Mixed feelings.

We have mixed feelings about moving on from Gijon. We have come to really love the place whilst we’ve been here, the natural beauty of the area, the friendliness of the people, the exuberance of the celebrations, the delicious foods, it will be hard to leave and there are people here who we say hello to daily, who we will probably never see again and other new friends we have made who we hope will stay in touch, maybe someday we’ll come back on a different adventure.

 

Santa Catalina headland, Gijon.

 

On the other hand we are itching to move, frustrated at the continual delays and wanting to see new places, do new things Then there is the whole excitement of going out to sea again, being in that endless blue with nothing but the sound of the waves and watching the birds skimming low over the water, on the way to the next adventure.

 

We have conveniently just come to a natural end of the space topic for boat school that the boys have been following with lots of enthusiasm since January. We intend to spend a couple of months concentrating on exploring places and moving on relatively quickly as we head into and through the Basque region. I have lesson plans up my sleeve for any rainy/windy/can’t get anywhere days and several games to help them keep up to speed with numeracy and the other basics, I have no doubt that they will also learn lots more from what we see and do.


 

Play dough solar system.

 

Finally the weather is changing, this has been the worst winter in Asturias in living memory. For us although it has been cold at times, it was nothing like as cold as last year, when we actually had ice inside the boat. The wind and rain however has been another matter. This area is known as ‘Costa Verde’ – the green coast - for a reason but this year there has been flooding, landslips and a lower snow line than usual and everything has hung on for so much longer than usual. Normally the sun has arrived by the end of March, this year it is only really this week that Gijon seems to have collectively taken off it’s coat and finally summer is arriving, we’ve packed away the woolly hats and got the sunhats out instead! Now all that is left to cause us problems is the residual swell and even that is finally calming down so we’ll keep watching the weather and maybe soon we’ll be waving ‘adios’ to Gijon.

 

Marina Yates, Gijon.