Plans Plans Plans: Castaways

the Islas Cies are located at the entrance to the Ria Vigo, we had sailed to and anchored off the Praia de Rodas on the chart below it is fairly central.

The following morning we had visitors, a couple who were also anchored in the bay in a Halberg Rassay called Frejya rowed over, we had bumped into them in Isle de Yeu over 12 months ago!
It is indeed a small world. After a quick catch up we agreed to meet up later in Cangas.

We went ashore as the sun tried to make an appearance and had decided to walk to the summit of the island which has a lighthouse on the top of it called Faro Cies.

The trail led up through the ever present eucalyptus forest and eventually onto the sparse heathland above. There were some interesting rock formations that are a feature of the geology of the islands.

As we wound around the island high above the channel between Islas Cies and Islas San Martino, mainly known as Islas Norte and Islas Sud, (the channel is known as Freu de Porta), the views began to become more expansive.

In the picture above the lighthouse in view is the lower light, our objective was the more spectacular
Faro above. This is reached by a tortuous track that is shown in the photo below, I stole the image from the internet not having access to a helicopter! It shows the path quite nicely.

Many lizards skittered away as we approached along the winding path, again as the tourist ferries had stopped running a few days before we were totally alone apart from Toby and Sara from Frejya, who were somewhere on the island. It was difficult not to imagine that Ernst Blofeld wasnt looking at us from his spectacular lair!

The path was steep and the heat was becoming a bit oppressive, however we soon reached the top and were rewarded by spectacular views, both to the north and south.

It seemed to be a good place to eat our lunch. So we walked down to where the switchback path provided a natural seat.

It would be a fair assumption that we would get a little jaded with spectacular views and wonders of nature. This would be wrong, in the case of this island it is a place suffused with a kind of magic. Lunch was an experience.....

We later dropped down a short cut path to visit the lower lighthouse, this allowed a return path towards a small beach known as the Nossa Senora, visible above Lynnes head below.

The path followed the shore of the channel overlooking the island of San martino and we passed the small fishermans harbour tucked into a small bay.

The rather beautiful little beach, (it would become our favourite) is overlooked by a small effigy of our lady in an inaccessible niche in the rocks on the headland which provides a degree of shelter from the swell and current.

We spent a bit of time just absorbing the atmosphere, the azure sea and crisp white sand and views towards San martino were very special.

Eventually we tore ourselves away from this oasis of peace and tranquility and headed back to Dark Tarn at anchor. We went on the internet and booked ourselves in for a third day at anchor.

Later we walked to the point overlooking the ensenada de Lago which has a great outcrop of rocks one of which is a perfect chair although i was not successful in persuading Lynne to pose in it for a photograph.

To be fair it was a fair drop down to the crashing waves! I took a series of photographs which turned out to give a nice picture of the view once they had been "stitched" together. The view is towards the

south and the Faro we had visited earlier is on the headland on the right. Dark Tarn is at anchor in the bay on the left. It is easy to see why the Islas Cies are known as barrier islands when you see the difference between east and west sides.
The anchorage remained sheltered and our friends on Frejya left for Bayona in the morning. This left the island to ourselves so we returned to the beach of Nossa Senora and enjoyed a lovely day alone on this beautiful island.