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day the second. pm.

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After a few indecisions, revisions and decisions I determined that I have walked enough today. The lunch just didn't inspire me and this town: L'Ametlla de Mar is large enough to shake down. One more day it seems - 'with the scores on the doors' - 35 kilometres to Amposta, where I am not going... It has got an official Alberg.... I am meant to be heading to Deltebre! Tomorrow is another day. Time for an Estrella Damm, olives and to person watch for a little time? The Hotel, where I got a double room, with a bath, for €49.01(Hotel l'Alguer) including breakfast at 7:30am(which is 6:30am UK time)! Nearly 27 kilometres since 8am until I sought the bath at half past three. Eating that huge hamburger last night really gave me a lot of energy, regardless of the beers and average night's sleep. The sun too... Not the nudists; I was more interested in the nuclear power plant! Tomorrow is a long way off, but I am so happy to have managed zero public transport ...

day the second. lunch.

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Missed my turn so now I am passing through nudist zone: why would anyone parade their charms like this? Good job his box of Special K was where I would've seen his non-special C! Is there any other way but The Way? Certainly if I hadn't not seen the turn off I certainly would have needed a microscope to spot what couldn't be seen? It was like a retreating slug! *** 5 hours which got very weary as I sought to stop for repase. I think I stumbled upon an average and expensive experience at Esmeralda in Sant Jordi d'Alfama, with it humps of ghost towns: a result of overextension in 2008. Nearly had another bump in the wallet but they didn't have Plato de Queso. After a Calzone, which seemed more like a crimped pastry than a bread offering... It was OK. It was enough for another couple of hours? *** I put back my arrival at Alberg Deltebre another night. Something says walk all the way; I absolutely detest masks on busy public transport so walking it is - but...

day the second. am.

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Looking along my route for this morning I follow a main road south some distance after going over the hill by the Mediterranean and I really don't like to do that... Stayed in Hotel Sancho ** (€45) and it was comfortable, but a bit muggy. The room was on the top floor. The Aircon was fine, but a little noisy and it came on by itself early in the wee hours. It's definitely too far for one day to walk all the way to Deltebre then again, after it, to the Alberg on the Delta where I decide to go west along the Camino del Ebro. Do I walk it... There is always Hitchhiking once I run out of steam? I was meant to be having breakfast at the Hotel, but I was ready to depart at 7 so came around the corner, opposite the very modern church, to Paimes which I had noticed last night, stumbling back from one too many Volt Damm... the voices are all Catalan. The room was €45 and breakfast was free, although he wanted to charge an extra €8. But I was a little unhappy about bed and no...

day the first

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The trials were many yesterday to reach Tarragona, just as it was shutting up for that bank holiday - being the Monday after Pentecost, but now I am sat at the top of Tarraco next to the Cathedral waiting for a second Café Largo. Tarragona is fine. It's not as frenetic as I recall Barcelona being, it's not as beautiful as Girona (IMHO) but it is a little less rough around the edges as Lleida appeared to be. Lleida was very interesting, surrounded by those agricultural lands: an island above the plain, but the Mercado was no more. *** I wasn't planning on walking today, but once I'd caught the bus south, passing through god awful Salou - with its British seaside seediness - I got off at Cambrils. Being forced to wear a mask - which is still obligatory on public transport - I was getting a little anxious so I hurried off before the bus station. But here I am. On another adventure. L'Hospitalet de l'Infant for the evening then over the end of the range ...

The flight, etc

There are reasons for everything, but knowing the depths of their mysterious truths is something I find blows my mind! Just now I looked out of the cabin window just as we were leaving Blighty a little west of Brighton so I saw the entirety of Michael's and my journey from Shoreham on Sea to Brighton, then to East Dean onwards to Birling Gap before we returned west to the Seven Sisters, Cuckmere Haven, Plough and Harrow, Alfriston and hitchhiking to Seaford when the bus failed to materialize... ... As I retook my seat after a short toilet visit there was the French Coast and Dieppe - another time and another Way/Weg/Camino/Chemin. It's all open to interpretation and, perhaps, only has the meaning I give it, but my time in this universe doesn't feel random. There is my other way: the Path being the destination. It sparkles. Mañana is definitely day one of a Camino - either  El Camino de Santiago desde Tarragona  or another way which I will connect with in the morning. *** Th...

Away to Tarragona

Sunday morning. Took to bed rather early: around 7. And slept until around 6. It's a bit grey and sullen outside threatening rain I guess. Still the allotment needs me for one final visit prior to Spain (aka Catalonia) tomorrow. Was woken startled by the sounds of explosions. Then I recalled there was to be an end of the proms fireworks display on The Ings. Grumbling a bit from the inconvenience I rolled back into sleep. Getting ready for a visit to the allotment for the final time for a few days. Just to see if any strawberries are ready and to chop back some of the taller weeds along the edges: before they go to seed!  *** Nuff done. Loads of weed clearing, strawberry protection - grass cuttings. Nice 3 hours. Quick Old Peculier in Bar Three where there are two very annoying and arseholed regulars... It's 12:30. I bet they've been at it all evening and morning as those two can drink! I've heard said that Steve is a Mason, he's a very alcoholic one. I am meant to s...

Saturday morning, day three of the Jubilee.

Walked out of Leeds up Scott Hall Road, through Moortown Corner and Primley Park to Harewood via Eccup Reservoir but I didn't once feel in the zone mentally or physically. It's the first distance I had covered since I walked with Michael from East Dean to Birling Gap and along the Seven Sisters. Back then I wasn't feeling it either... On Thursday I ate healthy and didn't drink so I was fine on Friday morning for a meander... Once I reached the bridge over Eccup Beck in Harewood Park I knew I couldn't walk any further. As I left my flat in the morning I walked for roughly an hour to Chapel Allerton, but I was just too early for anywhere to stop for breakfast, except Caffé Nero - but a pain aux raisin isn't substantial enough - and it might've also been closed! The couple of places I might of stopped were ten minutes away from opening so I walked along Harrogate Road up to Moortown. The one place I found - Lan's - had some alarm going opposite so I stopped...