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snacks & adventure

Tag Archives: outdoors

Navajas!

20 Wednesday Jun 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

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entertainment, hiking, nature, Navajas, outdoors, Spain, travel, Valencia, walking

For our trip to Valencia, I got a giant guidebook to Spain out of the Cambridge library.  It had a tiny little text box in the section on Valencia stating that the town of Navajas, about 60 miles outside Valencia, had a picturesque little central plaza called Plaza D’Olmo (Elm Plaza).  From the plaza, the guidebook promised, there were four scenic walking trails in the countryside that were clearly signed.  I thought that sounded just perfect, so Ian and I rented a car, maneuvered it through roundabouts and onto the open road, and motored toward a place that only warranted four lines of guidebook.

So Ian and I rocked up to Navajas, pulled into a campsite for an early lunch (because you EAT WHEN YOU CAN in countries with siestas.  Wait too long and the joke is on you, sucka), and then drove through a beautiful town (it was a sort of Adirondack camp for the well-heeled Valencianos of a bygone era, and the houses were crazy).  We found the plaza no problem, but the tourism office closed ten minutes before we got there, and there were no hiking routes to be seen.  We circled the eponymous elm four or five times looking sadder and sadder before appealing to the locals, who spoke zero English. One of them called his brother, who passed Ian onto the local English guy, who was just in the middle of giving us directions when the mobile phone ran out of credit. So then two people marched us about a quarter of a mile down the road to the city hall, where someone dug around in a file cabinet and came up with huge stacks of English language brochures that had apparently not been required for years.  They presented us with English and Spanish versions of everything, pointed us out the door and sent us on our way.

We ended up hiking for about 4 hours through olive and almond orchards, across an old reservoir, along a stream and past have a dozen historic fountains.  It was perfect.

When we circled back to the Plaza D’Olmo at about 5:30, Ian (who in theory speaks Spanish) tried to order “un beer, por favor.”  The woman looked at him with an appropriately withering expression and said “un cerveza?”  He looked so sad and tired it was hard not to take pity on him (I had just marched him through 14 km of breathtakingly lovely Spanish countryside in 28 C heat).

I was so pleased with the day.  When I was in Switzerland, I realised how much I love being outside – the time I spent hiking up a mountain in Locarno was the high point of the trip, and I hoped to recapture a bit of that in Spain.  And I would say that the hike plus the cultural experience plus the navigating-Spanish-roundabouts-and-not-dying totally exceeded my expectations.

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Birds!

28 Wednesday Mar 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

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birds, birdwatching, England, entertainment, nature, ornithology, outdoors, travel, wildlife

Before I worked for the Audubon Society (an open space and nature advocacy group with a focus on birds), I didn’t know anything about birds.  But over the course of the year, I became completely obsessed with them.  Birds are amazing.

Page from "Birchfield Close" by Jon McNaught, Nobrow Press 2010

I’ve got a pretty good handle on English garden birds now, but there are literally hundreds of birds all over the country (and offshore) that I haven’t seen – and I am so psyched to explore. I’m particularly excited to see some puffins.  In the meantime, though, here are some birds I have seen:

Blackbirds really are everywhere.  And just as the Beatles song says, they really do sing in the dead of night.  I heard one at midnight a couple days ago.  Above, the birds are (l to r): blackbird, coot, jay, robin, goldfinch, blue tit, moorhen, Egyptian goose & crested grebe.

Image sources here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Spring in England

26 Monday Mar 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Snacks

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adventure, entertainment, garden, magic, outdoors, plants, spring, weekend

I know I’m late on the post today.  Its becoming an unfortunate Monday habit.  Don’t worry; my mother has already nagged me about it.

I have a good reason: the weather was insanely beautiful this weekend and I spent my time outside, having a life.  Ian and I did a pub ride to Waterbeach (we biked to a pub, ate fish & chips, and biked home); I did a 6 mile fun run (after the first four miles, it ceased to be fun); and we tooled around in the garden for a while.  Somehow my very, very modest garden took hours to put together.  But in a few weeks, we’ll have strawberries, spinach, chard, plus the start of a lot more stuff.  Its magic.

Ian’s headed to a conference this weekend, so I’m planning to get to work dismantling our shambles of a grille and turning it into a path to the shed:

That big pile of bricks that’s been sitting by the back door is not long for this world.

Fantasy Holidays: UK

12 Monday Mar 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

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awesome, England, glamping, holidays, luxury camping, outdoors, tourism, travel, vacations, Wales

The best part about living in England is also sometimes the most frustrating and overwhelming: there is so much to explore its sometimes hard to know where to start.  Europe is so easy to get to (I can take the train to Switzerland, for crying out loud.  I can buy a $22 flight to Ireland. Morocco is a frequent holiday spot for Brits.  I mean seriously).  But the number of amazing travel options can be paralyzing: when you have an entire unexplored continent at your fingertips, how do you choose?

So I’ve decided that I’m going to start proposing vacations here, so I’ll have a backlog of good ideas the next time I decide to go somewhere.  I’m starting with the UK because I just discovered a company that sold me on the name alone: The Dapper Camping Club, a “luxury camping experience” in Wales.

It turns out that luxury camping is a thing.  It is also known “glamping” (I’m not making this up).

All images courtesy TheDapperCampingClub.co.uk

This is just one of many luxury camping opportunities in the UK.  Yurts and tipis are very popular; there are at least two companies offering geodesic domes; and there are a few bona fide tree house options, as well:

The Treehouse at Harptree Court

Image courtesy canopyandstars.co.uk

Most are located in fairly rural areas, with hiking and outdoor activities nearby.

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