MANILVA THIS WEEKEND.

FRIDAY/SATURDAY/SUNDAY 29TH/30TH/31ST OCTOBER 2010.

As usual on Friday morning we did the weekend shopping and stocked up for our five weeks over in Guadalmina at Clive and Carolyn’s villa from next Wednesday; Mano and Anna’s trip to Madrid has been put back for this weekend so we had to change our plans, in the evening we had supper up at Bar Rojas, Lumy looked after us and we had a lovely meal, Brenda had the John Dory fried in a light batter with a crisp side salad and I had Egg and Frits with a side order of “ Carne Machada ” It is a slow cooked meat which has lots of flavor, served cold and thinly sliced, on the pink side, sprinked with course salt, it is spectacular and we devoured it with the salad and more Patatas Fritas ! Just before we went out I made our usual call to Tim in Old Colwyn;during the day I go on the North Wales BBC news page and catch up with what is going on,I can even check out the weather on the motorway live camera’s ! The pictures below show the village as walked around and the new wall that had just been finished, it is on the road out of the village to the Autopiste and Casares; they have used Manilva stone and the small wall placks as you can see show the process of making Manilva wine, Brenda is training Cheta to walk on the lead.

WELSH HIGHLAND RAILWAY – RHEILFORDD ERYRI – OPENING 2011.


Whilst I was on the news page I read the story about the special run taking place on Saturday along the new Welsh Highland Railway line; it starts from the side of the awe – inspiring Caernarfon Castle and snakes around bends and hard gradients in the foothills of Snowdonia past Waunfawr to arrive at Rhyd Dhu,it then passes Lyn y Gader and climbs to the summit at Pitts Head before it zig- zags down the steep hillside to Beddgelert.They have built a new station just by Gelerts Grave on the edge of the village; the railway then heads to the Aberglasyn Pass running high above the fast flowing Afon Glaslyn river before plunging dramatically into a tunnel through the hillside and emerging past Nantmor village on its way around Pont Croesor behind Tremadoc and finishing along the main street of Portmadoc,crossing over the Britannia Bridge which has now got flashing lights and audible warnings as it turns onto the Cobb and joins up with world famous Ffestinog Railway to Blaenu;they have even constructed the only level crossing in the UK for trains just before Portmadoc so as the narrow 2’gauge can cross the main standard gauge line of the Cambrian Coast Railway ! The journey takes place behind the most powerful steam locomotives in the world on a 23 mile ride, offering onwards travel on the Ffestinog line which will make it a staggering 40 miles – truly a “ Great Railway Journey ”

The WHR will be operated by mainly a set of four Beyer-Garatt NGG16 ( 2-6-2 + 2-6-2T ) locomotives formerly from South Africa, they are probably the most powerful 2 foot gauge engines in the world and can cope with the 1 in 40 gradients along the line and pulling up to 12 coaches at close to 25mph when the line is fully bedded in ! They are painted in Black or Green or Blue and Red livery and are very different as they have tanks in front and at the back and a very unusual wheel set up; they have also built the UKs newest steam locomotive named “ Lyd ” at the oldest operational railway workshop in the world at Boston Lodge Works ! She is capable of working on both the WHR and the FR lines and will be able to pull five carriages on the steeper WHR and ten on the FR and will be painted in Southern Railways green livery. They also have two working Diesel engines built in Sooth Africa by CH Funkey and Co of Johannesburg to work in the diamond mines in Namibia, powered by a turbocharged 335 horsepower engines they are now on the WHR and FR. The carriages are special also, there are three third class saloons, three semi-open coaches, a first class Pullman and a panoramic Pullman Observation carriage as well as a Heritage coach and various Bike Wagons and Brake Vans – all finished in there original Red and Cream livery ! Sorry that I have got a bit taken away but trains have always been my thing and nearly now after forty years ago when we worked in Beddgelert when this project was spoken as a pipe dream it is great to see it come into fruition at last after nearly fifty years !! The picture below shows one of the locomotives that I have talked about.

On Sunday after an extra hour in bed as the clocks had gone back we decided to have a late brunch,Mano and Anna joined us as we sat down to Fried Eggs,Smoked English Back Bacon,Spanish Smoked Crispy Streakey Bacon and Chorizo,English Homemade Pork Sausages,Tomato,Mushrooms,Min- Steak and Onions,Baked Beans and Saute Potatoes !! Toast and Tea !! Then we all sat down and relaxed and put the world to rights !


Thought for the Day;

You can't make someone's else's choices. You shouldn't let someone else make yours.



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