A rebel without a clue.

€18 to look a little better? A Barber's shop visit to kill a little time away from the onslaught of the sea breeze in the sunshine. It's difficult, but to see old gentlemen tending to their allotments in the mid afternoon sun I swoon! They simply feel it differently and respond due to their nature's - they were born on this flat baking delta. They'd be frozen solid in England and a bit mouldy too? And I always wanted to see a Delta, then I recalled I'd seen the Camargue which is the same. I am losing the plot a little. I can hardly communicate in Spanish, but Catalan has lost me absolutely: it is a completely new language for me to listen to, picking out words I understand in other people's conversations. Last year when coming off the Pyrenees, undone by the fall near Vinça, I struggled to make any sense of what was being said. Now I do understand that Catalonia isn't Spain. It's culturally, historically, socially different. It's time to ...

The ever present drone of the autovia following me breaking the illusion of being solitary, below the sky - along the edge of land and sea - crawling along the rolling coves, cliffs, inlets and beaches. *** Up and down. Down and then up! All the way along the GR92 it was testing my patience: and the sun was getting a little intense too. Finally stopped for the morning - it's one!  Will eat well before attempting the next leg of the journey: Deltebre... Give me Entrecot, extra rare, but first Croquetas Jamon.  It's extremely warm, already, for June and it's testing me absolutely. It's a coastal path, but it takes it to the extreme! I had to remove my boots with 7.5 kilometres left until L'Ampolla, as the strain was showing on the old war wounded foot, and on went the sandals which have given me blisters... I feel like a maniac as I down a Entrecot, fried egg, frites and a large salad. I was going to hang on, but someone lit up behind me so I am on my way ...

Damn you person on the floors above playing music at 4am until 5... Inconsiderate and garbage all the way - Would I Lie To You! They can't have been young or fashionable to listen to 1980s/90s crap. Struggling in and out of sleep until a Gull suggested its daylight. Now I await breakfast at 7:30, it's part of the price and yet I so feel like not having it here, but instead along the dockside... ... I couldn't wait for breakfast so I went up to the Mercat, which was closed, so I find myself on the same boulevard where there is Jacaranda blossoms falling. Just up from the Port... La Rambleta. And the flies are finding plenty of substances on me ... Subtly better than mosquitoes. It's going to be 31°C today... Camino del Ebro tomorrow? Ate Dorada last night in Oh! Mar with a couple of glasses of dry white wine it was lovely. The recommendation was worthy of €17 (I was truly swindled in Esmeralda...£29) I also had a better Gazpacho in Cala Cris. I was a bit desperate yester...

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 ...

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...

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...

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 ...