Belesar - Ourense - Lobios - PART I

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I have to start by saying that I have way too much material and too few hours to make a post for all the outings I've been doing lately so I'll start from the big and more interesting ones and take it from there, unfortunately some may never make it to the blog. We shall see how it goes. Bear in mind I'll be spending the last week of August in Cyprus, I am going to Alex and Skeve's wedding and I am pretty positve there'll be lots of interesting entries from that week. :-)

We were going to be three people David, Miguel and myself, in the end David couldn't come, as you can see (or read in this case) that didn't prevent Miguel and myself from having a great weekend...

I'll have to start this story by saying that we had a plan, I promise! we did! but everything went tits up and had to improvise on the move...

The original plan was to go on Saturday to the Sil Canyon (Sil is the name of a river) rent a Kayak and descend the river. Sounds like a cool plan doesn't it? well unfortunately they are doing some works upstream on a dam and they drained the river so now it's not a river, it's a stream...so should you attempt to descend the "river" by kayak you would have to have good broad sholders to carry the kayak with you all the way because when it comes to rowing... it's kinda hard without enough water...

We quickly came up with an alternative (suggested by my cousing Iván), we could go to one of the dams in the Miño river, rent a kayak and row for an hour or so up until an island where we would stop to have lunch and relax for the rest of the day...

Another great plan, isn't it? yeah...we thought so until we got there and realise we couldn't rent a kayak... so we ended up just walking around and taking pictures, although judge by yourself, the place is just breathtaking... had it have rice plantations instead of wine I would have thought we were in Vietnam!

Did you know there is a winter Saint Jack's Way? I had no idea...I thought there was only one way...until we found this sign:

(White tall sign), it says: Winter Track to Santiago

And for my surprise I also found a road sign worth taken my picture with. :-)

I wonder how many cars ended up in the river....

Then we went to the only beach by the river in the area

I must admit we found this beach quite disapointing, not only was tiny but the only bar and possible kayak rental place in the area was closed and it was 11:30 am... so we went on visiting the surronding areas...

Then we found an old water mill that had been restored and converted into a restaurant

And from the back of the water mill you can see how the water gets into the mill

Not bad!

By the time we finished with the water mill, we were kinda peckish so we started looking for a place where to eat , the water mill was one possibility but we kept wandering around and found a place I would totally recommend to anyone. Home cooking, well priced and as it is customary in Galicia... big portions...we almost had to walk sideways on our way out we were full and let me put that in bold, we were really full.

This is the name of the place in case anyone goes about that area:

We also went to visit the local dam

And that wasn't the only engineering marvel in the area, check this out:

After that, we had to take a decission as to what to do with the rest of the day. None of our original plans worked out so now we had no plan but at least we had a full stomach. O:-)




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World Signs

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The other day in Javi's party I found another person who had a few interesting signs from Brazil so I couldn't resist and we did the compulsory swap over the internet and I thougth there may be some more crazy people out there who likes to "collect" (and by collect I mean to take a picture of it) interesting signs from around the world.

So if you are into that this is your post, if you are not...just skip this one and move on...

By alphabetical order:
Australia
Brazil
Cyprus
Jordan
New Zealand
Singapore
Spain
Sweden
Thailand


Just Plain Funny




Australia

Animal Road Signs, my favorite in Australia, they have the weirdest animals down there

The following two you can only find them in Tasmania since they are the only places in the world where you can find these two animals, the platipus and the Tasmanian Devil

The following two, with the penguins I found them in Kangaroo Island. The first one is what one of the locals described as a burocratic error since they never had Emperor penguins in the island, they only have the kind of the second sign and only in the winter.

There are a lot of birds signs on the West coast not sure whether it is because they have lots of birds on that side of the country or whether they have way to few and the signs are to keep the few they have. Certainly on the road you don´t get to see many.

The following road sign I found near Alice Springs. One thing is for sure, I've never seen such a huge Kangaroo!

The next one, I found it up North on a beach in Cape Tribulation. You wouldn't wanna have a swim on that beach...

Not all the signs are on the road and not only the animals are dangerous in Ausralia...even the plants can give you trouble down there.

The famous Bondi beach in Sydney, if you pay close attention to the sign you'll notice it's not the most friendly beach around.

How about this Cable beach in Broome

The one in Darwin was worse though...on top of all that it also had sharks and crocodiles...yes...salted water crocodiles...

Kakadu and Litchfield were littered with signs like below, they were everywhere...mind you, they don't tell you not to swim in the water, they only tell you to be careful when you do...no wonder every now and then you can read in the newspapers about a tourist eaten alive by a crocodile in Australia...

This is a different one though...

And then they also have some signs you are not sure whether they are black humor or they are for real. Check this out!

Brazil

From this lines I'd like to thank Candido González for his Brazilian signs. Really cool!

Cyprus

On the path to Aphrodite's bath

Jordan

At the Death Sea

New Zealand

I found the below sign on the road from Whangarai to Tutukaka

And this one in Cathedral Cove Beach

Travelling from Westport to Lake Mahinapua

Singapore

In the Hotel lobby

Just in case it wasn't clear, you are not supposed to spit on the hotel lobby??? what the???

Would you take this lift? I took the stairs just in case.

Spain

Care for a driving experience by the edge of the road? ;-)

Sweden

I found this sign in Stockholm, in fact the place was full of them. It seems in the winter with the cold conditions there is a lot of ice forming on the roofs and pipes coming from the roof and at some point, this ice falls to the street with the potential to kill any pedestrian passing by.

Thailand


Not the best translation around

You've got to love Thailand...just in case it wasn't clear, massage does not always means sex but there is a sign to indicate it when is not.

And this is the best sign I've ever found so far!!

Just Funny

Found in Brazil

Found in Thailand

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