World War II on Zakynthos

“Life Will Smile” (Vimeo) is an interesting video about the amazing actions of the Zakynthos community during the Second World War to protect the island’s Jews. It was the only place in the whole of Greece where no Jews died; a monument in Athens pays tribute to this. Basically, the locals hid the substantially large Jewish community in the countryside and the Priest and Mayor of Zakynthos, when asked to give a list of the Jewish inhabitants, gave a list with just two names – his own and that of the Greek Orthodox bishop. When I first learnt of this by watching a documentary many years ago, I asked my local friends on the island about it, and they had no idea of what their parents and grandparents had done. There is something about this in the guide (page 47), and I also list various remains from that period that are found on some of the walks. (Gail Schofield)”

Earthquakes in the Canaries

Tenerife

“And it all looks so peaceful: view south over the El Paso basin to Cumbre Vieja, focal point for any eruption”

Since October 7th there have been a series of volcanism-related small earthquakes on La Palma, non of them noticeable by the population — as they are so deep (about 27km beneath the earth’s surface). While vulcanologists say this is very normal on an active island, they are meeting on a daily basis to keep an eye on the situation. On 10th October, some more quakes were noted near Tenerife — also not too bad, but one of them was 4 on the Richter scale.

Route clearing in Northern Portugal

Good news from our author on the ground in Northern Portugal, who writes:
“The sapadores florestais (firemen) who do the clearing of walking routes have been so busy with the fires this year – starting in March! – that they have had no chance before now to clear any footpaths. I went out this afternoon to check if the forestry team had started clearing the section of Walk 3 along the water channel. As you can see from the attached photo, they have been busy and in fact the whole of that section has now been cleared. The water channel is dry at the moment, but the walk is do-able again!”

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Madeira: The EN110 between Encumeada and Bica da Cana has been reopened

Madeira EN110

Good news for Madeira lovers who saw this sad scene (see photo above) in the last couple of years. The EN110 between Encumeada and Bica da Cana has been beautifully repaired, made safe, and reopened on 11 February.

It’s really ironic to think back to the days when we first saw this road being built above our beloved Pousada dos Vinhaticos. We deplored the scars it was leaving on the landscape. Of course the greenery reasserted itself very quickly – as it always does on Madeira (there were no ancient laurel forests in this area) – and we came to love the EN110 which cut so much driving time off our trips out to the “far west”.

So Car tour 5 can now be driven as intended, and it will be so much easier to get to Walk 31 and Picnic 31 – to say nothing of Alternative walk 33. The Sunflower team is really looking forward to our upcoming visit later this year!

Exploring the Azores

 

Image: Corvo from the ferry crossing from Flores

We’ve been receiving daily reports for the update service from a walker in the Azores. His report on his visit to Corvo from Flores (Walk 30) makes great reading for seafarers and walkers alike – how we would have loved to be there with him!

“There seemed to be just two options available when we arrived in Santa Cruz port this morning: the Atlantico line ferry, which normally must be booked in advance, and the more adventurous open dinghy service, which gets up close to the spectacular northeast coast of Flores, including dodging between stacks and entering a sea cave. Price of both is 30 euros per person return.

Those taking the Atlantico ferry set off at 9:30 and headed straight for Corvo, where there was no minibus waiting for them! We set off after 10 and when we eventually hit the open sea, I got drenched, but then I had managed to select the worst possible place to sit. After an interminable white knuckle roller coaster ride in the heavy swell, we arrived in Vila Nova to find a minibus waiting, still 5 euros to the caldeira. We passed the three Atlantico walkers before long and at the end of the road, most of the passengers, deterred by a cold wind, went back down after taking a few snaps.

Three people headed for the mast, but we headed down into the caldeira on the official route PRC2COR. The estimated time for the complete walk: down, around two lakes and back up is 2.5 hours, but we had less than 3 hours to be back at the boat, so a little improvisation had to be employed. We were soon rewarded by sunshine and after a very brisk hike around the nearest lake and back up, I’d managed to dry out my underpants. We sauntered back down to the port in high spirits and bright sunshine with 20 minutes to spare.

On the way back to Flores the sea was relatively calm and we took a more direct route, stopping only when we encountered a small pod of dolphins : delightful as always.”

Route closures on Tenerife!

Tenerife route closures

We’ve just received the following update from a user regarding Tenerife (14/03/2015).

There have been serious rock falls in the upper Orotava Valley affecting Walks 5 and 6.

Walk 6 (‘Above Los Organos’) is closed by a substantial wooden barrier at the 45 minute-point (the “important junction”). Unfortunately we saw no indication at the start of the walk that anything was amiss, so we didn’t find out until we had climbed to this junction and had to come back down again.

Walk 5 was closed at the Choza Pedro Gil, by tape and “keep out” notices. This is a popular walk from La Caldera, and walkers were ignoring the closure. There is plenty of debris (and larger rocks) on the track, and the hillside above the Casa del Agua and approaching Llano de los Corrales looks very unstable and ready to fall. It would be highly dangerous in wet weather. There is a further official closure notice beyond El Topo.

There was no indication as to how long these closures would last, but if the whole hillside requires stabilizing it could be some time.

Sunflower’s been trolled!

Just in time for the new year, Sunflower has ‘arrived’. We’ve joined the ranks of the famous, with our very own troll!

Over the Christmas holidays, the troll (called ‘European Traveller’) posted identical reviews of almost all our titles on Amazon – proving, if nothing else, that he/she is even-handed and a prodigious hiker!

Each ‘review’ has 2 stars, is headed ‘beware good reviews’, and reads, ‘If you go to the publisher’s website, Sunflower Books, you will find that you can get their books for free if you post a 5 star review on Amazon. So all Sunflower Books get great Amazon reviews because if you give them a good, 5 star, review you get a free guide book.’

So in addition to possibly not having read or used the actual book, the troll hasn’t even read our website, which reads (ever since we started this scheme): A free pdf Sunflower guide… in exchange for a few minutes of your time!

Have you used any of our guides while on holiday? And are you a customer of amazon.co.uk? If so, you’ll know that product reviews are a key part of the Amazon service and of great importance to buyers. Sunflower Books is keen to encourage users of the Landscapes series, the Walk & Eat series and the Sunflower Complete series, to submit more reviews to amazon.co.uk. (We don’t mind whether they are complimentary or critical — it’s individuals’ viewpoints that trigger discussion and more reviews.)

The troll is probably doing us a favour by calling attention to the free book offer, which many people may not even see.

The offer on our website makes clear why we run this system: back when we first started publishing, travel guides were widely reviewed in the press. (The Sunday Times gave us an ‘Oscar’ for Madeira and Mallorca and called our books the ‘little blue bibles’.) But for many years guides are no longer even mentioned, no less reviewed, in most travel articles. So how do you know which book might suit you personally, and why?

In fact only a very small percentage of the reviews on Amazon come from those taking up the offer. (And, much to our amusement, those who do take it up bend over backwards to be impartial – typically giving only a 4-star review to a book which they then go on to rave about!)

Sunflower were the first to publish walking guides for southern Europe and the first to offer an Update service. Then we were the first to do something positive to encourage reviews on Amazon.

All our guides are updated regularly. We wish you happy hiking for many years to come!

Discovering the flysch in the Basque Country

Flysch Basque Country

When you are walking in the Basque Country, don’t miss the 8 km-long coastal stretch between the towns of Deba and Zumaia in the province of Gipuzkoa. Zumaia is visited in my Sunflower guide, Basque Country car tours and walks (part of the Landscapes Series).

The coast here reveals some extraordinary rock formations that are now protected as part of the Basque Coast Geopark, just 30 minutes by car from Donostia-San Sebastián and a little under an hour from Bilbao. The most striking formations are made of what is known as the flysch – a sequence of sedimentary rocks that make up one of the longest continuous rock strata in the world, formed nearly 100 million years ago by the crashing of waves against the cliffs and creating a platform of alternate hard layers of limestone and sandstone, and soft layers of clay and loam.

The effect, especially at low tide, is stunning. Park in the bustling, attractive fishing port of Zumaia (Car tour 1 in Basque Country car tours and walks), then start walking from the chapel of San Telmo on the western side of town, perched precariously right on the clifftops above the beach of Itzurun. From the chapel some of the best parts of the flysch can be seen by following the GR121 (red and white waymarking, part of the vuelta de Gipuzkoa route) just 10 to 15 minutes in the direction of Deba.

FlyschHowever, it is worth continuing along the same coastal footpath for about an hour to the most spectacular section of coast around Sakoneta, which forms Europe’s most extensive abrasion platform, that can be defined as a sloping or nearly flat bedrock surface that extends out from a sea cliff under shallow water.

At low tide, the Sakoneta coastal area reveals a huge variety of wildlife such as cucumbers, starfish and sea slugs, along with many varieties of sea anemone. The platform has been carved over millions of years by the sea to create wavy, almost wafer-like sheets of bedrock of great beauty. Until recently this area was hardly known outside the province but with the creation of the geopark, this is likely to change and so now is the perfect time to explore it.

The Algorri Interpretation Centre in Zumaia is a good place to learn more about the flysch, and where guided walks to the most spectacular sections of the coast around Sakoneta and beyond can also be arranged. A new feature here are the 3-hour boat trips from Zumaia along the coast westwards via Deba to Mutriku, which enables the best of the entire geopark to be viewed from the sea. These trips are highly recommended and can be booked before either via the geopark website itself or through one of the local tourist offices in any of the three towns mentioned above.

And of course this being the Basque Country, you are never far from mouth-watering pintxos (the Basque version of the tapa) at bars in all the towns and villages along the coast, washed down by the local txakoli white wine – to help recharge the batteries after an exploration of the flysch route!