S'Illot, Mallorca 29th September 2016

S'Illot is a small town on the east side of the larger of the Balearic Islands. Firstly a couple of sun rise and sun set photos.

In no time at all I had found a vocho to add to my collection of vocho photos that I had started in Mexico where the original vocho or beetle was last produced and in such numbers that it is a common sight. (Complete album of vocho photos and a few other forms of transport from Mexico and Central America originally posted in November 2015).

I found a castle on a peninsular but it was a modest affair and although recently renovated it was no more than a five minute visit.  It had a small moat but was no more than a lookout tower and could not hold more than ten soldiers.

The moat was shallow and must have always been dry and only for show and would not have held back a determined attack.

I just had to have a selfie of me and a vocho although I must admit I had lost the thought of smiling as I have also lost the art of the selfie and it took me over thirty photos before I gave up...and this was the least worst. 

My hotel, not much to shout about.

And another vocho.

Marmaris Friday 9th September

Another posting with a few more pictures just for fun. All the taxis are yellow whatever the make so that they are distinctive but yellow is not a popular colour for private cars and I didn't see a single yellow private car despite looking out for one. 

 The local taxi rank on a corner of the park.

 But Landrovers are popular for safaris, mountain trips, trips out of town and are a regular sight around the town. If only I had started taking photos of them at the start of the fortnight I would have a vast collection of different colours. Here's a collection that I took on just one day.

Other colours and other makes are available but are rare but I did see a Jeep but the colour wasn't to my taste.

 Wherever I went I was never lost as just behind my hotel was a distinctive conical hill with a large Turkish flag on top. So wherever I was and wanted to go home, I just needed to look up and head towards the flag.

I took a long walk into the hills behind the town and in between the trees there was still my landmark hill and flag. Honest, the flag is there if you look closely!

Whilst I was walking around the town I came across this which I hadn't seen since Caye Caulker in Belize. It is a seeping policeman or traffic calming hump made out of a rope nailed into the tarmac.

 No posting is complete without a selfie so here are two, one of me in front of the Viking ship down near the harbour.

 And one of me outside my local 2M Micros. The yellow car is a taxi just in case you ask.

Turkey September 2016

Marmaris 6th September 2016

I am just posting a few photos to check that all the connections are working and that both the new laptop and the operators are working as they should. Firstly a view of the hotel. And yes it is far too hot here!

 It rained one evening and cleared all the rubbish out of the storm drains. The water level was about half way up the concrete sides, about a metre deep. The only trouble was all the rubbish, plastic bottles, dead cats etc were washed up on the beach and the council turned out in strength to clear the beaches. Late risers never saw or noticed anything.

 A gulet in the harbour.

 Pirates of the Carribbean on holiday in Marmaris in Turkey!

This is a special memory and treat for all those who were with me in Mexico last year and for those that followed the blog on vochos.

 And for those that travelled with me along the Silk Road through Turkey, how can people forget those Micros supermarkets? Here are pictures of the nearest two 2M Micros' plus a 1M now rebranded as Micros Jet. The number of M's refer to the size. 1m or Micros Jets are corner shops, 2M are supermarkets, 3&4M's include household wares up to 5M's that sell absolutely everything...food, household stuff, white and brown goods, cars etc

 Look out for my next big trip to South America starting next month!

Norfolk in November

I had a day to myself whilst visiting my parents so I went for a walk along the sea front from Sea Palling to Happisburgh and neighbouring Bacton were a third of Britain's North Sea gas supplies arrive in the country. Out to sea at Sea Palling there are nine great reefs built of Norwegian granite to help to protect the beach and low lying areas from erosion. 

The granite blocks were carried by barge from Norway and either placed in offshore reefs or on the beach as protection from the waves. Its called blue granite and in the right light it really does appear to be blue.

The idea is to let the sea replenish the sand that drifts along the coast caused by the predominant currents down the coast. The effect is to raise the beach level and the sand builds up behind the reefs with long fingers of sand stretching out from the coast to connect the reefs to the shore  at low tide.

So successful has the experiment been that the beach level has risen and the dunes behind have increased to smother some of the hard concrete sea defences that had also been built after the disastrous 1953 sea flooding that drowned over 100 people in Norfolk alone. The nine reefs were built in 1995 by the Environment Agency to protect erosion of the beach and the danger of under cutting the concrete sea wall.

 A purpose built gap in the sea wall and dunes.

 A second world war pill box that was incorporated into the sea defences.

 As luck would have it I also witnessed an inshore rescue life boat drill.

This is were the concrete sea wall finishes and the land rises to have cliffs facing the sea. The sea wall is to the left, the cliffs to the right and the central part of the photo shows the area between the two, and that indicates about 75m retreat of the cliffs over the 75 years since the concrete sea defences were built.

 A pill box that used to be on the cliff top whose foundations have long since been eroded and it has now plunged into the sea.

 The light house at Happisburgh (pronounced as Hayesburgh just to confuse non locals).

 Looking along the sea wall.

 Another view along the sea wall with protections along its base and one of the reefs out to sea in the distance.