Swept away by the Canary Islands

IT’S the sameness that gets to us – that sinking feeling on arrival at a holiday destination, that it’s as similar to home as makes no difference.

This doesn’t happen on the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago off the Atlantic coast of Morocco. These islands are, after all, home to the Silbo Gomarian whistle – an ancient form of communication once used to warn of invasions and the approach of boats captained by slave-hunters.

Today, the haunting whistle primarily resonates from classrooms. But when used to announce important community news, it mimics a lonesome, birdlike call that resounds across fields, hills and vales, mingling all the while with the gentle tinkling of goat-bells on the wind.