Tag Archives: National Park

Day 12 – Castle and bog

We got up, ready to go back to the beach. Both kids had loved running along the beach, feet in the water so saying goodbye to the beach was a high priority. But first, breakfast. We took the easy route as this campground had a mini kitchen for campers to use: toast and a boiled just saved us quite a bit of time, so much in fact that we even got to use the other facilities and had a lovely shower. Right before caking the kids in sunscreen, sand and salt water. XD

conquering of beach

We left the beach later than Flo wanted but too early for the kids so I call it a fair compromise. Our next destination was the Glenveagh National Park although we didn’t have a good idea about what to do there. I already had a hike through Poisened Glen planned for the afternoon and the Glenveagh Castle was closed today.

In the end, we just went with the flow. The Glenveagh Castle Visitor Centre had a charger which we could use without cost, the shuttle bus to the castle cost 6€ for all of us as a return ticket and according to the wardens in the centre, it was great to just explore there for a while. Plus, Number 3 got to ride another – fully electric – bus and was happy.

The walk that caught our eye was a 2km loop to a viewpoint with a view down to the castle and the lake. In the beginning, it led through the outer parts of the “garden” with exotic plants and an Italian terrace but then it meandered up through more native landscape. Both kids were really good throughout the hike. Number 3 had no choice but to walk it all while the Agent of Entropy was carried uphill and then demanded to walk a section of the path downhill.

Nina on the viewpoint, looking down on kitsch “castle”

It was past lunchtime by now but the cafe in the castle was pretty packed and didn’t have a lot that I count as “food”. We rather took the bus back to the Visitor’s Centre and had a pricey lunch there, right next to a playground. Still, for 6€ plus free charging, this was definitely a win.

From here, it was just a short car ride to Poisoned Glen but the Agent still feel asleep. She’s done almost 2 hours longer than her usual naptime so that was quite impressive. Number 3 also was tired but he wasn’t allowed to sleep as he needed to walk more as soon as we stopped.

Final look back

The way to the Glen was scenic already with a view to Errigal Mountain to the right and a sort of bog landscape all around. Parking next to a ruined church, the “rough hiking path” turned out to be a hopping from stone to boulder and back through the bog. Given that Ireland is having a heat wave with 23 degrees and multiple days without rain in a row, the path was pretty dry with occasional patches of bog or a small stream running over it. Flo was instantly happy. The Agent of Entropy slept through most of it and Number 3 was an amazing mountain sheep (he doesn’t want to be a goat). It was described as a 4km round-trip and we got a good stretch in when suddenly, we decided to go back. Number 3, who was very tired by now, had slipped and put a foot in the bog. When he pulled it out, his shoe stuck. It was a catastrophe for him, while Flo had a laughing fit. Of course, we managed to rescue the shoe and Flo cleaned it enough that Number 3 could put (a now very wet shoe) back on.

Back at the car, we embarked on a longer ride to Ardara and over Glengesh Pass. Another really scenic drive though by now, we’ve all had a long day and weren’t as wowed by the scenery anymore. When we arrived at the campground next to Sliabh Liag, I was pretty tired. Just a simple dinner of bread or muesli had to do and then we brought the kids to bed.

Since it was kinds early still, Flo arranged our makeshift baby phone and we went the 300m to the nearest pub “The Rusty Mackerel”. It was lovely as a location, all food looked really good but the kitchen had closed at 8pm and I was a little twitchy because the kids “were so far away”. However, we discovered that Guinness now produces a 0.0 beer which is an important information on a road trip.

Day 18 – A different scenery

The next morning didn’t start much better. We were unsure about where to go and what to do next. This part of Portugal is all about the beaches. Here, between Tavira, Olhão and Faro, there is a National Park just off the coast, full of sandbanks. Taking a boat to see parts of it is a thing according to the guide book. So I thought that’s a plan.

After breakfast, we headed towards the reception area to get information about tours through the park. The lady gave us one that looked promising, having an eco tour in it. She couldn’t give us any more information though or sell us tickets so we packed up (not really sorry to leave this camp ground) and drove to the marina of Olhão to make a final decision.

Daily ritual …

While I still entertained the thought of a boat ride, Flo was having serious doubt. None of the boats had any roofs or cloths to create a bit of shade. Going on a 1 ½ hour tour with Number 3 in full sunshine seemed like a bad idea. And a tour would already be the exotic thing to do: Most people opted for a ferry to the “desert island” sandbank to tan for up to 5 hours and then take the ferry back. That seemed even less of a thing that we would enjoy, least of all Number 3.

When we saw all those people at the docks, prepared to worship the sun for one day, even I changed my mind. Maybe we’re just not beach people. Or maybe we got snobby through all our travels…I just couldn’t see the appeal of sand with no shade anymore. Maybe the rugged west coast will be more our thing.

Thus, we changed course and drove inland, exchanging the ocean for the hills. Flo immediately felt better. And Number 3 was asleep in the car again. 🙂 So our first stop was to get more groceries, because food makes you feel better as well.

We stopped briefly in Salir as the Lonely Planet said, it is a lovely little village but we were still not feeling it. The tourist info was closed and none of the cafes looked too inviting. We had a quick ice cream and coffee intake and then continued.

Only about 8km further, the loop walk of Rocha da Pena started. We arrived, had a quick sandwich lunch with our groceries and prepared for the walk. The estimated time to complete the loop is between 2.5 and 3 hours. It was already past midday when we started and the sun burned down quite mercilessly. Right at the start, two walkers came back down so we asked them about shade on the path and were told, it practically didn’t exist. It would wind up to the cliffs, become a walk along the cliff edge and then get back down. Nothing big, about 160 meters in height but all in sunshine.

Only 150m up, but steep and hot

Now I had doubts. So Flo and I settled on going up for 30min and then coming back down again. And this is what we did. It was a scorcher. Even for me and I wasn’t carrying Number 3 on my back. The views were great, wild sage and thyme bloomed and made it smell delicious everywhere but there just was neither shade nor wind. All of what we saw would probably turn brown in summer, given the heat we experienced. But…we both enjoyed the walk. Finally, we were back on track with how we felt about Portugal and what we are doing.

Our next, and last stop before the camp ground for today was Alte. Agua Mel was a cosy little café with a small balcony-like outside seating area. All of the cakes and treats looked delicious. So we had another round of Portugese Gao, black tea and treats. Baby seemed quite hungry as he was really tugging into the sweets.

Alte itself was a picturesque little village. We wandered through a couple of roads on our way to the “Fontes”, walled in springs next to a small stream. The village used to come here for the washing, nowadays it’s a picnic area where you can look at the stream and count the fish. 😉

Feeling amazing, we headed towards our camp ground. When the road turned into a gravel road two kilometres before we arrived, we got excited. These camp ground out in the sticks are usually the best. As was correct again in this case. The camp ground was small, tucked away and just overall lovely.

There was a bit of a frenzy at the end. First to get back to the petrol station nearby to buy ice for our cooler and then to set everything up in time for another Skype date with our German friends. But all was well. It was warm, sunny and just the kind of quiet place we love. So a little rush does nothing to phase us on this night.

Day 296 – The bear necessities

It was cold. Even with a real roof over our heads, the night was cold. Given that the temperature in Kars was shown as 9 degrees last evening, it might well have been below zero in the night. Without heating, that’s cold even in a house.

much better weather this morning

much better weather this morning

So we took our time in the morning, hoping for things to warm up a little before we left. Our hotel didn’t include breakfast so we ate bread with all sorts of remaining things (cream cheese, honey) in our room. The plan was to ride to Ani, the former Armenian capital, about 45km from Kars before heading further north and towards the Black Sea.

Kars, however, had charm when we stepped outside in the sunny morning. What looked grey and dreary in the rain and cold last night, now looked friendly and busy. Flo decided to fix our problem with mobile data right here and then so we searched for a Turkcel shop. Driving up and down one of the main roads, many honey and cheese (real cheese!) shops caught our eye. We just finished our pot of honey this morning and when was the last time we had real cheese? Not cream cheese, not feta, but the real thing? I sent Flo in one of the bigger shops where he purchased a 500g jar of honey and two different cheeses for all of NZ$10. He jumped out once to give me some cheese to try which was very nice and then suddenly, the owner looked out of the door, beckoned to me and said “çay!”. Again, we were invited to a glass of tea after a successful transaction. Slightly odd for the taste, we got more slices of cheese to try with our tea. Buying a fresh loaf of bread at the store on the opposite side, we were all set for a great lunch at Ani today. Continue reading

Day 148 – Falling, water

We will be so lost in any without translation from the Thai script

We will be so lost in any without translation from the Thai script

Right – today was day trip time. There has been talk of waterfalls for a while and we felt like some light hiking. The hubies (New phrase we invented for my dad and his partner Silvia) promised that we would get that at the Khao Phanombencha National Park.

Getting there got much easier once we took over navigation entirely – but we shall not talk about these things. The park entrance is about 40 km away from our hotel. It took us less than an hour on the scooters to get there. There were some complaints about my Indonesia inspired driving afterwards …

Did not look too bad in the beginning

Did not look too bad in the beginning

At the park we got on a path to a set of 7 cascading watefalls. About 500m in we came upon a turn of to what was labeled “Back to the nature trail”. It looked so harmless, and was supposed to be only 1700m long, so we got going. The first half was true to the expectations: A narrow path through the flat jungle. But then the track started to climb. A pretty hefty climb, actually. Last time Nina and I did a track like this was on Rarotonga, but this time we had my dad and his partner with us. Let’s say we operate on slightly different fitness levels 😉 – and so it took us two hours to ascend the remaining 800m. To be fair, we also went up almost 500m in the process.

the 2nd and 3rd level waterfalls

the 2nd and 3rd level waterfalls

We reaped the reward after another climb, this time down another 200m to the top one of the 7 waterfalls. We cooled down in the pool before making our descent back to the normal path.

Completely knackered we arrived back at the car around 3 pm. We were starving, too, so we dropped down at the first place in sight. Surprisingly, the food was neither bad nor expensive.

After getting home, the rest of the day was set aside for laying low and recovering (for the most of us). Nina and I tackled another movie. Good times.

 

Day 119 – Sulphur and torrent

The apporaching road

The apporaching road

We managed to leave Probolinggo rather early. This was recommended for a visit to the volcano Gunung Bromo as clouds tend to gather around the peak later in the day. Bromo is part of the Bromo-Tengger-Semeru National Park (who would have guessed) and thus cost us another round of entrance fees. We had looked up the prices on the internet before going which is why we avoided going yesterday as prices are higher on the weekend. One ticket for foreigners is 217k which is even more expensive. Too expensive for us, we decided. Going as far as we could, having a look around and then leaving before entering the national park was the plan.

As so many plans, it’s only good until its first contact with reality. 🙂 The road up to the caldera was beautiful already and the ride very enjoyable. I took many pictures…maybe too many as my camera later died.

Arriving at the entrance gate, it sure cost 217k per person. Still too much for us. But the moment we turned around, we felt really bad. We discussed it another time, turned around again and Flo went in to the ticket booth to get tickets. Coming out again, he smiled and said “we came to a mutually agreeable arrangement” that was kind to our budget. No need to ask any further. 😉

All three, Batok, Bromo and the last one barely visible

All three, Batok, Bromo and the last one barely visible

Ten meters into the park, you get the first view onto Bromo. The caldera is a massive ashen plane, 10km across with the smoldering Bromo in the distance and the volcano Batok next to it. The plane is actually called Laotian Pasir which translates to Sea of Sand. The whole thing looks amazing; the local horses only add to the picture even if we had to decline a horse ride across the plane multiple times.

Having our own iron steed, we tackled the approach through the volcanic ash. Rocinante did well, we only wobbled once during a stretch of deep sand. Past the temple was a little “parking lot” from where we hiked up to the crater of Bromo.

The sound from the crater was unnerving ... a constant low rumble

The sound from the crater was unnerving … a constant low rumble

Many, many steps lead up to a stone fence which is the only thing separating you from a drop into the bubbling lake releasing plume after plume of sulphur clouds. It is eerie up there (and smelly) but also amazing. We had the place to ourselves and enjoyed the vast view back over the plane for a while. Here, my camera started to cry for help. It hadn’t been charged last night.

Leaving, our only remaining plan was a vague direction towards Malang and a desire to take the road on the south coast. Still on the slope we stopped for lunch which is even cheaper on Java than on other islands. It was the first time, durian was hanging from the roof. Durian is also known as the smelliest fruit in the world…it even stinks when it is still in its husk. We had the bad fortune of having other customers there who ordered durian as a snack. That cut our break short, I think.

Only photo from the safety of our place for the night

Only photo from the safety of our place for the night

Being only 60km from Malang now, we planned to go further today. However, we didn’t have a break from 2pm to 3pm which now should be known as “the time it rains” but only put on our waterproof jackets. Big mistake. A whole torrent came down, nothing the roadside gullies could deal with so the streets flooded within minutes. Serious flooding as the water stood higher here than on many river crossings we have done in the past. To make it worse, the traffic slowed to a stop as it narrowed down to only one lane. Passing the obstacle, we weren’t sure if it was an accident or a construction site.

Being completely soaked through from the hips downwards, including water standing in our boots, the decision to stay in Malang was easy. And we got very lucky: We found a super nice guest house that looks like something of an Ikea catalogue for 100k a night! That might be our cheapest night yet. Free tea and coffee was offered and we spent the afternoon lounging on the couches surfing the free wifi and enjoying being inside. And dry. Outside, there was a lightning storm directly above us with thunder so loud, I jumped each time.

Finally, the rain stopped so we went for dinner. Cities are just so convenient. Around two corners, a lovely place called “Noodles Inc” caught our eye. It was well frequented by posh young people and looked very modern. Hand-pulled noodles in a mie dish were yummy and quite spicy. I topped it off with a “chocolate cookie cream” drink which defeated my straw due to the cookie crumbles in it. 🙂