Llangattock and Brecon Beacons May 2015

A short midweek trip to South Wales which co-coincided with the General Election.
Link to Photo album here best viewed as slideshow with captions.

Looking down to Llangorse Lake between the showers

Stopped off for a wild and windy run up Mynydd Llangorse on the way down before staying at Llangattock Mountain Bunkhouse, aka Llangattock Youth Hostel ,which is located high up off the mountain road between Crickhowell and Brynmawr.
The next day was still very windy but this helped to keep the rain away and after walking round the south side of Mynydd Llangattock some welcome shelter was provided by the dramatic northern scarp slope.

The Lonely Shepherd

After another night at the bunkhouse I moved west of the Brecon Beacons to stay at the eponymously named Youth Hostel (but which is really Llwyn-y-celyn in old money). By now the weather had calmed down and it was fairly bright and sunny so I did some point to point navigation round the geocaches on the Fan Fawr hills from the top road south of Heol Senni.

Some very wet caches which seem to have been placed to attract as much moisture as possible!
A very good midweek trip altogether.

Late April on the allotments

I thought that I'd better do an allotment post while it's still early spring! Very chilly weather similar to the start of April with an unseasonal warm dry spell in between. The wind died down and the sun came out again late this afternoon after heavy showers so I took my camera over to the site and took quite a few photos.

Slideshow here

This year as well as growing onions from sets I'm also trying them from seed.So far so good.The leeks from seed are also a couple of months further advanced than last year.

Garlic and onions from sets

Italian red onions (banana shallots? )from seed

Italian winter leeks

The plot is now in it's fourth year and beginning to look more established with the addition of the fruit bushes and canes.Summer and Autumn raspberries, loganberries,gooseberries,blackcurrants, a tayberry and a redcurrant.I've removed the blueberries from a very clayey spot in the fruit area and transferred them into pots of ericaceous compost in the garden at home and they've already perked up.

Red and black currants

Summer raspberries

Loganberries and a Tayberry

The whole site is now beginning to mature with lots more greenery and no longer looks bare in early spring.
There's now also a Community Garden Area where people from the village can come and pick crops in season.

Our shared greenhouse is a real boon.Although I have a couple of basic cold frames at home I try to bring stuff across to the site so that the others can keep it watered when I'm away!
As well as using it to start off the onions I'm now got brassica ,legumes,curbits and flowers,including some of last year's self seeded Black Magic sunflowers rescued from a nearby pot of mint.

Re-homed sunflower seedlings

Snapdragons

Pumpkin and cucumber

Succession peas and beans

Gran Canaria walk 15th Feb 2015 Artenara to San Nicolas de Aldea

The final walk of my week long trip was planned to coincide with staying in Las Palmas near San Telmo guagua station so that I could catch the 220 "Sunday bus" which leaves at 8.15 am and goes right through to Artenara without changing buses (but with a handy 20 minutes coffee break at Teror).
Quite a long walk through the mountains to the west side of the island today ,with the need to keep going in order to catch the 17.30 bus back from Aldea via Galdar along the north coast.Otherwise it would mean waiting for one at 19.45 via Puerto de Mogan on the south coast with a late evening return to Las Palmas.

I arrived at Artenara at around 10.20 and had time for a coffee and cake before setting off on the path to Degollada del Sargento.Most guidebooks treat this as the start after a taxi ride from the village but I was quite happy to walk for the extra hour and then chip away at the timings on the rest of the route.
 (click on any photo to view series in a larger format)

Looking west over Vega de Acusa

First of many views over to Tenerife

Roques Nublo and Bentaiga

The path follows the ridge across Risco Alto to a route junction  before Altavista where the old camino to Aldea then sidles above a ravine on the north side of the mountain and after following a lower ridge becomes less obvious on the ground with the way being marked by occasional cairns.

Altavista from the north

A rude shelter

 

The path then crosses moorland before passing through some strange mineralised areas on the final descent to Aldea.The town is surrounded by vast numbers of  rather ugly looking "greenhouses" which presumably help to grow our winter salads.

Aldea from Degollada del Morro de las Tocinas

San Nicolas de Aldea

 I'd made quick work of the day's walk and arrived with masses of time to catch the bus.San Nicolas had very much a one horse town feel about it with only one bar open,so after locating the bus stop I settled down for a couple of beers and watched most of the Barcelona match on the TV. The 101 bus to Galdar is only large minibus size to cope with the narrow winding roads on the side of the steep northwestern coastal cliffs.Once it reached Puerto de las Nieves I was back on familiar ground and on arrival at Galdar shortly after seven only had a short wait for the connecting bus for the half hour journey back to Las Palmas.
A pretty good day altogether with the weather and timings working perfectly.

Gran Canaria walk 14 Feb 2015 San Bartolome to Ayagaures

I always try to pack light so that I can combine walking and bus journeys when moving from one area to another during my trips.As this usually amounts to hand baggage only it also means cheaper flight costs,fewer delays when leaving the airport ,and less packing and repacking.
Today's plan was to take the old path from my hotel above the town, across the Degollada de la Manzanilla pass and then down to the village of Ayagaures inland from the Maspalomas/Playa del Ingles resorts before catching the bus back to Las Palmas for the last two nights of my holiday.
 (click on any photo to view series in a larger format)

Looking back across La Caldera de Tirajana

 

Nearing the pass

Looking back down the path

 

View south from the pass

 

My original plan had then been to follow the lower path via Las Tederas but pre trip research had suggested that this route might be closed due to landslips,which proved to be correct, so I took the newly signposted higher route which is more direct and well worth doing in it's own right.

Forest fires ravaged this area in 2007 and the vegetation is still recovering

Casas de Tagmastal

Ayagaures Alto and the reservoirs

View down the valley from Ayagaures

In the past the guidebook route took you to Los Palmitos zoo park but the approach path is now closed off.So it now means either a taxi from the village or a further walk down the valley to the bus stop. Caught the 45 bus to Parque Tropical bus station in Playa del Ingles and had a couple of well earned beers with a view of the playa before getting the 30 bus back to Las Palmas to stay at the Parque Hotel again.

Playa del Ingles