Category: Catalonia 2023 – S’Agaro to Aigua Blava

Actually from Clophill, but that’s a minor detail! Over 6 days walking we have covered over 80 kilometres and climbed the equivalent 274 flights of stairs. All our devices say something different and there has been some debate over the accuracy of these figures. We are playing our own small part in online misinformation.

Each time we experience InnTravel holidays, we remember their attention to detail, choice of locations and hotels provide an experience that never fails to impress. We have been fortunate to spend time in some wonderful and memorable locations.

Now for the highlights. We thought Jacky’s highlight might be arriving in Spain without Ken. However, we were mistaken and she was impressed with the amazing scenery, lovely hotels and perfect weather.

John’s highlight was being able to set up a microscope, in the Cork Museum, in order for a French family to see the cell structure as originally discovered by Robert Hooke. They were very grateful and many years spent peering through a microscope weren’t wasted.

Kim was impressed that she didn’t fall over once. Our last two activity holidays have resulted in physical injury and resulting scars, she was worried it was a trend. The view from our bathroom out across the bay in Hotal Aigua Blava made her laugh. It’s a shame about the bedroom in the way and it took some getting used to.

Ken was overwhelmed by the joy on everyone’s faces when he arrived late on our first day, having travelled by train. The rest of us are a little puzzled by this. We were all grateful that he arrived before midnight. John was slightly miffed that he’d walked out to meet Ken who had snuck into the hotel by a side door. It had taken us a while to notice John was missing. Obviously something to do with the overwhelming joy of seeing Ken

Our next joint adventure, in June, is cycling around Rugen. No one has been on a bike since we returned from The Bodensee last September. We have eight weeks to get cycling fit!. This will mean watching the 2023 Giro d’Italia on TV every day for the next three weeks.

The headline on this evening’s news is ‘Spain provisionally sees hottest April day on record with temperature of 38.7C’. Rest assured that temperature was recorded further South in Seville, here in Catalan it only reached a rather pathetic 27C. Although we appreciate the weather at home has been atrocious, we thought it would be lovely to let you all know that our day started with a cup of tea on our balcony in warm sunshine, overlooking the bay. You can thank us later for this little bit of Catalonian warmth.

There was a choice of walks, 16 or 7km, we chose 7 into Begur. The route was uphill all the way, 200m over 2km, and as relentless as the climb had been out of Llafranc yesterday. This has been our warmest day yet and it felt like hard work.

Once in Begur, the views around are stunning, right across to the Pyrenees on a clear day. We stopped at the statue of Carmen Amaya, a famous local flamenco dancer, credited with revolutionising the female dance that we associate with Spain today.

Our route included a tour of the town, which has a fascinating history and retains many historic buildings. Livelihoods were earned through fishing and the coral trade. In the late 19th century many residents decided to emigrate to the West Indies or South America, returning once they had made their fortunes to build large colonial style houses.

Begur Castle stands on top of the hill the town is built around. It was a strategic site, along with many watchtowers, defending the town from pirates. We have all, previously, walked to the top of the hill where only the ruins of the castle remain after being blown up during the Napoleonic wars. We’ve had enough of hills so chose not to do so again.

Lunch was an adventure at Tapas de Begur. A small self-service buffet restaurant located in a shady square. The bill is calculated, based on the number and type of cocktail sticks you have at the end of the meal.

The downhill walk back was significantly easier and faster than the walk out. A moment was taken to admire the craftsmanship that has a door frame completely upright as the fence follows the angle of the hill we were walking up. We checked and the doorframe is vertical.

We had a leisurely afternoon reading before exploring the rocks around the town. It was almost like being back in Porthcothan, just warmer. This was followed by 2023’s most competitive ping pong match ever. It wouldn’t win any style or skill awards though. For the record, Ken won the best of three tournament

We were sorry to miss out on the UK Emergency Alert on Sunday but, happily, we were included in Catalonia’s today. Our phones all made siren sounds but no one was really sure what was happening until this message appeared.

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

Today, InnTravel directions to our hotel in Llafranc were ignored and, instead, we created our own route via the town of Palafrugell. It added a couple of miles to our walk but we were keen to visit both the Cork and Contemporary Art Museums. It was a fairly flat 3 miles out through some lovely suburbs of Calella and, within an hour, we had arrived. John was rather taken with solar panels that track the path of the sun, but bunting made from old plastic bottles was just as noteworthy.

Palafrugell is a small, medieval town that has thriving markets most days of the week. It was renowned for manufacturing cork products in the 18th and 19th centuries with the final factory closing in the 1970s, leading to severe unemployment. The Cork Museum is housed in a former factory and was educational with plenty of interactive exhibits. John spent a few happy minutes setting up a microscope for a young Spanish family before testing out cork soundproofing and acoustic qualities. Cork oaks have been part of the economy for centuries, not only for harvesting bark but wood for furniture making and feeding livestock with acorns. You may think you know all about cork but taking time to hear about all its amazing properties was a joy – lightweight, waterproof, soundproof, fire retardant, renewable and, most importantly, the most environmentally friendly way to keep wine.

Next stop was the Museum of Contemporary Sculpture, also housed in an old cork factory building. All exhibits are by Catalan artists, ranging from the 1960s to the present day.

After a refreshment break in a shady square, we retraced our steps back to Calella de Palafrugell via a nursery selling the biggest plants in the world. Digging a hole for these would take a while!

Our hotel in Llafranc is lovely, opposite the beach with spacious balconies. It’s a shame the diggers haven’t finished rearranging the beach, they are rather noisy. We wandered along the front for a repeat of yesterdays tapas, more olives and sardines for us. At least we managed a food photo today.

It’s been a lovely day. Culture, plants, a bit of exercise and some food. What more could you want especially as we’re by the sea and the sun has shone all day?

Activity holidays are fantastic, but the days you don’t have to get up and re-pack suitcases are a real joy. We don’t change hotels until tomorrow and took advantage of a leisurely start. Breakfast at 9am followed by reading in the hotel lounge and a short walk for lunch. Not only that, tomorrow, we are recklessly departing from InnTravel’s suggested walk and planning our own breakaway route.

Our destination for lunch was Llafranc, 1.5 miles around the coast. We are all struggling with Spanish meal times. Restaurants don’t serve dinner before 8pm which is a long time after a midday snack. Today’s challenge was to eat lunch after 2pm! Sadly, we failed dismally. It took less than an hour to walk around the bay and find a beach side restaurant. Grilled sardines, chips and an omelette were shared while we watched heavy machinery re-arranging the sand on one of our favourite beaches. Hopefully they’ll be finished by the time we arrive for our night’s stay tomorrow.

Heavy rain had been forecast but the weather held out and sunshine kept us company as we wandered back to the hotel. As you know by now John has a view that no trip to foreign lands is complete without market research involving a local supermarket. Amongst the items of interest, today, were various products made from almond paste and gift packs of sardines. Most interesting find of the day was Bimbo bread, simple white bread with the crusts removed.

We couldn’t end today with a photo of ultra processed bread so here’s another night shot looking across the bay towards the lighthouse from our hotel.

Today reminded us that there is a gap between what InnTravel say in their directions and what we think they mean. Yesterday it was the ‘mostly flat’ description. Today it’s ‘a steady climb through woodland’. We strongly contest both! Our instructions promised a short, 5-6mile walk that would take 3 hours. Ha!

The family run hotel, in La Fosca, had been lovely, and very quiet, except for a cat chorus about 5am. My goodness, were they loud! We heard Jacky forcefully shut their balcony door and were deeply disappointed not to hear Ken throwing water over the fighting cats to silence them.

Fortified by breakfast we were off by 10 am. La Fosca appears to be rather unspoiled compared to its noisy neighbour, Palamos. In fact, back in 2016, our blog described Palamos as unpleasant which seems a little harsh. The area has a rich fishing heritage and, at the back of La Fosca beach, we came across some old boathouses with arched wooden doors.. These barracas are highly prized by local families, handed down through generations they are rarely sold.

Our route took us up our first steps of the day, out past Castell de Sant Esteve de Mar, built on Roman remains and the founding building in Palamos in the 13th Century

After a short walk through pine woods, Cala S’Alguer came into view. A very tiny, pretty cluster of fishermen’s huts with history dating back to 16th century. These huts are now protected as a Cultural Heritage Site and illustrate what the Costa Brava looked like before tourism arrived.

Next, we headed inland through cultivated fields before taking a forest track into the Espai d’Interes Natural de Castell – Cap Roig. Considering we are not mountaineering and this route is the lowest level walking classification there is, it was a long, tiring climb on stony, uneven tracks. Pine trees, cork oaks, olives and flowering cistus were a minor distraction from the effort.

As we descended, we skirted around the boundary of the Cap Roig Botanic Gardens. We have visited these fantastic gardens a couple of times before and they are well worth repeat visits. The only trouble is it involved yet another uphill walk, the gardens are on steep terraces and the vending machine doesn’t sell tea. There wasn’t a murmur of complaint, this is a really rather special place.

Coincidentally, we bumped into an English couple walking the opposite route to us. Apparently, the hotel we are due to stay in at Aigua Blava serves the best cup of tea in Spain. Something to look forward to.

Luckily our hotel was less than an hour from Cap Roig and, although we have walked a far shorter distance than yesterday, our feet and legs have had enough for today. We are here for two nights with a sea view balcony. Are you taking bets as to whether or not we will do the suggested, optional walk tomorrow? 9 miles to a town that is pretty much closed Mondays?

Our holiday includes evening meals at this hotel and we feel rather lucky. Our three course meal was delicious and, as night fell, this was our view across the town.

We left S’Agaro, in hazy sunshine, along the nicely maintained Cami de Ronda with 10 miles ahead of us. Our route hugged the coastline all the way to La Fosca, our only concern was the length of the walk.

Our first 3 miles were straightforward, well maintained paths onto a mile long promenade at Platja d’Aro, where we stopped and admired the view while drinking tea from a very fancy teapot

Little did we know that the route was about to become far more demanding. Up and down rocky steps into pretty little coves followed by more steep rocky steps up out again. The path narrowed to single file with blind bends in narrow tunnels. It was quite a challenge.

By 12:30 we needed a break and stopped for a picnic lunch at Platja Belladonna. The cove was lovely and quiet except for very over excited dogs shedding sand everywhere. It added extra crunch to our olive bread and cheese rolls.

Three more coves and an unplanned detour up some vertical steps added to the challenge. Sadly, we only have ourselves to blame for the detour, we are still getting the hang of reading red and white marker points while paying attention to route instructions. I wonder why we never seem to remember this from one holiday to the next?

Finally we arrived at the two mile long promenade leading into Palamos and the long, flat concrete walkway was very welcome. Our walk had not been ‘mostly flat’ as promised.

We were too weary to explore the town which has the feel of a real holiday resort. We climbed more steps up into the old town for the final mile to our hotel, tucked in a quiet suburb of La Fosca. No seaside views tonight but we did manage a competitive game of mini golf before dinner. After taking an unexpected early lead, Jacky was beaten by Ken. Kim trailed behind in third, despite a hole in one, and John was official photographer.

If you are of a certain age, Sunday night Top Gear would often feature a race. Typically Clarkson drives a car while Hammond and May make the same journey by plane, train or ferry. Our first adventure of the year began similar to a Top Gear Race. We are walking in Catalonia with Jacky and Ken and it should all be quite simple. Fly to Girona, walk North, keep the sea on our right. But Ken has dodgy ears and chose to take the train, the race was on.

Jacky braved Stansted and RyanAir with us, which turned out to be surprisingly hassle free with plenty of time to spare. At this stage of our trip, Ken was ahead. He was already in Paris and we hadn’t left Essex but he still had to negotiate his way across Paris, to Gare de Lyon, for another train.

As we landed in Girona, Ken had barely left Paris so we won…. which is all that really matters!

Our six day walk takes us along the Costa Brava from S’Agaro to Aigua Blava. The weather is looking rather cloudy but it’s warmer than at home and the view from tonight’s hotel is lovely.

Finally, for anyone concerned about Ken’s wellbeing, he arrived safely at 10pm. Only seven hours after us!