Much of post-Christmas was spent on the Central Coast, and that meant grabbing a view of Broken Bay. We hadn’t taken the Mount Ettalong Walk in nearly 2 years, so it was good to reacquaint ourselves with the view.
Back home, I took time to paint the scene proper. I quite liked how it turned out.
Now that I’ve finished posting about our travels abroad, I can concentrate on catching up on our activities here in the last 6 months. Last August we spent a weekend in the Blue Mountains to celebrate our wedding anniversary. One thing we did was take a walk along the Charles Darwin Walk.
It had been some years since I walked this track, and I was glad to see the pre-spring wildflowers out.
It was always a treat to see the waterfalls.
And of course, the grand view from Wentworth Falls at the end.
We didn’t have a car while in Oulu, and so spent a lot of time on the buses and walking. One day after dinner at a friend’s place, we walked in the twilight back to our cabin. On the way, we passed a lot of birch trees, the predominant species in Finland. They were still rather bare in early May, but their pale trucks reflected the wonderful golden light.
We walked by a lot of water along the way. Oulu has been built on the inlet of a river, and the city has really embraced the water. Again, it’s a place that has been built into the landscape.
The locals also love the outdoors, and take to it whenever possible, whether on land (nordic walking, cycling and rollerblading being favourite summer pasttimes) or on water.
Oulu is also a growing city. It has a top-class university, forestry (still mainly traditional woodchipping – the chimney is for the pulp mill), and technology – Nokia has its research and development base there. It all requires new accommodation, hence the presence of these cranes.
As we got closer to the coast, the sky became more spectacular.
Until it gave a fitting finale.
Our cabin was by the sea – well, by the Gulf of Bothnia, which flows into the Baltic Sea. We explored the area by bike and foot as there were excellent paths along this stretch. As with much of Finland, the area was flat, characterised by reed marshes.
Being so flat, it could also get very windy – a great place to put a wind turbine.
But it wasn’t all wild marshes. As I mentioned, there were also beaches – two that I found. One of them wasn’t all that developed, just a place to kick back and enjoy the sea.
The other was the main beach of Oulu. It had showers, toilets, decking, a cafe and lookout, even an American-style lifeguard tower.
But look carefully at the photo, what is that on the water? Could it be ice? You bet ya. It was the last remains of the winter pack ice. It made a spectacular scene at sunset, but it certainly didn’t look like somewhere to take a dip, at that time of the year, at least.
We farewell Santorini, and Greece, with a little walk through the village of Pyrgos Kallistis. This village is a bit out of the way from Fira and the other caldera towns, but it does give a good view of the island. To get to the lookout, we needed to wander around its narrow, whitewashed streets.
We passed a church or two on the way to the top of the village.
And some tantalising glimpses of the view.
At the top of the town, an old fort, we were able to see Santorini in all its glory. A fitting end to our odyssey around Greece.
We’re not done with Europe just yet. Next, we’re heading north.
We still had a long way to go yet – past that church with the blue dome at the top of the hill.
On the way, we passed a few other churches. There was certainly an abundance of them on this part of the island.
At least because of tourism, much of the old architecture has been preserved, like this old windmill.
There was of course some more jaw-dropping views of the caldera.
And after two hours of walking, we finally reached the end of the road. What a view it was.
I would have loved to stay here for a week, but much of the accommodation at the end of the road was still closed.
And now for the journey back down. With views like this, it wasn’t much of a hardship.
Let’s take a walk. As I mentioned before, the main villages in Santorini are located along the cliff tops. They must have been distinct villages at one stage, but these days they have merged into one long village. We start off at the quarry, opposite our hotel. The town of Fira looms large.
A wander down the back alleys took us past a church, where the bell-ringer was getting a morning work-out.
The hotels and pensions were stacked way down the cliff side in this area. Even though the view would be great, I wouldn’t fancy a 100 stair walk everytime I wanted something.
Looking up, we had a long, long way to go yet.
There was option to take the easy way up, if you’re coming in from the bottom of the cliff off the ships. But we came by plane and so came by taxi.
Soon we were able to stop at a cafe, and admire the view.
But don’t go away as we’re only halfway through the walk!
We didn’t just visit the Geevor and Levant mines, but walked south along the Coast Path to find other remnants of mining. Nowadays, the land has been turned back to grazing, mainly that of sheep. As with walking in the British Isles, there were a few stiles over stone fences to navigate over.
Sure enough, there were abandoned buildings and stacks all along the coast.
And the British weather never failed to surprise. We saw our fair share of rainbows that day.
But the weather cleared up just as we reached the Botallack mine site. This is also a World Heritage site, and is probably the most scenic mine sites you will ever see.
Where’s the mine, you say? The shaft entrance is down the bottom of the cliff. Needless to say, the miners got very wet when the tides were high. The miners dug shafts up to 500 metres deep and 400 metres out to sea. Once again, it was hard and dangerous work.
But as international trade ramped up during the Industrial Revolution, local mining work such as that in Cornwall dried up. Many Cornish miners immigrated abroad to find a better life. There are now descendants of these miners in USA, Canada, South Africa, Mexico, Brazil, Australia (in South Australia) and New Zealand (which I visited and will post about one day). It certainly explains how pasties and rugby and soccer got to all those places.
The old Levant mine site was very extensive, and also very picturesque, perched as it was above the sea. The site was open for tours on some days, but being still in the ‘winter’ season, they weren’t too frequent here.
Back then, the old miners weren’t there to enjoy the scenery. Their twelve hour shifts didn’t start until they started working their shaft. If the shaft was a hundred metres or more underground, then it would have taken two hours or so to get down there. Added to that was the fact their accommodation each night was as far away as St Ives, almost 20km away, which they walked in the freezing cold. The miners were lucky to get four hours sleep per night. No wonder their average age was around forty. It’s a wonder they lived that long given the hard lives they led.
In the distance we could see Pendeen Watch, the lighthouse on the next headland. The Coast Path winds its way through all of this coastline. In fact, it starts on the north coast of the peninsula in Minehead, Somerset, and ends on the south coast in Poole, Dorset – 1013km or 630 miles! That’s a lot of coastline. Throw in the everchanging British weather, and the undulating coastline, and the mud, it’s a wonder that it attracts the thousands of visitors that it does. But the British do love their walks, and the stunning scenery and the (comparatively) mild climate are major drawcards as far as they are concerned.
Closer to Pendeen village, and a kilometre inland, is the newer Geevor Mine. We’ll go there tomorrow.
We continued the ascent, passing trees long bare, and shrouded in snow.
Riber Castle, on the next hill, was almost always in view. Unlike other heritage buildings in the area, the castle is a 19th Century creation, and hence relatively new. Unfortunately, the upkeep has been too much for a succession of owners, and the castle is at present abandoned.
After an hour’s walk, we finally reached the top of the hill, at Geoff’s Seat.
It would be a lovely place to sit in summer, when you have views like this to contemplate on. In the middle of the snow, we took a few photos and continued on.
On the other side of the hill we again have views of Riber Castle, which sits above High Tor. We certainly climbed far that day!
That’s all from Derbyshire. Next time, we’re heading south to more hospitable climes.
Static and Silence 