Cabrera is absolutely stunning...actually, stunning does not describe it well enough. The colour of the water is so blue it’s unreal and the land gently rises and falls to drop into the azure blue ....it’s awesome. Knowing that we had little time ...despite not making it to our buoy last night, we would have to be away from here by 5pm ... we took Mango Tango ashore, picked up some maps and took the short stroll up the hill to the castle....even at 9am it was extremely hot and shade was very much lacking...making it a hard climb but well worth the effort!
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The island has only a few dwellings on it...the castle dates from the 1600‘s a ndthere are a few remnants of buildings from when 12,000 french prisoners were left here in during the war with Spain. It was then occupied by the Spanish again...and today, there is a small hostel you can book to stay in, a port office and a bar...mainly for the port officials, but visitors can drink and eat there too. On the opposite side of the island there is a lighthouse which is unique for the way that it has been painted...red and white diamonds. We made an impromptu decision to walk the 11kms to the lighthouse and back. It was a fantastic walk....up and own and up to the lighthouse...gorgeous views at every turn...
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Once back onboard Windekind it was time to cool off and have a snorkel in the clear waters.....we saw so many fish...shoals of golden fish sweeping from side to side over the seaweed looking for tasty morsels to eat, a large fish with a bad eye who just swam around in circles, huge grumpy looking fish, the tiniest sparkly ones flitting about ,seaweed in all shapes, colours and sizes...it really was just like swimming in an aquarium!
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As the afternoon wore on the wind really picked up and started to howl across the bay....not weather the skipper wanted to take a small wooden boat out into.....but, we had no permit to stay tonight, so we had a problem. Also, Billy was feeling quite ill...sunstroke from being in the midday sun walking to the lighthouse and back...so she was going to be of no use at all!! The port officials came around and BT explained our situation and mentioned that I was ill...they said we could stay until the wind dropped!!! However, an hour or so later they came back and told us that we could stay for the night in replacement for the booking we missed last night...so we didn't have to pay again. It was a huge relief for both of us! We could sleep in peace knowing that all would be well in the morning!
The colours all around you are amazing, you can feel the sunshine and smell the sea!
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