The distance between Ladismith and Calitzdorp really isn’t very far, but we took a bit of a detour to get there and wandered around on dirt roads for a few hours, chatting to Nguni cattle and enormous tortoises along the way… getting caught in the first of many thunderstorms and then witnessing the most dramatic sunset. The light in the Karoo is really unlike anywhere else in the world…
Click here for Day 7: San Sebastian This was the last day of our rainy Spanish adventure and we didn´t really explore much since we had loads of ground to cover and not much time for anything except driving. We stopped briefly in Salamanca, which is packed with tourists in spite of the fact that it´s pretty much in the middle of nowhere… and also a tiny little town called Palenzuela where it appears they have more sheep than people… like New Zealand then, only much hotter. And so the story ends… we had a great time on this trip…
Aaaand we´ve reached that time of year again where the blog posts become few and far between… It´s been a while since I´ve published anything, but I do have things to share… just not enough time to select and edit and prepare blog posts. We went to the north coast of Spain, which was rainy but beautiful. We spent loads of time in the capital photographing the Lisbon Festivals, an annual summer-time celebration that takes over the entire city for the month. And I´m also working on an ongoing project centred around our local farmers market (you guys should know…
São Julião is our favourite beach in Ericeira, especially when you time it right and the tide is all the way out… it goes for miles and is almost always empty. Pure bliss. If you follow me on Instagram you would have seen these already… they´re iPhone photos and edited with vsco cam.
“Dia da Espiga” (roughly translated to Day of the Wheat) is a Portuguese tradition dating back centuries and is believed to have originated from an ancient Pagan ritual. In some parts of the country this day is declared a holiday and the tradition is to go for a morning walk in the countryside to pick a variety of wildflowers, various grains (wheat, oats etc) and olive branches to form a bouquet which you then hang behind your front door and should only be replaced the following year by a fresh bouquet. The various plants in the bouquet all have different…
Just a few photos from a sunset walk we did many months ago, back in the summer… they’ve been waiting patiently for me to have some time to edit and blog them. The coastline between Ericeira and Santa Cruz is full of wheat fields, tall cliffs and secret coves… And in other news, I received a notification yesterday that this little blog of mine has reached 1000 followers… which simultaneously surprises and delights me! I have no idea why you have all stuck around since I blog so infrequently but I am so grateful that you have… and even if…
The second place I got to visit in the Azores was the island of São Miguel… we flew in to photograph a wedding and spent a few days on the island, exploring. One thing you need to be prepared for on these islands is rain… lots of it, and always when you least expect it. We were lucky in Terceira and only got rain on the last day. São Miguel, unfortunately, wasn’t so kind to us (or our wedding couple!) but in spite of the weather (or maybe because of it… ) this place is incredible. Black rocky beaches, clear…
A belated Happy New Year, lovely people! 2013 is here, in full force… and the internet is full of people looking back, people looking forward… there’s something about this time of year that does that to you. So I’m not entirely jumping on the “retrospective” band wagon with this one, although these photos were taken may months ago and have been waiting patiently for me to do something with them. And I’m also not going to make any promises/resolutions about blogging more frequently, because I did that last year and look how far that got me! So. The Azores!! Terceira…
If you haven’t already, then you may want to read Day 1 and Day 2 first… Day 3 took us from Praia do Malhão down to Sagres, the south-western corner of Portugal and the end of our trip. We meandered along, stopping for a while in Vila Nova de Milfontes, Zambujeira do Mar and Carrapateira and while on the last stretch of road before reaching our campsite we saw a cute sign for a little village called Aldeia da Pedralva… so we decided to take a detour. A detour that turned into a caipirinha and then another… and then dinner……
Day 2 of our all-girls Portugal road trip… you can find Day 1 here. We spent the night at the campsite at Praia da Galé… which is probably one of my favourites in Portugal. It’s close to the beach, it’s dog friendly, it has loads of trees for shade and it doesn’t suffer quite so much from that horrible delineated-campsite-syndrome that most 1st world country campsites are afflicted by. They actually have an area where you can just pretty much put your tent wherever you want, which is exactly what we did. The following day consisted of an early morning…
Kerry Murray 