Abergavenny food festival - delicious

Everyone loves a good food festival, it's the perfect opportunity to graze and not feel bad about it, tempting treats come from all directions and samples galore pull you in.  One of the best is the Abergavenny food festival usually taking towards the end of September just when people have that into Autumn feeling and its starting to get cooler, this is one event that gets you back outside for that final splurge of sunshine.

The setting is perfect, even without the food festival  Abergavenny is the quintessential market town, enough services to feel bustling but small enough to have that personnel feel, as if you are always going to bump into at least one person you know.  And surrounding the town, the three peaks of the Blorenge, the Sugarloaf and the Skirrid provide awesome views to anyone willing to take on the challenge of walking to the tops.

If lucky, the rain will stay off and bring out the crowds.  The main street becomes full of pop up stalls each offering a variety of wares, the local shops join in too with tables spilling onto the street.  This year was a riot of colour as red and white stripped canvas roofs covered the stalls, helium balloon sellers paced up and down, their balloons glimmering in the sun, and the beautiful hats of Alison Todd's window display adding to the rainbow.

Alison Todd Creations

As well as this other areas set up around the town, the Brewery yard is often the first port of call.  Many cheeses, pies and tasty beverages await here, and having sampled and brought your fill you can choose one of the many stalls offering lunch/dinner treats.  One of the best offering this year was Meat and Greek, making freshly cooked Souvlaki, grilling on hot coals and served in pita with salads and sauces.

Meat and Greek

The Market Hall usually home of Abergavenny's popular Tuesday market is transformed into   the food stage.  This is the place to check out the local fresh talented chefs as well as a few more famous faces.  Whilst watching on the big screen you can enjoy a local beer and be brought cooked samples directly from the stage.  It's even fun to watch people watching, taking notes  for that one time when they will try and recreate what they saw.  If nothing else it's a good place to sit and get some energy back for more intense grazing.

The rest of the market hall is full of stalls, chocolate and homemade pastries seemed to be particularly big at this year's event, but local yogurts, butchery and artisan breads also put in a fine appearance.  The most popular stall as always was the Chase gin and vodka stand.  Little tasters drew big crowds and many left with bags full, Elderflower and Rhubarb being my tipple of choice.

Other must visit locations include the Priory area.  A must for all seafood lovers.  Soft shell crabs, oysters and calamari as well as traditional fish and chips filled the air with delicious smells.  Many a choice the only difficult decision being what to have a which of the wines on offer to have with it.

 

The castle grounds are also transformed.  A stage for live music and debate and yet more food stall.  This area is especially great at night when crowds party into the night listening to live bands the back drop of the castle proving an atmospheric setting.  One Saturday night this is also the location of a large fireworks display that can be seen all over town.

 

One final mention must go to the Mushroom man.  A man that makes mushrooms out of wood.  Who knows what for but hey why not? he is very popular and after all everyone should make room for the whimsical.

There only two things I can add.  Firstly - if you can make it to the festival stay the weekend and try out some of the local bars and restaurants.  The Farmers arms does a fine pint, and Pizzorante makes the best Italian food I have eaten in the UK.  Make sure you have the garlic bread!  

And secondly this one's for the organisers, next year can you persuade the stall owners to have small sample dishes for a pound or two? after all with so much to choose from and only 2 lunchs and dinners to fit it all it, it's a difficult choice to reject some things that look so delicious.  Cheaper smaller samples are definitely the way forward.

Come next year, I'll see you there!  

 

 

Relaxing on Roatan Island, Honduras

Roatan Island at approximately 33 miles long and 4 miles wide is the largest of Honduras' Bay Islands.  Located in the Caribbean Sea this tropical island is only an hour boat ride from the mainland, or a short flight from Houston.  However unlike other more famous Caribbean Islands this is only just started to be discovered by tourists.  True, backpackers have known about this secret waiting to be explored for decades, but now's the time to go before everyone else hears about it.

Getting the boat to Roatan

And what a treat, bath water warm crystal blue waters and white sandy beaches are on offer, and there's no fighting for space for your umbrella, indeed you could even have whole stretches to yourself.  One of the best beaches on the Island is located at the South West tip at West Bay, a huge curve of sand lined with beach bars and restaurants and several dive centres.  It's possible to hire snorkelling gear and swim from the shore to see vast coral gardens, large brain coral, fan coral and many other species just a few metres under the surface.  If you don't fancy the 10 minute swim out, there are numerous men with boats just waiting to take you.  For $35 for three people, for two hours, snorkelling gear included, we were able to get a little further out, where the coral was even more vibrant and had not been damaged by careless feet.

West Bay

Divers have know about this spot for years, indeed its one of the best value places in the world to learn to dive.  And the reason for this is that Roatan just happens to be located on the Mesoamerican Barrier reef, the largest in the Caribbean Sea and second largest barrier reef in the world after Australia's Great Barrier Reef.  Being a snorkeler not a diver I hoped I wouldn't miss out, but I needn't have worried, just a short 5 minute boat ride from the shore shoals of fish can be seen close to the surface.  In fact the water is so clear that the visibility is excellent, you can even wave at the divers several metres below.

We were warned to pick our visiting day to West Bay carefully as once a week, a cruise ship arrive and disgorges a few thousand people for a couple of hours.  Spend, eat, drink, swim and then just a fast as they arrived they disappear.  This is great for the people who live and work on the island, but for the rest of us were glad they weren't going to spoil the isolated paradise for longer.

West End

We stayed in West End, just round the coast from West Bay, but with a quieter laid back feel.  It reminded me of some of the coastal towns in Vietnam and Thailand before they were 'discovered'.  This place is still really only for budget travellers, but with plenty of variable quality accommodation to choose from there's no need to suffer in a hot dorm room in tropical heat.  There's just one 'main street' which runs parallel to the beach and this is where all the action takes place.  There's a few supermarkets and many souvenir shops, all selling the same kind of things, great price hammocks and the 'uniform' clothes and beads of the 'backpacker'.

There's also the cafe bars serving banana pancakes for breakfast and chilled beer for the rest of the day, as well as numerous good quality and reasonably priced restaurants.  One deserving a special mention is Creole's Rotisserie Chicken, packed with locals and tourist alike every evening, you can smell it before you arrive.  Plastic tables and chairs overflow from the main restaurant as everyone crams in to sample the roast chicken, and salads.  Later in the evening the bars come alive with music, from expected stereotypical reggae tunes to the 'Blue Marlins' karaoke night.

 

Could you spend the week here? go on then.  Even longer and you could explore the rest of the Bay Islands.  Just Ssshhh, don't tell everyone.

Roatan from the air