Ferries

Ferries have become an integral part of my travels in Europe. This year, I travelled on 5 ferry routes.

The route from Plymouth to Santander on Brittany Ferries is a great route. Expensive compared to the Mediterranean routes, but wonderfully well organised and quite luxurious.

Also, Plymouth, with its amazing maritime history, is a great place to head to ‘The Continent’.

The queuing for the ferry is a great place to meet other touring bikers and check out their bikes.

After riding east from Santander along the Pirenoes, the next ferry route was Barcelona to Genova. This was on GNV.

The Italian ferry companies are a little less organised than Brittany Ferries. Also, Barcelona is a challenging port as it’s right in the centre of the city, which adds the additional challenge of managing city traffic to get to the terminal.

The overnight ferry left Barcelona late morning, arriving in Genova just after dawn. Perfect if the plan is to head to Torino and the Italian Alps

After a three week tour through Italy, the port at Civitavechia called as there awaited the Grimaldi lines ferry to Tunis.

The ferry terminal at Civitavechia, the port of Rome, is large and sprawling with a large number ferry and cruise ship terminals.

Civitavechia itself is a lovely seaside town.

The ferry to Tunisia was the smallish, oldish, MV Catania a bit quirky, but full of colour, and life.

It was a moment of total excitement arriving in Tunisia.

Thankfully, there was a motorcycle tour group from Italy to follow through the rigours of customs- visa, import bike, buy insurance and change money

After a couple or weeks touring Tunisia, it was time again to negotiate customs again and catch the MV Catania to Salerno.

Arriving just after dawn in Salerno was both beautiful and perfect for riding the Amalfi Coast road traffic free. (But that story is for another blog)

Having said goodbye to Tunisia it was soon time to say goodbye to Italy. Back at Civitavechia this time to board the Grimaldi Lines ferry to Barcellona. The MV Roma and MV Barcelona cross between the Italian and Spanish capitals 6 days are week. These are the largest most luxurious ferries on the Mediterranean. After over 12,000km of travel the 23 hour crossing is a luxury.

Unfortunately, the ferry arrives in Barcelona at 23.00 not handy really for anything but it saves over 1,400 km of riding.

It was late October as I queued with the other bikes I the cold and rain of Santander to catch the ferry back to Plymouth. The Bay of Biscay was a little rolley but it was warm and pleasant inside the ferry.

Santander is the only ferry port that has a duty free shop. Perfect for buying a beautiful Spanish Brandy.

Over the years of motorcycle travel in Europe I’ve come to learn how the careful integration of ferry travel the planning helps the traveller to spread their wings much further that otherwise possible.

Lockdown reflections 10 – The big cats of the Masai Mara, Kenya

Of the big cats of the Masai mara the Cheetah is the at the smaller end and hard to find

And we were lucky to find this one resting under a tree.

In contrast the lions, the Kings of the Jungle were out in the open and unafraid

Such photogenic beasts and totally unafraid in their domain

Even when courting

And mating

The Leopard is more illusive and its young are vulnerable

So the they are kept safely up a tree

But like all young, juvenile leopards don’t always stay put when told to

and decided to climb down our of the tree and take a walk

All of a sudden out of the bushes dashed the mother too fast for me and my camera.

She grabbed up the escaping cub and was gone back into the scrub

But all the action revealed

A second cub hiding in the tree.

On leaving the area we came upon a hyena clan out hunting

Hyena are major predators for leopard cubs and will camp out under a tree waiting for an opportunity to get a cub if the find a tree.

These hyena have tracing collars attached as part of a research project that is being undertaken into the social structures of these amazing animals.

In Ethiopia, in the city of Harrar, I learnt a new respect for the hyena.

This city has a special relationship with hyena that goes back centuries.

Which in more recent times has led to the hand feeding of the hyena and many many mill around

And if you are game

You may feed them yourself

I guess you are wondering if the hyena found the leopard cubs?

When we went back the next day – Both cubs were in the tree!

This brings to an end my reflections on journeys to Ethiopia and Kenya.

I has planned to travel to Morocco this year but Covid 19 put an end to that, but I look forward to visiting some more the diverse countries of the amazing African continent.

Lockdown Reflection 9 – The big beasts of the Masai Mara, Kenya

The Elephants are the biggest of the beasts of the Masai plains

You really appreciate how big when you get up close

This huge animal was slowly walking slowly sideways

Our driver creeping forward forward just as slowly

Keeping the elephant the back corner of the van

The driver said that the elephant was trying to get into a position to charge

I think it was just moving us away slowly from its family

The Masai Giraffe is the largest of all the giraffe types

These huge animals are quite a lot larger with darker and more pronounced markings that the Rothschild Giraffes at Lake Nakuru.

Unfortunately, like many of the great wild animals the Masai Giraffe in endangered.

My final big beast of the Masai Mara in the Hippopotamus

A huge beast who has the reputation as the deadliest large land mammal.

These huge beasts weigh around 2,250kg

But it is rare to see more that their head

Lockdown Reflection 8 – The herd animals of the Massai mara, Kenya

The grassy planes of the Massai Mara

The beautiful markings of the Zebra and the Topi

This trip taken in late November with the grasslands flourishing from the rainy season,

Young animals parrt of the herds

For the Wilderbeest Great Migration had moved south out of Kenya by this time of the year

There were some older or weaker beasts left in the masai mara

Their fate most likely to a feast for the parts predators

Sneaking through the grasslands is a predator

Its is unlikely that the Jackal would take on the bigger herd animals more likely small er mammals and rodents. But what a sight prowling through the grasslands.

Its the big cats the herd animals really have to look out for.

But we will come to those in a further post

Because sometimes you miss much by looking for the star attraction!

Lockdown Reflections 5 – Lake Nakuru – Kenya

Looking down from Baboon Cliff you can see why it is famous for its flamingos as the thick line of pink runs along the shoreline.

Lake Nakura sits in the south west of Kenya and is one of the many Rift Valley Lakes such as the Ethiopian lakes in my previous post.

But it’s when you get down to the lake edge that you really appreciate the beauty and number of the flamingos at Lake Nakuru.

Though the Flamingos are the main attraction as a RAMSAR site the birdlife is extensive. With:

Eagles

Marabou Stork

African Pelicans

And sitting by the Rhino’s ear the Oxpecker

The Oxpecker is the Rhino’s best mate. The bright eyed warning siren for the sleeping short sighted rhino. The Oxpecker keeps an eye out for the rhino’s predators as it feeds on the parasites in the Rhino’s hard hide.