Tag Archives: radar station

Thursday 11th January 2018 – REGULAR READERS …

… pf this rubbish will not be at all surprised by today’s news.

I believe that I mentioned that I had tracked down the mobile telephone repairer in Granville – there is only one. And so this morning I set off to pay him a visit. And there on the door was a notice “Gone on Holiday”.

You couldn’t make it up, could you?

I had another excellent night’s sleep, and off on my travels yet again. My mother was having yet another one of her “performances” and so I left home yet again. I found myself in a big house where there was a place for me to stay – but it involved climbing up a rope and leaping across a three-foot gap, hanging on by my fingers and hauling myself up. But somewhere along the line I had acquired a cat, and trying to climb a rope with it in my arms was difficult, and jumping across a three-foot gap would be impossible. And then what made it worse was that another cat decided to come along and join in the fun. He climbed up into my arms too.

After breakfast I had a shower and general clean-up, and then it was tile to hit the streets.

normandy trader port de granville manche normandy franceFirst stop however was the port.

I’d seem them the other day unloading a pile of stuff n the quayside and so I reckoned that it might be Grima coming in. But instead it’s his rival, the Normandy Trader.

She’s a converted landing craft as you can tell, but apart from that I’ve not been able to find out anything about her history. I shouldn’t be surprised if she’s a former Caledonion-MacBraye island hopper, but who knows?

The phone repairer was closed as I said, so I struggled on to LIDL. And it was a struggle up the hill as you can imagine. I’m not really in fit state to go on foot but I do need to push myself onwards.

And seeing that I didn’t want anythinf really, I did well to spend €25:00 in there. But they had unleashed some more towels so I grabbed another set to make two now. And the last set of AAA batteries (but it’s not the batteries that are the issue in the remote control – it must be goosed).

forum jules ferry public rooms granville manche normandy franceBut on the way back, I made an exciting find.

I had to make a sharp deviation to avoid being run down, and found myself face-to-face with the letter boxes of the Associations that use the public rooms.

And there are a couple of things on here that I find quite interesting, as you might expect. I shall have to make further enquiries.

Back in the town, I had a cunning plan.

Being frustrated with this message limit that is blocking my credit card from making on-line payments, I headed to the Post Office. When I was there the other day I’d seen pre-paid credit cards on offer. One of those, with a payment up front, should enable me to complete this driving licence.

But regular readers of this rubbish will not be in the least surprised to learn that the Post Office has sold out, and doesn’t plan on having any more.

You can’t make that up either.

But not to be outdone. I went to the Orange shop and had a bit of a moan at one of the salesmen. And hey! Presto! A quick manipulation with my phone and a raft of messages suddenly appeared.

You might think that I can now go ahead and complete the form, but I have a better idea that might take a couple of days to come to fruition.

All in all, I was out for almost three hours,and I’d done 82% of my daily exercise, so I’d earned a sit-down. And at lunchtime I made myself a thick vegetable soup with pasta and bulghour in it. Delicious it was too, and I even managed some bread.

yacht granville manche normandy franceI was going to say that I had a good relax all afternoon, but that’s not quite true. It was such a beautiful afternoon that later on I tore myself off the sofa and staggered outside for a walk around the headland.

There was a strange-looking yacht out there too. It’s either sailing at a strange angle or else it’s one of these historic yachts of the type that you see around here every now and again.

UNfortunately, without the zoom lens it’s difficult to say.

phare de granville lighthouse manche normandy franceYesterday I mentioned the lighthouse here on the Pointe du Roc.

I did say that I’ve yet to take a good photograph of it, and so I resolved to put that right today.

I’ve mentioned … "on many occasions" – ed … that each lighthouse is painted a different colour so that mariners can distinguish them in the daytime, and different sequences of flashes so that ditto in the night.

But I think that they could have been a little more imaginative with the colour scheme here. But at least it blends in with the ruins of the Atlantic Wall.

coast guard station granville manche normandy franceThere’s also a coastguard station here, operated by the French Military.

It’s complete with a radar installation as you can see. A really impressive piece of equipment.

And so I continued on my way around qnd passed the 100% mark so I’m now feeling very virtuous. And quite right too. It’s been a while, although I know that I’m going to suffer for this.

Back here I had a spell on the guitar and listened to the music on the new hi-fi. And we’ve now passed onto Tangerine Dream.

I’m not too keen on some of their more experimental music, but they went through a stage – well, two stages actually – of producing some albums that were unbelievably superb, and bring back many happy memories of when I was living in Hankelow in the mid-70s.

And talking of superb, let me tell you about tea tonight. Not really knowing what I fancied, it was mashed potato with cheese, and a huge plate of mixed vegatbels with bulghour and gravy. Tons of protein in that lot.

That so buoyed me up that I went for another walk (well, more like a stagger) this evening. And I’m now up to 128% of my daily activity.

So I’m off to bed now to easy my aching joints. God knows what I shall be like tomorrow.

Thursday 14th October 2010 – WELL, STRAWBERRY MOOSE HAD A GOOD DAY TODAY.

strawberry moose family labrador coastal drive canadaOn the road between Port Hope Simpson and Mary’s Harbour we encountered some more of his cousins. This time it was mother and daughter.

And a short while later we encountered another juvenile. So he’s having fun anyway, meeting up with all of his family and he’s ever so excited about it all. Good old Strawberry Moose

wunderstrand norse viking visit site cartwright labrador canadaAs for me, I’ve done nothing like as much as I hoped. But then again, I’ve been distracted. For a start I couldn’t get out to see the Wunderstrand.

Although it’s just across the bay from Cartwright, it’s actually a 10-mile walk followed by a 10-minute kayak journey (you need to carry your kayak the 10 miles, by the way), or else it’s half an hour across the bay in a kayak (in a howling wind across freezing cold water) and of course regular readers of these columns know that you couldn’t get warm again. You know that it’s against the law to light a fire in a canoe – you cannot have your kayak and heat it.

wunderstrand norse viking visit site cartwright labrador canadaThere is however a certain spot to which you can drive and with a long telephoto lens and a little judicious crop and sharpen, you can make out the beach right away in the distance and see just how beautiful it all is.

Of course a photo isn’t the same as actually walking in the footsteps of Eirik the Red at the climax of his magnificent epic voyage to Vinland, but I suppose that it’s the best that I can do

pinsent's arm labrador canadaAnyway, back on the Labrador Coastal Drive (as this bit of the Trans-Labrador Highway is called) the next stop was the most delightfully-named Pinsent’s Arm, a small fishing village on the coast in a sheltered bay off the Atlantic. I always thought that the name was quite romantic.

I had to ask directions when I got to Charlottetown. I hailed a passing native (who picked up a handful of gravel and hailed me back)
“Excuse me – can you tell me where I can find Pinsent’s Arm?”
“Why yes alrighty” she burred (I just love the way they talk in Labrador). “It’s over there in that bucket”.

fishing boat pinsent's arm labrador canadaPinsent’s Arm has a population of 64 and they were all on the quayside waiting for me to arrive.

One of the fishing smacks that operates out of here had just put in to port.
“What do you catch here now that the cod has finished? Shrimp like out of Cartwright?” I enquired.
“Why no” he replied. “We get them thar whelks and scallops”.
But if they were whelks and scallops in those baskets they were unloading then I’m going to have my eyes tested as soon as I get back to Europe.

atlantic ocean pinsent's arm labrador canadaThe natives, obviously wishing to see the back of me, pointed out to me the way through the rubbish dump and local tip to the point where you can see the Atlantic through the cove.

This is quite impressive, and would have been even nicer had I been more lucky with the weather. But it could have been worse – it could have been snowing.

iceberg alley st lewis labrador canadaI also went off down Iceberg Alley for a visit to St Lewis – the farthest easternmost settlement on the mainland American continent.

And if ever I have the luck to be able to choose a place out here to settle it would be here. St Lewis is easily the prettiest place that I have ever visited on the North American continent.

It was settled in the earliest days of white exploration and then forgotten.

iceberg alley st lewis labrador canadaAnd when it was “rediscovered” in the 19th Century, the person who discovered it (I can’t remember his name just now) remarked on the “industry and divinity” of the inhabitants. I suppose that a couple of hundred years of isolation had had its advantages for the inhabitants.

But all of that changed after World War II

pinetree radar station st lewis labrador canadaIts more modern claim to fame, as everyone will tell you, is that it was a station on the DEW line – the Distant Early Warning radar system installed by the Americans on Canadian soil to track and then shoot down the atomically-armed Russian bombers so that the nuclear fallout would be in Canada and not in the USA.

But of course it wasn’t on the DEW line, despite how romantic the legend sounds, as you can tell from the antennae. It was actually a site on Pinetree – the forerunner of the DEW line but which operated on a much shorter-reach traditional radar system and with all the defects of a traditional system.

Once the Russians mastered the art of low-flying, Pinetree’s days were numbered.

alexis river port hope simpson labrador coastal drive canadaBut it’s unfair to single out places like St Lewis and Pinsent’s Arm for their beauty. The whole of this road – the Labrador Coastal Drive – is full of spectacular scenery.

This is, I think, Alexis River near Port Hope Simpson and if there is a more beautiful place to stop and eat my midday butty, I would really love to see it. In fact, the nice lay-by here would be an ideal place to stay for the night, if only I had a camper.

And after that, with me not being halfway around where I wanted to go, and having found some playmates for His Nibs, I’ve had to lay up for the night in Mary’s Harbour (spelt correctly – this is Canada not the USA).