Three poems by Robert Frost

One of my favourite poets is Robert Frost. Poetry is not fashionable these days, but as it is coming up to my birthday I wanted to share a very few that have a great meaning for me, rather than attempt to explore the metaphysical juxtaposition of imagery, I leave them for you the reader. Certainly, two are more well known now, than when I first read them, but I make no apologies for that.

1. Neither out far nor in deep

The people along the sand

All turn and look one way.

They turn their back on the land.

They look at the sea all day.

As long as it takes to pass

A ship keeps raising its hull; 

The wetter ground like glass

Reflects a standing gull

The land may vary more; 

But wherever the truth may be- 

The water comes ashore,

And the people look at the sea.

They cannot look out far.

They cannot look in deep.

But when was that ever a bar

To any watch they keep? 

2. The road not taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

and sorry I could not travel both

and be one traveller, long I stood

and looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent on the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

and having perhaps the better claim,

because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

had worn them about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

in leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, keep the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-

I took the one less traveled by,

and that has made all the difference.

3. Nothing gold can stay

Natures first green is gold

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leafs a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

Nature Walk

Some thing we have been meaning to do for a while was to explore the coastal walking potential of the cliffs beyond Plentia. A hard working week of trying to paint  Dark Tarns decks between rain showers had left me with an aching back and Lynne a bit jaded too, so as the sun came out to play we left on the Metro with a packed lunch. The Metro doesnt actually reach Plentia yet so from Sopela we left the station and took advantage of the free bus which drops you off at the completed but unused Metro station just across the river from Plentia old town. We had a chat with the very nice young man at the Tourist Information who gave us a couple of maps including one showing very clearly the walks we were interested in.

We have discovered that maps at a small scale useful for walking are pretty much unavailable so we were very grateful for this. we walked past the stunning beaches at Plentia and Gorlitz and began the climb up towards the top of the cliffs.

The path rises through some pine forest and is very steep, it quickly became apparent that during the recent rain this path would have been a major drainage line.

A few rests were called, (by me), after all photos dont take themselves!

As we crested the lip of the cliffs the view was stunning.

In the distance could be seen the ruin of Fort de Askorrigia which we decided would be a good spot to lunch. The path thankfully diverged from the appallingly steep and extremely high cliffs and cut through the thick pine woods to a small viewpoint.

Again the views were truly beautiful.

 The path once more diverged from the cliff edge and continued to climb up and up, suddenly we appeared at the crest of the woods and revealed before us was a scene that was almost Alpine in character. To our surprise it was carpeted in Crocus. Surely a spring flower?

What goes up must come down and as is the nature of cliffs we had now to decend to the ruined fort on the headland where we planned to have lunch.

From a geological point of view this bit of coast can easily rival Dorsets Jurrassic coast.

A narrow path led us to the small ruin, Im afraid I am not familiar with its history only that it dates from the 18th century and had cannon installed to defend the port of Plentia (Napoleonic era). A very nice spot to eat our sandwiches though.

The weather was lovely and we had to keep reminding ourselves that it was only a week or so off my birthday, late October. 

After lunch we were faced with yet another steep climb.

as we reached the summit and began to walk along a reasonably level section we were bombarded by leaping Chicadas (grasshoppers)

 As I was in the front I would make them jump and Lynne who was following would be in the firing line, so I did the gentlemanly thing and let Lynne go in front for a while . All was going well until suddenly Lynne spotted a large snake lying in the sun, Im afraid we both moved away quite quickly!

I think the snake was fact one of the 5 venemous snakes in Spain. This one.

Seoane's Viper (Vipera seoanei - víbora de Seoane). This snake is dangerous. It lives in Galicia, León, the Cantabrian coastal strip (Cornisa Cantábrica) and the Basque Country.

As we continued towards the lighthouse we noticed that a lot of the road we were now walking on had collapsed down the usual steep cliff. we also noticed a couple of Peregrine Falcons swooping backwards and forwards in the clifftop thermals.

The Road continued to ríes and crossed a concrete bridge before the last steep bit up to the lighthouse.

we had a rest at the light and admired the view over Isla Billano.

We dropped back down through the valley we had glimpsed earlier and were again surprised to hear the bellowing of deer.

But there they were! One buck and a doe.

a lovely walk was finished back at the beach at Gorlitz and a well earned coffee in the beach cafe.

Birds

I have always had an interest in birds, I thought I might introduce some we have come to know lately, I have previously mentioned the charming small bird that frequents our local coffee shop Arqupé.

However we met another recently at the altogether posher Grande Hotel at Portugalete.

There are a few small birds who are on a constant search for crumbs along the riverside terrace however this fellow is a particularly cheeky one.

All it needs is a couple of tasty Pintxos.

In Burger King in the Railway Station at Bilbao there is a pidgeon that does much the same job, no photo I'm afraid I don't want him to get in trouble with the health and safety people, or public health come to that. So I substitute a picture of the rather nice stained glass window there.

Of course we also have a bird at the marina, we see him everyday as a flash of electric blue flying along the pontoon. It's a Kingfisher and so far I have been totally unable to take a photo of him either, however a street artist in Portugalete helped me out by painting a junction box with this delightful portrait.

Today we were walking along the cliffs near the lighthouse at Gorlitz. As we approached the frankly alarming road that has at points decided to slide down the steep cliff face we were watching a pair of raptors hanging in the thermal updraft, too far away to identify positively until one began to call and we realised it was a pair of Perigrine Falcons.....

So there you have it, just a few of our new feathered friends. So if anyone asks in the UK, where are all the sparrows? You know, they are all in Spain enjoying the Café culture.........

Running repairs

We have arranged to crew for our friends Dave and Carol on board Hocus Pocus for its transatlantic crossing. This involved a flurry of flight booking, a few stunned silences from me and one notable picking myself up off the floor after BA were asking for $6420 for a one way flight from the Caribbean to the UK. However thanks to those ever reliable German Condor air people in partnership with good old Thomas Cook much more reasonable flights were acquired.

I also had a sudden panic about the maintenance we had been avoiding so this prompted a hunt for among other things, long 6.4 mm rivets to repair the broken boom vang. These took a while to locate as in an ideal world I would have wanted them to be 'Monel metal' this a relatively inert metal good for attaching stainless steel items to aluminium masts for example, however these proved difficult if not impossible to locate. In Spain the choice is inox ( stainless ) or aluminium rivets so we went with aluminium.

After careful disassembling and straightening of the bent retaining washers the two retaining bolts were tightened to hold the fitting against the mast track and being careful to make sure all the holes lined up we proceeded to rivet the thing back together.

Someone once said that long distance cruising was just boat maintenance in sunny places, probably true....

We will also make sure we have a supply of these large rivets on board along with our trusty heavy duty riveter.

The short ones fitted in Largs are in the photo below.

If we ever go back to Largs I will cheerfully insert them into the rigger there!

So the good news is Dark Tarn is all fixed. The boom vang is again operational and is happily holding up the boom

Just the decks to paint, the stove to service, the engine to winterise, the tricolour to fix ( again ) it's going to be s busy month!

Euskadi

These are our courtesey flags at the moment the top one is the Spanish maritime ensign ( correct one, no crown)

The one below is the Basque flag, most Basques, that means pretty much everyone we meet, would prefer the flags to be reversed. That is, the Basque flag to be flown over the Spanish flag but I am afraid my flag etiquette wont allow me to do that. I am still a little surprised at the similarity of the Basque flag to our own Union flag.

The Basque launguage is very prominent, being on all roadsigns, ticket machines etc. We are just now for example living in Getxo if you are Basque and Las Arenas if you feel yourself to be more Spanish.

The Basque launguage itself is apparently unique in having no roots in any other language. This makes it hugely difficult if not impossible to guess the meaning of words.

It pre-dates the Roman languages and its alphabet has its own pronunciation. Possibly it would help to illustrate the point with an example of the Basque language.

Gizon-emakume guztiak aske jaiotzen dira, duintasun eta eskubide berberak dituztela; eta ezaguera eta kontzientzia dutenez gero, elkarren artean senide legez jokatu beharra dute.

This translates as;

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

It's the first article in the universal declaration of human rights.........

There is definitely the feeling that we are in Basque Country ( Euskadi ) and not in Spain. The food is excellent,  however the same launguage problems arise when trying to figure out what a particular dish is.

There is also sport, as well as the universal football, (Athletico Bilbao must be unique in the world  as it insists all it's players must be from or have trained in Basque Country) there are also very Basque sports like Pelotta and Trainera races, the video below shows one we watched on the river.

There is also a very real feeling of history and culture of which people are justifiably proud. We were interested to see some traditional dancing during the recent festival of La Mercedes. 

 

In a strange and haunting side note our tour of Celtic and Basque country's has had as a kind of recurrent theme, it's " Dirty old town " we have heard it in Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France and now Spain. We took ourselves off to the cafe above the cliffs in Algorta, the Cafe Usategi to find some traditional music, which we did, and it was excellent, particularly with the awesome view out over the harbour as a backdrop. A great evening including "Dirty old town "....................again.

The mystery of maps

 Ever since I was a child I  have found maps and charts fascinating. From the Mapa Mundi of medieval Europe to Arthur Ransomes map of the lake in Swallows and Amazons. They seem to me to be full of invitations to explore, and names hinting at history and adventure. I was delighted in adult life to discover that wildcat island existed in real life and having successfully beached my dinghy in the small harbour ( the leading marks are gone ) I could wander through the campsite and find the lighthouse tree at the opposite end of the island. Brilliant.

It's Peel island on Coniston by the way.

One of the first things I did when we arrived in Spain was to seek out a place to purchase Spanish charts of the coast, they are remarkably similar to Admiralty charts. Álvaro says it's because the Spanish were first and we copied them. That may be true I don't know.

We also like to have a local map for walking, usually at a reasonably large scale say 1:25,000. So on a day which promised to be a little cloudy we took a trip into Bilbao to seek one out as we had had no luck at all in Las Arenas ( Getxo )

We got off the metro near the old quarter and visited the Tourist Information office which is housed in a fabulous building near the railway station. We were given some nice guides to walks around Bilbao and were told of some other walks along the coast .We then set off to explore again the old quarter thinking that somewhere in its warren of little shops would be s biblio or bookshop with a stack of maps to peruse.

Now the old quarter is definately a place you need a map! It's a sometimes confusing but endlessly fascinating jumble of small streets. Full of cafes restaurants and  shops. People also live there and the evidence is there to see if you look up. I think the brolly covering the washing is a great idea. I may try something similar on Dark Tarn.

 But no bookshops selling maps could be found.

I had had my initial visit to the dentist that morning and the anaesthesia was beginning to wear off along with a growing hunger, we decided on a late lunch. Well late for us but well within the 1-5pm Spanish lunchtime......

As we eat our starters, veal stuffed eggplant for me and a goats cheese salad for Lynne, I was pondering the map question. Just where do you get a decent map in Spain? How do they know where they are and what's around them? It was a mystery alright, but one that could wait until we had eaten our main course, sea bass for me and oxtail for Lynne followed by a sweet of Mille-fuille with a hot chocolate sauce. A bottle of the local Rioja wine and we were full to bursting, we had a stroll back to tourist information to walk it off and enquire after the map conundrum. We were given the location of several large bookshops so ventured forth city map in hand ( free of course from tourist info ) we had a great time exploring yet more of this great city but the bookshops proved a disappointment. Not a map to be found at a scale smaller than a roadmap. We headed back to Getxo after a little shopping ( Lynne actually found a charity shop ) and pondered again the map mystery in a small bar being too full from lunch to eat anything else.

The following day we thought that we would walk past the old fishing port and out to the disused lighthouse, the location of the coast walk we had been told about and on the way, see if we could find the skatepark we had been told was located at the next beach. Initially this meant climbing the steep streets out of the old port and the cafeteria Usategui at the top of the hill looked a very good place to stop for refreshment.

I think this is my " I'm posing for a picture pose" however the views from the cafe are tremendous. 

The balcony does however have a slight but perceptible slope downwards. 

Towards what we thought may be the continuation path below ( several people walked up it) but having no map we couldn't be sure so fortified with a small beer we walked down the obvious steps to explore, the drop down to the sea was appallingly steep!

We decided this probably wasn't it.... 

The return to the safety of the cafe was accompanied by some black looks for me from Lynne. We continued on using basic principles, (keep the sea on the left) and after several diversions, presumably where the path had fallen into the sea came upon the beach and skatepark we had been trying to reach.

We rang Alex to tell him the news but in the way of these things he was busy skateboarding.......

The path now seemed to climb towards the windmill on the cliff and we duly ascended to the cliff top and had a welcome ice cream. The path was now paved and very wide, also full of people.

The time was about 6.30, the normal time for a promenade before dinner, normally around 8 or 9 we had discovered. So didn't think a lot of it. We continued to the disused lighthouse thinking that would probably be the end of the paved section, but no, it continued. 

We carried on into the evening, the views along the coast were stunning.

We had about 2hours before dark so having consulted my iPad and google maps decided we could probably make the town of Larrabasterra and return on the Metro, of course this was assuming the paved road went that far. We took a gamble and carried on, we were glad we did.

The coast was beautiful.

The path continued to be well used by walkers and cyclists and we began to realise why no one seemed to need maps. This was what constitutes a walk.

It was a bit different from what we were used to in the West pennine moors or the Lake District however given the erosion problems maybe not such a bad idea for the popular paths?

As the sun began to set we arrived at the beaches near Sopela, 

they are famous surfing beaches and a surfing championship is due to be held there in October. It has a beach bum kind of feel with some interesting bars.

However we were chasing the sun and had no time to linger.

A mile or two later saw us inland at Larrabasterra and the welcome Metro station to take us back to Getxo.

We had a fascinating and surprising coast walk, one we will undoubtably make time to do again. It hadnt quite solved the mystery as far as maps go but it explained something about the different attitudes to walking in Spain possibly?