Category Archives: Rosemary

Wednesday 22nd July 2020 – BACK HOME

Yes, I’ve been back home today.

And before anyone suggests that it’s rather a long way for me to drive in my current circumstances, that isn’t actually what I mean.

For a change I was awake quite early, and so there was time to listen to the dictaphone

It was a confusing voyage last night. There were quite a few of us and I’m not quite sure of what we were doing and where we were going but we were all young teenagers, that kind of thing or a few maybe even younger and that’s basically all that I can remember.

While I was typing out all of that I even had a cup of coffee brought to me in bed. And how any years is it since that ever happened?

Having dealt with all of the paperwork I went down to breakfast and then decided (just for a change) to organise myself.

I emptied everything out of the back of Caliburn, tidied him a little, found a pile of rubbish that needed throwing away, and then threw a few gardening tools in the back.

Having made two phone calls, we set off.

First port of call was in St Eloy where I bought some petrol in a container. Second, also in St Eloy, was for some rubber gloves and a pile of rat and mouse poison.

les guis virlet puy de dome france eric hallWe then disappeared off into the countryside and ended up back at home – my old place in Les Guis.

Time hasn’t been kind to it at all. In the couple of years since I’ve been there nature has totally overwhelmed it and it was something like an Amazon rainforest.

But by now Ingrid had arrived and the three of us set to with a will. I went ahead with Terry’s brush-cutter and cut a swathe through the vegetation, with Rosemary and Ingrid following on behind with the clippers.

les guis virlet puy de dome france eric hallAnd it was really hard work too there. The heat didn’t help very much.

What also didn’t help much was all of the objects hidden in the undergrowth. The brushcutter and its blade looked as if it had fought a war (which it probably had) as I hacked my way through the undergrowth.

All of this in just a couple of years since Terry and I were here last picking up the mini-tractor. It’s hardly a surprise that lost cities are still being discovered in the Amazon rainforest with vegetation growing like this.

les guis virlet puy de dome france eric hallBy the time that 14:00 arrived, we had reached the house and could go in all of the doors there.

And how sad everything was, with reams and reams of cobwebs, dust and everything all over the place. And we were exhausted too by this point and so called it a day.

As we weresitting around chatting, a neighbour came round to see us and to see how things were and we had a little discussion. But Ingrid went off for her appointment and Rosemary and I came home for a rather late lunch.

Later on, I went back to my house. Those two phone calls that I’d made earlier – one had been to Ingrid and the other had been to someone else.

Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that I’ve been slowly replacing the windows in the house and that I bought a matching front door. That needs a new doorframe building but because it has to be in hardwood and not softwood, it’s beyond the capacity of the tools that I have here.

Previously, I’d made “local enquiries” and someone had come up the name of a reliable joiner. It had always been my intention to have a joiner make a doorframe, so I had phoned him up.

Much to my surprise (and yours too) I asked him when he would be free. He replied “I can come at 18:00”.

You can’t put obstacles in the path of willing workmen so I arranged to meet him at the Intermarché in Pionsat. We drove up to the house and he did all the measurements. While I was at it, I mentioned the third window that is yet to be installed. “I’ll do that as well if you like”.

And why not?

So the arrangement is that I’ll drop off the door on him tomorrow and leave him to it. There’s no time schedule – he can do it whenever he’s free. Which won’t be before September because all of the sawmills will be closed for summer holiday.

Having bid my farewell, I drove back to Rosemary’s where she had made tea.

A shower to clean myself up and to wash my clothes was next and then, shame as it is to say it, I crashed right out.

The exercise had clearly affected me and I felt that I had done quite enough for today. I’ll write up my notes in the morning.

0

Tuesday 21st July 2020 – JUST IN CASE …

… you’re all wondering where I am –

The answer is quite simple. I am in the bosom of friends (yes, I do have friends). And it’s one of the, if not the main, reason why I’m on the road right now.

Having crashed out definitively last night at about 21:30, I vaguely remember waking at about 01:30, finding that I was still lying there on top of the bed, saying “sod it” to myself and going back to sleep again right there.

The next time that I awoke, it was at 05:53 and I was still there on top of the bed.

This time I was awake for good, so I decided that that would be a good time for me to arise (before even the 1st alarm!) and attack the notes, of which there were plenty, from last night.

This was when we’d seen that body on the rocks and we were telling everyone but it didn’t make the slightest bit of difference. In the end someone believed us so we had to negotiate our way back to this clifftop. I was worried now having told someone that either it had gone or I’d imagined it or something, but when we got there sure enough there it was sprawled on the rocks. We got this guy to call for the police and an ambulance but for some unknown reason he had very great difficulty getting through.

Later on i was in LeClerc. It was more like 23:00 but I was shopping for stuff for breakfast. I had to work out where everything is and what I wanted and how to get the best available qualities. In the fresh vegetable stall I bumped into Liz. I was picking loads of carrots with their heads on and putting three in my basket. I was talking to Liz about how I used to plant the heads for fun when I’d cut them off the carrots and even a few of them would grow again. Liz said that she still did that and they always seemed to grow for her. By now we were standing in a garden somewhere and it was beautiful. The wind was blowing and I was watching my wind turbine going round faster and faster and faster but I thought that this was still slow for what it was supposed to be doing. it should be doing much better than this. Then Caliburn turned up driving down the lane to my house

There was still plenty of time after this to go for another walkabout. I found myself in Iceland but it was the strangest kind of Iceland I’ve ever been to. We were in a hotel and had an hour or two to wait before we needed to go to the airport or wherever it was from where we were leaving so they took us into town. I had my backpack my guitar and something else with me. They dropped us off for a walk round and we’d all meet back at the railway station. I walked around, or tried to walk around but I had so much stuff to carry with me and I didn’t even have my suitcase at this time. It was really inconvenient. I was struggling to get around. We ended up having to get back to the station (in Iceland, that has never ever had a public rail network!) to pick up the bus to go back to the hotel. In the end I ended up back there but everyone else was back there already. I thought that this time had gone really quickly and I hadn’t done half of what I needed to do. We all went to get back onto the bus as the bus was ready one of the boys upstairs came down to talk to the travel host who was Matthew Swann. It turned out that a girl had been ill and we were waiting for the ambulance. It turned up and first of all this other girl came down. She was a bit shaky. Then they went upstairs and came down carrying a girl. She was in quite a state and the first girl was saying to the ill one “you’ve got to eat, you’ve got to drink at least every 5 days especially when you’ve been sick” all this kind of thing. They just dumped her in the corner of an ambulance and the ambulace guy said in perfect English “yes she’ll have to be wrapped in another blanket – she can’t be wrapped in that one”. They started to get her out and put her in the ambulance.

But earlier I’d been on another bus as well. I don’t know where I was and I had to work out how I was going to get to Crewe. It was a long complicated journey and I was waiting for the bus to do the first stage and around the corner came the K43 with “Crewe” on it. I got on and the conductor came round to ask for my fare and I couldn’t remember the name of the bus stop. I tried to describe it to him “it’s the one after …” bit I couldn’t think of the name of the one before it either. In the end I asked “is the fare to Crewe all the same? Just give me a ticket to Crewe”.

hotel premiere classe gueret creuse france eric hallWhen I had finished it was breakfast time so I went downstairs to see what was on offer. I had the fresh bread and jam with coffee and juice.

We had been told to wear masks in the dining room, so I remember saying that it would be fun trying to eat, but the lady reassured me, saying that it was only when we were moving around. Sitting down with our food, we didn’t need masks.

It was a pretty quick meal – I wasn’t down there for long and qfter breakfast I came back here and packed everything. By 09:00 I was back on the road.

Not very far though. First call was at LeClerc the other side of the motorway where I stocked up with groceries and the like, and then I made a phone call as I watched an artic lorry to perform a series of complicated manoeuvres.

Second port of call was the LeClerc fuel station where I fuelled up with diesel.

gorge de la sioule pouzol puy de dome france eric hallOff on my travels, and the route as far as Evaux-les-Bains was quite as I remembered it. And then a merry, mazy winding way through the hills and the side roads until I ended up at Rosemary’s.

If you think that where I live is quite beautiful, it’s not a patch on where Rosemary lives. Her house is perched on the clifftop overlooking the Gorge de la Sioule, the gash that cleaves the Combrailles in two and which as the River Sioule running through it, along the bottom.

And this is where I’m staying for the next few nights as there are things that I need to be doing before we go back into lockdown.

Lunch was prepared already when I arrived and then afterwards I made another phone call – this time to Ingrid to tell her that I was here. And we made certain arrangements.

A good search of Caliburn to find a very important item finally came good and then we had some organising to do.

All of that took up a good part of the afternoon followed by which we just chatted for a while about nothing in p
particular.

horses vichier pouzol puy de dome france eric hallAfter we’d had our evening meal, Rosemary took me out for a walk around her neighbourhood

While I know the area pretty well to drive through it, just like anywhere else in rural France there are loads of little pathways and trackways that you only know if you are a local. And so disturbing the ponies in a neighbouring field, we disappeared off into the depths of darkest Combrailles

Rural France has never been troubled particularly by an invader who has disrupted the society in quite the same way that The Romans, the Saxons, the Vikings and the Normans did in England and so many of the paths down which we were walking have their roots going back into antiquity and even prehistory.

Very rarely was this this area carved up into great estates and parkland that overwhelmed the traditional “parcelles” of the local peasantry and the patchwork of fields and tracks is all just as it might have been when this area was reclaimed from the climax forest that covered it.

sunset vichier pouzol puy de dome france eric hallIt was actually quite late when we set out for our walk.

It’s July of course at the moment and it stays light usually until quite late. Right now the sun is just disappearing over the brow of the hill. So we didn’t hang around particularly – a nice lap around the paths and tracks and then back down the lane to home.

So now it’s bedtime. Not exactly an exciting or busy day, but I was exhausted after my trip. I wanted to rest because It’s all going to kick off from here, as regular readers of this rubbish will recall seeing in a few weeks time as the story unfolds.

As I said a while back, we are heading for a second lock-down, I’m convinced of that, and there is no time like the present to do certain things. It’s now or never.

0

Thursday 25th July 2019 – JUST FOR A CHANGE …

… having had a good sleep the other night, then last night I was awake again at I dunno – was it 01:00 or 02:00? Well, whatever it was, it was flaming ridiculous.

Back to sleep again, I awoke at about 04:45 or something and lay there quietly vegetating until the alarm went off.

Breakfast was rather quiet as everyone was concentrating on packing and, having been caught out by Adventure Canada’s charter flights in the past,as well as my packed lunch I made myself a couple of bagels with jam and stuffed them in my backpack too. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

Back in the cabin, I stuffed all of my winter gear and spare clothes into a bin liner, wrapped it, labelled it and taped it and dumped it in the office. I’ll be back at some time in the future and I don’t want to lug a pile of winter gear around the world with me unnecessarily.

And then I hid in my cabin and kept out of the way of the chaos. I did have to stick my head out of the door to take my luggage down and to receive my passport.

Most of the morning was spent reading a book on the failed Greely expedition to Fort Conger and I was so captivated that I didn’t want to leave the book when I was called to my zodiac. But needs must when the devil drives so I sailed ashore.

But here’s a tragedy. I think that some salt water has got into the contacts of the big lens because it won’t focus any more. If that’s the case, then it’s more than a tragedy. A crisis, I would call it.

The bus that was waiting for us took us to the airport at Kangerlussuac, passing by a friendly arctic fox on the way.

But here’s some more bad news. Our flight is running late. An hour behind time, so they say, But I’ve heard that before. It was about seven hours late last time.

So plenty of time to have a walk round and eat my packed lunch. And to buy a packet of crisps because Ben the Chef’s idea about the size of my appetite is somewhat different from mine.

Waiting around for ages,I was joined by Rosemary who walked down from her hotel, and we had a little chat. But not for long as we were summoned through security. And our flight arrived only 50 minutes late, which is always welcome news.

Once the previous passengers unloaded and the plane was cleaned, we could board and we set off to Iqaluit where we refuelled.

They served a meal on board too and much to my surprise they had something for me. The jammy bagels that I had surreptitiously prepared at breakfast were not required.

No sleep on the plane though. One of the many children on our trip, all of whom had been exceptionally well-behaved throughout the trip, chose this moment to have a temper tantrum and that went on for a couple of hours.

At Toronto, immigration was quite painless but we had to wait ages for our luggage. A 20:50 touch-down, yet we didn’t reach our hotel until about 22;30 and that was depressing.

This evening I’ve washed my undies as they needed it and I hope that they will be dry for tomorrow. And I’m going to take advantage of this super-duper hotel and have a good night’s sleep.

The Sleep Of The Dead if I can.

0

Wednesday 24th July 2019 – OUR LAST …

… complete day on board ship – for now anyway – and what an interesting day it has been.

The day started off with, probably for the first time for quite a while, some uninterrupted sleep. And although I awoke at about 05:20 or thereabouts, uninterrupted it was. And for the first time for quite a while, I actually felt almost-human when i awoke.

It was a much better start to the day.

Outside, there were things to see too and that made it so much better. Much better than being totally shrouded in fog and mist

We’re sailing down a fjord, the name of which I forgot to note, somewhere round near the settlement of Qeqqata. And I made a discovery too, and I was lucky enough to photograph it.

It might well be a haphazard pile of stones but from the angle from which I took the image, it looked just like a ruined stone house (and I’ve seen a few of those – even lived in one too – in my time). It was on a spit of land sticking out at the junction of two fjords, in exactly the spot where one might expect an early settler, even of the Norse era, to erect a dwelling.

I showed it to the on-board archaeologists, and they seemed to think that it was something man-made. And who am I to dispute that? After all, we are somewhere in the vicinity of the limits of where the Western Settlement of the Norse might have been.

After breakfast I edited some photos for a while and then later on we had a talk on geology. And shame as it is to admit it, I dozed off in the middle of the discussion. I don’t know why, because up to that point I had been feeling quite good.

Once the talk was over we donned our wet-weather winter gear and clambered aboard our zodiacs for a final cruise. Past various nesting colonies of kittiwakes and guillemots up to the head of the fjord where a glacier was busy calving off into the water.

Strawberry Moose came along too and he went for a short kayak trip with Genevieve. He has more luck with the girls than I do.

But my luck held out today, just for a change.

My camera was in the right place at the right time with the right settings just as a huge pile of ice calved off the glacier. It made the most enormous splash although by the time the tsunami reached us it was pretty miserable.

By now the old Danish guy was feeling the cold so we headed off back to the ship. And that turned out to be lucky too because we caught sight of a young bearded seal sunning itself on an ice-floe. Baldur called up the other zodiacs to come to see it, and so it chose that moment to slide off the iceberg into the water.

But not before I took a photo of it. And what a stunning photo it was too and I’m well-pleased with that one. It’s definitely one for the family album.

Lunch was a barbecue on the rear deck and then we had all of the usual housekeeping stuff and instructions for our disembarkation tomorrow morning. That was followed by a packing session as we need to vacate the premises, and I can’t find the hood for my camera lens. And that’s a disappointment and no mistake.

There was another photography session dinner this evening and we had quite a discussion, which was punctuated by the ship making a severe U-turn as if it had missed the turning into our fjord.

And as Rosemary and I were leaving we were accosted by one of the Québecois women who wanted a chat. An elderly woman who is travelling alone and by the looks of things hasn’t made any friendships. We all had quite a chat in French.

On the deck, the views were spectacular as we entered the fjord and I took quite a few photos before the cold wind from the interior drove me inside. I wrote my notes, has a chat and that was that. I’m off to finish packing and then to bed ready for an early start in the morning.

It looks as if it’s all over for another trip.

0

Tuesday 23rd July 2019 – I REALLY DON’T …

… know what is happening these days but I had a night that was almost the same as the previous few nights. Awake at about 03:10 or thereabouts, and again at 05:15 and not being able to go off back to sleep. I’m getting rather fed up of this.

With the alarms going off it was still a struggle to haul myself out of bed and I didn’t beat the third alarm by very much.

Up on deck to see what was going on. And the short answer was “nothing”. The whole world was shrouded in a thick mist and I couldn’t see a thing.

Instead, I went back to my cabin and had a nice hot shower to freshen myself up and to wash another load of clothes ready for departure. So, nice and warm and damp, I slipped under the covers for five minutes and the next thing that I remember, it was 07:55 – 5 minutes to breakfast.

After breakfast, I managed to track down John Blyth. he had given us yesterday a talk on the charts of the High Arctic and had said that he had the charts on *.pdf. So I slipped him an USB key.

There was a talk this morning on wild flowers of Greenland, followed by a charity auction. I was present in body but not necessarily in spirit as I attacked the photos. In effect, Jessie has asked to see my top 15 from this trip so I went through and sorted some out while everything was happening. I’ve ended up with about 30 which is rather more than she wanted but that can’t be helped.

By this time we had arrived in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland. The most northerly capital city in the world.

Lunch was early today – 11:30 – so we had to be quick. And then we were called down to the bus that was to take us into the town centre. We were actually tied up at the quayside today for once so no need for the zodiacs

A delightful Inuit girl called Evie (which is a shortened form of her real name which, like most Inuit names has about 100 characters) took us on a walk around the cultural centre, the old town and finally to the museum.

And I learnt something that I didn’t know, in that films in the cinema in Nuuk, they are shown in “version originale” with subtitles in Danish. Not in Greenlandic because apparently there wouldn’t be enough room on the screen for the characters and it would take too long to read them.

Which reminds me of the old chestnut about why there are so many babies born in Greenland. The answer is that the Greenlandic word for “no” is so long that by the time the girl has finished saying it, it’s already too late for the guy.

The museum was interesting. Apart from the usual stuff that you would expect to see, there was an exhibition featuring the Norse in Greenland. That was quite exciting for me at least, so I made a beeline thereto. And remind me to find out more about the “farm in the sands” that has recently been discovered at Nipaatsoq.

By now Rosemary had joined me so we wandered off for a coffee where we learnt the dreadful news from the UK. It beats me just how so many people can be so stupid and irresponsible.and so keen to bring down chaos and disorder upon themselves.

We went off shopping and Rosemary bought a few souvenirs for herself and her friends and then we just about had enough time to catch the last bus back to the ship.

Tea was taken in the company of a Francophone Canadian couple and by a German guy from an adjoining table who insisted on joining in our conversation. But at least this Canadian couple was delightfully normal which makes a change.

Now, there’s a chocolate party going on in the back of one of the lounges so I’m comfortably esconced in the library typing my note. But as I see the mountain of uneaten delicacies making their way back to the kitchen, I’m appalled at the waste of food when there are so many starving people all around the world.

And in other news, I saw one of the young waiters, a tall thin guy from the Maldives, dressed in civvies and making his way off the ship. He told me that he was going home. Later on I asked one of the friendly waitresses about it. She confirmed that he was leaving, and when I asked why, she made a very non-committal gesture. Whatever reason there is for his leaving the ship, the staff is not allowed to talk about it.

It’s still early so I’m going to edit a few more photos before I go to bed. Our last complete day tomorrow and hasn’t it gone so quickly?

0

Thursday 18th July 2019 – I REALLY DO WONDER …

… when I’m actually going to have a really good night’s sleep because last night was yet another depressing night as far as I’m concerned. Once more I was awake at some kind of silly time and had to go to the bathroom. Round about 04:00 I suppose.

After that, I managed to go back to sleep again for an hour and a half or so but that was my lot. Mind you, I wasn’t able to pull myself out of bed at any reasonable time, beating the third alarm call by a mere matter of minutes.

We were entering Prins Christians Sund at the foot of Greenland (which means that we won’t be going round Cape Farewell) so I watched the manoeuvres. It’s nature’s answer to the Corinth Canal and it is magnificent. In places no more than 500 metres wide and bordered by cliffs that could be as much as 2200 feet.

After breakfast every one of us was up on deck in the magnificent weather watching the spectacular scenery. And we didn’t know where to look because everywhere was so wonderful. And when you did see something that you would describe as “the most beautiful view that I have ever seen. I won’t ever see anything this beautiful for as long as I live” then 5 minutes later, you would see something even more so.

We had cliffs, rocks, glaciers, icebergs, waterfalls, a seal, a tiny village and a few men in speedboats checking fishing traps. A kayaker and a yacht too made it quite a day. I even picked up a wi-fi signal so I had to put my phone onto aeroplane mode before I started to rack up a large bill.

But just my luck. There were two tutorials that I wanted to attend – a Greenlandic language class and the photography group. And as fate would have it as usual, they were both at the same time. I ended up with the photographers and we all had a really good time.

Our expedition leader eventually found a place for us to go ashore, but not without help from a local. And it was the fifth one that he had tried.

All the others were completely unsuitable for one reason or other, and as Jane in a zodiac was pondering what to do and where to go, a very vocal local yokel in a fishing boat came by to see what was the problem.

He listened to Jane for a couple of minutes and then pointed over to a rocky shelf in the distance. “Why don’t you go over there?”.

Landing on this rocky ledge was something of a challenge and then there was a hell of a climb up to anywhere that had a pretence of being level.

But it was well worth the effort in the end. Strawberry MooseStrawberry Moose came with me and he enjoyed himself, being photographed in several places. And we had wild flowers, tiny trees and a waterfall.

The waterfall was spectacular. Definitely the highlight of the walk as far as I was concerned. It fell all the way down in a gentle gradient from a hanging valley over various steps. At one point it had carved a deep channel into the granite bedrock but a flood had brought along a huge boulder that had dammed the channel so the water was cascading around it.

By the time that I returned to the ship I was exhausted. So a hot shower and a clothes wash, followed by a mug of tea and a good relax soon warmed me up.

At the evening meal they were looking for volunteers for a Francophone table so Rosemary and I joined up. Poor Rosemary – it’s the first time she’s really heard a Québecois accent and did not find it easy to come to terms with the vocabulary and sentence construction.

This evening I was out on deck for a while and I’ve now made it 152 photos for the day – a new record I reckon. But it was well worth the effort.

We have now left the shelter of the fjord and are now in the open sea on the west coast of Greenland, and the ship is swaying about rather more than somewhat in the waves and wind. So I’m off to bed and I hope that I can finally have a decent night’s sleep.

I need it.

0

Monday 15th July 2019 – YET ANOTHER …

… really depressing night last night. We hit a few strong waves round about 04:00 and that awoke me. I couldn’t go back to sleep and so ended up making a visit down the corridor for the usual reasons. I must stop drinking tea late at night.

But after that, I managed to go back to bed and to sleep, only to wake up 90 minutes later.

Despite the early awakening it was still a struggle to leave my stinking pit and I only just managed to beat the third alarm call.

Upstairs on deck it was cold and windy, and really foggy too. We had somehow managed to negotiate the entrance to the harbour at Heimaey here on Vestmannaeyar without having to turn round at the harbour mouth and reverse in as we did last time. Instead, we turned round inside the harbour.

After breakfast I had a little relax and then took Rosemary to visit the old buildings down by the lava flow. She had missed them last time.

Later on, while Rosemary went for a walk to the museum, I went for a really good stroll around the town and right around the other side of the harbour and the fishing docks. And if you think that I smell bad, you should smell the air when you have a fish-processing plant on one side of you and a colony of seabirds on the other.

One of the things that I did was to make some kind of story of photographs involving a returning trawler, a couple of fork-lift trucks stacking boxes full of fish, another fork-lift truck loading them into a shipping container, a huge lifting truck loading the container onto,the back of a lorry and finally the lorry disappearing into what passes for the sunset around here.

There is a ship repair yard here too and it makes the one in Granville pale into insignificance. They have a kind of internal railway system to move the ships around from the slipway and although it wasn’t being used it was still something interesting.

But I was surprised to learn that one of the largest customers for Icelandic fish is Nigeria. I wasn’t expecting that at all.

Back on board ship I started to edit the outstanding pile of photographs but didn’t get very far because it was time for lunch. And time for an argument too (it didn’t take long, did it?) when someone asked me if I would be reaping the benefits of Brexit.

This afternoon I had another good crack at the photos and managed to edit quite a few dozen, although I was interrupted by going to crash out for a good 90 minutes during the afternoon. I’ve not been having such a good day.

But I’m impressed with some of the photos that I have taken. editing them, cropping and enlarging them has produced a good few that are quite spectacular. Investing in this camera was a very good decision.

Bad news though in that we aren’t going to go near to Surtsey to have a close look at the island. The sea is too rough and the weather is too bad for us to approach it with anything like the proximity that we need to have a good look.

After tea we had a singles party but there were only a few of us there. The weather has really got up now and the waves are not to everyone’s liking. But there was one person too many – a young guy who had been everywhere and done everything, a German who blamed the French for all of Germany’s problems.

I really don’t know where they dig up these people.

The evening soon came to a close as people disappeared quite quickly. I stayed up to do a little work and to organise myself better. We gain an hour tomorrow so we aren’t in too much of a rush to go to bed.

0

Sunday 14th July 2019 – THIS MORNING …

… we walked all the way from the harbour at Reykjavik right the way through the city and out the other side, and up the hill to the big new modern church that towers above the place.

When we eventually arrived there we were greeted by a burly man standing cross-armed blocking the doorway, with the air of “none shall pass” as in Monty Python and the Holy Grail
“Why not?” asked Our Hero
“Because there’s a Mass going on. And you won’t understand it either because it’s in Icelandic so come back in an hour!”

Yes, it’s Sunday of course and I had completely forgotten.

Last night I had had a terrible night’s (lack of) sleep, probably one of the worst that I have had for quite a while. In fact so much so that I found myself on one occasion dictating the same dream twice. I’m clearly losing my marbles – not that I had too many in the first place.

Despite all of my exertions I did actually make it up (just) before the first alarm and staggered once more out on deck to take a couple of photos of Reykjavik in the rain. because the weather has now broken.

We had an early breakfast and then because we aren’t amongst the hordes saying goodbye to the ship today we had an hour or so free time. I spent my hour or so in the horizontal position on the bed and enjoyed every minute of what I remembered about it. Which wasn’t much.

At 09:00 we went out across the road to the café in the Flea Market where we were assured of a good wi-fi connection. And a good wi-fi connection it was too and we spent quite some time checking up on things, including the latest chaos in the UK.

Later, Rosemary wanted to go shopping for some presents for her friends so we headed off into town, looking at a few shops on the way, in one of which she bought a few winter woollies. After all, Iceland is the place to come for those.

There was the church of course, as I mentioned earlier, and then a walk down to the waterfront and back along the shore to the ship for lunch.

Grabbing Strawberry Moose we made our way back into town after lunch. We had had to wait for a while to give the rainstorm time to die down, so we didn’t have as much time as we would have liked.

The flea market was now open so we had a look around, and Rosemary tried some dried cod. A few more shops and a few more presents, and a couple of photo opportunities for His Nibs.

By now the rain was coming down in torrents so we fled back to the ship. All of our new co-voyagers were waiting to board but we didn’t hang about. We just charged through them and up the gangway onto The Good Ship Ve … errr … Ocean Endeavour.

First thing that I did was to dive into the shower, taking a handful of clothes in with me. I needed a good scrub up and I have to keep on top of the laundry for I have a long way to go.

And then we had all of the briefings that I have sat through on innumerable occasions followed by the mandatory lifeboat drill. And in the time that it took to organise the drill we would have all disappeared beneath the waves a good while ago had we really been in trouble.

For tea we made the acquaintance of a couple from Edinburgh in Scotland on their first voyage. The husband had visited Greenland many years ago so he’s in for a bit of a shock when he gets back there.

After tea we had a tea and a chat, but it’s an early start tomorrow so we decided to retire early.

And I can’t say that I’m sorry. The pace is now going to heat up considerably.

0

Thursday 11th July 2019 – WE’VE HAD …

… a really busy day today. And I do mean busy.

Last night I had a very mixed night – I went to bed early, fell asleep watching a film, managed to awaken in time to switch everything off and go back to sleep.

Nevertheless i was awake enough at about 04:00 and again at 05:50 but hardly in any mood to leave the bed except for the usual reasons that any man of my age will know.

Once the alarms all went off (I found my phone last night under a couple of pieces of paper as I was tidying up) I had a struggle to leave my stinking pit, but once on deck I found that we were pulling in to the port of Seydisfjordur.

And we weren’t alone either, for there was a big car ferry, the MS Norrona, moored alongside. This is the ferry that goes to the Faroe Islands and Denmark and how I would have liked to have gone for a ride on that in order to come across the North Sea.

Mind you, I would have had a few logistics problems as it’s a once-a-week only sailing. And then I would have to get to Reykjavik. But there were hordes of cars of all kinds of European countries lined up ready to board, and streams of ditto disembarking all over the place. There were even several British vehicles.

After Breakfast I came back to my room where I … errr … had a little rest and almost missed my call at 08:40.

Jessie led us on a photography hike to the waterfall where we climbed up to the top of the path and took a pile of photos. The day had started off cold but by the time that I was on top I had divested myself of almost everything.

Back into town afterwards, where on the way I stumbled across an ancient Scandinavian vehicle. No idea what it is so I shall have to do some research. But while I was doing that, the ferry loaded up and sailed out. “Gone and never called me mother” as they might have said in “East Lynne”.

We photographed the Rainbow Walk and a few other places in the town centre and then off to the church.

On the way back to the ship I came across the local scrapyard where I spent a very pleasant half hour poking around the ruins and relics. Nothing all that exciting or old unfortunately. But while I was continuing on to the ship, another cruise ship pulled in and tied up to where the ferry had been.

One mug of tea later we were back on shore. Rosemary had missed the church so I took her there, only to find that it had closed for lunch. So we went for a walk and a visit to a couple of arty places. But by now the wind had increased and it was going bitterly cold. A hanging cloud was rolling up the fjord making things worse.

Back yet again at the ship and I fetched my packed lunch as we were off on the bus.

First stop was at an archaeological site at Thorunnarstadir where an old Norse church had been discovered. We had a good look around it. They had come across and excavated a graveyard there, of which half of the bodies had been interred in the foetal position indicating a pagan burial, but others in the more usual Christian style. Iceland was Christianised at 1000AD so the church and the Christian burials would date from some time round about then.

But it’s interesting to speculate about what might have been on the site prior to the church that led to it being chosen as a site for pagan burials. There was a Norse village here that has yet to be properly investigated, and interestingly, a modern village had sprung up in the immediate vicinity but had been abandoned comparatively recently, in the last 50 or so years.

While they were excavating the church they unearthed some relics and these are now in the museum at Rejkjavik.

On we went to the Skalanes nature reserve at the edge of the fjord. We were given a discussion on lupins, how they were planted to anchor and fertilise the soil but how they have gone on the rampage and found to be most pervasive – the country is covered in them. There were plenty of rhubarb and angelica growing here in the neighbourhood.

Dodging the terns, we went to a cliff site to see the nesting birds but I was more interested in the geological formations. And a gyrfalcon put in an appearance but unfortunately I wasn’t quick enough with the camera.

There was a pile of feathers lying around and it was explained to us that a short while ago a Skua had caught a fulmar, drowned it to kill it, and then dragged the carcass onshore for a feast. This had all taken place in front of a crowd of onlookers.

The road out there was narrow and treacherous and involved driving through several rough, rocky fords where there were several impressive waterfalls. It was a good job that we had a 4 wheel drive bus.

Tea was a barbecue and I almost missed it, having a shower and a clothes wash, followed by yet another relax.

We had a chat afterwards, including a young American boy, and now I’m off for an early night. I need it too. There won’t be any photography tonight because we are now encased in an overwhelmingly thick fog.

0

Monday 1st July 2019 – IT WAS SOMETHING …

… of a rather depressing night. I had a shower as soon as I got into my room and gave my clothes a quick wash and then, still dripping rather wet, I crawled into bed.

Bed is one thing. Sleep is something else completely. And so it was that I lay awake tossing and turning as the clock rolled on.

However I must have gone to sleep at some point because I was off on my travels at a certain moment. This was another thing where something went wrong. I was with Percy Penguin – at least, it was her but then again it wasn’t – and it was all about cars and so on. I’d arranged to meet Percy Penguin (who doesn’t feature in my notes half as often as she deserves) and I picked her up and we went for a meal. She was asleep on the sofa in this hotel. Everyone was gradually being served and in the end there was just me, another guy and Percy Penguin asleep on the sofa. A woman from the restaurant came out and said “I suppose that you three are all together”. I replied that we were all on our own, except that I might possible be with that girl there. Percy Penguin sat up so I sat next to her and we had the menus. We agreed on a starter and then we had to choose the wine for the wine list. I asked “what wine do you want?” as if she would know.She didn’t so I ordered a nice bottle of full-bodied red Burgundy. The waitress said “oh I don’t have a Burgundy”. I expressed my astonishment that a restaurant wouldn’t have a Burgundy. So I said “how about a Sancilly?”. I explained to Percy Penguin that that came from the area where I lived. The woman looked at me rather peculiarly so she went off to fetch it. Percy Penguin asked about the main course. We hadn’t ordered a main course.I said that maybe we do that a bit later after we’ve had the starter.She said that all the back of my head was oily. I said that I had been working on a car, lying underneath it. She wondered why I hadn’t had it washed. I said that it was almost time to come and pick her up. I hadn’t had time to wash.

At this point I sat up bolt-upright. 04:45. This isn’t any good at all. But nevertheless I was glad that I was awake because I wasn’t disturbed by the alarm on the Canadian phone that, not having adjusted itself to UK time, rang and awoke the Dead at 05:00

That was the cue for me to write up my blog notes for yesterday, which I hadn’t done, not having gone to bed until late.

Rosemary rang me at about 07:00 or so, so I went down to the hotel lobby to say hello. We had a chat and then she went off to breakfast and I went back upstairs to organise myself.

At about 08:45 we met up again, suitcases in hand, and headed off to the bus stop in the cold, cloudy, overcast weather. We just missed a 727 bus and had to wait 10 minutes for the one behind.When it turned up, I found out that my Pound coins were out of date so Rosemary had to help out with the fare.

We were dropped off at the bus station which is right opposite the docks. Finding the docks is one thing, but finding our berth was somewhere else. The first guy at the spoke to in the harbour was more interested in telling me off about crossing a forbidden line than helping us out.

He sent us to the ferry terminal where they were none-the-wiser. However they did suggest that we try elsewhere, being right back where we started by the bus station.

There was an intercom there so I tried to speak to someone but I couldn’t hear a word. Eventually I picked up the phrase “security lodge” and seeing a security lodge in the distance, we headed that way, apparently crossing yet another forbidden line.

This time we had been picked up on CCTV for a rather irate security guard in a pick-up came to tell us off. But when we explained what we were looking for he told us to follow him (not easy when you are dragging suitcases behind you and he’s in a pick-up).

Eventually we caught up with him and, much to my surprise, he knew where we had to go. But knowing is one thing, walking that distance was something else. After a very weary trudge we eventually found our berth.

Finding it is one thing – getting to it was quite another.Negotiating a security gate and moving a barrier, being stopped and searched by security, we were eventually allowed in and we were ushered on board The Good Ship Ve … errr … Ocean Endeavour.

Much to my surprise, there were a few people whom I recognised from last year, such as Ashley and Yulya. And of course they asked the obvious question – “how’s Strawberry Moose?.

And they were delighted to hear that he’s once more managed to stow himself aboard. As I have said before … “and on many occasions too” – ed … he’s far more popular with the ladies than I am ever likely to be.

I found my way to my own cabin – right next door to the one that I had last year. And I dumped my stuff and made my way back to the reception to meet my fellow passengers. On this leg of the journey we are a grand total of just SIX. “One deck each” I quipped.

A delicious lunch was served, and afterwards Rosemary and I headed off into town for a walk. We found a branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland where, at long last, I could activate my bank cards and change the PINS. And also to swap over my bad money for some good stuff.

We then went for a little wander around the Granite City for half an hour or so, and then headed back to the ship where I bumped into my room cleaner from last year.

Back on board, I had a shower, a clean-up and a change of clothes, doing a little washing along the way. I need to keep on top of my washing otherwise I’ll run out of clothes.

With plenty of time to kill before tea, we all had a chat about nothing much, and then came the safety briefing.
“One short blast on the ship’s siren means put on warm clothing”
“Two short blasts on the ship’s siren means come aloft”
“Three short blasts on the ship’s siren means put on lifebelts”
“Four short blasts on the ship’s siren means abandon ship”
“One long blast on the ship’s siren means that the ship’s siren is stuck”

Tea was even more delicious than lunch, and that was saying something. And then we sat around for ages watching all kinds of shipping leave the harbour – except us of course. This 22:00 departure time is turning out to be some kind of Spanish 22:00.

It was just after 23:00 when the tug pulled us away from the quayside, and then we pulled it forward out of the harbour. And as it attempted to disengage, something caught up somewhere and the rope snapped with an incredible force. Had we been a couple of decks lower, we would have been decapitated.

We watched Aberdeen disappear into the dusk and rain, and then called it a night. 128% of my daily effort, 9.4 kms walked. I’m ready for bed.

0

Thursday 29th June 2017 – I’VE JUST DROPPED …

… half of my tea all over the floor.

Well, half of the curry anyway. So never mind – I have a couple of small tins of mushrooms and so one of them went into what was left and it didn’t end up too bad.

Mind you – I’m not surprised that that happened. I’ve been half-asleep all afternoon what with one thing and another.

Sleeping on the sofa might be comfortable, but it’s regrettably not as comfortable as my big new bed and while Rosemary said that she had the best sleep that she’s had for ages (so much so that she’s going to buy a new bed as soon as she returns home) I was tossing and turning for much of the night.

The alarm was programmed to go off at 06:00 and I was up and about long before then. But women take their time of course and it was 06:55 before we hit the road. Rosemary has a long way yet to go and not much time to do it either, and this wasn’t really the time to be hanging about.

I led her out to the edge of town and from there she was off on her own. I stopped to pick up a baguette and then came back for breakfast.

For most of the morning I was working on the blog. I’m into March 2012 right now, and the modernisations to the earlier modernisations are proceeding apace too. But the more that I do, the harder it’s going to become because I’ve been doing the easy stuff first.

After lunch on my wall, I went into town again. The Bank had told me that my bank cards are ready to be picked up and so I went to fetch them. I need them for shopping tomorrow.

I went to look at the Marité (she’s back) and to make a few enquiries about potential voyages. The girl at the reception desk didn’t know too much about the voyages so she referred me to the website.

One thing is for sure, though. And that is that they don’t go to anywhere exciting. I was hoping for a trip to the Roaring Forties and maybe a lap o two around Cape Horn. But I’m told that I would be lucky if I had a trip around the bay here.

Somehow it’s not the same.

One thing that did catch my eye on the quayside was a huge pile of scrap metal. All old cookers, fridges, a few engines and – an Iveco lorry that had been cut into bits.

The writing on the fridges was in English – and then I noticed that the lorry was a right-hand drive vehicle. So this pile of scrap has come in from a British possession somewhere, and I seemed to have missed the ship that brought it in.

That is, unless it was the load brought in by the Whatsit the other week and has yet to be moved.

Armed with the bank cards – and a citron sorbet fom the ice-cream shop I walked back up here for a rest – and, as I said earlier, a kind-of drift in between sleeping and waking.

And then I dropped my curry.

So a good sleep tonight (I hope) back in my bed and then shopping tomorrow. Now that I have access to my cash I’m going to buy a little hi-fi. I know that I said that I wouldn’t spend very much before I went to Canada, but I’m missing my music.

0

Wednesday 28th June 2017 – PHEW!

Just as I was going to bed last night, I had a message “how do you fancy a visitor tomorrow? I’m on the road”.

Well, since I’ve had my new place and can actually accommodate people these days, why not?

And so this morning, after a night of tossing and turning, I was up with the cock. And quite early too because it wasn’t long after 06:00 that I saw the light of day.

I’m not as fit as I used to be and so cleaning the apartment took all day. But then it was 20 minutes here and a sit-down for an hour to recover my strength, and then 20 minutes there and a sit-down etc etc.

The least that can be said about visitors is that their potential arrival shakes me out of my lethargy and obliges me to clean up the place. So the more visitors, the merrier.

I stopped for lunch but I wasn’t intending to go outside because we were having yet another rainstorm. The weather has indeed broken here. And then back into the cleaning routine. Followed by a shower, a shave and a change of clothes (I have to look my best) and a little … err … repose.

At 17:30 I had a phone call
“I think I’ve missed the turning and I’m not sure where I am now”
“What can you see around you?”
“I’m opposite the hospital”
“OK. Stay there. I’ll come and fetch you” (and I made a mental note that a dashcam video of the route might be a good idea)

What impressed me was that last night I’d asked for a rough ETA. And my visitor replied “between 17:00 and 18:00 I reckon”. It was now exactly 17:30. Spot on!

And so I arrived at the hospital and there was Rosemary in her new car. She was off for a quick aller-retour to the UK and there is more than one way to skin a cat. Going via Granville is as good a way as any. And she had brought the sun with her because it was now brightening up

Luckily there was plenty of curry left over from yesterday so rustling up a meal didn’t take me too long. And then we sat for a couple of hours and put the world to rights.

But my first overnight visitor! And I can accommodate someone here too – much more than ever could be said for back in the Auvergne.

0

Friday 20th November 2015 – AHH WELL!

So here I am.

It’s 08:00 in the morning and I crawl (and I do mean crawl) out of bed. I can safely say that I’ve never felt as bad as all of this. Getting down to Caliburn was something of a struggle and I’m sure that I couldn’t see straight as I drove down to Pionsat for my blood test. A surprise awaited me at the reception of the medical centre – on duty was one of the girls who runs the pie hut at FCPSH.

So having dealt with the blood test, I staggered back here and had my breakfast (luckily I’d prepared it before I went off) and then crashed out on the sofa.

I managed a coffee at about midday and then crashed out again, to be awoken by the telephone at 14:30. It was the doctor. “You have a very bad case of anaemia and you need to go to the hospital at once. I’ve prepared a file for you and there’s an ambulance voucher here at the office”

An ambulance voucher is one thing, but finding an ambulance is something else. In the end I ring up Terry and Liz, but they are out, but Rosemary is in and so she comes to the rescue. I have just about enough strength to throw a few things into a bag and then we are off.

At the hospital I check in, but I don’t even have enough time to find a seat before I’m whisked off into an emergency room and stuck on a bed. They couple me up to a vitamin tube and give me a good interrogation – and after about an hour, the blood arrived.

I had one “pochette” of blood in the emergency room and then they took me up to a room where they gave me two others.
“We have to check your blood pressure every 15 minutes during the transfusion process” explained the nurse.
“I’m a very light sleeper” I replied
“Well you are going to be in for a very long night” she answered.
And she was right.

-2

Sunday 18th October 2015 – SECOND NIGHT …

… in my nice comfy bed, and second night that I’ve been on my travels.

This time I was in a submarine (as if that is ever likely to happen) and we were chasing a German submarine, which was painted yellow and shaped more like a car ferry at the rear with a drop-down ramp at the back. We rammed the enemy submarine from underneath and pushed it up and out of the water onto land, where it seemed to develop a set of wheels and so shot off down the road. We transformed ourselves into something like an enormous Hummer, painted white, and shot off after this wheeled submarine. As we overtook it, it swerved to the left and shot off into a wood. We missed the turning and then we couldn’t work out where it had gone. As a consequence we launched a human kite – the kind that was quite often used in the late 19th Century for reconnaissance purposes – so that our spy in the sky could search all around for the submarine. He couldn’t see it, but he descended lower and lower and heard people speaking German. Then he made a gesture to be winched in immediately – it seemed that there was a family living in the woods who had some German origins and the young children were being taught German. In his eagerness to find out what was going on, he had been careless and allowed himself to be seen by the children.

It’s Sunday today and despite it being the day when I can sleep until eternity, I was wide awake at 07:00 and out of my bed before 08:00. When did that ever happen previously on a Sunday?

And after breakfast and doing a bit on the laptop, I started to clean and tidy up the worktop here. It’s ended up in a bit of a mess after whatever went on while I wasn’t here.

At lunchtime I went round to Rosemary’s. She needed some help and her mobility issues right now means that she can’t help herself too much. She had to move some stuff from her cottage into the house and that took us a couple of hours. As a reward, Rosemary made a lovely leek-and-potato soup with fresh bread and I showed her the photos of my voyages just now.

That took me until 21:00 so on the way back I stopped for some chips and found half on Pionsat’s football team, including Florian and blond Frederic in there eating kebabs.

Now I’m back and I’ve remembered to do the stats. So I’m off to bed.

I wonder where I’ll end up tonight.

0

Saturday 8th August 2015 – MISERABLE DAY

Too hot in the bedroom last night so I had the window open. But it wasn’t the dawn chorus that awoke me, it was a torrential rainstorm. In fact 31.5mm of rain fell today.

It goes without saying that the guy whose Hyundai is on my drive never turned up to move it, and I wasn’t working in these conditions.

I was doing a few bits and pieces here and then went off to St Eloy to meet Rosemary. She’s off to the UK next week for a medical appointment and needs plenty of moral support before she goes – although since when has any support that I have been able to give anyone been moral?

On the way back, I went via Pionsat to do some shopping at the Intermarché, and it did spring to my mind that the next time that I’ll be doing any food shopping will be in the Metro supermarket in the Cote des Neiges in Montreal. I’m not sure if breakfast is included in my hotel room, so I’ll be needing my bagels and strawberry jam.

Back here I caught up with another few things that I needed to do and then I was engulfed in controversy. The football club that I follow, Bangor City, is in financial difficulty which is astonishing seeing as they are the best-supported club in the WPL and have the second-best exposure. Clearly things aren’t right in the club and, due to British law about slander and libel I shan’t go into them on here. But despite releasing three or four of their best players last season (remember that the club finished just third from bottom, even with these players in it) and having kicked out half of the development squad, today they have just sold their best player to a league rival.

These directors just don’t “get it”. Struggling near the foot of the table will cause attendances to fall, so they will lose just as much, if not more, than they have gained. And then with the inevitable relegation, they will lose the Welsh Premier League prize money, league sponsorship, all kinds of financial support and the club will go on a great big downward spiral.

It’s a classic case of “short-termism”. Press the panic button and the Directors all run around like headless chickens. There’s no long-term plan, no vision, no nothing. People like these aren’t fit to be in charge of a whelk stall, never mind a half-million-pound business.

Just one close-season signing – and he’s from a club two leagues down.

At least Afan Lido two years ago waited until mid-season to throw in the towel. Throwing in the towel before a ball has even been kicked is totally shameful.

0