Walking
Archived posts from this Category
Friday, 8th January 2010
Posted by Judith on 08 Jan 2010 | Tagged as: Walking
What a contrast with last Friday, when I was paddling in the sea and Geoff was cursing because he didn’t bring sun cream.
The snow continued in the night and on checking the Catalan government travel advisory, we found that nearly all the way to Masella they advised using snow chains. The forecast also deteriorated, giving more snow and very strong winds. Sometimes you have to take the hint, so we stayed local. In the afternoon we went for a walk to the volcano of Croscat, which has been quarried for pumice and there’s a big cake slice of it cut out. You can see the oranges, purples, ocre and black of the lava in the centre of the volcano, but we’ve never seen them in the snow. We were the first people to walk there today, so the snow was pristine, with just occasional animal tracks. Half-way along the walk we remembered that we used to be keen cross-country skiers and it would have been perfect for it. What a pair of idiots! It was too late to go back and get our skis, but if there is more snow in the night we will give it a go tomorrow.
We drove back via Batet de la Sera, and if I ever win the lottery…
Friday, 1st January 2010
Posted by Judith on 01 Jan 2010 | Tagged as: Walking
Normally we always try to fly on the first and last day of the year. Last year we managed the first, but not the last and this year we haven’t managed the first either. It was clear from the forecast that it would be too windy and Meteocat live data was showing gusts of 47mph.
Given the fantastic visibility we are having at the moment, we decided to go to Xenacs. This is a recreation area/natural park not far from Olot and it has the viewpoint of the volcanic area, so you get amazing 360 degree views of the mountains, volcanos, etc. The walk up is a nice gentle stroll though woods. It’s a lovely place, but it’s closed during the week with a big barrier and there is nowhere to park outside, so you have to either walk 5km up the hill or come back at a weekend or public holiday. Since today is such a holiday, we packed a picnic and the camera and headed up there. It was closed. Arrggghhh!
Nothing for it, we turned around and drove up to the castle above Montagut that we can see from our house. Visibility was indeed stunning again and we could see the sea, Sant Pere de Rodes, the Montgri massif, etc. We’ve never seen it so clear before. While we were trying to eat our sandwiches we were harassed by a kitten which would not take no for an answer and Geoff eventually took pity on it and let it use him as a climbing frame.
Thursday, 31st December 2009
Posted by Judith on 01 Jan 2010 | Tagged as: Walking
I’ve been struggling with a cold since Christmas and although we’ve been meaning to go to the beach and make the most of the warm weather, I just haven’t felt up to it. Today though, I pulled myself together, drugged myself up with Lemsips and we went walking at the coast.
I haven’t been to the Cap Norfeu since Christmas Eve 2005 and Geoff even longer ago, so we decided to go there. The further east you went today, the better the weather and I predicted that the gap between two fronts would give us sunny weather. It was windy, but once you were out of it, it was hot.
We walked all round the cape, soaking in the views of the sea and snow covered Pyrenees. Visibility was incredible. There was no haze at all, so you could see every village between where we were and the mountains. After the walk, we went to the little beach east of Roses and basked in the sun. It was so warm I went for a paddle in the sea and regretted not bringing my bikini. A French group had a family swim and volleyball match – which is unusual. It’s usually only the mad Brits and Germans who will swim after November.
Tonight dinner with my parents and happy new year to everyone.
Thursday, 10th December 2009
Posted by Judith on 10 Dec 2009 | Tagged as: Walking
This morning we had the satellite repair men coming round to fix the dish, which (happily for me) has been broken for the last 18 months. They came yesterday, but it’s been cherry picker war in our street, with a crew already installed at the entrance, painting a house and blocking everyone else from driving down. Our guys managed to negotiate a truce today and they let them through. Turns out one of the guys used to own our house and renovated it years ago. He was amazed to see the changes and we gave him the grand tour. So we’ve now met three of the previous owners and someone who was born in our house. Small world…
Once they had gone, it was lunchtime and we debated the plan for the day. The choices were: 1) go flying; 2) stay in and work; 3) do something else. We looked at each other and simultaneously said “do something else!”. You don’t have to fly every possible day. So we went to Camprodon, which is a town whose outskirts we’ve driven through scores of times, but never actually stopped in. To be fair, we haven’t been for some years, as we used to drive through on our way skiing in Valter 2000, but we’ve not been there in years either.
Camprodon is really nice. Famous for its bridge and river flowing through it, we thought it had a really nice genteel feel to it. We discovered a civil war museum, which unfortunately was closed, but we’ll definitely go back when it’s open.
We drove back through the Val d’en Bac, and walked up to a torre which turned out to be a name of a house, rather than an actual tower. We did find a 12th century church and a herd of Norwegian fjord horses, and the biggest bull I’ve seen outside Andalusia.
The latest podcast on Winter Flying is now on the podcast page.
Sunday, 15th November 2009
Posted by Judith on 17 Nov 2009 | Tagged as: Walking, Work
Another hot, sunny and windy day. The postponed paramotor festival did happen and they did manage to fly, albeit early in the morning. We worked and then tried to decide what to do for the day. It was far too nice a day to waste, and on the way back from the lake at Banyoles yesterday, we tried to work out how long it had been since we were in the town itself. We think it may be five or six years. Since all the towns seem to have been sprucing themselves up a bit, we decided to go have a look.
There was an agricultural and trade fair on and we spent time browsing the stalls, getting free cheese, sausage and wine samples and looking at the animals. On walking into the old town we were thrilled to see what improvements they have made. There are now little canals and waterways built into the landscaping of the streets and parks; the buildings have been cleaned and it looks really nice.
Saturday, 14th November 2009
Posted by Geoff on 14 Nov 2009 | Tagged as: Walking
Geoff writes: we woke up to a sky worse than forecast – what’s new!
Loads of wave bars, and a front due to arrive sometime today. We decided to do yet more work, since the conference opens for reading on Tuesday, and we have lots to do, not least in trying to deal with the incredibly annoying inconsistencies between browsers when rendering what should be a very simple CSS/JavaScript drop down menu for use on the conference site.
But then the sky started to clear a little, so we decided to go for a walk in Banyoles, rather than try again to fly – we thought it would be too windy. In the end we had a really nice walk all around the lake, during which time both the wind and the temperatures increased. We ended up walking in quite a strong wind – too strong to fly – but in t-shirts, it was so warm, not bad for mid-November. The Banyoles council (presumably) has done a lot of work improving the area around the lake, with nice viewpoints, drinking fountains, etc. And all extremely clean, with very little litter.
So actually, a pretty nice day out, followed up by some more work when we got back home.
Sunday, 20th September 2009
Posted by Judith on 21 Sep 2009 | Tagged as: Holiday, Trying, but failing, to fly, Walking
I have never flown in Scotland before, but have always had an huge ambition to fly on Arran. Having spent most of my childhood summers looking at Goatfell, but never having climbed it, it seemed only fitting that I should try to fly it instead. We woke up to strong winds, but Zabdi Keen assured us that on the west side of the island it would be lighter. She was right, the wind was significantly lighter round the corner. It was off at Brown Head though, so we carried on to Blackwaterfoot where the wind was on, but we couldn’t find the site. She was very helpful and suggested a couple of sites and we did manage to find the launch at Caracol, but it was gusty and there was no one else there, so we decided to do the sensible thing and not chance flying in a place we know nothing about, when the wind was forecast to pick up.
Instead we headed back to Lochranza and looked around the castle and fed the tame deer with apples from our garden. Then off for a 9 mile walk from Lochranza to Laggan Cottage and then on the Arran coastal path back to Lochranza. Mountains, sea and a great view of Skipness and my uncle’s house on the mainland.
In the evening we went to a folk night in Brodick. All the musicians sat at a table in a circle with the rest of us around and one of them would start a tune and everyone else would just join in. Between the 20-odd musicians and singers who turned up they must have been playing about 35 instruments, including harps, bagpipes, fiddles, harmonium, bodhran, flutes, guitars and harmonica. It was a fantastic evening.