23 Jan 26 - ORCA Canaries Cruise - A Cunning Plan Part 1 - Ancient Spanish Mammals

The previous evening, the Captain on the Saga Canaries cruise announced that we were going to be staying in Santander port for a few more days, thanks to heavy seas blocking our passage South to the Madeira and Canaries. We also knew by this point, that our planned visit to the two Cape Verde islands had been ruled out (hence my removal of Cape Verde from the name of the cruise). The Saga team were looking at how they could replan the rest of the cruise to ensure we reach Madeira and the three Canary islands that were in the original route. Misquoting the late, great Eric Morecombe, we would still be visiting all those ports, but not necessarily in the right order. That was good news from my viewpoint, as the potential landbird Ticks for me were on Gran Canaria and Madeira. My only other potential Tick was Desertas Petrel, which could be drifting anywhere at sea. However, missing out on the seas between the Canaries and Cape Verde was a blow for the ORCA team, as they should have been good for Cetaceans: if only these seas weren't as angry as they were. The Captain also announced that the ship had laid on coach tours of Santander and to Bilboa's Guggenheim Art Gallery. I had already been on the Santander tour and didn't have any interest in visiting a modern art museum. It was time for a cunning plan.

There was a stunning sunrise over the hills to the East of Santander

I didn't fancy another day wandering around Santander, so I started looking at car hire. Fortunately, we were docked close to Santander's railway station, which has a number of car hire firms around it. I managed to book a car for the day. It was a bit more expensive than I would have normally paid for a one day booking, but Chris and Fiona were keen to join me and split the car hire costs. The first destination was Altamira Cave, about a thirty minute drive away.

I booked a group C car which should have been a Focus hatchback or similar car: So it was a pleasant surprise to be upgraded to a BMW 520

Altamira Cave is renowned for prehistoric cave art featuring charcoal drawings and paintings of contemporary local fauna and human hands. The cave was discovered in 1868 by Modesto Cubillas and subsequently studied by Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola from 1875. At the time, Sautuola realised the paintings were created by our Stone Age ancestors and this theory was published in 1880. This was a very controversial proposal, as this was the first time cave art had been seen in Europe. People at the time believe the paintings were forgeries. It took until 1902 for the scientific community to accept these paintings were genuine, after more cave art sites had been discovered in Europe. Sadly, Sautuola died in 1888 and never lived long enough for this acceptance.

This display shows how the Stone Age ancestors might have sat around a campfire in the cave

The earliest paintings in the Altamira Cave have been dated to around 36,000 years ago. The youngest paintings date to about 13,000 years ago, when a rock fall sealed the cave off. By the 1970s, the paintings were so popular that the authorities were concerned about visitor numbers damaging them and Altamira Cave was closed to the public in 1977.

An example of an archaeological dig: Albeit I've never seen this many artifacts together on a Time Team dig

A replica cave and museum was built close to the real cave and they opened in 2001. Care was taken to ensure that the replica cave looked realistic. Having never visited any of the Stone Age art caves in Europe, this looked like a good starting option for the day.

Looking back on the replica cave entrance

A walkway continues to descend into the replica cave until you finally reach the cave paintings.

The cave ceiling were very busy with paintings

This looks like an ancient Bison: This is presumably the now extinct Steppe Bison

Another ancient Bison

Another ancient Bison

More ancient Bisons

Another ancient Bison

Is this a Stone Age hunter?

An ancient Deer

An artist's impression of the Steppe Bison and Deer in the local environment when the cave was occupied

The walkway to the museum from the replica cave leads past some charcoal and scratched cave art.

Charcoal cave art

Scratched cave art

This exhibit shows how painting on the shape of the rock is used to create a face

The excellent museum provides more information on Altamira Cave, the many other North Spanish and European caves with cave art and examples of Stone Age art from other locations.

A newspaper which described the original discovery of the Altamira Cave

Sautuola book publicising the Altamira Cave

There are now over two hundred sites on the North Spanish coast where cave art has been found, with the most important sites on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Some of the other important cave art sites in Northern Spain

Other important cave art sites from around the world

The museum also has examples of other cave art from other Spanish and European sites.

Hand paintings

Some of the earliest musical instruments made from bone

A photo of the Lion-man carved Mammoth tusk found in Germany that is about forty thousand years old

A photo of carved Mountain Goat carved into a Steppe Bison rib from the North Spanish La Garma Cave

Replica of Deer, Goats and a Horse cave art from the North Spanish El Pendo Cave

Examples of the stone tools that were in use about this time

There were also some replica skulls in the museum of Homo habilis, Homo heidelbergensis and an early Homo sapiens.

A replica Homo habilis skull: This Homo habilis skull was discovered in Tanzania and it is about one million, eight hundred thousand years old

A replica Homo heidelbergensis skull: This Homo heidelbergensis skull was discovered in Burgos, North Spain and it is about three hundred thousand years old

A replica Homo sapiens skull from the Cro-Magnon Cave in France: Homo sapiens started to appear in this area about thirty thousand years ago and replaced the Homo neanderthalensis (the Neanderthals) who had inhabited the area up to the appearance of our early ancestors

We had enjoyed a great visit to the Altamira Cave which proved to be better than I was expecting. However, it was time to move a couple of miles to the second destination in my cunning plan for the day. I will cover this in the next Blog Post.

The Altamira Cave and museum is located in lovely-looking countryside

22 Jan 26 - ORCA Canaries Cruise - Santander: An Unplanned Spanish Destination

During the days leading up to this trip, the ORCA team had been closely watching the sea conditions for the Saga Cape Verde and Canaries cruise. It was forecast to be a four to six metre swell as we crossed the Bay of Biscay, which shouldn't have been a big swell for the Spirit of Discovery to cope with. However, the swell on the Windy.com app changed from deep strawberry (up to six metres), to a pale pinkish-white colour (indicating an eight to ten metres swell) for the next leg past Portugal. This was more worrying as we couldn't see a route that would allow us to reach Madeira as planned. We couldn't see the Captain wanting to take the ship through those rougher seas. The initial welcome briefing from the Captain confirmed that the bridge team were seeing a similar picture. We had experienced heavy seas with all the outer decks closed on our first day at sea to the West of the Bay of Biscay, but at least we were heading South. I had a poor night of sleep as the motion of the ship increased and I was surprised that the motion had eased later in the final hours of darkness.

All became clear, when there was an unexpected announcement from the Captain during breakfast. The combination of the delay in our departure and losing additional time as we crossed the rough seas in the Bay of Biscay, meant we would be hitting those eight to ten metre swells off the Portuguese coast. Those seas were going to be too high and risky for some of the less agile passengers on the Spirit of Discovery. Consequently, the Captain had taken the decision to divert to a safe port. It hadn't been possible to get into Vigo or La Coruna on the North West corner of Spain, due to the swell in those ports. The next nearest port was Santander: about three hundred and fifty miles East of our route to Madeira. At this point, the chances of getting to Madeira, the two landings in Cape Verde and the three landings in the Canaries, all looked very uncertain. The Captain's initial plan was for one night in Santander, with a cunning plan to head to Vigo for the following night, which would get us to the North West corner of Spain.

Finally, we could see the Spanish coast: The sea conditions and wind were worse than these photos suggest

The top decks were still closed until we reached Santander due to the strength of the wind. However, by mid-morning, the very back of deck 10 had been opened. The back of deck 10 doesn't allow us to see the bows and while we can survey, the data we gather isn't as good as at the front of the ship. Still, we jumped at the opportunity to get on deck and start surveying. The sea had calmed a bit down from the previous day's sea state seven, which is too high to allow surveying. Unfortunately, we didn't see any Cetaceans and only had a scattering of Gannets. The sea conditions slowly eased as we got closer to the Spanish coast and we started to see the first Yellow-legged Gulls and Lesser Black-backed Gulls. We finally arrived at the pilot station early afternoon and soon after we were tied up.

By mid-morning, the back of deck 10 had been opened: This allowed us to get a couple of hours of surveying in before lunch as the swell calmed down a bit

Following the Captain's announcement about diverting to Santander, there was a request for the ORCA team to host a couple of one hour drop-in sessions each day on sea days at 13:00 and 17:00, respectively. It was a good opportunity for passengers to come and ask one of the members of the ORCA team questions. Normally, we have plenty of opportunity for this on deck and during meals in the upper restaurant. However, the upper deck restaurant was still closed and we had been asked to eat in our cabins due to the sea conditions. Chris had a couple of talks he had given before for ORCA and with an hour's notice, Chris was lined up to give the first of these two talks. Fortunately, he is an ex-teacher and was comfortable with public speaking at short notice. Both of the talks went well.

Passengers arriving for the first of Chris's talks on "The challenges of being a Whale in the 21st Century"

As it had been a last minute request to head to the port, the port authorities were not prepared for around eight hundred passengers and some crew wanting to go ashore. The Saga office team and ship were busily negotiating to allow the passengers to go ashore, as well as, trying to book tours for the passengers. But first the port had to bring in enough passport control and security teams to allow us to go ashore. By the end of the afternoon, a further update from the Captain had confirmed that Saga had agreed with the port authorities that we could go ashore the following morning and the passengers could book on some local coach tours of Santander, that Saga had arranged.

Our arrival into a miserable-looking Santander: However, it would have been a lot worse in the heavy seas off Portugal

I've visited Santander on a few occasions as an ORCA surveyor on the Brittany Ferries Plymouth route. This route has a fast turn around and there is only a few hours to grab an ice cream and coffee and wander around the immediate port area. Last Autumn, I travelled on the Brittany Ferries Portsmouth route, which allowed us the morning in Santander to explore more of the lovely seafront and the Maritime Museum and Aquarium.

The overnight rain hadn't cleared as we got up: However, it finally cleared after breakfast

As we had the day in Santander, I decided I would explore more of the seafront and walk out to Magdalena Peninsula which would be a good five mile walk. I set off along the waterfront where there is plenty to see.

The Santander Bank building: Good to see they are spending the money they make from my bank account wisely

The Spirit of Discovery and one of the Brittany Ferries in the background

An old cannon on the waterfront

This Black Redstart was feeding in a small area of lawn with a few small trees on the waterfront: It is the same gibraltariensis subspecies that we see in the UK, which occurs throughout Europe, Turkey and Northern Africa

White Wagtail: This is the nominate alba subspecies of Pied Wagtail

This monument remembers the street kids who would dive off the quayside for small coins thrown by wealthy passengers

A monument to the Merchant Marine Sailors

After passing the Maritime Museum and Aquarium, I reached the extensive beaches on the way to the Magdalena Peninsula. These beaches are typically busy in the Summer. Today, I had them to myself, apart from the occasional dog walker. It was disappointing that there were no Sanderlings running up or down the beach.

There is a nearly a mile of nice-looking beaches

Playa de Los Bikinis: Apparently, it took the locals some time in conservative Spain to get use to tourists in bikinis and this beach is still known as the Beach of the Bikinis

Finally, I reached the Pine covered Magdalena Peninsula. This sixty-nine acres headland is dominated by the Palacio de la Magdalena, an ex-royal Summer residence of the Spanish Royal Family. It was built between 1909 and 1911 and was used by the Royal Family until the declaration of the Second Spanish Republic in 1931. After that time, it became a university site until it was sold in 1977 to the City of Santander. It is still used as a conference centre, set within a public park.

The Palacio de la Magdalena

Can anybody else remember the Seventies game Pick Up Sticks

The Faro de Mouro Lighthouse: The seas still look angry. However, I've seen photos online of the waves breaking over the top of the lighthouse, so it can get a lot worse

A futuristic Butterfly sculpture

Continuing around the headland, the next major site is the Man and the Sea Museum, which is an open-air exhibition paying tribute to the nine expeditions carried out between 1966 and 1992 by the Santander-born navigator Vital Alsar Ramirez.

The Man and the Sea Museum

This is a replica of the wooden raft with Ramirez used to cross the Pacific in 1970

The three galleons that Ramirez used in his Round the World trip which started in 1980. They are replicas of the galleons Pinta, Nina and Santa Maria, that Columbus used on his crossing of the Atlantic. The La Marigalante is the replica of the Santa Maria

ORCA surveys have yet to sight a real Mermaid: This was a figurehead from the galleon La Marigalante

Ramirez dragged this experimental rescue capsule for seven thousand miles behind one of the galleons to prove volunteers could survive in it

Turnstones: The only Wader species I saw in Santander

Turnstones

Not a good day to go into the sea

The main beach on the Northern side of Santander

The Faro de Cabo Mayor Lighthouse on the next headland

I had enjoyed exploring the Magdalena Peninsula, but it was time to head back to the ship for a late lunch.

The walk back passed by some impressive houses

The Palacio el Promontorio

It is an ORCA tradition to pop into one of the Santander heladeria for an ice cream. I was disappointed to find the regular ORCA heladeria was closed. Fortunately, I was able to backtrack and try out one I hadn't visited before.

Disaster: The regular heladeria was closed

There are always a good selection of flavours to choose from

It is important to respect some traditions

Chris gave the second of his talks on Whale Songs around mid-afternoon

There was a late afternoon coach tour around Santander and we decided to give it a try after Chris's talk. First stop was a drive around on the Magdalena Peninsula, before continuing to close to the headland next to the Faro de Cabo Mayor Lighthouse. We were allowed time for a short walk and photo session here.

The Faro de Cabo Mayor Lighthouse

It had been a good day and I had enjoyed exploring Santander. That evening the Captain gave an update saying that we would be spending another three nights in Santander. Consequently, the planned section for the Spirit of Discovery to visit Porto Grande and Porto da Praia in Cape Verde had been cancelled due to the ongoing Portuguese storms. These exceptional storms had disrupted a lot of cruise ships and other vessels on both sides of the Atlantic. The ship was offering to rerun the same Santander coach trips and a trip to Bilboa on the following day. I spent the evening working on a more cunning plan which I will cover in the next Blog Post.