42:46.565N 009:03.302W
Whisper
Noel Dilly
Fri 17 Aug 2012 18:14
|
"Wednesday -
15th August"
We woke to
calmer seas but the grey clouds still hung over us. We hoped that the days
trip would not be cancelled as we were destined for a river trip in small open
fishing boats to visit the Hydroelectric Station inland on the River
Tambre. As we boarded the coach for the first part of our journey
clutching our fowlies and life jackets, the heavens opened once
again. We were told that we could either choose to go all the way to the
power station by coach or we could go to the port to catch the small boats as
planned. A unanimous decision was made, we were going by small boats! We
were lucky with a break in the weather enabling us to clamber into our fowlies
in the dry and board the boats. There were six boats altogether and six
passengers on each! We set off and once we had left the shelter of the
harbour, the wind and spray lashed at us from the side and then the rain fell
too. It was great fun as we motored along in a cavalcade getting wet yet
again! As we approached the river the sea stabilised and the rain
eased. Before long our young skipper became bored plodding along behind
the other boats, he opened up the throttle and we were then on the plane,
speeding past the boats in front of us and taking up pole position, engines
roaring. He was encouraged by our happy smiling faces and thumbs up
and once we were further into the river and the water flat calm he gave us
another turn of speed. The river was quite beautiful and the current
strong, we gently motored our way under a medieval bridge and on up to the power
station where we alighted bidding our fun young man a safe journey back to
port. It had been planned that the fisherman would go and fish for
sardines for our BBQ lunch, but there are few sardines this year, so it
was not possible. Instead the nearby hotel produced a lovely lunch of
salad, roast ribs and melon washed down with too many bottles of local
wine! After lunch we went for a walk up the river, as we climbed gently up
it was very beautiful walking above the cascading river below, overlooked
by deciduous forests interspersed by granite
plates. We travelled back to the marina by coach. Contrary to usual bus or
car journeys, the children all stayed awake; the adults snoozed gently.
We had a quiet evening with a couple of our new acquaintances, discussing the days activities and how much we have enjoyed the rally. Photograph: "Boat Trip in Sunny Spain?" |
