Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Caminante

This post has been inspired by Sepia Saturday's photo for 13th April of a group of walkers, and my chosen blogging name Caminante, which means, simply, Walker (although it can also mean hobo!). 

Photos of my childhood are rather scarce, as we didn't own a camera, so my parents paid for a photographer, usually on a birthday. This shot looks like I'm about to go for a walk, so probably is the first recording of my hobby.


We spent our honeymoon on Tenerife, during which time we went to Pico Teide, the highest mountain in Spain.  Here I am right at the top. Thew air was pretty thin up there at 12,200 feet, as I realised when my cigarette only stayed alight whilst you drew on it, immediately then going out.  Someone was trying to tell me something, but it took another 3 years and the arrival of our daughter before I gave up!



In 1986/7 I spent 4 months in the Falkland Islands - sensibly some years after the war!  I had a weekend in January of R&R on the oddly named, but beautiful, Carcass Island, As I found, the weather there, in the height of their summer, was normally quite pleasant, although it could snow at any time. Here I am on one of the little hills dotting the island.


I've enjoyed walking all my adult life, and for the last twenty years or so, I've walked several times a month, originally around our home in Salisbury, so I've walked nearly all the footpaths in Wiltshire, Hampshire and Dorset, on my regular Sunday morning jaunts.  The farthest I got (limited by the length of car journey to the start), was West Bay in Dorset, which UK readers will know as Broadchurch from the current detective series. Here's how the murder scene looked in August 2003.




Now we live on Lanzarote, 70 miles off the coast of Western Sahara, it's springtime all year round, so shorts and T shirts are all I need - and a good pair of shoes because the volcanic stone is very harsh.  This photo from last November shows both aspects.


These days, I tend not to walk alone, except on well trodden paths, because, although you are unlikely to get exposure, even a twisted ankle in a spot with no mobile phone reception could be qite a challenge. I'm a member, along with about 90 others of an active walking group here.  Fortunately, we normally only get between 12 and 24 on each walk, otherwise it could get out of hand!  Here they are a week ago, having a breather during a walk around Los Helichos, a range of volcanoes in the north of the island, locally famous for their spring flowers.


This brings me back to the Sepia Saturday photo below, and the contrast between what is seen now and then as suitable attire for hiking.  I can't imagine how uncomfortable they would have been in rain, or blazing sunshine, or indeed on anything but good paved surfaces.  Perhaps it was the fact that walking was involved that was the mystery element!  Why not see what others have made of the prompt.


17 comments:

  1. Hmm, springtime all the time? I could get used to that! A most lovely post for this week at Sepia Saturday. Great photos, especially you at such a tender age, very cute and ready to see the land!

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    1. Hi Karen, thanks. Lanzarote used to market itself as a land of eternal springtime, but don't think of little lambs and daffodils, it's really the weather they meant. It never gets below about 56 F here even on a winter's night, and rarely rises above 92 F on a summer's day. In winter, it usually hits 72 or so in the afternoon, and we get very few cloudy days.

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  2. They may be out for a leisurely stroll, but I don't think that crowd in the image prompt are up for your kind of hike. As we're in the midst of autumn weather here, and heading fast into winter, I envy you your continuous spring. Is your rainfall seasonal, I wonder, as your and Marilyn's photos often show the landscape very dry?

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  3. A great set of photos - you look so cute in the first one, and how many of us can claim to be photographed in the Falklands? Oh for some of your Lanzarote weather here - April 11th and it was 3C. at 9am. I am sitting at the computer wrapped up in a short sleeved jumper, long sleeved jumper and scarf. I am waiting on spring never mind summer!

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  4. Hi Brett, yes we do have a rainy season, January through March, but the last couple of years it's failed, and instead of the annual 6 inches of rain, we've had less than 1. Even so, at the moment, the land is quite green, with a haze of grass everywhere, and wonderful wild flowers dotted around. Have a look here at a post about the way the lack of water here lead to the foundation of San Antonio, Texas, on my other blog. http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=982451646964731525#editor/target=post;postID=2481042682841186844

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  5. Yet another Canaries volcano walker to make me jealous this week !! Do you have a spare room?

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  6. The temperature there sounds appealing, but not all the rocks. I would rather walk where there are lots of trees and soft ground.

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  7. Spring all year round sounds terrific. There doesn't look to be much in the way of greenery?

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  8. I am so glad you posted all kinds of walks that you've been on...and took enough photos that you have a trigger for those memories. Good thinking about having partners, though I think a huge group would put me off. But fresh air, views, sunshine, good tempuratures...very tempting.

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  9. Your post was close to the theme photo with large groups of people hiking together. I almost did a post about hiking the volcanoes in Guatemala. The terrain looks very similar. I guess all that ash looks alike.
    Nancy

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  10. This is what I love about Sepia Saturday -- I get treated to an array of different places, things and people. And considering that my travel is vicarious -- you have provided a new window. Thanks

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  11. I regularly walked up until I stopped smoking following the smoking Ban in Pubs. Since then I put on weight suffered fluid retention. Trying to gert back into it again. Managed a couple of miles up Warcop Fell earlier in the year.

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  12. That picture of you as a young boy is adorable! Men's fashion have changed a bit over the years, haven't they? I enjoyed traveling through your pictures.

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  13. As I commented on Nell's post, island people always seem to take up walking as a sport. When I lived in London, I became a regular urban hiker. On my return to the States, foot traffic diminished, but now that I have a dog, a walk always has a purpose.

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  14. Your blog has inspired me to get out there an walk more. Probably. Maybe next week... if I have time. And if it's flat rather than mountainous:)

    Great photos to remind you of fantastic places you've walked.

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  15. You have been on some fascinating walks. Thanks for sharing some of them.

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  16. Your walks sound much more interesting than mine. At this point I walk mornings around a track with my sister and that's about it.

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