Shipwreck By Sunset

In September 1988 I went down to the Promenade at Anchorsholme and walked across the beach to the wreck of the Norwegian barque, The Abana.

The tide was just turning to come in but I had a good hour or so before I would have to move away from the incoming sea and during that hour the sun sank lower in the sky, creating one of those glorious Blackpool sunsets.

A barque was a three-masted sailing ship and the Abana had left Liverpool some three weeks earlier, sheltered from the weather in Ramsay Bay, Isle of Man and then resumed her voyage at Christmas 1894 after sailing from Liverpool. According to one newspaper report, she was bound for "Savello", but apart from a castle in central Italy - an unlikely destination for a ship - I'm not sure where that could be... Seville has been suggested and the Abana's Wikipedia entry lists the destination as Savannah, Georgia, USA.

In any event she was not destined to get there. The crew saw Blackpool Tower on the coast, but as this was then brand new and an unfamiliar sight, they mistook it for a lighthouse. Not that they could do much about it anyway for, with her sails torn to shreds, the Abana was tossed around the Irish sea until, after being spotted off the North Pier, she grounded off Anchorsholme. The alarm was raised by the landlord of the Cleveleys Hotel.

The weather was so bad that the lifeboat could not be launched at Blackpool, nor could horses pull it along the coastal road. They had to use the back streets which afforded some shelter and then launched the lifeboat, the Samuel Fletcher from Little Bispham. This then had to rowed out to the Abana by the 16-man crew, who rescued the entire 17 men onboard the barque and also the ship's dog.

They were all taken to Bispham's Red Lion Hotel to recover from the ordeal. The ship's bell was given to Robert Hindle, the landlord of the Cleveleys Hotel in gratitude for his having raised the alarm and the dog also stayed with that gentleman when the Captain of the Abana was recovered enough to go home.

The ship's bell was given to St Andrew's church in Cleveleys - where it can still be seen today.

Return to Blackpool Promenade and Beach Index Page

A Week at Lake Garda

We're back! Back from a week at the beautiful Lake Garda in northern Italy.

We stayed at Riva on the north western corner of the lake, in the Hotel Sole, right on the edge of the lake. Beautiful place and a very good hotel.

It was a very relaxing holiday - we only did one organised tour. But we did a couple of disorganised ones too... By which I mean we just took ourselves off on a ferry down the lake a few times. A holiday at Lake Garda doesn't need much organising beyond finding a hotel and booking in.

The ferries start at 8:00am and finish around 8:00pm or thereabouts. They don't operate after dark. At the northern end of the lake where we were, there are mountains all around. You won't get spectacular sunsets there because the sun doesn't set - it just goes behind the mountain and then it gets progressively darker.

We'll no doubt have a look at some of the things we got up to in the next few entries, but suffice it to say that I can gel completely with the culture of sitting in pavement cafes, sipping granitas (Slush Puppies) or something called Aperol Spritzers which was quite nice too. Or even just a limonata - a lemon soda. On this first day we took a one-hour cruise to see a waterfall.

It's a pleasant trip but the waterfall is very hard to spot, being in a cove - more like a grotto really, as it is so dark that only me fiddling with Photoshop has made the waterfall just about visible here. In real life it is so dark in there that you haven't much chance of actually seeing it whilst you're sitting on a boat in the glare of the sun!

Then the boat turns round and heads out to the centre of the lake to come back - away from any other ferry traffic heading down the lake. The lake is popular with windsurfers and boating enthusiasts.

Back at Riva, there is still most of the afternoon left as we took an early flight out. We decide to walk along the path across the top of the lake to the town on the north-east corner called Torbole.

This is around a three and a half mile walk and affords some wonderful views of the lake.

Somewhere near the halfway point a river flows down from the mountains and out into the lake. This is a popular spot for sunbathers and especially families as you can splash about in the river.

Now here's something we weren't expecting! A rumble of thunder makes us turn round in surprise and the colour of the sky makes us think twice about carrying on to Torbole! We start to retrace our steps and feel the first gentle splashes of rain.

By the time we get back to Riva... We dived under the canopy of a gelateria - an ice cream bar. The rain was now torrential and bouncing spectacularly off the paths whilst a steady stream of water running off the canopies splashed far out from the front of the café.

And the ice creams... did I mention the ice creams...? This is a coppa fragole. Strawberries, vanilla and strawberry ice cream and fresh cream. Later in the week I took to dispensing with the fresh cream - it detracted from the taste in my view.

So to come: more slouching around the lakeside cafes (we did an awful lot of that...) and a look at the Dolomite mountains, some night views of Riva and trips to Limone and Malcesine by ferry. And we might take a closer look at one of the ferries - a beautiful 1902 paddle steamer called G.Zanardelli. It doesn't steam any more, but is still driven by its side paddles rather than a propeller.

Return to Lake Garda 2012 Index

Star Wars - The Weather Strikes Back

Saturday 10 October 1981. Blackpool was experiencing some rather heavy gales. And that means hefty! Mostly when the weather forecasters say "There will be 70mph winds" Blackpool folks say "Yeah? So...?"

The second (now the 5th) Star Wars episode - The Empire Strikes Back - had just been released and the Illuminations featured a fabulous full-sized X-Wing fighter along with a fairly decent R2D2 and a downright dubious C3PO!

The wind had broken the fighter craft in two and had also torn a laser gun from one of the wings.

Because the film had just been released this was newsworthy stuff. There would be no daily papers the following day as it was Sunday and so, like the prepared boy scout that I never was, I found the number of the news desk at the News of the World and told them what had happened and that I'd got some pictures if they wanted to buy them.

I could sense a definite interest and as the chap was about to tell me the local address to take the film I heard a commotion in the background and then he said in a shocked, excited voice "Sorry lad, we've got our front page spread now - a bomb's gone off..." The phone immediately went down.

The IRA had exploded a bomb in Ebury Bridge Road next to Chelsea Barracks. Two people died and 39 others were injured. I may have been the first person outside London to hear of it.

Large versions of the photos: top photo, bottom photo

There are also two more photos of this event at Flickr.

Storm Clouds in Positano

Monday 22 August 2005. A rainbow morning! As we set off from the hotel to walk into Sorrento to catch the boat to Positano on the other side of the peninsular, a rainbow stood out clear and bright over the rooftops.

"That's a good sign!" we thought but changed our minds a little when the boat turned out to have been cancelled due to an approaching storm. We looked out over the Bay of Naples, resplendent in bright sunshine, not a cloud in the sky.

"But..." No buts. The boat was definitely not going and he firmly gave us our money back. We decided we would walk up to the bus station and catch a bus there instead. In retrospect this was brave. Actually...in retrospect it was downright stupid but anyway, we reached the bus station and found a couple of Irish girls who were going the same place and we congratulated ourselves and each other on being the only ones waiting.

Half an hour later the place was crawling with people. Hardly any tourists, they were all locals and they were all determined to be on the bus first. The bus, labelled a Sita bus was about half full before I could force a way in, usher Fran and Mum under my arm and then turn to grab the hand of one of the Irish girls and pull her in through the crowd. She in turn was pulling her mate.

"Aw, t'anks fer that!" she gasped. We had managed to get seats but by now the bus was absolutely full and the girls and around far-too-many other people were standing in the aisle. The bus set off and across the mountains via numerous hairpin bends that the driver took with contemptuous disdain without hardly slowing. The locals were obviously all used to the people standing suddenly sitting on their knees, but it was a new experience for us.

"Jasus! Would ye keep a hold o' me?" begged the Irish girl standing next to me, grabbing my shoulder. I looked up just as the sun shone through the opposite window, turning her top into a glowing orange screen against which the silhouette of an A1, prize-winning, absolutely perkfect breast added its plea for holding onto... I manfully grabbed her forearm and looked the other way. It didn't make any difference, because for the next half hour and at intervals over the next few days I could still see that breast... Men of a certain age, you know...

Eventually we came to Positano. Actually we came to a clifftop about four or five hundred feet above Positano which is where the bus dropped us off.

"Never mind, Mum, we'll be able to get a bus or a taxi up again," we said confidently, setting off down.

We stopped halfway down to rest the knees and had a coffee in a small bar which had a terrace on the cliff side. The Italians make their latte-style coffees with hot milk, without all the froth that our UK coffee shops - no matter how "Italian" they claim to be - insist on ladelling on the top. To me that makes it a cappuccino not a latte. Anyway, don't forget that in Italian latte means milk. If you want one of these then ask for a latte macchiato.

The climb down the steps and narrow streets winding their way towards the sea may have been hard on the knees, but there were plenty of shops to keep Mum and Miss Franny distracted. Many times I turned round to see where they were and had to climb back up before I found them again!

Eventually we reached the bottom and by then there were a few clouds. "We might actually get that storm!" I said brightly.

We had a little wander, finding a row of Martello towers along the coast and then remarking how the sea had started to crash up a bit on the rocks.

We found a little street winding its way back up the hill and went a little way, enjoying the colours and bustle of a market and street of shops.

When we came down again it was getting towards lunchtime so we found a restaurant on the edge of the beach called Chez Black which did superb marguerita pizzas. As we sat there we watched it get darker and darker and darker. "I think we'll head for the bus when we come out!" Fran said. We hadn't seen any buses going up the hill and there was just one taxi on the rank. My Italian isn't up to all that much and it was a struggle before I understood that he wasn't a local taxi but had just dropped off someone after driving them all the way from Rome!

He was therefore very reluctant to let us get into the cab in case local taxi drivers reported him. He wouldn't budge even when we gestured at Mum who was obviously going to struggle to walk up the hill. But in the end we had to.

With frequent stops whilst it got steadily darker and clouds thickened overhead. By the time we were about three quarters of the way up we were tired, never mind Mum. We were starting to get worried about her, although with the frequent stops to catch breath she was doing ok.

We found three girls sitting on the wall at the side of the road taking photos of each other in Spanish. They asked me to take their photo all together so I did and then was handed the next camera, "and mine!", so I did again and then was handed the next camera, "and mine!", so I did it again. By then I'd got into a habit and so I lifted my own camera and said "and mine!" to which they all fell about laughing and posed for this. Nice fun moment.

We had got almost to the very top to join the main road when the rain started. Over the course of the next few steps, thunder crashed, lightning flashed and the rain really started...

Ten minutes later, whilst we were still walking along towards the bus stop, the water that was falling on the mountains above us had started to run down them. The road was two inches deep in running water and the amount of rain falling was ridiculous. We had no coats of course - you can see from the earlier photos how sunny and warm it had been. We found an open door and sheltered in the front hall of a business building for a while, feeling very guilty, but not having been able to make anyone hear us to ask permission. Then finally the rain slackened off and we carried on to find the bus stop.

The bus was absolutely crowded. Thankfully someone gave up their seat for Mum but Fran and I had to stand all the way back, hanging on to the luggage rack as it hurtled around the hairpins. The locals must have really strong backs...!

And finally, the day ended with a perfect sunset over the Bay of Naples, as seen from Sorrento. A cruise ship has left Naples and is sailing past Ischia, on its way back out to the Mediterranean.

Return to Sorrento 2005 Index Page

Dust Storms in the 1930s

Every now and then you come across a photo that blows you away.

This is a dust storm on April 18 1935 in Stratford Texas.

Just one of many such storms to hit Texas that year - in fact the area gained the name, the Dust Bowl.

The effect on people's health can be imagined here and the series of storms led to the passing of soil conservation laws. Read about some of the effects of the storms.