A route for mountain goats?

We are not really sure why we pay good money to suffer such discomfort day after day, and our instructions even provided advance warning that this would be the toughest day of the week. Before we start whining about the day, it’s worth taking a moment to mention Hotel Terramar. If you ever find yourselves in Llafranc, we recommend staying there. It’s beautifully maintained, the staff are friendly and you’ve already seen the wonderful view from a balcony room.

There really is only one route out of town, the GR 92 long distance footpath and it’s not far off vertical! Well, 150 metres over 1.5km felt like it. We climbed many steps and zigzagged up the hairpin road to the San Sebastiá lighthouse, the most powerful on the Spanish Mediterranean coast with a range of 37 miles and built on the site of a pre-Roman Iberian settlement. Along our walk, there have been points to rest our phones for selfies. At each one, Kim has felt obliged to use them. This is today’s offering. We are meant to share them on social media but that is a step too far for us!

Bravely we soldiered on, out across a rocky headland with narrow, ill-defined paths hugging the hillside edge. We scrabbled down something designed for mountain goats before crawling back up the other side. Luckily, at one point, Ken said ‘are we going the right way?’ Funnily enough we weren’t.

Despite being provided with a map, gpx files and detailed written instructions we still managed to get lost. The map wasn’t much good, it was safely packed away in a suitcase. We’d obviously misread the instructions. Thank goodness for mobile phones and gpx files! Frustratingly we’d strayed quite a way from our intended route, but were thrilled to pick up an alternative path and not have to retrace our steps.

Back on track, the path took us out to Cala Pedrosa, a little secluded bay only accessible on foot. It was worth the hair raising descent on a path described as beautiful and shaded. Single file and scary would have been a lot more accurate. The cove was very pretty and we had a snack break under the shade of an old closed cafe before tackling the ‘steps’ up the other side.

The small town of Tamariu was a welcome lunch stop. We’d been walking for over 2 hours and were just over halfway. Our path from Cala Pedrosa had been described in our instructions as ‘occasionally vague’ suggesting we ‘just pick our way across the rocks’. It was a bit hairy in places but we made it.

Our next climb began, long, slow and hot as we headed inland before reaching the top of the headland and the welcome shade of woodland. Of course, a long climb up was followed by a long descent back down to the beach at Aigua Blava. We were teased with distant views of our hotel across the bay, in Fornells.

More steps, up and down, narrow sandy paths and a couple more beaches were crossed. There was talk that we could have swam it quicker. Any way, we are here for two nights, the room and views are yet again truly amazing.

Finally, a big, belated welcome to our newest follower – Ada in Devon