Our car needed to go to the garage this morning to have a tyre valve changed. It would only take about an hour, so I took my camera for a walk alongside the river via the new Nordic Arena, which has been set out in Les Haudères. It never ceases to amaze me how wonderful nature is at producing artistic shapes, which I hope is reflected in some of the photos below.
The temperature in our valley has barely got above freezing for the past 3 weeks, even during the day, so it’s not surprising that we have a little ‘frost’. The ground is rock hard and I couldn’t even remove a spade from our compost heap – it was like Excalibur, but I couldn’t pull it out. 🙁 Nevertheless it’s a magical place to live.
Now, now… I have to say it wasn’t part of any life plan to live here. We just sort of fell into it. Fate I think it’s called. 😊 We have talked about moving back to the UK sometime but, when we visit, we find all sorts of reasons to stay here. The amount of traffic in the UK is possibly the biggest headache. We do miss the sea and sand though and I miss my real ale. So, as always, nothing is perfect.
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Fell into it… I like that! Bloody hell, I am hoping that if a Brit can just ‘fall into living in the Swiss mountains’, that a Capetonian can just ‘fall into living in Devon/Cornwall’!!!
I hear you… In Cape Town, we had the best of both worlds, mountains and sea… I LOVE the mountains, I LOVE the sea… we tried living in Madeira, as you may have picked up in my travel blog… I just couldn’t get my head around possibly being so far from my kid one day…
There are no long vast beaches and we REALLY love that! Even though we are South African, England creeps into your being and I don’t think we could live anywhere else now.
Madeira will always be there and we will always go back for levada walks etc… but nothing beats a day on the SW Coastal path!
So I do hear you… I know what you mean 🙂
I guess ‘fell’ was an oversimplification of a string of events which would take several posts or pages to describe. I’m impressed that you couldn’t live anywhere else but the UK. I’ve never been to Madeira but it does sound fabulous. I guess you haven’t been following me long enough to have seen my post on the (first part of the) SW Coast path: https://alittlebitoutoffocus.com/2015/06/06/south-west-coast-path/ Though I can recommend the Northumberland Coast and Pembrokeshire Coastal paths too.
Well, I have to say that I would avoid the Camino. Not that I have done it mind you (except for the 2 or 3 km either side of my friend Arthur’s gallery) but it is VERY busy and a lot of the route is on roads. As for alternatives, it depends what you’re looking for…? E.g. how many miles per day, what type of scenery (mountains and sea I guess?) and what type of accommodation. If you’d like me to offer you some options, perhaps you can email me on mikehawtree@hotmail.com I’d be happy to advise. 😊
(In the past I’ve done (at least half of) the Coast to Coast, the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path, Offa’s Dyke Path, West Highland Way, St Cuthbert’s Way, the Wolds Way and Glyndwrs Way. I’m sure there were more…)
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P.S. I just looked up what a levada is and they are the same as what the Swiss (or Valaisans) call Bisses. See here for more info and pics: https://www.valais.ch/en/activities/hiking/bisses
I’ve not walked many – only 3 in fact, as I prefer to go up and down the mountains, but they provide a gentler alternative. Though some can be a little precipitous. Check out the images on this one for example: https://www.torrent-neuf.ch/bisse-et-environs
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Alittlebitoutoffocus 
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