132 - CADAQUÉS I

Cadaqués (June 2014)

Cadaqués is sort of famous around here, a bit because it's one of the most beautiful villages around the coast, another because of it's usual clientele included artists like Dalí or Picasso. While I've been around that coast a few times (I prefer St Martí d'Empuries, in front of the greek ruins, for a beach day), I've never really had the chance to visit, so this past summer a friend and I decided to spend a few days there. And, wow, it's gorgeous, even if it starts to rain your second day there.

131 - ON THE ROAD XVI

Nullarbor, before crossing to Western Australia

The funny thing is that when we decided on this route a lot of people looked at us strangely and asked us why we didn't do the usual one, the other way, that is, going to see the beaches along the pacific coast and that there was nothing to do in South and Western Australia and it was easier in a lot of ways for two women. Boy they were wrong. While we are sure it's gorgeous, we were dying to see the desert of the Nullarbor and the coast in WA; less people, less known, more of an adventure (as much of one that you can have nowadays). It was high summer, hot in ways I've never experienced, and more than a few people kind of scared us. 

We didn't shower for days, ate strange vegetable and pasta salads and peanut butter, sweated throughout the van seats, made the most horrible complaining noises when we got out of the van (it was like a slap of hot unbreathable air), drank gallons of water because we kept sweating like crazy, despite the AC (which we hated with a passion, but it was necessary), we had headaches that burned our eyes, and the impression that the dry gum trees were clawing a path to our brains… but we still think it's one of the best things we ever did. 

I still remember the woman we met on our first night with our new (and free!) van, in a camp site in Kimba, with whom we chatted for a while when she asked us what route we wanted to do and why… after hearing us, she smiled and said "good girls!". She knew we were going to love it. 

130 - ON THE ROAD XV

Somewhere in the Nullarbor 

You wake up, it's like 5 in the morning and open the doors to the desert... And I can assure that this is the usual way I wake up, what with being quite blind and taking the first two pictures without my glasses. 

129 - ON THE ROAD XIV

Taking a train in Oz was fantastic, there was this whole ritual around it, with a lot of explanations that, well, seemed pretty obvious to me, until I realized that a lot of people in there just use cars and trains are a pensioners trip… we were among the youngest in the carriage.

It was even more interesting because: a. the heat wave made the driver reduce the speed up to a crawl for fear of fires (and sparks because of the friction), one of the worst things that can happen there and b. a tree had fallen in the tracks… let me repeat, a tree had fallen in the tracks. I almost expected Ned Kelly to appear and rob us, it was hilarious. 

The Overland (2014)

128 - ON THE ROAD XIII

Sometimes, you read this things that made sense in your head and you actually think you understand them, until something happens, someone you love like a brother gets sick and, in your heart, you know that we are really just passing through, that life really happens while you make plans for other things. 

I have my ticket for London for december, I have a room waiting for me and I know a few people in the city. I'm scared of the cliff but I'm going to jump, he's been teaching me that, jump, don't worry about the landing, it's going to happen anyway, one way or another, so, why worry? just give it your all while in flying. 

(my new tumblr, where I'm trying to mix my two blogs in one)

Looking for the Erskine Falls (2014)

127 - ON THE ROAD XII

I'm late at posting a lot of things that I wanted to post, life around here has taken a turn for the strange and I feel a bit not-focused, my everything is all around. 

I've opened a tumblr account (HERE) to spruce things a bit, and I've also changed the layout here, something with which I'm never quite satisfied. 

Great Ocean Road (2014)

126 - ON THE ROAD XI

Great Ocean Road (still..)

Between Lorne and Apollo Bay, we decided to stop at every creek, fall and lookout and enjoy the days slowly. If i remember correctly, and I might not, to be honest, I think it was after we had the bird scare. We stopped to buy some wine because Australia day was near and after that we were looking for a free campsite we've heard about, so, in a town at 15 k/h a bird decided to go directly for our car and crashed in our windscreen. I like driving (even if I think I'm pants at it) and I like a lot doing road trips, but, my god, we were shaking and hyper when we finally camped for the night. 

Have you ever had a scare while driving? 

125 - ON THE ROAD X

Coast Life (at this point, names just slipped past us, wait!.. Lorne, it's the jetty of Lorne)

Today the sky in here is just like the sky in this pictures, and I actually love love love days like because despite the headaches they give me, the light is just so lovely! 

Do you have barometric headaches too? I don't think I'm the only one...

SEATED - Bang Bang

Bang Bang

So, this little story has haunted me for years for a few silly reasons, well, haunted in the sense that "nobody lets me really forget it" and it's a pain by now because it's really silly, but, when I met her, I had a bad impression of her and her best friend just because I wanted to see a concert and they wanted to talk (what? it was Fleet Foxes!… alright). Not really compatible. But, that's alright, my mistake, she's so lovely that none can really not like her. She's intelligent and feminine and articulated and so pretty in person that I feel ungainly sometimes when I'm with her.

124 - LISBOA

Lisboa

Here's the thing, I'm mediterranean and I'm used to a certain type of light, a light that sometimes, bleaches colors and turns everything golden, so when I landed a very sunny day on Lisboa this past June… I fell completely in love with the light in Portugal. I had the impression that it made al the colors more crisp, more sharp, that you could see more hues, I don't know. 

Sara, if you read this, your country is magic, I will visit Porto at some point, I'm sure.

123 - ON THE ROAD IX

Breakfast on a van (or how I became addicted to peanut butter)

I've been posting pictures of Australia non-stop; I still have a few rolls to go, but now that I have the rolls from this summer already developed and in my hands, I'll be mixing them with a few other places that I managed to visit these past few months. I miss traveling.

122 - ON THE ROAD VIII

Split Point Lighthouse and Eagle Rock in the Aireys Inlet

The coast along the Great Ocean Road was, and still is, called, the shipwreck coast for quite a few good reasons, unpredicted reefs, sea stags, strong currents and strong winds (a perpetual thing in Australia, that wind) made the passage to Victoria and Melbourne quite dangerous. That's why you can also find a few lighthouses along the way. And they are gorgeous. The more famous of them all is in Cape Otway, but the fee to even enter the grounds was a bit in the steep side, so we lucked out in finding this one. There's something almost romantic in them, maybe the loneliness that it implies or the hope that it must have represented for the travelers after months at sea. 

121 - ON THE ROAD VII

The Twelve Apostles (which have never been twelve, even before some of them fell) and The Grotto

Do I have a bit of an obsession with the sea? well, I do believe I have. As I told a few entries before, I lived for a while in Madrid, and one of the strangest feeling of being there was that I couldn't see the sea, I didn't know where it was, I couldn't smell it by the mornings onshore breeze. So every time I saw the South Australian Sea I went a bit crazy.