034 - Nigran - Galicia/Spain

Long, very long golden beaches, hundreds if not thousands of tourist caravans, hot air balloons, beautiful mountains, a romantic peninsula, great water, great food and proximity to many other attractions. Let’s discover!

 

To see the map, click here!

034.1 Reaching Nigran is very similar to reaching Baiona - same ATSA bus that goes to Baiona can be taken to Nigran (in fact Nigran is just before Baiona). I take that bus from Gran Via, right where is the Mc Donalds; why? It has a killer view plus I can take a coffee and wait like that. During rush hour there are plenty busses per hour, after that you kinda have to wait. 

034.2 Nigran has a part facing Baiona (this one); 

034.3 And another side that is facing the Cies Islands. This is Praia Patos (beach), the closest beach to Vigo. If you come by bus you will see it as it stops pretty close to the sand. 

034.4 We did not visit much of Nigran but we do recommend visiting the Ramallosa bridge (this is the church Santa Cristina de Ramallosa - please read the legend in the end of the article).

 034.5 Low tide on the Praia da Ladeira - which is closest to Baiona (there are a total of 4 huge beaches (that believe it or not, can get pretty crowded). 

034.6 Since I used to live in Baiona, I was actually facing Nigran so every morning/sunset I would admire the mountains and occasional festivals -such as this one: Hot Air Balloon festival. 

034.7 Speaking of festivals -> there is this ancient summer solstice festival (23/24th of June) named San Xoan -> this time of the year people gather before sunset and...

034.8 And while on the beach they will make little fires and jump over them (9 times) as the sun has set.  Also with the sunset they light these huge bonfires across the beach.

034.9 Local food is served and fish is the main dish (sardines) and that can be enjoyed on the beach or actually at a live concert. Of course, there are also fireworks. 

034.10 Nigran during this festival transforms (and I hope they did not cancel this tradition (which is ironic, as it will be seen in the next article) and even the decorations mark the summer solstice (and I guess the cherries are fireworks which contain the word fire -> and the fire is lit to worship the sun (yes this tradition is super old, pre-Christian days of course). 

034.11 Nigran has a peninsula like, with a monument on it (see further) and we went here, not knowing that. Actually I was searching for an easy to get spot during the midnight to "catch" the Milky Way.  

034.12 After spending a few hours here at night I can say that this is not the best spot for Milky Way photography, as there quite a lot of light pollution from Nigran and Baiona. This is the reason why in article 031 - the lighthouse - we show another place that is easier to get to (actually) and it has just one light pollution source, and it looks awesome with it in the picture. To check more about light pollution if astrophotography -> see the link bellow (if it still works). https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/#zoom=6.47&lat=41.8023&lon=-8.0521&state=eyJiYXNlbWFwIjoiTGF5ZXJCaW5nUm9hZCIsIm92ZXJsYXkiOiJ3YV8yMDE1Iiwib3ZlcmxheWNvbG9yIjpmYWxzZSwib3ZlcmxheW9wYWNpdHkiOjYwLCJmZWF0dXJlc29wYWNpdHkiOjg1fQ==

034.13 Centrally positioned, on Monteferro peninsula, there is this monument Salve Regina Marium, dedicated to the marines -> quite big and impressive - also solitary. There is nothing else around it, except Mother Nature. Since it is a symbol to Nigran, I made a version of it in 3D for this article. Now you might be quick to judge that the proportions are not right, but this is art and I can make it as I want :)) I wanted initially to make the bonfires but did not know how to make that interesting and since that festival is literally once a year, it is very easy to miss (plus is not super unique... we used to do bonfires on the beach when in cantonment with judo/karate teams, back in Romania). 

034.14 Once inside the monument, you can look up and … well we used the flash from the camera to see something. It does look like a furnice. Hm monument to those who serve… is like a ritual? And the smoke should rise high into the Heavens… I am just making stuff up don't "listen" to me! 

034.15 Nature's seal -> it does look like a brown seal on a letter right? Its actually a nut of some kind that fell on that rock. Since it was going to bring life to a new tree (there on the solid rock) I thought I would make it "live" as a picture on my blog. 

034.16 Moonrise over the mountains that separate Nigran from Vigo (future article). These mountains rise over 450m above sea level and we will see some closer, once we arrive to the articles of Vigo.

While we did not cover fully Nigran, there are a few things that are memorable to me:

A great place to walk on long beaches and take an awesome sun tan during summer;

A good place to admire the Milky Way, or just a great place to take photos of dragonflies (when we got to Monteferro peninsula, we were new with the telephoto lenses and focus distances, so... all photos are slightly out of focus… yup it takes time to learn something new. Now that I write this in the future, I got a Sigma 100-400 to replace the Tamron 100-400, and the photo taking process I did not change, in fact I am less stable now at 35yrs old than 7 years ago so the lens was bad, that is the reason my red and blue dragon flies are not good to show on this article)

A great place for those who love to hike and swim (triathlon trainning?)

I hope you found this article somewhat useful and make sure to see also Baiona (032 and 033) since both towns are literally glued together.

Source: https://descubrirgalicia.wordpress.com/2019/01/14/puente-de-a-ramallosa-leyenda/