A new Biking Birder
Adventure from The Ebro Delta in Northern Spain, cycling through
Catalonia and Aragon before crossing The Pyrenees into France, all in
aid of raising money for BIRDLIFE INTERNATIONAL.
Please make a donation
via the JUST GIVING link attached to the BIRDLIFE INTERNATIONAL logo
to the right. Thanks to all who do and I hope you enjoy reading about
this latest adventure Biking Birder Adventure V.
Saturday
21st
September
The Ebro Delta
Bird Festival
A day spent mostly at
or around the Festival with an evening ride around with Ponc Feliu
Latorre and fifteen or so electric bike riding birders.
Yes, I have met Ponc!
Just brilliant to meet such an enthusiastic, bubbly and avid Green
Birder, Ponc and a few of his Green Birding friends. Photos taken of
the Green Birders and at eleven in the morning both Ponc and I gave
talk to the visitors keen to know more about what Green Birding is
all about, the reasons behind it and the achievements of both Ponc
and myself, as well as other Green birder records and personalities.
After the talk I
returned to the hotel and spent the hot afternoon putting my bike
together after it had been transported here by courier in a large
box. Incredible that these days taking a bike on a train is next to
impossible and don't get me started on the cost! One tries to take
the Greener alternative transport method in order to reduce one's
carbon footprint. Yet they make it so difficult for one to do so. How
easy it is to take the environment destroying alternative of air
travel.
As I said before Ponc
and I accompanied a group of visitors keen to be Green Birders and
together we circumnavigated the large lagoon from the centre and
back, stopping at three excellent hides. Both the bike work and the
ride meant that I missed the meals but I need to lose some weight for
the coming cycle back to the UK so no problem.
Details on the
Festival, the guest speakers and activities can be found on The Delta
Bird Festival website :-
Sunday 22nd
September
Everyone is up early to
be taken to a harbour, there to board a large boat to head out into
the Mediterranean, hopefully to see some seabirds. Three hours later,
having seen around thirty Mediterranean Storm Petrels and a number of
Balearic Shearwaters, I am dropped off on the road near to the hotel
whilst everyone carries on to The Festival once more. I need to
collect the bike and all my possessions ready to start the long cycle
back to the UK.
Last day of the
Festival and a look around all the stalls led to one of the most
startlingly fabulous coincidences of any Biking birder adventure. As
you may know I adore Peru and in particular a project to allow
indigenous children of the Machiguenga tribe in The Manu National
Park get an education. Called Chaskwasi-Manu, this project is based
in the town of Salvacion in The Manu. Now I have been going there and
staying with the children and lovely staff, including the main
organiser Maria, at the project since 2014. This was after I had had
my first experience of The Manu by staying at a centre called
Chontachaka in the early January of 2014. At that time there were a
few volunteers from Australia, Canada and the USA staying there with
four staff members, Augusto and his wife, Mario and Maria's sister
Herminia. Access to the Chontachaka Centre is via a short trail from
The Manu Road and a zipwire over the fast flowing white water river.
No electricity, no internet and definitely no mobile phone signal,
evening time is spent talking with everyone by candlelight as Paola,
a female Red Howler monkey chooses who her next lap providing victim
will be.
A superb place to stay,
I went back there in 2018 as I cycled down The Manu Road. I would
love to spend more time there but cannot afford to. At
Chaskwasi-Manu, Maria would always ask whether I was going back to
Chontachaka and when I would say something about my problem over cost
Maria would say, “talk to Magda.”
Magda is the owner of
Chontachaka and I had never met her until I went up to a stall
promoting trips to Peru at the Festival. On asking a young lady with
incredibly beautiful eyes where she lived in Peru. She said Iquitos
and Manu. I asked whether in the Manu the place she lived in would be
Salvacion. She answered Chontachaka. I blurted out “Magda?” and
then said I was Gary. Now we know each other! Incredible.
Late afternoon, stalls
being taken down, visitors leaving, the other speakers left in a
minibus bound for Barcelona airport and home. The privilege of
meeting such wonderful people will stay with me, All such fantastic
and diverse people; Christov, from Switzerland with his tremendous
sense of fun and passion for Swifts, Miriam and Tim Birkenhead and
his extensive knowledge of so many aspects of birding especially
eggs. Then there was Nina with her talk about plastics and the effect
of such on seabirds. I had met Nina on Fair Isle back in 2016 and at
this year's UK Birdfair. Matt had chatted with me about his previous
life as a Classical music composer.
Off on the bike, now replete with this year's collection of cuddly toys as shown above, I stop by a roadside ditch to watch two migrating Wrynecks. Amazing how close you can get when sitting on a bike. They seem unperturbed by my presence.
I take
the route that Ponc and I and the electric biking others took last
night and, after a stop to watch the masses of migrating Sand Martins
sitting in their hundreds on a large expanse of dried mud by a long
beach, sleep in the northern-most bird hide. Two couples come in as I
sit and enjoy the setting sun and the passing masses of Greater
Flamingoes and Glossy Ibis. One of the couples, had just
talked to Magda about coming out to Peru in order to make a film
about Chontachaka! As we chatted there is suddenly a very loud
humming noise and on looking out of the hide, we could see that the
marshes were covered with clouds of billions of Mosquitos. This lasts
for around thirty minutes or si and just as suddenly as it started
the noise stops and the Mosquitos have gone.
Monday 23rd
September
Up early, everything
packed into the panniers, I set off north across the agricultural
areas of the Delta. Stopping every time there are birds, my progress
is slow but very enjoyable. Over the large River Ebro and through a
couple of towns, , I stop to watch and count a newly
arrived flock of twenty nine White Storks.
L'Ampollo is extremely
hot and after shopping for some food I head off along a beautifully
surfaced tarmac dual carriageway reaching El Perello by late
afternoon and tonight's accommodation, Hostel
Tuesday 24th
September
Early start, around
8.00 am, in order to avoid most of the heat of the day, I push the
bike up the initial hills and cycle towards Here the roads
joins the and as the day gets increasingly hotter, a
strong breeze begins into my face, reminiscent of The Mistral of the
Rhone in France, only this time the wind is coming down the River
Ebro. Exhausting as it is cycling into the wind with such a heavy
bike, I find mid afternoon a layby which has a path and tunnel that
goes beneath the busy road. In the shade with the breeze coming over
me I lay down and sleep the heat away. Eventually I put my tent up
here and sleep the night away.
46.2 kilometres 269
metres up 372 metres down
Wednesday 25th
September
Early morning cycling
gets me to a cafe for coffee and a chat with a young twenty-two year
old Spaniard, Nathan, whose passion in life is making money via 'four
currencies.' Nathan says that Brexit is great for his business as he
makes money when Sterling goes down.
Today I feel great as
at last my hands don't feel painful and the more obvious cycling
related painful area is less painful than on the previous days. I
always tend to totally forget the pain that starting Biking Birder
adventures brings for the first few days. Focusing on the positives
is a far better thing to do.
A huge area of
desolation and burnt trees, I cycle through and wonder how long ago
the forest fire was. On one side of the road green Pine trees grow,
on the other side of the road charcoaled stumps, the road had acted
as a break in the fire's progress.
Two in the afternoon
and I arrive at a village called Maials. The only lady walking around
is an English teacher and she takes me to a restaurant that has
rooms. The restaurant is very busy and so I head off to explore the
village. Finding a cool stone bench under an ancient archway, I sleep
my siesta for an hour or two.
30.3 kilometres 475
metres up 176 metres down
Thursday 26th
September
A dirt road away from
the village is quiet and dusty. Lots of Larks, lots of finches and
the occasional Wheatear, I stop to record a short video about my
progress just as three foxes cross the road emerging from bushes to
my left. Another fox crosses the track some way downhill from where I
am standing.
Landscape changes from
Pine forest to open sierra stripped of this year's crops and
eventually down to the riverside where huge peach orchards stand. I
stop and snack whilst watching the waters of the River Ebro from a
bridge. Great White Egrets pass, as does a lone Kingfisher. A few
very large Carp push through weeds muddying the waters.
Into Lleida, a large
cosmopolitan city to find my hostel for the night. An extra payment
of 50p as tourist tax is a surprise.
Friday 27th
September
Routine now
established, up early whilst still dark, pack bike and get on the
road by 8. Cycle and bird the morning away and then find accommodation
to get out of the afternoon heat.
The road west towards
Huesca, the N-240, is very busy and I soon grateful to find an almost
empty country road that goes through various villages and farmland.
The first village is more like a New Town with 'little boxes built of
ticky tacky', as the house and apartments all look the same. I am
perturbed to see a large sculpture outside a Primary school that
seems to suggest that boys have greater thoughts than girls.
Up a steep hill onto a
plain with massed blocks of maize, a tractor is being followed by
Cattle Egrets as a few White Storks stand Together some way off.
Back onto the now
quieter N-240 I am stopped in my tracks by the disgusting site of a
large industrial scale cow suffering farmyard. This obscenity has
hundreds of cows straining their heads through grills to access what
constitutes here as food, a dry-looking pale green dust like
material. The only place for the cows to go other than these grills
are small square, dark soiled squares with nothing like grass, just
dirt. As if this wasn't horrible enough, a little further along this
monstrocity there were dozens of plastic shelters with small two
metre square paddocks for calves to individually live in. Any advert
that shows cows feeding in grassy meadows should be made to show this
sort of reality if the product being sold is created here. I cry at
the sight. No animal should be treated thus!
My mood had been
carefree and happy. Now I am distraught and full of the negative
thoughts that can overwhelm one with Climate Destruction imminent and
the politics of the day being more right-wing with every passing
moment. I try to sing to dispel these thoughts and deflect towards
a more positive attitude.
Twenty kilometres or so
later, whilst cycling fast downhill, an exploding back tyre is a
major problem. In two years of cyclinga round the UK I only had two
punctures. In Peru last year I didn;t have any! On examining the trye
wall, I find that it is ripped. No repair possible, I start to push
towards Monzon, a city about ten kilometres away.
The preferred hostel is reached and the owner tells me that there is a cycle shop called
Dr Bike in the city. At 5 o'clock I take the whole bike down there
and Oscar, the owner gives me a wheel with a new tyre for free!
Saturday 28th
September
Goodbye to this superb
hostel, I cycle down towards the city of Monzon and BANG! The new
tyre has blow out and the shop is closed for the weekend. What to do?
With no record at stake this time on this Biking Birder adventure, I
make my way to the city's railway station, intending to get to Huesca
in the hope that a cycle shop there will be open and have the
necessary wheel and tyre. No train to Huesca, I get a train to
Zaragoza instead.
No accommodation
available in Zaragoza, I get a train to Logrono. Two hours of dry
Spanish countryside, I listen to Pink Floyd's Learning to Fly song
and change the words in my head to suit today's problems.
Into
this distance on this ribbon of black
No back
tyre and no turning back
This ride of fancy
on this
desert plain
Standing
alone with problems again
Fatal
inaction is stopping my Green
How can
I escape from what should be foreseen
Can't
keep my mind from this moment's desire
A
problem solved by a new tyre
[soaring guitar solo]
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