Friday 9th July (Lini’s Journal)
Brindabella's Web Diary
Simon Williams
Sun 25 Jul 2010 23:26
find out if anything was planned for the next few days. We wandered up
past the church to the tourist office where a jolly helpful young man
gave us heaps of information on events, buses and local cuisine. We
were in luck; a fiesta was planned this weekend in one of the adjacent
parishes with bull running in the streets, traditional bands and
stalls. We weren’t so lucky at the bull ring however where the next
event is a couple of weeks away. Si had been before and said it was
quite a spectacle with excellent horsemanship, traditionally dressed
picadors and bulls that had no more than a few grazes. Oh well!
Another excuse to return then! We couldn’t possibly have returned
without a little detour round the town and we wound our way past the
beautiful Angra Garden Hotel that we’d stayed in before, fronted by
the square with open air café and wafts of espresso. Every
architectural feature in the town was screaming out to be photographed
and I wished time could stop still while I attempted some paintings.
We stopped for a sandwich in a pretty mosaic street then reluctantly
returned to chores.
Simon is keen to leave for the UK on Monday so there is the usual
laundry, provisioning, cleaning and baking for me to do, and of course
a huge list of checks and maintenance for Si to see to. We took a
couple of bags of grubbies to the laundry where I peered into the
Jacuzzi room; humm! A bath? I think I vaguely remember what that feels
like! Baths on this trip have been taken in turquoise salt water and
shared with and abundance of wildlife; the tub back at home will never
compete. Back on Brindabella I emptied out the baking ingredients keen
not to return to the UK with most of the supplies we left with. We
shall be taking a fraction of the normal fresh produce on the leg back
in view of using the tins that we’ve had on board for emergencies. I
baked date and walnut cake for Simon, fat free fruit cake for me and
our everyday ‘galantes’ with the remaining stem ginger, candied peel
and cherries. Into a pan went pork for a couple of sweet and sour
meals and into the pressure cooker went some stewing beef with
tomatoes and basil. By the time Simon returned some hours later after
‘seeing to the laundry’, five meals were boxed up ready to freeze and
the cake box was bulging. Apparently the ice creams and the beer are
still of an acceptable standard in the bar by the laundry!
Rockets announced the start of activity in the neighbouring parish
so we shinnied up the hill in search of bulls. Boarded doorways were a
clue that we were getting near. A sturdy truck blocked the end of the
next street with just enough clearance for human legs, but not the
broad shoulders or horns of the savage beast just the other side. This
evening however the youngsters were out for a bit of entertainment and
the beast was not a bull but a large ram with curly horns and a foul
temper. And who wouldn’t have a temper after a bumpy transportation
from fields of sweet tender grass shoots to a street of tormenting
youths with a rope around your neck being somewhat controlled by a
family of enthusiastic traditionally dressed males.
Young boys out to impress boldly marched to the ram with a hand
held high and a goal of pushing him between the horns before he pushed
them into a wall. All the family were out to watch from baby brother
to aged aunt. We observed in safety from behind the truck and foresaw
terrible injuries to some of these lads in not too many years to come
when brave encounters with rams today gave confidence with bulls
later. With the rams all back in their cages and locals fading into
their houses, there didn’t appear to be any other activities organised
tonight in São Bento, so we wandered back for dinner on Brindabella.