Giles and Paula's Great Retirement Adventure
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We are staying just outside A Pobra do Caramiñal. We popped into town to buy supplies and get ourselves fed. In the Supermercado I was trying to choose a beer to take home, when I was whacked around the ankle by a hard white ball, I was a little irritated until I saw that the ball was attached to a stick which was attached to a blind person. In fact there were 2 blind adults and 3 normal sighted kids, who I later found out ranged from 8 months to 5 years old. Dad and mum were talking English with an American accent and after listening for a minute or so, I realised they were trying to find non-scented bio-degradeable wipes. I offered to help which was accepted. We bumped into them outside the shop and found out that they were heading for the same Italian restaurant as us, so we walked and talked.
They are from Ohio and the adults are basically completely blind and are on a longish vacation, they had spent a month in London, are spending a month in A Pobra do Caramiñal and then a few weeks in Yorkshire. This is their 5th trip to Europe and consider it to be a large part of their kids education. The 2 oldest kids had leads on, bells on their harnesses and around their ankles and air tags attached to the harness too. I suggested tattooing QR codes to their foreheads which they thought was a great idea :-).
Seeing how they moved around, just got shit done, laughed about everything, left me and Paula utterly humbled. Billy, the dad, had taught himself Spanish before they came (like you do) We had dinner together and I was in awe.
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Bumped into the blind family again tonight. Not that the parents would have seen them, but Will, the oldest boy proudly told me that they had seen a dead fish and a dead crab. The kids want to go swimming in the sea, not sure how that works safely.......
I got pimped by Will....
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Got to the Islands, which was epic. Took 3 hours to averaged about 30kph, topping out at about 55kph. Took one very large wave, which slammed the 3 of our back in our seats, the volume of water that came onto the boat was unreal. But the boat took it in its stead.
Yesterday we had Mahi Mahi, Giant Trevally, Black Tip Trevally, Bonito and Queenfish. Szymon got best fish honours with this nice GT of about 30-40kg...
"OK face up to it - you're useless but generally pretty honest and straightforward . . . it's a rare combination of qualities that I have come to admire in you" - Geo 2011
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@Giles oh my !
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@Giles Ho Lee Scheiße
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@jordanscollected said in Giles and Paula's Great Retirement Adventure:
@Giles Great catch Szymon! Does your fishing trip support locals like trips past, or is this just sport fishing?
Have you gotten to/had to fish off shore too or has the weather allowed you to use the boat?
Not in the same way as Morocco, but Omanis don't really work, at least not in menial jobs (which includes hospitality, guiding etc etc), but we are helping give lots of people from Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, Tunisia etc paiod employment.
Not fished from the shore yet, out on the boat. The wind gets up as the week progresses, so may get some shore time in.
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Today. Too many Mahi Mahi and Bonito to count (I had a 12 pound Bonito), and a few Queenies, all on light tackle. Mahi Mahi for dinner.
Raised 12 GT's on one drift, but they were coming up short, so made contact with none
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@Giles do you guys drift socks to slow down or is it better to just roll with the waves?
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So, it has been tough fishing. The GT’s (primary target species), were just not playing ball. We had a few hits between us (probably about 30), but the fish were very nervous and coming up short, the only one of us to land a few was Szymon.
We had amazing sport on light tackle and caught lots and lots of lots of different species.
Have booked for next year, a month earlier when the weather will be more settled.
