Monthly Archives: October 2011

Missing the Boat

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Permit me to let off steam…

This morning we were due to go on a sea-bird watching trip. I was hoping to add a significant number of  birds to my 2011 birding year. More than that I was looking forward to a few hours relaxation and calm after a horrible week in which I have received some upsetting news.  So we were up at 6.30am, walked the dogs, had coffee and cereal, made sandwiches and a flask of coffee and we set off in good time to be at the meeting point in Tarragona Port for 9.00am.

Tarragona has a big port so (sensibly) I’d checked the maps and Google Earth to pinpoint the meeting place.  I’d been told that the meeting place was near to where you enter the port at the level crossing.  Ha – easy! I thought.  The level crossing is at the East end of the harbour not far from the train station. We know our way there well enough so all we had to do was head for the station, drive over the level crossing into the Port and we’d be right there.

But as we know …”The best laid plans of mice and men – don’t take into account the tricks of the Tarragona Road Dept…

We couldn’t get to the level crossing because of  road works.  No warning. No signs beforehand. We drove up and down and round about but no - Nothing! Zilch! Nada! – to inform people where and how to find an alternative entrance to the harbour. “Well we’d better find somewhere to park on the outside then and take the footpath in” says hubby. Seemed a good idea. What a fruitless exercise  that was. Up and down the side streets the parked cars were crammed in like sardines. The underground car-park was some distance away and would have been a good 15minute walk back. We were starting to worry now because it was 8.55.  At this point we were back at the road works near the level crossing and were probably no more than a 100metres away from where the meeting point was -on the other side! So near yet so far!!  So I telephoned and spoke to one of the organisers.   You have to go to Serrallo she tells me. Where? I ask.  Serrallo – the residential area of the Port.  There is another  entrance there. Find your way back to Eroski (the shopping mall) and then turn left.  We will wait for you.

Ok fab – which is the quickest way back to Eroski through these one-way streets?  Disagreement No 1. Well we got back to Eroski – but no left turn permitted! Arrgh!!  Roundabout and turn round? Good idea.  But at the roundabout we see a sign for Port. Yayhay- that must be what she meant – go left after Eroski!  Not yayhay – it took us to the industrial side – authorized vehicles only.  Which way now? This Way? No -that way! Disagreement Number  2. This time we ended up at a works entrance!  Lets turn round and get back on the main road. We reached the main road. No right turn this time. We had to go left which was taking us out of the city and  further away. Nerves were getting decidedly frayed now.  My mobile rang: where are you?  We took the wrong road. I explained “we’re about to turn round now and come back”
“Ok – we will wait 5 more minutes.”

We headed back towards the city – keeping our eyes peeled for signs for Serrallo. Nothing.
Then the phone rang again. “sorry – the boat has to leave”. I understand, of course I do – you can’t have people waiting indefinitely for others to find their way there. And I honestly really appreciate that they waited as long as they did. But I was sooo disappointed.

A stony silence settled over the car.  We drove on. “Are we still going to find it” I ask. “Damned right we are gonna find it! At least we’ll know it for next time” he says.  We were approaching Eroski by now  - presumably we had to turn right from this direction. But there were still no signs for the harbour or for Serrallo.  At the last second, we took a little slip-road  which looked like it was going into the car park because the only sign said Parc Central (shopping mall). And 50 metres further on we found this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See the sign? It’s almost a whisper. “psss – Serrallo – it’s down here”.  Just the one little sign when you’re virtually in Serrallo district at this point anyway.  Too little and too late.  Anyway, a couple of minutes later we were on the port-side of the level crossing, just 50 metres away from where I’d made my phone call about 30minutes previously. I couldn’t bring myself to look out to sea. I might have seen a boat. And seabirds.

But why oh why, given that the level crossing entrance was closed wasn’t there a dirty great sign  just before the slip road at Eroski? ..”LEVEL CROSSING ENTRANCE TO HARBOUR CLOSED.  HARBOUR ENTRANCE VIA SERRALLO  NEXT RIGHT ” (In Catalan of course).  And if there had have been we would have seen it at 8.30 this morning when we passed that way and have been saved a whole lot of stress, tears and  disappointment.

So thank-you Tarragona Road Department. For nothing. That just nicely finished off my week. Not.

Walking in the Priorat, Southern Catalonia

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The tourism department have this year produced a set of  10 leaflets of walking routes around the Priorat.  What’s more they are available in English, French, Spanish and Catalan.  You may not think this is very exciting but when we first came here the only information we could obtain about walking routes in the Priorat was typed and photocopied on A4 paper, in Catalan – and poorly described at that!

Walking routes in the PrioratThe new leaflets are professionally printed and are a neat pocket-size with generally good descriptions (if occasionally a little brief), a basic map outline of the route and a couple of paragraphs about the area.  A lot of work has been done around the region clearing old walking routes and pack-horse trails between villages which combined with the European Hiking Network (GR routes) now work together to offer some superb hiking around this stunning region. The routes are also available in GPS form.

The routes cater for different abilities and are classed as follows:
4 are classed as easy/suitable for families with children with lengths from 3 to 7.5 km.
2 are classed as moderate hikes – 5km and 11km
3 are classed as demanding – 12 -18.5 km and with ascents of up to 990m

Southern Catalonia has not previously been a well known area for taking a walking holiday. It’s always been a mystery to us why it was not better promoted but now it seems things are on the up! With these new leaflets and the Cicerone book with 30 routes in the Els Ports area (released a year ago) you now have lots of choice in the mountain ranges on both sides of our valley!

Perhaps we’ll see you soon at River Ebro Apartments!

Click the following links for our experiences of some of these walks.

The Soul of Montsant (Congost of Fraguerau)

Common Cranes – In September on the Ebro?

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A few days ago, (last Wednesday, 28th September to be exact) Keith and I were just pulling up in the car outside our house when from the corner of my eye I saw a large grey bird taking off from the other side of the river island. For a split second I thought it was the usual heron that hangs about in that spot. Then as I was doing a double take – 4 more birds took off from behind the tamarisk trees- this would be about 250 metres away from our front door. It was a bright sunny day and as they were lifting themselves above the water with their backs to me I could clearly see that these birds were huge and “feathery” – they were certainly not herons!! I left Keith to gather the shopping bags and I took the stairs two at a time to get into our apartment. They were already heading off upriver but from our balcony and through my binoculars I could see a flock of 5 huge, grey, birds. Birds with long necks held straight out, not retracted like a heron. More like a stork. But I was sure they weren’t white storks either. They were grey and black(or a very dark grey) not black and white. And there were no red beaks. Cranes? Could they be cranes? They could only be cranes. But here on the Ebro? I needed to try and get a photo. I grabbed my little Fuji but there they had almost gone out of sight. I snapped a few shots in desperation as they were disappearing round the bend in the river and also made some quick notes: Grey and darker grey plumage in same general pattern of grey heron. Big wide wings. Feathery. Pale coloured neck and head. Neck outstretched – not rigidly straight – slight dip. Beaks looked pale, def not red! On downloading most of the shots were devoid of any birds. Except one, which had a small grey smudge. I cropped in as much as I could but obviously the clarity was poor and I was disappointed that it didn’t show any long neck.

I then contacted a few local birders and described what I’d seen. Yes, conceded one of them– your description sounds like crane but it is several weeks early, cranes don’t normally arrive in Spain until around mid-November. The other guy was more sceptical and basically said “has anyone ever seen cranes in Spain in September? I think you probably saw storks in bad light”

And that’s when I shot myself in the foot. I posted the bad photo on Facebook and both birders came back with a resounding “That’s a heron!” And of course, it was. When I looked in the cold light of day the photo was of the flippin heron. Stupid woman – should have been pretty obvious that it was the heron, for one thing it’s flying downriver. The cranes were flying away!

But… I had also contacted a 3rd birder in Huesca, Aragon which borders our province of Tarragona because I’d discovered that nearly all migrating cranes pass through that territory – his local patch.  He too said that the main influx of cranes was normally late October onwards but, he added, that’s not to say that small groups can’t already be around. He said he would let me know if he or anyone else got a sighting. Yesterday – music to my ears – he contacted me to say “the first cranes have arrived in Huesca” (jumps up and down with big cheesy grin)

O f course there is no way of knowing if they are same birds, but by car from Mora to this location it would take just over 2 hours. Easily reachable by cranes in 2 days I would think! And even if they are not the same group, there are cranes about! And I am, I think,  justified in claiming a life tick and tick for my 2011 birding challenge.  And because,  I know what I saw… :)