When it Rains it Pours....

It's a rainy day in Albany...but it's quite a relief to some degree.

Chance to catch up on chores and write some blog... We had looked around the town a couple of days ago and decided it was okay but just another seasidy place... so we moved on to find camping for the night. We spent the last few days on various stunning beaches (and rock) one night in a beautiful bay called Shelley Beach where we camped right on the beach for the night.. Just as the light was going, a school of dolphins just skimmed along the shoreline they must have been 20 or more just bouncing and bobbing in and out of the water. Apparently they were chasing all the fish into the corner of the bay where they then just swirl around and have what looked like a very choice feast. It was very special to see them ... taking photographs was quite difficult .... there is a dolphin in this picture!

We spent the night with waves crashing against the beach and in the morning after Dr Fred had explored the boulders we moved on to another campsite which was not dissimilar, except this time we were surrounded by beautiful shaped shady trees.

We could still hear the waves crashing just over the fence - the beach is once again stunning but the waves are very high and it makes me a bit scared to go out in the sea. ... Dr Fred excelled himself by going into the sea wearing his vest, his trousers rolled above his knees... socks and crocs! unfortunately I didn't get a photograph to immortalize this fashionista icon....We wandered up and down the beach in the afternoon sun but fully aware that too much sun burns... I just caught my ankles when I forgot to reapply sun cream after paddling.. diferent kind of itchy feet

This morning we found a stick insect on the van...

we put it in the undergrowth and set off to have a drive around the other side of the bay. From Shelleys beach the other day - across the Frenchmans Bay, we could see this enormous granite cliff on the other side that just plunged straight into the sea and, one of us... was desperate to go look closer...

We had a walk around Stoney Hill -

I even climbed a couple of boulders and we could see the rain coming in.

At the lookout we could see where we had come from over the last week - Bluff Knoll standing out in silouette..

we could see the path leading to Peak Head - the granite cliff - I left Dr Fred to it ... how granite cliffs does a girl need!!!

I had a long chat with a magpie who agreed to pose for me...

the explorer returned - a bit knackered but with another dozen or more crag photos

and the rain arrived.. so we went shopping for food - mundane but necessary....

Scotland part 2

The second half of the week continued in much the same vein. We had one rainy afternoon which was actually quite nice to be holed up in the house with the rain lashing the windows. It probably wasn't quite so nice for the two visitors that came on their bikes but they're tough cookies - and its only water- but I did feel sorry for them having to cycle six miles back down the track in the wind and rain, but given Scotland, it wasn't as bad as it could be. The big quest for the 2nd half of the week was to find some deer antiers! The chap that owned the house dropped in to visit - he was a very friendly fella and was chatting about how this was the time of year when all the Stags lost their antlers (he collected them and sold them) so after that we were on the serious lookout. It's always been Fred's mission to find some dropped antlers.... The Monro baggers continued with the mission to bag the remaining three Monros... there is discussion as whet...

Vigo

We left the ship to explore Vigo. Its a much larger place then we expected... although tbh I hadn't given ut a lot of thought. Its a real mish mash of old and new and having got a map from tourist info we decided to follow the walking trail to the Monte Castro... the highest point of the town. Most of the town was pretty much as everywhere else... lots of traffic... lots of people... one or two interesting buildings and a lot of shopping. We headed to the art gallery - this has been a year of gallery visits so we we seen o reason to change now. The Museo de Marco is housed in the towns ex prison building and its very grand. In fact, I think that on this occaision the building might have been more interesting than the art.... Although the visiting exhibition by Susanne S D Themlitz was strangely compelling. It was a huge varied collection of eclectic items... found, salavaged, manipulated and arranged in lots of ways - weirdly inspiring - and mostly enjoyable to look at...

Funchal

So after three days at sea we finally hit Funchal in Madeira. An escape from the ship, and I have to say it was very pleasant indeed. First of all the weather is really splendid. Especially when you know that everybody else in the UK is suffering grim storms and vile winds.. Over here it is between 22 and 25 degrees is really quite warm. Funchal is a pretty city. It's built on a hill it with lots of lovely white houses with stunning red roofs. In order to get the best of it we walked along the sea front until we got to the cable car and we took it up the hill. It was a really good ride much longer than we imagined and it's quite weird because it goes right through the town - completely over everybody's house... So not only do you get a lovely vista of the bay but you can view the beautiful rooftops and get to look in everybody's gardens and to look at their picnic sets.. clean washing nice plants... scratty b...

Planet Ruby Starrs

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