Up The Rio Guadiana Again

Having done the laundry and bought the new chain in Ayamonte we felt ready to take ourselves up the Rio Guadiana to Salucar/Alcoutim again with the intention of doing some more serious walking. The omens certainly looked good as a weather forecast was for strong to gale force winds in the Straits and around Cadiz but light southerlies around the Guadiana. The only thing to alarm us was an account from another boat who had just come down. The wife had gone for a swim to cool down and had then been very ill all night. She mentioned that there were a lot of dead fishes and we speculated on the possibility of pollution or an algae bloom.

Aside from reports of toxic water, all sounded good though and the southerly at the mouth carried us all the way up the river. Sailing is certainly nicer than sailing even if you do have to do an awful lot of gybing in a narrow river. There were certainly a lot of dead fishes in the river so we were concerned not to go swimming. I have no idea what caused the number of dead fishes but is is very hot up here. The thermometer has been pushing 37 to 38 most days and the log sensor tells us that the water temperature is 24!

These very high temperatures have rather curtailed our activities as neither of us feels up to doing a long walk in such heat. We have ambled around both villages and even climbed up to the Don Quixote windmills on the Spanish side from where we got a superb view of Sarah Giddings at anchor.

The winndmills are pure Don Quixote as can be seen and have lots of atmosphere.

Finally, we do usually get an afternoon breeze and when combined with loose clothing you can get this amusing view of Audrey!

We are likely to spend another couple of days here before heading back down river. Firs to Ayamonte for laundry and then on to Rota before our eventual departure from mainland Europe.