The Canary Islands - Grand Canaria

We booked a personal tour for Grand Canaria with a focus on the inland mountains and away from the madding crowds. We were met by Ines and Juanjo who were a fun couple of which more in a moment. Our first stop was San Mateo with its picturesque square and church. The dead tree trunk in the foreground has been given a new life.

Inside the church was simple and neat with the exception of the roof which is a carpenter’s work of art.

The church overlooks the original main street with housing which (for the 17C) would have been very posh and in stark comparison to the other side of the church square.

Poor people could only afford dry stone walls. As time passed they would have been gradually able to access lime and slowly infill the stones to keep out the drafts. They were unlikely to be able to afford a completely lime (or later cement) rendered wall. Of course now the buildings are heritage listed and they are not allowed to render them in any case!

After some coffee in a noisy local establishment we continued to climb and towards the top had a stop with a commanding view. Most of the mountains are quite rugged. The island has coastal people and inland people with some of the latter eking out a living as farmers and rarely travelling to the coast. Some lived in caves and if you look closely towards the bottom of the main hill you can see a few of these.

The view attracts a few visitors and there were a few stalls with wonderful local produce. Most of the interior is too steep and dry for cows so the cheese is made predominantly from goat’s milk with some combined with sheep’s milk. It was hard to resist the tastings. Turning your back didn’t work!

The tastings did whet our appetite for lunch. We were taken to a pine forest where our guides put on some splendid local tapas like fare. (Not to mention Rjoca.)

After lunch our extrovert guides had us praying to the sun gods resulting in music emanating remotely from within the back pack. Lo and behold a bottle of locally produced dessert rum trying to get out….

The stop really produced a feeling of dejavu as it was so similar to camp sites in Canada. The smell of pine and birdsong added to very relaxed surroundings.

Suitably refreshed we continued ever upwards with our next stop the highest point on the island. In their younger days our guides used to host sky diving activities. Clearly some still have a yearning to fly.

The height here is some 2000 metres above sea level. Which is almost three times higher than Canberra. That said it pales into insignificance compared to Tenerife which can be seen in the background above the clouds. The high point there is some 4000 metres.

Looking West the land has given way to some development although the terrrain has ensured it is sparse. The visible point on the left of this shot is, at 1965 metres, the highest on the island. What was amazing were the number of cyclists who had made their way up. Comments like ‘you are never too old’ were not particularly convincing from my perspective….

And with that there was only one way to travel. On the way down we stopped at the Caldera de los Marteles. Interestingly, the bottom of this Caldera is fertile and a perfect grassland area. We were particularly lucky with our Spring timing as colourful blooms were everywhere.

Our route down included a long, narrow and largely one lane road. Fortunately stopping for a picture was not a problem as other traffic was almost non-existent. Here is a cave house. The sun shade over the entrance was a little extravagant…. 

And then the catholic church arrived. Initially in 1560 a small hermitage was built but over the years this was discarded and rebuilt to its current format. Although inaugurated in 1908 it was not completed until the 1940s! Certainly, somewhat of a ‘show off’ compared to the quality of house most lived in.

And with that we returned to QM2. A fantastic day which really opened our eyes to what the Canarie islands have to offer. The antics of our guides with a range of music, iPad shows in the car and their  third team member (the car plus a lot of imagination) really differentiated this tour from any other we have been on. A thoroughly enjoyable day. 

Namibia – Walvis Bay, Dune 7 and Swakopmund

We took potluck and hired an SUV at the port gate for our visit to Namibia. This is a large country with the land area being some four times that of GB but a population of only 2.5M. I suspect this population may be exceeded by the numerous flamingos that were ever visible from QM2. When we got up close the numbers defied imagination. There were hundreds of thousands. Everywhere along the waterfront was alive with a pink morass.

They contrasted well with the blue sky and unusually speckled cloud formation.

As we travelled down the coast a core industry for the country came into view – the production of salt. This 60 year old industry every year pumps 100 million cubic metres of sea water into 5,000 Hectares of evaporation ponds to produce over a million Tonnes of crude salt.

The salt goes through a series of evaporation and washing cycles to increase concentration and remove impurities. It is then stockpiled and trucked or bagged and sent to the port.

What was interesting was that many of the ponds were pink. This is due to Halophiles which are extreme salt-loving microorganisms that have a unique pigment resulting in the pinkish colour. These in turn colour the small shrimp that Flamingoes eat.

Fortunately rain is limited to about 2 days a year so stockpiles such as these are unlikely to be dissolved.

We then headed inland for a few kilometres. It quickly became apparent that sand plays a major role to the coast’s geography. As we headed away from the coast sand dunes increased in number culminating in our next stop – Dune 7. This is apparently the largest in Namibia although the reason for its name is less certain. It is certainly much larger that any on Australia’s Fraser island. Our enquiry as to its height met with a bemused comment that it is changing all the time - an approximation would have done me!

It is vast and hard to get a comparative scale although hopefully these posts help.

Our final stop was Swakopmund. This German heritage town has some wonderful architecture. The earliest date I spotted was 1902.

The nearby museum park was a pleasantly cool spot to wonder through.

After some lunch and a wonder through town it was time to head back to the ship via the coast road. The range of dunes continued but take note of this unique shot as it will all change with the next bout of wind! 

We are now off for our longest continuous period of sea days – 7 – should be relaxing….!

Kirstenbosch – Cape Town

We had a two day stop in Cape Town and opted to have a day doing our own thing and one doing a trip to Kirstenbosch botanical gardens and wine ‘farm’. (I find South Africa’s term a little less than romantic.)

The gardens comprise one fabulous view after another. They are large so we decided to focus on height and get to the tree canopy walk. The path up was enchanting.

And the tree canopy walkway opened up the views with castle rock in the background. The birdsong was a really varied although it did need to compete with loudhailers from the annual marathon that ran adjacent to the gardens and caused quite a bit of a challenge in getting our coach in and out.

The blues and greens of a perfect day with manicured lawns and rugged mountains - how would you define idyllic?

The bird life was plentiful although quite hard to spot. This honeyeater really blended well with its surroundings.

There was a Jurassic area where a variety of skeletons had been found. There was also one Cycad. This rare tree was found and cloned by John Medley Wood during the turn of the (18^th) century. The bark used to be harvested for medicinal purposes. There are now some 500 trees in various parts of the world but all have been cultivated from this tree. It is male and not viable as there are no known female Cycads. This one has a cage, sensors and cameras to thwart miscreants.

All of which was too much information and walking for some of our team – where once more coffee became the focus.

Suitably refreshed our next stop continued the spectacular views. Kirstenbosch wine farm also benefitted from green lawns, blue sky, rugged mountains with the addition of Autumnal rustic vines.

The farm buildings were beautiful Dutch inspired architecture with white walls, thatched roofs and a duck pond to add to the calm scene. That was until there was a lively fracas between two ducks nipping and chasing one another which caused great amusement to onlookers including shrieks from some excited children.

Inside, the visit returned to calm where wine barrels in a beautifully lit cellar were the penultimate stop to some tasting.

Our arrival in Cape Town overlapped with Queen Victoria. The plan was to move onto her berth when she departed  however, the wind running down the harbour really picked up and her departure was delayed some 12 hours.

The upside was that it was not at night but sunrise when she departed making for interesting manouvres.

There is no mistaking where we are when you see this shot taken from the waterfront.

The V&A waterfront has expanded since our last visit and is even more lively than before. However, seals showing off seems to have been handed down over the years.

We walked the 1km or so from the ship to V&A on a few occasions. There were several groups who took the opportunity to perform their uniquely South African songs and dances. 

To get the full effect here is a video.

One item that is new is the pedestrian swing bridge which we were fortunate to see opening on a couple of occasions.

A wonderful visit and really interesting notwithstanding our earlier trips to this colourful part of the world.

Durban - Tala game reserve

Our first port of call in South Africa was Durban – so time for a game park. We had a couple of buses that were then divided into three safari vehicles. If you look closely you can see Dianne, Kate, Pamela and Mike (a friend of Laraine who we caught up with in Paris last year). The park is quite large but the chicken farm in the backgound was certainly not part of the reserve!

Of course there were plenty of South Africa’s game park McDonalds – the impala - plentiful food for the large cats!

There are quite a range of ‘antelope’ these are the Blesbok.

And we were very lucky to see the well-hidden Nyala. Their stripes are a giveaway but meld well with the bush.

Bird life is also plentiful, but they were not the core focus for today's shots. This viewing platform on the banks of a dam enabled all sorts of wildlife to be viewed. If you look carefully in the middle of the reeds is a pied Kingfisher. There are also a number of hanging Weaver bird nests.

I cannot recall this birds true name but ‘Jesus bird’ did stick – so named for its ability to walk on water…..

What I did not appreciate was that Wildebeests are also part of the antelope family. This Impala froze when he saw us but did not seem to appreciate what a silhouette he cut. The Wildebeest also seem fully aware of their family member.

The Wildebeest did seem to be constantly on the move but at least being in a small game reserve were not prone to migration given food was plentiful.

We all love Zebras but there were some facts I did not know. First, they never look slim – they have four stomachs one of which is geared to fermentation, so they are always bloated. Apparently chasing them can be a noisy and smelly affair!

The alpha male is also very aggressive and will kill younger (less than one year old) males. They also mate with pregnant females so violently and repeatedly that they abort so their gene pool then dominates. Not quite so attractive now are they?...

However, giraffes are a different matter. They are so elegant and relaxed. No chance of a heart attack here! Apparently, the Acacia bushes, after being eaten for a few minutes, produce a bitter sap and the giraffe then moves onto a new bush. Isn’t nature wonderful? Although I do wonder how anyone found that out. I also didn’t know giraffes have no vocal cords so sounds are pretty limited to the likes of snorts.

Maybe its their peacefulness that makes them so mesmerising.

Finally, of course were the rhinos. These white ones are relatively tame compared to black ones. That said one white female with a new born had the previous evening charged one of the vehicles. Mum and Dad in this picture seemed relatively content allowing junior to be photographed up close.

They have just had their horns sawn back (using a chainsaw while sedated) to mitigate the likelihood of poachers getting the wrong idea.

So did we enjoy that? (Pamela, Mike and Linda.)