Tag: nature
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Elba – A Jewel Venus Scattered into the Tyrrhenian Sea
As the ferry sails towards Elba, I cannot detach Seán from his App that tells him the names of the romantic, volcanic islands. Excited as a boy, he points out what he thinks is Pianosa, which we later discover is called the island of silence; then Capraia, island of goats; Montecristo, setting of Dumas’ tale…
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Gorgeous Gavín in the Aragonese Pyrenees
974 metres up in Aragón’s Tena Valley, Camping Gavínis terraced, surrounded by holm oaks and pines, the russet, jagged mountain teeth sticking up through the tree canopy. It takes us back to when our children were small and we came upon a gem of a terraced campsite, scented with hot pine, behind the busy Côte…
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Wherein we Embark on What is Meant to be a 3 hour Walk through the Glacial Valleys of Winsome Wicklow and End up Walking for 7 Hours
The first view of the morning is the stone arched bridge at Glenmalure and the house martins swooping through the air; the first sound the rushing Avonbeg river. The plan today is to walk 7 miles from Glenmalure to Glendalough, along the Wicklow Way and Miners’ Way. Soon, we gaze down at the ruins of…
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Rambling up Torroella de Montgrì, Cycling in L’Estartit’s Nature Reserve and Taking to the Sea
I’ve written so much about Torroella de Montgrì that I think there’s nothing else to say, but I’m proved wrong. Local families trek to the castle which squats at the top of Montgrì, the mountain in Torroella. Being Easter, everyone and their granny has taken to the rocky track. One elderly woman, complete with walking…
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Esponellà – Catalonia’s Hidden Gem
Our friends Mary and Martin recommend Catalonia’s Camping Esponellà near Figueres. We wind up into the Pyrenean foothills leaving the bustle of city far behind. Our first sigh of Esponellà is the pinkish rocks of the River Fluvia’s Gorge, our next, the honey stone village on the summit of the hill, the church tower…
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Why it’s impossible to zoom through France – From Dieppe to the Med’s Béziers
The plan is to bomb through France to Catalonia for our Spring tour. The minute we park up in Dieppe at Aire Camping-car Dieppe, there’s the usual magic, with the lights from the narrow restaurants reflected in the port’s waters, the masts of the sailing boats, the ghostly chalk cliffs, and Notre-Dame de Bonsecours looking…
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Dorset – Abbotsbury’s Swannery, South West Coastal Path and Sub-tropical Gardens
I scoot across to Portesham’s farm shop and café from the campsite. It serves good bread, British cheeses, vegetables without a piece of plastic in sight, along with the kind of incongruous nick-nacks that are endemic in all farm shops – cow mugs, primrose and poppy tea towels. After stocking up, we’re off on the…
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Rambling in Italian Alpine Val Camonica and the Passo dell’ Aprica
We’re both a little shattered by the sadness of the WWI museum, memorial and fort so when we start descending from the pass into Val Camonica, and I spy a campsite sign in Temù, even though we haven’t travelled more than 60 kilometres today, we swing into Camping Presanella and what a find it is.…
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Moody Mountains and Pirates’ Coves – Waterford’s Dunmore East to the Ring of Kerry
Waterford’s Dunmore East offers up classic seaside holidays. Think, pirate coves ringing with people splashing and swimming until 11 pm. The Strand Inn packed to the rafters inside and out. The cliffside park studded with scarlet montbretia and the sounds of the kittiwakes squawking. As if that’s not enough, there’s fresh hake and Dublin Bay…
Campervan Therapy 