Easter 2013 again again

Cedeira is a pleasant 10 minute drive away and has a sweet shop that sells wonderful pick and mix so we headed off for a treat only to find we were too early by 30 mins so we had a wander around. This is the frontage where the river meets the sea.

A view up river if you time the tide right there is some lovely scenery to paddle a kayak through just up from the town although it is not a long paddle but is a nice little excursion to accompany a paddle round the ria.

Cedeira has s lovely beach, very sheltered and safe and generally fairly warm water.

A trip a few days later to Pantin was lovely, we parked under the pines a few mins walk from the little cove, this is the view as you approach the beach - despite being 24C and 3 pm there were very few people around.

Little Pantin is a sheltered cove from which you can see the surfers over on the bigger beach and still find tranquil water for snorkeling or just messing about in the water.

That little dry patch of sand is the place to be when there are spring tides.

Hard to believe that just round the corner there are 3-4 meter waves.

Jenny and Callum dug holes ...

While Rowan built sandcastles by dripping wet sand.

then found his favourite crumbly rock climbing corner.

Callum and Lorena enjoying a windy swim.

Two bigger boys heading out for some cliff jumping and two smaller boys wishing they could join in.

 They are great cliffs for children to jump off easy to climb on and many places to leap from.

I moved the car round closer to the far end of the cove and met a chap running down the cliff track who had a puncture but no jack.  That was a great excuse to go be a good Samaritan and see if this car could make it to my favourite car park.

which it did with remarkable ease.

That is as close as you can get to the end of the peninsula, I would love to pitch a tent there on a less windy day.

Masses of tiny crocuses and...

Squill scenting the air and...

these little blue ones that I can never remember the name of.

There are loads of tracks like this along the coast and in the mountains, being used to exploring in a Mitsi with proper 4X4 transmission and BF mud terrain tyres I was surprised at how well the Volvo performed although the general grabbers are part off road part on road rated and picked up a few cuts. 

We did not take photos of all the work that went on during the trip - most of the time we were stimming, cutting, clearing, painting re[pairing etc etc. compared with what it was like when we arrived the garden is starting to appear from the undergrowth.

The nearby trees were cut last summer and the garden gets a lot more light in the evening now, it had just hit shadow as the sunset at 9pm - this is April and it is lovely having such long light evenings.

Cedeira, garden and Pantin

Cedeira is a 10 minute drive away the old town is built to the west of the river and has a lovely church and square. Most of the rest of the town is spread along the ample sea front. There are two largish supermarkets and plenty of little shops as well.

Between the houses and the sea is a green strip of tree planted dunes that hosts a range of festivals during the course of the year.

being at the head of a small Ria, the beach is safe with plenty of shallow water, few currents and is usually fairly quiet apart from at peak season, even then the end furthest from the town is always quiet. This picture was taken mid afternoon on a holiday weekend in April with the shade temperature around 26C and the sea temperature 15C. There is a lifeguard in summer and a roped off safe swimming zone.

Scented stock grows wild in the dunes and smells wonderful in the sunshine.

In the distance you can see the harbour that nestles below an ancient castle. There is a resident fleet of fishing boats of all sorts of sizes and often a scattering of leisure craft as well.

There is a tidal river at the far end of this photo that makes a good trip in a kayak within a few minutes you pass under a couple of bridges, leave the houses behind and are winding through a lush green landscape. 

Back in the garden the Aloe verde has come into full flower 

I lost a few hours doing tidying and cleaning to take photos for advertising the house for summer rentals and for sale, this is the en-suite bathroom.

And the kitchen looking like it has not looked for many years

I found some time to weed some of the strawberries, no shortage of fruit and they taste wonderful.

After a long hard day I headed off to twang my guitar to the sunset above Pantin, I went a little further along one of my favourite tracks and found a good place to park.

Floods of thrift Ahhh

Oh blimey I hope I left it in Park with the handbrake firmly on, there is no sense of edginess when you park.

Lovely sunset, by the time I had finished twanging and loving Galicia it was pitch black on a moonless night, reversing up the barely defined track to somewhere safe to turn round was less than easy.

Out and about by the sea

Lovely start to the day I slept in but I have been up til 4ish for a few nights so i deserved it. 

I did a couple of hours of strimming then had to go get some strimmer stuff in Valdovino, the sea looked good so I headed over to Pantin and it was good. 

Baleo was breaking outside, that is pretty big but doesn't look it, big as in if our Delica could float you could fit a couple of them in tandem driving up the face of the wave.

Its not easy pointing the camera the right way when driving and why do tracks never look bumpy or steep on video? 

 Spent the rest of the morning strimming then went out to Vilarrube to meet Sam, Mel and Lorena. Here is a view from the top of the hill for a change. I got to the bottom just as they arrived on the other road.

 And the big empty space down below

 What look like ripples when viewed from the dunes are rather wonderful just the right size for winter waves.

 It was hard to pick out which one was Sam but this one definitely is.

 Hi 5

 Over on the cliffs just North of Baleo the sky was wonderful.

and the cliffs were wonderful

More waves not looking as big as they were. The passing seagulls are a few tens of meters in front of me  the waves are 300 meters to several kilometres away.

Mixed bag of views mostly at Pantin with flowers

A view of Valdovino from the top of a hill near Campelo.

and Pantin on a hot Sunday; crowded isn't it
The car park is very handy and free although there is only enough room for two or three if you are all friends and there is no room for the third one to turn round so it has to reverse up the steep rough track as I found out a week after this

Very pale but lovely thrift
Pink snapdragon looking things and blue flowers ones too, high on the cliff
Squill lovely to see and smell it here, it also grows on the cliffs around Sennen in Cornwall.

Theres hardy for you, Thrift thriving on nearly nothing

That blue stuff again no idea what it is but it reminds me of a blue from Morocco

An some of those aren't they pretty are they saffron crocuses.
Down there about 3 meters below in very clear and fairly cold water were huge starfish

At low tide the water is knee deep on the sandbank but plunges suddenly into a channel that is perhaps about 10 meters deep where the rip scours the bottom...a rip is a deadly dangerous current or a chair lift to heaven depending on whether you surf or not.

Later in the week the lake was trying out being a mirror so it was a good time for a night adventure in the kayak
The water looked like this from the kayak for a little while
On the other side is another world full of pirates and and an army of monsters apparently, it got very dark then a bit lighter and we paddled home by the light of a silvery moon but forgot to take photos

We got out on the water a bit earlier the next day and landed on a pirate island inhabited by large ducks and little else
We caught a gentle wind and blew our way slowly back to club nautico, we were heading off to the right of the pic with the kayak partially beam on to the wind and fortunately the water was also sloping the right way as you can see..phew its always easier when going home is a downhill run
Back on shore and we met a terrapin / tortuga and did not get bitten, was it a menace should we have captured it, I don't know, it did looking cute so we left it be.