Ian and Helena left us in Cadiz, a fascinating old walled city. The cafe on the pier was memorable. It's a real greasy spoon equivalent, but served us excellent grilled fish and chips and bad wine with very friendly attentive service. They were so surprised when we paid what we thought a very fair bill without demurring, they plied us with free brandy and sherry in too large quantities for us to remember afterwards.
Some of the trees were particularly interesting. Please let us know if you can identify them!
Cathy and Marion joined us in Cadiz (and returned to the pier cafe with us!). We have had two very good day sails with them, first to Mazagon, then on to Gibraltar. Avoiding the fixed tunny nets was quite an effort. They are huge - up to 3 miles out from the shore, and connected to the shore. Not pleasant to be caught in, we would guess.
And so to Gibraltar.
First impressions are better than we expected (Cathy had suggested Aldershot-on-Sea). But the great news is there's a Morrisons! A big one! And they have PG Tips, Pringles, Walkers crisps, Ryvita, Hobnobs. We hadn't realised how much we'd missed them. But we're now into Mediterranean style docking, with the bow up near (but not too near) the jetty. Some clambering is required. Val is wondering if she needs to go ashore before the canal!
Your tree is a fig- Ficus something or other. Certainly looks old. Tou probably saw similar trees around temples in Thailand.
ReplyDeleteCheers, Alan
From Wikipedia:
ReplyDeleteFicus macrophylla, commonly known as the Moreton Bay Fig, is a large evergreen banyan tree of the Moraceae family that is a native of most of the eastern coast of Australia.
Helena and I saw the one shown in Wikipedia in a park in Sydney when we visited in March. We should have recognised the one in Cadiz!
We are now back in the UK (hotter than Cadiz) after a really great holiday. A bracing sail from Mazagon to Cadiz and a rather scary sail from Ayemonte to Mazagon in dense sea fog amongst the lobster pots and a fast moving grey launch that suddenly appeared on our starboard bow. Many thanks Simon and Val for your great hospitality and for not letting us drown.
I have been following your trip in Sally T, it looks warm and sunny. Me I am freezing my keel of in the Clyde waiting for what the Scots called summer to arrive!!!, how could you do this to me after all my efforts over the years. You also didn't warn me it it is all rocks around here, not good for the nerves.
ReplyDeleteStill at least I won't have the ignomy of going up the canal, fresh water paah!
White Magic