travelogue' a little later.