Xmas Lynx
To celebrate the Christmas season and greet our friends and readers Roxanne has made a watercolour painting of an Iberian lynx padding through the snow.
Articles Tagged ‘Spain’
South to the Canaries
The dot-com officer having been busy with his A-level studies, the Mollymawk website has spent the past few months lying unattended on its moorings. Not so the vessel herself – or at any rate, not quite so much so. This very belated report describes our passage south from the Mediterranean port of Melilla down to the Canary Islands. People often write to us asking, “What special skills do you need in order to go cruising?” Well, herewith, in Part I…
Port of Melilla
Given in good faith, but not to be taken as gospel. Melilla occupies the northern part of a large man-made harbour which is shared between Spain and Morocco. The space between the two ports seems ideal for anchoring, and indeed, we spent quite a bit of time here. If you plan to do likewise, be aware that the anchorage is directly in front of the gaping harbour mouth and is therefore completely untenable in a strong easterly. We have…
Melilla
Bearing in mind all the fuss that the Spanish make about the British occupation of Gibraltar it comes as a surprise to many people to learn that they have their own little enclave on the opposite shore, in Morocco. Indeed, Spain has not one but two tiny territories on African soil. The first, Ceuta, is almost the mirror image of Gib, being a similar but much more lowly rock, standing on the far side of the Straits. The second, Melilla,…
Adiós España
We’ve all been so frantically busy, these past few months, that the Mollymawk website has been rather neglected – and since the pressure is still on, this update will be brief. Caesar and Xoë have still got their noses to the grindstone, as they study hard for their A levels. This puts the rest of the crew under a lot of pressure too, as it means that there are only three of us to do all of the chores. Most…
Spanish Water Works
Whether through the fault of man or because of natural changes in the climate, the Spanish region of Murcia has for hundreds of years been an arid one. Some say that anciently this was a lush, forested place but that Bronze Age man felled the trees to make way for his own choice of vegetation. This led to a decrease in rainfall. Regardless of whether he was to blame, having entered upon the scene and set up camp, man had…
Snow Wells
What do you picture when you think of Spain? Sunshine sparkling on a blue sea. Sandy beaches fringed by a never-ending border of hideous apartment blocks. Red wine; orange groves; bull rings; flamenco dancers… If you have visited the interior you will also picture villages nestling on rocky outcrops, and mountain ranges fading into the blue. If you have come here for the skiing you might picture crisp white slopes – or, then again, you might picture brown ones, on…
Seagull Survey (Part X)
It’s been many weeks now since any rain fell on Isla Perdiguera and, from a distance, the island looks as if it is dying. Get a little closer and you find that it is actually just coming to life. In the tenth part of her report the Ship’s Naturalist tells us about some of the other creatures which live here alongside the yellow-legged gulls.
Seagull Survey (Part IX)
In which we bid adios to one of the leading actors.
Seagull Survey (Part VIII)
Time is rushing by, summer is here at long last, and the nests on Isla Perdiguera are falling into disrepair. The one time tenants of those feather lined hollows are now taking to the air, but all is not entirely well on the desert island paradise. Roxanne’s latest report commences where the last left off, in early June.