Thursday 5th May Montserrat to Navarcles

Good job I had the extra day in Monserrat as I was able to spend most of yesterday afternoon rejigging the route around the available accommodation. Basically I'm having to walk 6 days in 5 with two big days, today and tomorrow, to fit around what's available. Today was 38 kilometres with 700 metres of climb and I think tomorrow might be even longer. Worse thing is my feet have become painful again, I think it's walking without sticks.

I'm now on the GR4 all the way to the border although for some of today I was also on the GR3. I think the GR3 is a St James Way variant going from Figueres, via Montserrat to Santiago, another pilgrims way. If I don't get lost I've got about another 150 kilometres of walking to do in Spain.

Today's walk was good, a nice first couple of hours walking around the Montserrat mountain, and really unpleasant bit in the middle when you crossed the busy valley at Sant Vicent de Castellet, and then a better afternoon as the route takes you on a huge detour to get inside the Parc Natural de Sant Lorenc (etc etc - the name of the park is a long as the detour). Actually I've been in two Natural Parks today because Montserrat is one as well.

The highlight of the first bit was the mist burning off from around the mountain, some wonderful views. I've also got a real soft spot for fields of barley which have just come out in ear and there was an abundance of those this morning.

Looking back to the Montserrat Mountains

Fields of Barley

The middle bit wasn't nice, this is a really busy part of Spain, and every time you come down from the mountains your walking through a housing or industrial estate. Today it was mainly industrial. The signs were pretty good, you can see the GR sign on the lamppost below, although it seems like someone with a giant tin of pink paint has been trying cover up as many as possible.

The joys of long distance walking

I wouldn't say that the Natural Park was the most spectacular I've seen but maybe its designation has something to do with its proximity to Barcelona. There were information boards everywhere describing everything and today a huge party of school children were making the best of it. That's a 13th century church below, another one without any windows.

Approach to Navarcles

Abandoned church

The last bit of the walk, into Navarcles was along a long gorge with a river running along the bottom, very pleasant. Four Spanish walkers, male about my age, or slightly older, carrying big bags, were coming the other way and were all wearing those Lycra leggings. Makes you think.

Staying in the Hostal Montane in Navarcles. Must admit I really like these sort of places and seemed to stay in lots of them in Andalucia. It doesn't have a website and barely registers when you do an Internet search. Because it's so hard to find you tend to think it must be a dump. It is however absolutely fine, has a bar where they do food, and a restaurant, and is, like all Spanish places, spotless. It's also very cheap, which is good because I've been struggling to keep in budget recently.

Monday 2nd of May Santes Creus to Capellades

I think I got myself a bit de-hydrated in the mad search for my sticks yesterday, certainly rang out of water well before the end. Anyway re-hydrating on two bottles of beer perhaps was less than ideal. Couldn't sleep and had really bad pains in my feet only cured by a massive dose of ibuprofen. Was really fed up and not at all looking forward to the walk this morning.

Got a taxi to Santes Creus the home of a Cistercian monastery which people make a lot of fuss about around here. Being a Monday it was shut otherwise I would have gone into it and done a detailed survey. Set of on my walk, about 40 kilometres, at about 8.45. Weather cool and cloudy with the threat of rain.

Santa Crues

The first couple of hours were through the last bit of the wide valley I was in yesterday. Lots of vines which now have little grapes on them. Good progress since the last time I saw them three weeks ago near El Robellar.

It was then a 600 metre climb out of the valley, up high for the first time in a week. The path was now a mix of open upland country and pine forest.

The first target was the Esglesia de St Jaume, a church without any windows. Will try and establish if this a standard feature.

Esglesia de St Jaume

The other thing I noticed is how close I now am to the GR7, the walk I came up through Spain on until I left it at El Boixar. It was only 14 kilometres away today.







It was then down through fields of barley towards Capellades well at least the place I thought was Capellades when I put my schedule together.

Fields of barley

Still don't quite understand the mistake but when I got into this very new and dispersed settlement there was just no sign of a hotel. I asked a very nice Spaniard who seemed to say that I was in the wrong Capellades and the place I needed was some distance away. He gave me the approximate direction but didn't seem to think I should try and walk it. A car came around the corner, he knocked on the window and within seconds, and after profuse thanks and handshaking, I was in the back seat on a 10 kilometre journey to the real Capellades. Fortunately it's in the right direction for tomorrow's walk, to Montserrat.

Sunday 1st of May Tarragona to Valls

Three good reasons to be fed up: lost my walking sticks; obsessively tried to find them and now I've got seriously aching feet; and, finally Spurs got ripped of at Chelsea by dodgy officials.

Valls is not actually on the GR 172 which what the E4 is following at the moment. The ideal place to have stopped would have been Santes Creus but the only accommodation near there was full this bank holiday week. Valls is 5 kilometres down a road from Nulles which is where I left the GR172.

Getting out of Tarragona was really easy, no trouble finding the route which is very well signed. The trail wasn't at all bad just unremarkable. Initially it was a road and then increasingly turning into a forest trail, but with lots of fly tipping until you escaped the influence of Tarragona.

Subway under the motorway

Dogs were a bit of a feature. I had started to assume that the really large numbers of barking dogs was a feature of the rustic south, it was much less prevalent in Valencia than Andalucia, and would perhaps die down even more as I got into cosmopolitan Catalonia. Not a bit of it, today went through a dog alley activating, at one point, at least 10 mad frenzied dogs.

Angry dog

Perhaps the prettiest town along the route was El Cattlar, which a nice castle and a church, was hoping for coffee but all the bars were shut.

El Cattlar

After that the trail took you through a low lying pine forest very popular with mountain bikers and being a Sunday they were out in full force.

Pine forest on the way to Rebua

Then into wine country and around Renua, Nulles and Vilabella vines were wall to wall. Haven't had much cultivated countryside since Andalucia and the difference in the settlement pattern is very striking, here the villages are smaller, still very dense, but only 3 or 4 kilometres apart, a bit like England in that respect.

Renua

Then onto Valls and in time for a 4.30 finish. Have walked the 5 kilometres road from Nulles and making my way around the Valls south circular to the hotel I suddenly realise I had no sticks. Really cross with myself and of course had no one else to blame. Can't remember having them, can't remember not having them, very frustrating. Decide to retrace my steps reasoning that there are only three places where I have taken my bag of all day, the first one at Renua where I remember seeing the sticks. End up walking all the way back to Renua and of course didn't find them. A round trip of 20 kilometres making 45 for day and not back at the hotel until 8, obsessive behaviour or what.

Will have to figure out how to get some sticks, maybe there will be a shop up in the Pyrenees, really don't like walking without them. Anyway have booked at taxi in the morning to takes me straight to Santes Crues. Having visited Nulles three times I really don't need to see it again.

Saturday 30th April Tarragona

My proper rest day since the start of the walk and Tarragona is a really nice place to stop. Definitely worth coming if your at all interested in Roman history but also if you like cosmopolitan Spain. I guess in Catalan terms Tarragona is very much the little brother of Barcelona but very nice almost because of that.

It is wonderfully positioned against the coast. The main thoroughfare, the Rambla Nova, runs through the centre of the city abruptly finishing at a cliff with great views of the Mediterranean. Around this cliff-top sits the old Roman city with some the ancient city walls still there. There is a collesium, which is outside the walls and what is described as the circus inside the walls. The circus, where they had the chariot racing is largely underneath the city, but you can still see the terracing at one end and the tunnels underground allowing access for the competitors. Looked very much like the dressing rooms at Wembley stadium, absolutely amazing.

res

To the dressing rooms

As well as resting up, spent much of the afternoon sorting out the itinerary for next week. It's not easy, there are long stretches along the route where the choice is very limited and because of the bank holiday week things are a busier than they were and a couple of places are booked up. Have got things sorted for the next three days at least.

Quite pleased with the picture. Think I have found Lionel Messi's Roman antecedent, Julio-Claudi, can't believe the Catalans haven't spotted it.

Lionel Messi

Friday 29th Cambrils to Tarragona

Today's walk was just awful, not point to it at all other than a means to get to Tarragona. I think that's what happening with this part of the walk. Instead of doing the obvious thing and carrying on up the GR 7, the Catalan contingent to the design process must have felt it would be a good idea to visit some iconic Catalan locations and dragged the E4 down from the mountains to achieve that. Today it's Tarragona, in a couple of days it's Santa Joan de Mediona and then it's Montserrat.

Will have a look at rest of the GR 7 when I get home but at the moment leaving it feels like a mistake. The walk today was just an endless walk along a seaside promenade. Eventually the coastal path ran out but I missed the signs and after a series of false starts managed to get around the headland beyond the resort of Port Salou, to the next beach but GR signs and I think the path coastal path had shot of inland.

The reason was that at the end of the beach about three kilometres away, was the southern edge of the enormous Tarragona port. Behind the port was a huge chemical works. If you haven't been to Middlesbrough this won't mean anything but this is Middlesborough on the Mediterranean.

Ships at Tarragona 

There were buses at the beach end which would have taken me to Tarragona and the sensible thing would have been to get one but I just kept walking. Eventually the beach ran out and I had to head inland. There was a road which seemed to go through the chemical works and with a sense of foreboding I followed it. It just got worse and worse, smellier, busier, increasingly confined and actually dangerous. I was starting to think about retracing my steps when a man in an ancient Nissan Micra came to rescue me. The phrase don't accept lifts from strange men did spring to mind and this man was photofit strange but hey look whose talking. Anyway I got in without much hesitation, although my rucksack resisted, and he took me all the way to Tarragona, about 7 kilometres along a dual carriageway. He was very impressed that I had walked all the way from Tarifa and we shook hands at each of the five stages it took to get my rucksack, which had now made itself at home, out of the backseat and through the front door of the Micra. Another example of a friendly Spaniard/Catalan saving the day.

So I'm having a rest day in Tarragona. Was going to have a long weekend here with Christine but we decided that as she was here last week that it was a lot of travel for just one weekend. Got a bit of rescheduling to do as a consequence, as I'm actually running a bit ahead of myself.

Thursday 28th April L'Ametlla de Mer to Cambrils

Well last night was quite a night. Great fun watching the Barca win, L'Ametlla de Mer is definitely a Barca town, everyone went totally nuts, fireworks everything. And then I had a plumbing disaster.

You know sometimes the water keeps running after you have flushed the toilet, really annoying if your trying to get to sleep. Common problem, all you have to do is lift the lid and adjust the fitting where it drains from the cistern and it's sorted. That's what I did, but it didn't instantly cure the problem and I touched (no more than touched) the floating thing which controls the water coming into the cistern. It disintegrated and suddenly there is water, straight from the mains, shooting right across the bathroom. The little stop cock next to the toilet just went round and round without doing anything. It was amazing how quickly the bedroom floor was covered with water and how quickly it was going out into the hall.

Slightly panicking, I pulled my shorts on, put everything on the bed and rushed down to the porter.   He was very grumpy, watching the Mourinho interview, and was clearly the only person in L'Ametlla de Mer who was a Real Madrid fan. Eventually screaming at him had an impact and he agreed to come up and investigate. He was not happy. His tried to reconstruct the toilet mechanism but it was impossible given the force of water. He temper was not improved when I asked for another room.

After getting himself soaked he went down somewhere and turned of the water for the whole hotel and rang up the manager. The manager was clearly a Barca fan, in a good mood, accepted that I wasn't helping and found me another room.

Saw the porter this morning as I was dashing away from the hotel and he didn't seem to recognise me, fair enough, didn't need to remind him about how we had faced adversity together.

Today's walk was a 40 kilometre walk along the coastal path. I don't completely understand why the E4 comes down to the coast. It is a change but dragging you along a largely built up coast line is not necessarily the best route for a long distance walk, particularly when you could have stayed up in the mountains on Spain's oldest GR trail, the GR7.

The first bit wasn't too bad, very similar to end of yesterday's walk, along a low cliff with villas very much in the background. You then arrive at a very exclusive marina, at Sant Jordi en Alfamat, and the route is around this and through the suburbs. You then get to Calafat which has a lovely beach at the end of which is a nuclear power station and then a gas power station. Another big detour which takes you alongside a new highspeed railway line and over two motorways.

Eventually you arrive at Hospitalet de l'Infant. Originally I was going to stop there but it was only 2.30 so decided to do another 15 kilometres and make for Cambrils. The nature of development had now changed from villas to blocks of flats and these went right down to coast. Lovely beaches and nice bays but very ugly blocks of flats.

Endless blocks of flats

One thing I did find interesting interesting were the republican coastal defences dating back to the civil war, quite a lot along this stretch of coast.

Republican coastal defences

Flats were then replaced for several kilometres by caravan and camper-van sites. I thought these were nicer, very multinational with the Dutch particularly well represented. Flats re-emerged as you approached Cambrils, so many in fact that I started to wonder if there was going to be any hotels. There were of course but right in the old centre of town. I say old, a picture in reception of the hotel shows old Cambrils with just a handful of houses. The coast north and south is totally empty. The picture was taken in 1962.

Approaching Cambrils

Wednesday 27th April Amposta to L'Ametlla de Mer

The hotel I was staying in last night was a bit expensive (stretched my very tight daily budget target) but did have a buffet breakfast. The fact that I'm on the international buffet breakfast banned list doesn't seemed to have come up their computer so I was able to stuff myself before escaping down the road across the beautiful suspension bridge over the River Ebro. Eating the equivalent of four breakfasts made the room seem bigger and the bill smaller.

Bridge over the Ebro

Seem to remember that the River Ebro is the scene for a Don Quixote adventure, can't remember which one but pretty sure that he and Sancho end up in the water.

The 35 kilometre walk was very much a walk of two halves, the first across the delta to Ampolla, where you hit coast proper, and the second along a coastal path to L'Ametlla de Mer.

Although I wouldn't want to do the first half again it was interesting to do it once. It's clearly a very important agriculture area and the fields, which all have a complex set of drains, are currently mostly flooded presumably to get the nutrients and silt out of water before being planted. There were some fields of Jerusalem artichokes and fennel, the fennel was enormous much bigger than you see in the shops in the UK. I read on a board that the amount of water available from the Ebro is declining as more is taken out further upstream and that sea water and associated salination is eating its way into the delta.

Flooded fields in the Ebro delta

Artichokes

Although you were never far from the railway line and the motorway, which both run near to the coast, and villas and other residential development, the second half of the walk felt like a proper coastal path. Saw a few other walkers coming the other way, all English, but everywhere was very quite with lots of places for a swim if I had had the nerve. It was certainly warm enough, hot in fact.

Classic coastline north of Ampolla

More classic coastline

Arrived in L'Ametlla de Mer at about 4.30, staying in the Hotel del Port, near the port, where the room is unnervingly like the room I stayed in last night. It is however well inside my budget.

Big big football game here tonight and people in these parts are going to be very upset if the Catalan side doesn't win. I think they are going to be upset.

Tuesday April 26th Ulldecona to Amposta

Was perhaps a bit rude about Ulldecona in yesterday's blog and it's much nicer than first impressions. Towards the centre there were some interesting art nouveau houses and a lovely baroque church.

Church at Ulldecona

Must admit I had assumed that after the walk through Valencia, Ulldecona to Tarragona was going to be a flat coastal walk. Well today completely contradicted that impression with a route over the Serra de Montsia range of mountains. This proved to be really interesting with lots of information on boards along the way. Essentially the walk firstly took you through some of the oldest olive groves in Catalonia, with trees dating back 2000 years to Phoenicians; through some natural evergreen oak woodland (i.e. pre-overgrazing and fire effected landscape, the cause of the shrub based landscape that typifies most the Mediterranean), and through some abandoned farming settlements which like much of upland Valencia had supported significant communities until the sixties.

The range gets to over 700 metres and although it wasn't a perfectly clear day the views were impressive. On the way up and looking back I could see across the valley with Ulldecona in the foreground, to the gorge I had emerged from coming from Moli l' Abad. Behind that I could see what was probably the La Creu mountain which I must have seen the day before yesterday. Most impressively I could see Penyagolosa which I had walked past in the rain 5 days with Christine and which is pictured on the blog from three days ago. It's dead centre on the horizon in the photo below, believe me.

Views back to Ulldecona

As well as looking back in time I could also see up the coast to Tarragona so from one place (slight poetic justice, you had to go up the hill a bit to see up the coast) I could see 9 days of walking.

Perhaps the most impressive view however was from the highest point on the walk, La Foredada where you got an amazing view of the Ebro delta. You could see the whole fan of the delta formed by the sediment flowing out from the Ebro river along with the cresent shaped sandbank beyond. From high up it looked like much of the delta is managed for agriculture although parts of it are important wetlands and form the Ebro Delta National Park.

Ebro delta

La Foradada

Just to add to the view, which the photographs don't capture, was one of those windblown holes in rock the name for which has for the moment passed me by.

Sat at the top and had my lunch, an apple and a packet of crisps. The air was full of little flies which in turn attracted hundreds of swallows and swifts who were also having their lunch.

The walk down was also excellent. Deep valleys and through tunnels formed by the evergreen oak. Once on the flat however, and after such a brilliant walk, the sting in the tail was a five kilometre walk through the dead level land of the delta. Like the fens in Cambridgeshire although at least the sun was shining. One highlight was some waders in a flooded field reminding me that this is a very important area for birdlife.

Ancient woodland

Ibis?