Toilet Humour

The French have a way of doing things that is different to the UK. Maybe that is us, maybe it is France. Who can tell? (Comments on the back of a single postcard or equivalent please!) Possibly they are just ‘special’.

If anyone can enlighten me as to how you are meant to go to the toilet without touching the bowl, I would be interested. For those who don’t know many toilets lack seats and in some cases bowls at all from memory. As far as I can see it must be some trick of contortion or very strong thigh muscles to enable you to lean back against the wall behind and brace your legs either side, but frankly it doesn’t seem possible! Thankfully many touristique places, such as hostels, have toilet seats for their international guests, but there are still many who would like you to be as quick as possible.

On that note, I have also met a timer on the light which must have been set to one minute and 20s if you are lucky. No reading time for you mate! Although my arms were long enough to reset it from sitting down…

Welcome to Marseille

The Vieux Port, Marseille

Having travelled down from the UK the day before, my first day in Marseille, the first of a new month, was an eventful one. After getting up at a sensible hour of 9am I walked down to the Vieux (old) Port and had a wander around. I was amused by the strange mix of old and new buildings in the area and cultures too. From block to block the scene changes. Marseille was historically a major port and there are many North African cultures here as well as French. A waterside Spar provided an expensive breakfast, as it would also have done in the UK, and I found where the 21 bus for Luminy campus left from.

Arriving at the end of the bus route and the end of the road, I was struck by just how rural the campus is. If you type Luminy into a image search engine you’ll find a few aerial photos showing what I mean. Set in a valley away from the conurbation of Marseille itself limestone outcrops from scrubby vegetation provide the views, while dry Mediterranean soils shelter drought-surviving trees and thorn bushes. The campus buildings themselves were built in the 1960s and show that typical concrete squared off corners and covered walkways. Many of the buildings show signs of crumbling and neglect, strange for a University in my view. The corridors and stairways remind me of schools and the lifts have a hinged door to access them and tend to only be trusted on the way up! Set within this there is much sophisticated equipment.

I bumped into my supervisor/boss on the stairs and after a few flights we put two and two together and introduced each other! The rest of the day was spent filling in forms, meeting people and touring the laboratories of our building. For the most part there are various research groups working in many fields of chemistry, oceanography and biology, but they are split up by floors and stairways and I wait to see how much interaction goes on. My research group is small and I will be sharing an office with equipment and my supervisor. That will be a new experience. I did meet some lovely people working in the department though and found one doing her PhD on some very interesting jellyfish populations in a local lagoon.

I also got a taste for how the French system works when you realise you can’t have a contract without a bank account, or a bank account without bills and a place of residence, and likewise residence without a job or bank account… There are always ways around these things, but they are designed not to be easy. Equally I hadn’t realised that the 2^nd of June was a Bank Holiday (Ascension Day?) and so work was closed this day, and that most people would take the one ‘bridge’ day between the Bank Holiday and the weekend off too. I suppose in the UK most bank holidays are on a Monday so this doesn’t apply. The holiday didn’t help the visit to the bank or the search for accommodation for me.

Eric with his Gambas

In the evening I went down to a restaurant in the Vieux Port with someone from the hostel and ordered food. At first I thought we were being ignored by the waiter, but overlooked was probably closer to the truth. My opening gambit of “D’accord pour manger?” (Okay for food?) was a bit Franglish, but I managed to get through the rest of the ordering and meal speaking to him only in French. It did wonders for my confidence. I also had a small carafe of wine without any ill effects. Maybe I am gradually relaxing…? Either way I still think that the alcohol isn’t the cause of my recent allergy, but the thing that tips the balance between health and ill-health.

There is hope for this Englishman yet.

Weatherwise – 20 degrees, strong winds and showers is not pleasant for the French but was quite nice for me!

Le Grande Voyage

Well I’ve started my movements to Marseille after a bout of fieldwork in Greece, a quick flurry of properly learning to dive in the Red Sea, and some frantic to and fro-ings to Swansea to collect my things. As with all these things not everything fitted into the car and I ended up having to leave a pile of things for collection by a friend. Still I was glad to have a day at home to sort through all my stuff before packing for Marseille.

For the moment I am keeping a diary (thanks Ruth) of my movements on the way to and around Marseille. How long it will last I don’t know, possibly until it stops feeling like a travelling holiday and starts to become reality. Anyway I thought the best way to keep all you readers updated was to post excerpts from it onto this blog and take it from there. I haven’t really advertised this blog to date, so you may have come across it by surprise. Happy reading of the archives! I suspect there will also be a series of frenchisms added to the text which may or may not be actually correct… but they seemed right at the time.

Travelling to Marseille or Le Grand Voyage

And so it begins.

The time has come to move on, to start a new job and a new life in France.I am excited about going to Marseille, but I’m having trouble convincing my body of this. There was certainly a considerable reluctance to leave the house this morning, rather like that shown by anxious divers. Combined with that the regular sneezing when I drink alcohol at the moment would suggest I’m stressed. I’ll get over it I hope.

I hope I’ve made the right choices with what to pack, not forgotten anything essential and taken nothing needlessly. Some would argue that the climbing harness and shoes, set of speakers and even a laptop were unnecessary… All in all I probably have 30-35kg of luggage.

Departure (from St Pancras) 2 minutes early under sunshine and cloudy skies. I’ve been collared by a lady from Ipsis Murray conducting a survey on board the train. All the usual questions about what you think of the train and station and where you are travelling to. I hope they have to create new codes for some of my answers!

Ha! Technically I’ve already crossed the border and am in French diplomatic territory despite being on the outskirts of London still and stopping at Ebbsfleet on the way.

I had also forgotten I got food on board (travelling first class as you do ;))! I can’t have the wine at the moment but pasta with pesto, pate on fresh bread, potato salad, carrot cake, orange juice and a cup of tea goes down very well. It rather settles the nerves. (Into the tunnel). It is nice to feel pampered and to have extra legroom. It makes you relax in a way that you don’t get on the airlines in cattle class.

Amazingly muddling up French phrases in my mind has made me laugh. I think I’m crazy, as if that is anything new.

Ah good, announcements (on the TGV from Lille to Marseille) are in French and English!

There is also something distinct about every country (or county for that matter). Things I have noticed so far – architecture (of course), motorway signs are much bigger and above your head than in the UK, and the shape of roads near a village. I think the absence of fences or hedges (further inspection suggests they rely on ditches) beside the lanes make them more open.

Landfill site, followed by farmland and a buzzard, followed by a quarry. There aren’t apparently many patches of woodland here (in the middle of France)… as promptly we went through a large patch of deciduous woodland – mainly oak and birch.

18:00 – This area, I guess would be middle eastern France, is much hillier with the ground rising and falling and more trees than northern France. A deep wooded valley with only a small river in the bottom would be good to explore.

British trains will feel slow after le TGV.

The lady (opposite me) and I have been communicating with hand signals. I’m sure I could do French, but it is the quiet coach and I lack confidence, of course!

Lyon Part Dieu station – Someone smoking on the platform, I suspect it was a quick sneaky fag before the train departs. It was, he moved fast when the whistle went.

On the outskirts of Lyon – Funky allotments. Better than erecting your own garden shed, each pair comes with a shed building back to back, complete with a red tiled roof and a veranda. You’d have to see it to get the full image, but wow! Ah, now a new bunch of allotments. These are only second-rate ones further out from the centre. They were again a pair of buildings, but with a boring/enuyeax felt roof. What makes both sorts special is the veranda on the front with (in many cases) plants growing up them.

Finally found the hostel. The road I wanted was marked on the map at the station but absent from those around the town, and I got the direction wrong. As I walked around several blocks searching fruitlessly I got hotter and more frustrated. Eventually I walked into a local police station and asked for directions in English. Very thankful to be here now and we’ll see what tomorrow brings.

To be continued (as they say, written on the third day from leaving the UK) but probably not so lengthily ;).

Heading for pastures new

All at Sea will shortly really be All at Sea, trying to learn the language of a foreign land. I'm sure there will be days when I miss the greenness and springtime feel of the Swampealand, but will I miss the wet mornings and squelching through the park? That we shall have to see.

In the meantime, Spring has come, and Summer is on its way. The first Bluebells are out, Butterflies are taking wing (Red Admiral and Peacock among others). I spotted a Chiffchaff last week among the scrub in Clyne Valley, but I've yet to see Willow Warbler (probably my failing), or any of the migrant hirundines. Seagulls have been pairing up and the number of bird-strikes on my car has increased!

I have to say I do like this time of year, the first days when you can sit outside with a book and relax, the days when you have to worry about sunburn and the rocks have stopped being too cold to hold for long. That is unless you were up Tryfan 10 days ago in the hail storm and it got cold enough that I was shivering hard and making mistakes in simple things - Time to depart, downwards! I escaped with all my limbs and partner intact, but sacrificed one old tape sling to the abseil-gods in order to retrieve the ropes. A day of driving rain, another of wind, but the trip culminated in a glorious day on Dinas Gromlech, high above the Llanberis Pass, in the sunshine, looking out to Crib Goch and a team working to get the Snowdon railway in condition for the summer visitors. Bliss. Four pitches of the amazing Flying Buttress (D***) including a fun hanging belay over a 200ft drop and some delicate traversing. The day was rounded off, after lunch, but the three pitches of a harder route. The first section 'Dives' working its way up under a diagonal overhang and across a slab running with water was a challenge, while the third 'Better Things' was a corner crack running high up above the world, bridging on the two walls and hoping you wouldn't need to trust those sound gear placements (HS***), would the next hold yield Better Things? Finally I got to sit at the top, appreciating the view, the sun, the stunning location and looking at the little toy cars travelling up and down the pass and swerving to avoid the Cromlech Boulders.

This past weekend I managed to get out onto Gower too and spent a lovely afternoon at Lewis Castle/Fall Bay pushing my body close to the limit and exploring a couple more rock faces in a traditional way.

So that is me, heading on. The usual Greek trip to come, a bit of diver training to fit in, and towards pastures new. Quite appropriately I think, I'm going abroad for Dives and Better Things, if I have The Bottle to improve my French and explore Les Calanque. Maybe I'll just have to blog more often with mundane things and keep everyone informed of my progress.

Tout le monde bienvenue!

The Return of the Explorer

Dear Readers,

Those of you who read this blog will probably be aware that I returned a week ago from my travels. I have a notebook recording my thoughts, written each evening, thanks to the prodding of an acquaintance before I left. While I could post a standard day-by-day account of my travels, I'll leave it until I see you to provide the details. Instead here I think I'll write about some of my experiences, the odd photograph and recommendations to anyone else trying similar.

Heading for Striding Edge,
Helvellyn

Starting at the beginning, the western highlands of Scotland are a very long way from South Wales! Six hundred plus miles is only 10-12 hours of driving if you keep up a constant speed, but that doesn't take into account the slower roads in the highlands, weather, breaks and how tired you get as a driver, particularly on your own. I spent an afternoon and evening driving up to the Lake District before I slept. The following morning, as forecast, the weather was nicer and I was able to spend half the day climbing Helvellyn and exploring a few of the peaks in the eastern Lake District from Patterdale. It was lovely to stop and an ideal location to have a break.

High Bridge, remains

The afternoon and early evening were again spent driving and I called it a day near Perth. In each case I had had at least one good, long break in motorway services, but still I was exhausted and driving further wasn't sensible. Driving onwards up the A9 and across towards Fort William, I took a rest in Spean Bridge and a walk down to General Wade's High Bridge crossing Spean Gorge as the water flowing out of the Great Glen makes its way down to Fort William and the sea. The A87 road to the isles is stunning and I became a tourist stopping in a number of locations to take photographs including the iconic Eilean Donan castle at Dornie. By the time I reached accommodation on Skye the majority of a third day had passed. Despite this I had aggravated my knee from driving and it plagued the rest of my trip.

Eilean Donan Castle

The knee - Listen to your body, injuries take time to heal and it is worth resting them completely for a few days to let them get better. Instead I persisted in exploring each day and despite a pair of walking poles my knee complained constantly until I got home and stopped driving. Unfortunately I didn't realise it was the driving and thought it was twisted through walking. Particularly if you are away for a number of days, you Can afford to stop and rest.

Skye's weather - Skye is magical. The weather changes constantly and horizontal rain and gales force winds can moderate by the afternoon to leave a damp atmosphere and plenty of potential for exploring. It was rare for a day to go by with no rain at all, it was October after all!, and I lost count of the number of rainbows I saw. For me the Misty Isle or Winged Isle would be better known as the Rainbow Isle.

The scale - Skye is HUGE. Ignore the fact that it is technically an island and treat it like a county. From the bridge to the top end of Trotternish is over 70 miles, half of it on single-track roads and to try and stay in the middle and explore all over is ludicrous. If you do you'd spend an hour or two each way driving to the place you wanted to visit and use quantities of fuel. As with all the islands fuel is at least 10p more expensive than on the mainland. The scale of Skye means that you may find yourself using a quarter of a tank of fuel each way on some of the longer drives. Be aware, particularly as the garages are not numerous (Portree, Broadford, Dunvegan, possibly Uig)!
I can however recommend treating each region or peninsula independently and basing yourself for a few days exploration, before moving onwards to the next one.

The time of year - October is outside of the main tourist season. Many of the campsites and hostels shut at the end of September, despite the Scottish two week half-term holiday in October! The weather is unpredictable, and you can expect to see autumn, strong winds and the first frosts of the year. Despite that I was blessed with a high pressure system over the island for five days of glorious weather. To my knowledge Uig youth hostel was shut, as was Staffin and Glen Brittle campsite. The tourist information in Portree are able to provide a reasonable list of open and closed places. However Dun Flodigarry hostel (recommended), Kinloch campsite in Dunvegan (very friendly with free hot showers!), Sligachen bunkhouse, the BMC hut in Glen Brittle (for associate/members only) and Ashaig campsite near Broadford (open all year) were all open. The campsite at the Sligachen Hotel was officially closed, but well used by campers and campervans every evening I was there. Facilities, including beer ;), were only available in the nearby hotel. Wild camping appears to be accepted, although pitching late and striking the tent early is probably worthwhile to avoid making your site too obvious. The advantages of October include few people, even on popular walks, few midges and days which are still long enough to do a good days walk in if you get up fairly early.

Macleod's Maidens

The walks - There are numerous really good low levels walks on the island without encountering the Cuillins themselves. A small distinctive green and orange paperback book for under £3 lists 30 of the walks complete with grades and can be used by itself, although a map is recommended. I would particularly recommend a walk out to Idrigill point from Orbost to view Macleod's Maidens, a circuit of the Quiraing, Fairy Pools, Ramasaig and Lorgill (although the climbs are steep) and the Coral beaches near Dunvegan. It is also well worth taking the time to go further than your car-driving tourist who wants to bag the sights in a couple of days.

The Table of the Quiraing

To explore the Table of the Quiraing is spectacular, for instance, and a good circuit can be made from Flodigarry without driving at all. The further you go the more likely you are to see wildlife and I was treated to numerous groups of red deer, sea and golden eagles flying low over my head, otters and many species of birds including a migrating Brent Goose. Magical.

The (black) Cuillin - ... is something else! To someone who is happy to scramble the peaks of Snowdonia and the Lake District happily, the Cuillin ridge is not necessarily hard and the rock is generally firm and grippy gabbro, but unforgiving. There are a number of sections which certainly require rock climbing skills and equipment, and even on the easier scrambles the odd step is encountered which taken the wrong way leaves you shaking. A good guidebook is essential, and a guide wise, to understand which side of the obstacles to turn them. Even then following clear instructions I ended up scrambling up a damp gully on little ledges with a large drop beneath me, down-climbing was not really a pleasant option and continuing scary. Determination succeeded. Anywhere else you can usually find another route from an impasse, but here options are limited by vertical drops on either side. Take care, take great care.

Scree in the Black Cuillin

The Cuillin is also riddled with long steep scree runs, or stone shoots as they are known. These take their toll on knees and a pair of walking poles is recommended. Ascent of these is the classic two steps forward, one step back, while descent is just unbalanced! I would also suggest taking a scrambling rope and rack for the various ridges and to escape from situations. A climbing helmet is also highly advised, particularly for the stone shoots.

All in all I had a great time. I met new people and visited old friends on the way home. I explored many situations and feelings which I had either not encountered at all or not recently. I was able to forget work and the south and become totally absorbed in my surrounds. The result being that I became aware of an active brain once I had visited the friends and reminisced, suggesting that I hadn't actually given it a good break in a very long time! The island is beautiful and I feel that the two weeks I spent there gave me a greater insight into it than most my fellow tourists. Of course I was a tourist, but by going that bit further you can really appreciate the landscape and the situations. Travelling home, with no deadline to be back for was wonderful and I visited friends, three museums and had a walk in the border hills. I can see the attractions of "What shall I do tomorrow" of a road trip, but the constant search for accommodation and planning food takes its toll, as it does on holiday unless you find a base for 3,4,5+ days at a time.

Finally, I feel that I really gained insights into my vehicle. Skye performed beautifully and was very economical, particularly as I was able to experiment along the motorways driving at different speeds and comparing the economy and her behaviour. May she perform healthy and reliable service for many years to come.

The explorer returns, job secured, life restarts. Has anything changed? I think so - my appreciation of life, the universe and everything in it. Live for today, but keep what you value close at hand in case today is the last opportunity you can appreciate it/them.

Au revoir, until next time.

Far far away, in a land unexplored...

Since my PhD ended I have stepped back from work a little and started to relax, moved house etc. Coupled to this the need to blog appears to have diminished, although whether this is a good thing is yet to be clarified. Anyway today will be the end of one chapter and the beginning of another.

Firstly I've posted minutes from six years of Swansea Uni Hiking Club into the university archive. The minutes had been passed down to me and had spent far too long in my flat before I finally got round to preserving them. As far as I know the hikers are the only club to have put material into the archive. Sad really, but in 50 years time there won't be records of any other clubs in the university. UCS Ramblers, UWS Hikers, SU Hikers... and nothing else :(. History isn't just about finding out about what happened. It does rely on those in the present to preserve material for the future.

Secondly today should really mark the end of my PhD... I'm taking a break from university. I've sent off all the material I can to journals for publication and I'm taking a break. Hopefully I'll be appointed to a short-term position in a couple of months time, or a permanent job somewhere else, but in the mean time a holiday is required.
Plan - drive to Scotland.
Destination - Isle of Skye.
Activities - Walking, scrambling, possibly climbing, exploring, sitting, looking, cycling, relaxing, and photographing.
Staying - nothing booked - camping, bothies, bunkhouses, hostels, B&B if I feel the need for creature comforts.
Aim - to discover the magic of Skye.
Nervous - a little.
Care - required.
Enjoyment - assured.
Weather - unpredictable.
Records - photos and a notebook.
Contact - minimal.
End point - uncertain.
Looking forward to it? - of course!

See you later ;)

Things Desired

To many this poem will be well known, to others it may be the first time they have come across it. A friend sent it  to me yesterday and while some of the lines were familiar, possibly from television dramas(?), most of it was new to me. I really understood a lot of what Max Ehrmann appeared to be saying in Desiderata and went back to it this morning for another read. If you haven't read it before here it is. Enjoy, absorb, think and relax.

Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others,
even to the dull and ignorant; they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter,
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs,
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals,
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be.
And whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

Max Ehrmann, 1926
source http://www.poetseers.org/the_great_poets/misc/desid/