The weigh-in! August 3rd

The final weight of all the kit minus water. Hmmmm.. Too heavy by far!

This was the day I had been dreading - the weigh in.

The kit laid out

So the first photo shows all the kit I was planning to take (minus the waterproofs)

And now the kit packed into smaller bags...

Smaller bags to sub-divide the kit up

The Osprey - will it give me wings!!

And this is what it looks like all packed up to go...

A bit more about the Via de la Plata

In April 2012 I walked from Seville to Merida with my husband Andrew.
The weather was extremely cold to start with (I wore buff and gloves until lunchtime the first 3 days), and then absolutely scorchio (35 Deg C) at the end.

We saw lots of beautiful almond trees and cork oaks, harvested for their corky bark.

Beautiful red young cork oak bark



There were also many animals including pigs



Black pigs to make chorizo from



It was very rustic and we met very few other people.



We kept bumping into a lovely German/French couple who had met a few years previously while walking the Camino Frances. Both of them were walking after the loss of their partners, and had met each other while on their own Camino. Karl-Heinz (the German) was a youthful 73 and still lived in his house in Germany. Maris-Claire was 67 (?) going in 21 and still lived 400 miles away from Karl in her own house in France. They were both learning each others' language and were the most lovely sweet couple. We spent a few nights sharing a room in albergues with them and got to know them quite well.

Whatever time we got up and left the alberge, we would be sure to bump into "The Germans" before too long.

There was also Stuart from Northern Ireland and Steve from Texas.

Still getting to grips with the blogging process after a long period of inactivity and a new phone unlike any other I have owned...

Anyway, my husband took this photo of me on July 28th near Ashley Walk car park in the New Forest.
We had intended a 15 mile walk but I have been overdoing it a bit so we just did 8 miles in the end! But it was a lovely day and we saw ponies, foals, cattle, calves, deer, butterflies galore and very few people.

Via de la Plata - pre-departure notes.

Well I havefinally bitten the bullet and managed to work out how to write a blog of my trip to the Via de la Plata.
I depart from home (Wiltshire in the south of England) on 6th August, and should return home late on the 24th August - assuming my dear husband will pick me up from Bristol airport.

In that time I will have walked approx 230 miles (over 13 days) from Pueblo de Sanabria to Finisterre, via Santiago de Compostela and Muxia.

I suspect my 'Blog' will consist mainly of photos from my HTC phone with brief explanations of where I am, but if I can get to grips with the technology I will endeavour to say more about the heat, accommodation, and any other experiences worth sharing!!

Andrew and I walked from Seville to Merida in April of this year, and I have been training hard and also trying to learn Spanish. So I consider myself fairly well prepared.
We will see how it pans out!!

Attached is a picture of me looking foolish with 2 buffs on my legs (after some serious sunburn and chafing)

This picture shows me and Andrew relaxing in a bar near Zadra after walking many kilometres.

Getting nervous about the flight to Madrid on 6 August

Sent from my HTC One S on O2

Sent from my HTC One S on O2

Phil monk and Alex with their torches

Sent from my HTC One S on O2

Sent from my HTC One S on O2

Trying to upate from my HTC Phone!!

This is a test to see if this blog still works on my PC. If do I know the HTCis the problems!!!

treyr

Glastonbury 10th March 2012

Men and women dressed as fairies.
Innumerable singing birds on the Somerset levels
Glastonbury Tor in the mist
History and insanity all around us
Running water in the Chalice Gardens
A plethora of healing remedies. each more bizarre than the one before
Lunacy and mythology joined together into a kind of wholesome logic
I felt at home in Glastonbury and so did my husband.
Bizarre

Saturday 25th February

I must write a short account of my Half Term Adventures. I spent a week in the West of Ireland, climbing some mountains, going to some ceilis, and visiting old friends. In the process I met some new friends and sang with them. It was my idea of heaven.

Portmagee at sunset

I started off in Portmagee, County Kerry, where I stayed in a completely deserted hostel and then walked round Bray Head in the next morning. The weather was stunning.

This picture was taken on the way from Portmagee to Bray Head, looking back towards the mountains that consist of Carrauntoohill among others, the highest mountain in Ireland.

Looking back from Bray Head at the Skelligs

Danny Allen with his son Aengus and nephew Andrew. One happy family.

The last outdoors dancing stage for set dancers was built here in 1939. It just looked like a cracked concrete lane but was lovely to see. I wished there had been 7 other people there to make up the set!

 The green house where Freda and Bobby Allen lived in Toormore, near Goleen, County Cork. Iwas terrified that it had been painted some dready shade of magnolia. Thankfully it remained green and was inhabited by John Allen, son of the above. The buoys still hung from the trees. Some things don't change in Cork south-west.

The tunnels at the Cork and Kerry border in between Kenmare and Glengarriff. I could drive this road forever.

The cairn at the top of Barraboy Mountain, county Kerry

Cheryl O' Suilleabhean, author of "Seesaws and Rainbows Part 1 - England" with her old friends Rachel. Her house was colourful and her strulberry jam superb. Thanks Cheryl!!

The best thing about ireland is the unexpected people you meet. I had a cup of tea in a bar near Rathkeal (in the Sliabh Liucra region) and could have moved in there for life. There was a sing-song at about 11.30 in the morning. Only in Ireland. 

A chance meeting with an old friend - Noel Burke - after meeting his lovely wife Nina at a Sean Nos workshop in the Abbey Hotel, Ballyvourney. But then wonderful things have always happened in Ballyvourney. Locals would blame St Gobnet of course. I went and said a few quiet prayers myself while I was there.

Goodby Aggie McCarthy. Your friendship and generosity will never be forgotten. Even though you aren't named, a relative told me you were buried in this grave in Glengarriff with your husband Timothy. I hope you are dancing at crossroads and cycling round together as you often described to me.

An ogham stone

Part of a mass walk (when the Catholics were being persecuted and had to practice their religion in secret)

Slainte for now Ireland.

Amazing irregular echinoid find!!

Irregular echinoid - real (from Greece) and fossil (from Hampshire

Alternative rear view of irregular echinoid showing hole

On our honeymoon in 2005 Andrew and I went to Stoupa in the Pelleponese (spelt wrong) in Greece. We went scube diving. Andrew could go deeper than me and found the shell of an irregular echinoid (larger photo), very similar to a Sea Potato but not quite the same!The latin should perhaps be pseudoechinoidius stormtrooperius!!

In December 2011, during the Christmas holidays, we went walking from Ashley Park in the New Forest and headed towards Hampton Ridge - one of our usual routes. I saw an orangey-round stone and when I picked it up I was AMAZED to see that I had found a perfectly formed fossil of exactly the same irregular echinoid. It was lovely and, I have to say, slightly spooky. It felt a bit too unlikely to be a co-incidence. Anyway who knows what, if anything, the find means. I would just like to think that it means something....

The photos of both are attached for anyone's interest. The geology/archaology/biology of it all is something I will look into in another life...

January 2012 - Walking in south Wales

Looking towards Fan Brycheiniog 802 m. I lost my gloves somewhere near here.

Andrew on the way up The Black Mountain - looking south

It looks beautiful but the wind chill took it to about minus 10 degrees C.
Andrew lost his bum pad somewhere near here!!! 

A row of Welsh ponies and horses lined up to charge

There was a bit of a stand-off...

 

Very moody weather near Table Mountain

Me and Andrew on top of Table Mountain with the Sugarloaf in the background. It was VERY cold!!

Lovely dry stone walling near Table Mountain

Looking back towards Table Mountain from near Crickhowell

Christmas 2011



I must remember to bring more wigs next year

My nephew Dhillon wearing the wig



My brother alias Starsky wearing the wig

December 3rd 2011

Ice-skating at Longleat on a Friday afternoon

21 November 2011