Dr. B has a new challenge this week – Sport. Below are my sportie images

The first two are from my friend Solange Hando, travel writer and trekker, who has covered most of Nepal and Bhutan and who can’t resist climbing a mountain if she sees one. I know, I’ve holidayed with her and waved her off many times as my energies don’t run as far as mountain-climbing.

TREKKING:

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RIVER FISHING:

The next photo shows a slower and more sedate form of sport, river fishing on the Guadalquivir River that flows through the heart of Seville, in Spain. There was often as many as 20 sitting along the banks of the river while just as many stopped to chat and pass the time of day.

Still in Seville, it is kayaking this time, and the second image is the same sport taking place in Syracuse in Sicily. Both are major cities and both support a large number of water-sports clubs.

KAYAKING:

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Off to Thailand now for horse riding on the beach. A few of the beach hotels have recently opened stables where horses are kept for visitors to ride along the beach, very early in the morning or late in the evening as it is too hot for afternoon trotting – even in the water.

HORSE RIDING:

Still in Thailand, windsurfing is one of the coolest (in both senses of the word) and most enjoyable sports to be had on the water.

WINDSURFING

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Along with windsurfing, para-gliding is popular in Thailand and I first encountered it there in the early 70’s, long before safety harnesses were thought of, never mind health and safety rules. I grow failt at the thought of the foolishness of it all, trusting myself to a harness into which I was strapped by someone whose language I didn’t understand and relying on his mate to catch me as I landed on the beach – if the boat maneuvered correctly. And my husband encouraged me! I have dark thoughts about that now. The quality of the first photo is pretty bad but I had to include it as this was Pattaya before it got its reputation for night-life of a certain kind. It was just beginning to attract the US servicemen on R&R from Vietnam, but was at that time, quite genuinely, a fishing village with, I think, about 5 hotels and we had one of our best holidays, ever, there.

And last, PELOTA, the Basque game of very fast handball. This is a Pelota Court but I never got a photograph here because the game is so fast and the atmosphere so tense that I couldn’t really take a camera out as it would have disturbed the onlookers. They were all locals as this was quite a small village and this was the main event of the week. If you are ever in an area in which it is played (mostly along the northern coast of Spain and in the Canaries), then do try and catch a game.