Travels in Rosie May

Saturday. Playa Joyel.

Last night's sunset.

A pleasant bike ride in glorious sun - but a chilling wind. Through the town to the next bay then along behind sand dunes. Back via more wetlands.

Kate spotted this orchid.

Don't know its name so I am calling it a Kate Spotted Orchid.

We spent several hours after a late breakfast exploring the rocky, hilly areas that rise from the beach. There are so many plants and flowers to see, including orchids, and finding and photographing them takes time. With Himself botanising, Herself split off and found a quiet place to sit and watch the scenery, with binoculars. At one point, a storm of hundreds of white birds went up from the island with the egret colony, a mixture of gulls and egrets. Looking to see what had put them up, it was a man who had arrived on a boat, clambering up with a bucket; was he collecting eggs? He didn't stay long and the birds settled down again. Shortly after, a black redstart arrived nearby, and later, Mrs. black redstart too. Lovely. The orchid hunt was also productive but the names of the two prize finds were not known.

After lunch we had a walk to see the estuary wetland and the remains of a water mill that had been conserved ten years ago. The mill building was completely wrapped in a huge, bigger-than-parachute sized white cloth with a gigantic red ribbon on it. You could definitely have seen it from space. It is going to be the mill's tenth birthday after conservation, on Saturday. Happy Birthday, Mill.

We ate chocolate and Himself took some great pictures of greenshank, dunlin, and egret, and recorded a noisy reed bird on the camera on the way home. The site is beginning to be a bit busier, with a few more people, we have neighbours who are a Spanish family, with a little boy.

Supper will be later than at home, but not as late as the Spanish supper time, which is at nine or ten. We have an absolutely enormous fresh red pepper and a spicy chorizo sausage which will be good with our pasta and tomato sauce. And two nice pears for afterwards. A second (plastic) bottle of the very cheap wine has been purchased. A vote of confidence.

Friday. Playa Joyel.

This where we are. The beach is to the left and the marsh is to the right.

A morning studying the flowers on the limestone headland on the beach.

And bird watching on the marsh in the afternoon.

Thursday. Playa Joyel.

This is a quiet, peaceful campsite, right next to the beach. The sand is golden and very clean, and the beaches are long and deserted. We had a good walk this morning turning left from the gate to the beach and going along the shore then following the nature reserve footpath. The reserve includes the river and estuary next to the campsite and goes back inland. Part of it is an animal park, so, as at Longleat, we peered through fences and a gate at an emu, some deer, and some impressively horned cattle.
The shop at the site provided lunch; chorizo, smoked ham, cheese, pickles, good bread and a sweet pastry. Also wine, for Himself, at 1 Euro 20, later judged to be perfectly acceptable under the 'why pay more?' heading.
The rules of the site include:
Rule 6. Visitors 'must make goog use of all instalations'. We hope we don't fall foul of that one.
Rule 10. The person who violates the above mentioned regulations has abandon de camp site immediately.
The afternoon walk took us the other way along the sandy seashore. There are interesting rough rocky outcrops and small rocky islands just offshore. One of these islands was home to a colony of cattle egrets, some on their nests, others standing on watch. There were probably 50 or so altogether.
Non-birders look away here. Apart from the cattle egrets, good birds include ... black kite, little egret, black tailed godwit, curlew, ringed plover, dunlin, turnstone, yellow legged gull, and a tern (sorry, no idea which, but lovely to watch).
Himself was very taken with an orchid which needs to be identified so we will go back tomorrow to find a better specimen. It was on one of the rocky hillocks which was chock full of interesting plants and flowers, so it will be Him on his knees looking down and me with my bins looking up, again.
We bought wifi for the week so will be able to blog and email.

Thursday. Playa Joyel.

Our first day. We explored the site - very good facilities, very smart. English toilets! More showers than you get on Caravan Club sites. But the site is virtually empty - most of the pitches have caravans with awnings but still closed up.

We walked the beach this morning through light rain.

And again in the afternoon.

Wednesday. Playa Joyel.

The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain but not exclusively.
Wet on our first night. But pitched within sound of the surf. Big site but a quiet corner. Apart from the surf.

Wednesday on board Pont Aven

Today is a boat day. We missed the 6.30 a.m. suggested start time on the top deck for sea watching, and tiptoed up at about 7.30 a.m. Nothing had been seen and nothing was then seen, apart from gannets. Coffee called after about half an hour. Lightweights. We went back for a couple of hours after lunch and saw some lively dolphins shooting through the water. The sky and seascapes were magnificent and the chance of further sightings of dolphins kept us alert. More gannets appeared from time to time, but no whales, at least, not on our side of the boat. Were they sniggering on the other side? Possibly.

We have eaten well on the boat. A couple next to us on dolphin watch were planning their blog entry for the day, which was going to be an account of food intake and calories consumed. 'No carbs at all!' said the man, delightedly as he listed out all he had eaten. We, however, had plenty of carbs and enjoyed them all. Pudding was eaten, and chocolate bars also. It is a comfortable, modern boat with all mod. cons.

The crossing has been exceptionally smooth. We are due in to Santander in about an hour. The campsite is a short distance away; sensible planning on the part of Himself. Today is a Bank Holiday in Spain, so we will shop tomorrow. We have plenty of stores on board Rosie May to keep us going.

Wednesday. On board Pont Aven

A calm crossing of the Bay of Biscay. We saw pods of dolphins, fleetingly.

Tuesday. On board Pont Aven.

Glorious sunset.

Tuesday. On board Pont Aven.

How lucky we are to have such lovely weather for our crossing. We are about half an hour out of Portsmouth and have settled in the boat by a window, watching the sea. The Isle of Wight is beginning to recede in the blue distance. I can see a lighthouse and some cliffs, but after that, just the profile of the tip of the island as we pass it.
We travelled here easily from Longleat, stopping at Cley Hill (National Trust) to look at the Roman fortifications. Even better, we saw six hares, one yellowhammer, a whitethroat and some linnets. It has been sunny all day and is a glorious evening now.
The boat is huge, but even so, two rather posh ladies managed to find Chris and get him to log their ipad mini onto the wifi network. He told them he had a magic finger, when they asked how he did it, but they said that was b******s. Rude but accurate.
We have sampled the bar, a Stella and an Earl Grey, and will go in search of supper. We have spotted the self service area and have earmarked a salad in celebration of the sunshine.

Tuesday. On board Pont Aven.

Blue skies and calm seas.

Longleat Caravan Club Site

We travelled the usual route through Brecon and Abergavenny, crossed the Severn Bridge, headed for Bath and arrived at this impressive site in time for lunch. It is peaceful here, with tidy lawns and mature trees. It has good play areas for children and quite a lot of resident wild life. Three mallard ducks came to our door after our lunch. They gobbled a Jacob's Cream Cracker shared between them. One dabbled his share from my hand but the others would not come so near. We saw a pair of pheasants here, the male muttered to himself as he ambled along, quite tame, and there are fat wood-pigeons feeding on the grass. Chris spotted what we thought was a peregrine, being mobbed. It circled and we saw its jesses and heard its bell. It was from Longleat, next door, being flown to entertain the visitors. So, not sure if it was a peregrine, do falconers fly peregrines or was it the more usual Harris Hawk? Our walk took us through a wood along the boundary of the Longleat Safari Park. We admired primroses and looked at beeches coming into leaf. Next, a little way off, we saw two giraffes peering at us as we passed along the path, and, oddly, a group of rhinos came into view, grazing, looking completely at home. We heard sea lions barking, again, strange, in this very English woodland park. The rhinos reminded Chris of Reggie Perrin, who saw a hippopotamus in his mind's eye whenever he thought of his mother-in-law; this was brought about by a visit to a Safari Park.

Location:Longleat Caravan Club Site