It’s Sunday the 15th of March and I am going to find gold. If you are bored with the repetitive nature of this blog then bugger off. Because it’s not going to have any broader scope than this – gold, Gold I tell you, GOLD!!!!!

Today Stu conjured up fried eggs, two spicy sausages and bacon on toast for breakfast. It keeps me going for the full day. The pub is fed water by a bore hole, so we can’t drink the tap water, but he leaves jugs of drinking water lying around within easy reach.

Back to Landsborough today and it was clear and sunny. I parked up on the main road again but the Reserve was a couple of miles away. A slog with my gear and long, heavy trousers.

It took me an hour to get up to the Reserve and I decided to head eastwards, along the low line of the hills, towards some old gold workings.

These areas have been detected probably hundreds of times. I didn’t find anything. Nevertheless I am learning each trip. I know that these workings, in more remote areas, are well worth detecting around. And you never know. I might strike lucky.

I wandered around the gold workings, making my way gradually south westwards into the hills. I followed a dry gully and had three strong signals in succession. Three shotgun cartridges including one which hadn’t been detonated. I chucked it away. Be a bit painful if it went off in me trouser pocket!

There was clearly a lot of gold found here by the old timers in the 1850s, judging by the extent of the workings. It’s not only people who make workings. Ants do too but this revealed diddly squat.

This is a Puddling machine that horses drew around to separate fine gold from the clay. Apart from the trees growing in the outer walkway it looked usable nowadays!

These features were on the lower slopes. I decided to head higher into the hills through the forest to see if I could find any quartz reefs on the surface that might contain (or have released) some gold.

It’s very isolated here. I haven’t seen anybody all day and I don’t think anyone would be here for anything other than sad Pommies popping over to try to teach the locals how to detect gold. And fail miserably. And some of these workings feel spookie.

I cut directly uphill, not too far from private land on the way up and I crossed it to take this shot towards where I was prospecting in the forest yesterday.

Nipping back into the Reserve I cut eastwards along the side of the hills to see if I could find any evidence of quartz reefs which might contain gold. Detecting along the way the only beeps were bullets from the old timers.

The heat was ratcheting up to over 30c and with no wind I was beginning to sink, as the sun decided to start doing the same.

Someone had been camping in the park and had left evidence of a fire. A bit risky in a forest of eucalyptus. Fire spreads here faster than you can run.

Tony the trainer had said that he often finds gold under this type of tree. Bully for him. I din’t.

So a long two mile slog carrying my gear and I was back at my car, straight to Moonambel and a couple of VB stubbies with spicy chicken strips. Asleep by eight. Knackered but not dejected. I will find gold.

Night night.

No it isn’t the 26th of January but it feels like a recurring theme. No gold so far.

Great breakfast in the Moonambel Resort Hotel; bacon, eggs and mushrooms on toast. Perfect. Served by the owner, Stu. He was a good sport and had been invited to a hen party’s breakfast. Good lad!

I set off for Landsborough Nature Conservation Reserve at 10 am in the morning, hundred hours. It looks small but it isn’t.

I found a place to park the car on the main road. Sadly the car hire lease doesn’t allow me to drive on tracks. If I do and it get’s stuck then it’s quite expensive. But walking is my pleasure.

Walking up into the Reserve I saw some old gold workings from the 1850s over to my left, and had a detect around them. Lots of targets but all bullets or nails.

The weather was clear and hot. By 13.00 the temperature was pushing 28C. The bush was becoming breathless. At this level of breathlessness it’s difficult to keep swinging the detector, then slicing down through hard earth with the pick, and then using the scoop to whittle down the source of the BEEP!

There was nobody here.

I made my way slowly up towards the hills and then I came across an old dam. I detected around it but only old timers’ metal.

I thought this was gold as I got quite deep. Morefool I.

Distant views in the bush are quite rare. Australia is mostly flat and covered in forest or desert, like this.

I’ve got a Camelbak. It’s a rucksack which takes all my gear and a plastic sack full of water with a tube so that when I’m digging away in the heat I can suck water out of the back. Lifesaver!This bloke didn’t have a camelbak.

The day wore on and I wore out. The pub is closed on Monday so I wrapped up at around 16.30 and trekked back down to the car. Avoca is the nearest village of any size so I headed there to buy some food for Monday, as well as bog-roll, which appears to be in short supply.

Back to Moonambel, an early dinner and an early night as a group of young women rolled in and cranked up the jukebox. Nevertheless it didn’t keep me awake.

Night night.

Thanks Cat.

Well I finally made it to Australia after Trump’s Folly in Iran. Switching flights from Emirates to Cathay Pacific and undertaking a 45 hour journey from home to hotel, via Manchester, Heathrow and Hong Kong. Melbourne was warm and noisy. People are young and anywhere indoors is incredibly noisy.

I am here to find gold. That is my duty as a husband and my necessary purpose as a man. It is our Golden Wedding Anniversary on the 6th of November this year, although it feels like we’ve been married longer than that. In-joke not a derogatory remark, which is remarkable for me. I’m going to find Margaret Smith, nee Lomas, enough gold to make her a ring to celebrate that occasion, so I am here Aussie gold hunting.

I spent the first three nights in Melbourne, meeting my good friends Damien and Maria at Donovan’s in St Kilda for a slap up feed. Such a joyous occasion.

Then this morning I escaped in a motor car at 05.30, driving up to Maryborough in the old goldfields to hire a metal detector from Coiltek Gold Centre there, and become trained in its proper use.

Tony was my trainer.

Linn and Ian were my fellow undergraduates. This photo was taken late in a warm afternoon when we required rest and rehydration, and the pose that I caught them in, with a surreptitious snap, is not reflective of their benign demeanours. Nice folk.

We didn’t find gold but the trainer did. Boooo! A tiny piece but at £3700 an ounce out here then every bit counts.

Then tonight I had fish and chips in Maryborough before scooting over to Moonambel. A cute village which you miss if you blink and which has an array of folk visiting each day. This is the bush, dotted with vine growing farms.

It’s lovely here. This is the view from my hotel window.

The people are friendly and funny, if a little eccentric.

One bloke brought in a small scorpion in a plastic jar. Apparently its sting releases the part of the brain that controls pain. He was stung by one and had three months of agony.

I’m happy that this is my base. English breakfast and very reasonably priced meals. The owner’s father was from Sheffield. Small world.

The water is from a bore hole so is not drinkable but there are jugs of drinking water around. The communication is direct.

I’m all kitted out and ready to go!

Tomorrow is a later breakfast at 9am then I’ll be off into the hills.

Night night.

We packed our rucksacks and wandered up to the village. Gary couldn’t walk the trail today. The pain had not reduced overnight and any pressure on his knee could result in lasting damage. We just don’t know, but the decision was taken and this was the end of the trek. Beautiful, very different and exhausting, and over. We had two long days walking ahead of us and it was not possible. Next time, it will still be there and if we’re not then we won’t be bothered about it.

We had two hotels booked and paid for ahead on the trail but Vistabella only has one road through it, the CV-170, and that runs west to east. Our trek would have taken us south, and to get to the next location by road would be over 50 miles. So we had to let the bookings go. Unfortunate but unavoidable.

So we will head to Benidorm and get longer rest and relaxation than we anticipated. However Vistabella is isolated. There is only one bus a day out of the village and that had left at 06.00. The Restaurant El Dau was open and we asked whether they could book us a taxi from somewhere to take us to the nearest train station. The taxi would be with us in four hours, the journey would take two hours, the cost would be £150.

Initially we asked them to order the taxi. We had to get out of Vistabella. Then we sat down and reconsidered the situation. We discussed the pros and cons. Come on and let me know. Should I stay or should I go? Thanks Mick. Stay!

Dolores flitted in and out of the Restaurant and we grabbed hold of her. Yes we could stay another night, although we would be sharing the house with four other trekkers. We offloaded our rucksacks back at the apartment then plotted our escape.

The first section in red would be tomorrow’s bus to Castellon de la Plana. The blue line was to be a train ride to Valencia where we would transfer by taxi to the bus station and take a second bus ride down to Benidorm.

In the meantime we bought a rabbit from the butchers, which was chopped for us into sections.

Then at the grocers we bought a leek, huge tomato, a quarter kilo of mountain fungi, mashing potatoes, butter, wine, carrots and chicken stock. The entire meal, including the wine and rabbit, had cost €22. Back at the apartment we prepared a rabbit stew and let it simmer in the wine and chicken stock for three hours, whilst we sat outside in the street looking at the view and talking about life.

Then the moment of truth.

A rabbit rarely died a more worthwhile death. Meat is murder and we plead guilty. The meal was a brilliant success. We patted ourselves on the back and ate the lot!

Early night and the next day we were up at 05.00 and on the deserted bus at six. Two hours later we decanted at Castellon at the train station and were on a train heading south within 15 minutes. A taxi in Valencia to the bus station and we just had time for a coffee before the bus to Beni bore us away. We arrived seven hours after we left Dolores’ des res. We did a good deal at our hotel for the extra night and set off on an eating spree.

The weight we lost in the mountains was regained by the sea.

Farewell Benidorm. We will return to Spain in 2027, fill the gap from Vallibona to Morella and complete the lost two days, before pressing on further south. Like Icarus.

Night night.

Where has it all gone? You can’t get it back. Best to avoid madeleine cake dipped in tea if you don’t want to cry over it all. Jumpers for goal posts, bread and dripping for tea. Vulcan broken but not beaten. Rubble resting years on from the bombs that reduced it but didn’t kill it. It took the 22 to do that. Suck the soul southwards, along with fortunes made from blood, sweat and tears. Siphon off anything that sparkles. Let it loaf in Lombard Street.

Breakfast was simple and tasty. Fried eggs on toast and pastries. The elderly hotel owner insisted that we should pay in cash and we told her we hadn’t got enough. She said the card machine was broken. After a ten second standoff she sparked up the machine and we paid by card.

The day was fresh, with some rain overnight continuing as we walked, and we headed over the hills to Culla, another one of these hilltop castle towns nestled in the distance. It was a brisk walk, with the usual twenty minute mandatory detour around an active bull blocking the path and acting as bodyguard for five young bullocks.

The saga of the knee continued and this time the pain was significant even before we had set off. We’re just mindful that this could be causing Gary some longer term damage, and that the next three days to the finish line were very hard trekking days. Apart from the first day down the Ebro valley every day had been tough but massively rewarding. No intervening villages and pure countryside every inch of the way.

We stocked up on water and sugar drinks in Culla, as the temperature raised again and the rain cleared. In the far distance we could see Vistabella but the route would wind four miles down a ravine, followed by a longer climb up the other side. The route arced round to the north and on to the west before finishing with a six mile southwards section.

We started our descent into the ravine, which opened out further down into a canyon. I’m not sure what comes after canyon.

The route we’re following forms part of the pilgrimage of Sant Joan of Penyagalosa, being a six thousand foot high mountain blocking our path. Let’s just imagine it’s a bull and climb round it.

Finally we reached the bottom. Another boulder strewn river bed.

The climb up the far bank and mountainside was punishing. Gary was now in fierce pain, having to stop every few minutes. It detracted from our appreciation of the countryside.

The old lad was struggling and we suspected, from a WhatsApp voice message in Spanish, that there may be a problem with our accommodation, which would be unfortunate as it was the only place to stay in Vistabella and the rain was coming back with thunder and lightning accessories.

The pain was again apparent from Gary’s face.

The last 200 metres up a track into Vistabella were agony for him. It took him half an hour. We went to the only bar in town and found Dolores, the owner of the apartment which we were staying at. There was no problem with the reservation and she would take us via the butchers and the grocers to the apartment. We bought three types of sausages, wine, bread, butter beans and tomatoes and made a fabada bean dish. Just what the doctor ordered.

Let’s see what the doctor might order tomorrow for Gary’s knee.

Gary is upset to say the least. Bury my knee at Wounded Heart.

Night night.

What did we decide to do? Climb, climb, climb. Like a Nepalese commercial aeroplane which has just burst out of the clouds to see a wall of Himalayan rock coming towards it at 197mph. But not necessarily with that sense of urgency. And we kept our waste in our colons, unlike the pilot in the example above. But we needed to climb.

Please girls and boys. Can someone please stop this idiot talking such……. waste? Maggie, Georgie, Toni, Jetty, Che, Susie, anybody who has the remotest influence over David Graham Smith. Tell him to stop using rude analogies. Now!

We were walking away from this barren plain and our priorities were to gain altitude relentlessly and find water.

We were only halfway to Benessal. Because of all the diversions and terrain issues we were way behind target time. Come on boys, raise your game. In fairness Gary completely ignored the pain in his knee by dosing on a combination of cocodamol and paracetamol, which made it easier but didn’t make it go away.

We made really good time up the mountainside, covering three miles in just over two hours. It’s the track surface that slows you down. As well as the heat and ….. etc etc.

But our water was low and at this farmhouse, which was here out of the blue, we were chased by a noisy dog. It retreated as we stood our ground, and we leaned over the farmhouse wall shouting for the farmer to appear. She appeared with a smile and I introduced ourselves with an explanation that we were stupid Englishmen who had walked a long way and nearly run out of water. Adding that it wasn’t this hot in England.

She took our empty bottles and brought them back full of cool, clear water. Water I tell you! We made a show of drinking her gift and groaning our enjoyment.

Then we headed off to find the next track, and it was purely guesswork. We guessed right. Down another valley and eventually up the next mountain range. Looking for these minuscule mural markings.

The sun was lowering by the time we reached Ares del Maestrat, with still a way to go. This is a punishing day, particularly with …. etc etc.

The route from here was simple but not easy. Climb up the next mountain and then follow the sun for several miles downhill. Easy. But by the time we got to Benessal it was nearly sunset and we discovered that our hotel was another two kilometres up another hill, even though it had been billed as Benessal centro. Gary was in serious knee difficulty by this time, having toughed it out on painkillers that were losing effect.

I flagged down the next car and it happened to be two lads, one who could speak English well and wanted to use it. Over the course of 2 kms we became mates. And they dropped us off right outside the hotel. Thanks lads.

We’d covered 24 miles in the most difficult and unseasonal of conditions, with Gary striding through injury. Amazing. I’m not a fan but for a big idiot he had performed magnificently.

The sun was going down over the horizon.

The hotel was deserted apart from the owner in her 80s. She was reluctant to serve us beer, but we’d earned it. She was happy to serve us a bottle of Rioja and a grilled rabbit with artichokes.

And we were happy to eat it!

Night night.

You must leave now, take what you need you think will last. Thanks Bob, but it’s not quite all over yet Baby Blue. We left the hotel at 07.00 on another sunny day, but as the sun bore down on the hilltops a harsh frost hung around in the hollows.

At 07.45 we pulled into a restaurant where the owner derided us for our paltry Spanish speaking skills. Then the next minute he was all over us like a rash. Iffy bugger.

However his food was world class. Sausages, black pudding, artichokes, stewed peppers, coffee and back for second helpings. The black pudding melted on your tongue and the mild herby finish to it was worth fighting for. Not that we fought. We’re men of peace and we’re scaredy cats. Taking massive detours round bulls and running from dogs.

Setting off from Iffy’s we mounted the nearest mountain and looked back at where we used to live, Morella.

Heading over the back it soon became apparent that we were in for a random signage day. Now you see it, now you don’t. My Garmin had broken and the only way I could start it was sticking a knife in the hole where the ‘on’ switch used to be. Even that outback engineering was hit and miss. So we struggled to find Frank frankly. The printed maps I had taken off some tacky website were inaccurate and got us even more lost. There were no signals for my iPad or both of our iPhones. Buggered, buggered I tell you!

Then another major detour around a bunch of cows, bulls and bullocks blocking the path and showing an interest in us. An unhealthy interest some might say. A deadly interest I thought and Gary wasn’t waiting to test my theory. We legged it over walls and fences, culminating in me falling six feet backwards over a fence into a briar bush. Gary threaded himself ineffectually through a multi-stranded barbed wire fence. It’s amazing how well he bleeds. And as the miles wore on he was struggling more and more with his painful knee problem.

After half an hour roaming around we eventually found a way mark. Half hidden in the shadow on the back of this wall. But it was enough to get us back on route. Unfortunately the route was along the other side of the wall along an old stream bed which had been taken over by thick reeds, weeds, briars and bushes. Coupled with unseen drops underfoot which threatened to trip us into deep holes. This lasted around a quarter of a mile and was exhausting.

We finally climbed out of this ridiculously badly managed public right of way by straddling a farmer’s wall and landing in a field of sheep. Not a bull to be seen. But there was a huge Pyrenean mountain sheepdog that spotted us from two hundred yards away and came running at us. The loudest bark ever and I climbed back up the wall but Gary was stuck behind me. He turned to face the dog and it stopped a couple of yards away from him. He froze and the dog didn’t know what to do, other than continue to bark at us. I descended the wall and we moved in slow motion away from the dog, who ran towards us and then backed off again. Eventually we climbed a gate and legged it. Our heart rates were off the scale. That dog could have eaten us. He was bleedin huge.

The temperature was pushing into the thirties and we were gunning through our water bottles just to keep our temperatures at a reasonable level.

We lost the track several more times and came to a difficult decision point. We were heading up into the mountains and far away from the nearest road. This was not a continuous track, as we had to switch from one track to a footpath to a track to a path to a track. Should I have used commas?

Once again, despite our best efforts our circuitous progress, the absence of a breeze, the heatwave hitting us hard and the rucksacks on our backs were all conspiring like Brutus to stab us in the back. We were leaking our own body weight in perspiration. We needed water and would we find it up in the mountains? And we were lost. The way marks had taken us away from a track and left us on a hillside, desolate. Will nature make a man of us yet? Thanks Smithy.

We had to decide now. Do we climb or find a road and flag down an old flag?

Find out later!

We woke up to a rest day in Morella. Yesterday’s walk had taken it out of us, although Gary’s knee was much improved to the extent that we roam around town. And what a town it is.

In the town hall were giant figures which are brought out into the streets on feast days. The Moors of North Africa captured the town thirteen hundred years ago and held it for nearly 500 years, until the Spanish Christians returned to claim it back. The Moors handed over rule of the town without any battle, leading to centuries of peaceful coexistence which has lasted until the present day.

In 1672 the town was ravaged by a terrible plague that killed much of the population of the town. The locals brought out the Virgin of Vallivana, a wooden likeness of the Virgin Mary, and carried it around the streets. Wherever this statue was taken those stricken with the plague were cured. A year later the town vowed to the Virgin that it would honour her with a celebration every six years, the Sexenni of Morella. This starts with a solemn pilgrimage carrying the image from Vallivana to Morella, followed by 10 days of festivities.

Any native of Morella who has left the town must return to fulfil the oath to the Virgin.

Stirring stuff.

Gary was caught in the light cast by the Lady.

We continued our pilgrimage to the nearest place which would fry eggs and dispense coffee. Then back to the hotel to rest in the sun whilst the Virgin of Roundhay carried beer to the devotee and uttered oaths.

We ended the day with another dose of spag bol in the nearest restaurant and got an early night to get prepared for a 24 mile slog tomorrow.

Night night.

We woke up this morning to a brand new day which promised rain, and it delivered, but not in abundance. An early start in the Refugi, breakfast at 06.30 and on the hills by 07.00. We’re having a great trek and we are good mates, which makes it even more enjoyable. Gary is great to walk with. We don’t talk or eat between breakfast and evening meal unless it’s necessary. It takes away energy and focus on the next step. We’re like minded on what is great and good, food wise, country wise, culture wise and people wise. It’s like walking with a brother that you like.

On a wet day I’m afraid I don’t take many photos. Stopping to get inside my rucksack’s rain cover to whip out my iPad to take a photo of something obscured by clouds, thanks Pink Floyd, is too much effort when we need to be heads down crashing on.

It took us the best part of two hours to get to Fredes, a tiny village way up in the mountains where we came across the Portell de L’Infern. The gate to Hell. In fairness it felt like it. Barbed wire blocking the footpath and dogs howling behind fences.

The place is deserted, apart from mushroom hunters who are flocking up the country roads past the village, with nothing to attract them to stop here.

We hiked down the road to a restaurant in nomansland which seemed to be a commune for hunters and mushroom gatherers sheltering from the rain. After hanging around for ten minutes to get served we buggered off and headed down the road towards El Boixar, our next waypoint.

Unfortunately we took a wrong turn down a mountain and we were over a mile down before I realised we’d missed a turning. When you’re in the rain, looking down at your iPad and it takes a photo of your feet, you need to put it on your blog. Rude not to.

We tried to cut up the mountainside directly through the forest but we went four yards and slid back down the sodden soil. So back to the road and as a car came past I flagged him down. The driver was an old hunter who was going to have refreshments with his mates and then go home because it was raining. I explained where we had gone wrong and he started to direct me to it. I managed to summon up enough Spanish to say ‘No you silly old flag we want a lift’ and he invited us in and took us back to the junction we had missed.

We picked up where we left off, but by this time Gary’s knee was giving him trouble again. The problem seems to kick in after five or six miles with the rucksack, and particularly when we’re going steeply downhill.

Poor dear. The pain is etched in his face sometimes.

We cut across hilltops towards Villabona, a village en route to our destination of Morella. By this time we had been on the go for four hours and the rain was beginning to ease. A footpath sign said that Villabona was less than two hours away. We’d be there by 13.00.

Rounding an old ruined farmhouse we stumbled across a huge bull laid down next to his harem of cows. He was stretched across the path and was clearly spooked by our arrival in brightly coloured waterproofs. Jumping up he shook his head and snorted aggressively, stamping a warning on the ground.

We froze and slowly eased back behind the farmhouse. Once out of sight we quickly slipped downhill away from the top of the field and made our way around the rocky hillside. Nervous, breathless and gutless we took off our bright tops and weaved through spiky gorse bushes hanging over a significant drop. We could see the roof of the old farm and could hear the bull walking around his territory. He had a bell around his neck and the noise as it came towards us was scary and spooky. We caught a view of the top of a big beast and backed down to the edge of the cliff drop.

After around thirty minutes we completed a circuit of the hilltop and rejoined the path, setting a faster pace to get away. Our relief was palpable.

The sky cleared and suddenly it was a hot summer’s day again. The rocky surface of the path made it slow going and certainly didn’t help Gary’s knee. At 13.00, when we were supposed to be in Vallibona, according to the earlier signpost, we were beginning to drop down a dry river gorge.

The air was still, hot and seemed to lack oxygen. The sounds of our clambering were dull. For two hours we made our way over bedrock and boulders.

At long last, at around 15.30, the gorge began to broaden.

And climbing the side of the valley we finally saw Vallibona in the distance.

By the time we got to the village we were done in. The sun was slipping down over the horizon. I know Teresa, the owner of La Carbonera, the hotel restaurant in the village, as I’ve stayed there before when I’ve been trekking and with Maggie when we toured northern Spain. She didn’t have any rooms, which is why we were booked in to a hotel ten miles away in Morella.

A path sign said Morella was a six hour walk. Four of those hours would be in the dark across rough country. We’d blown it. Nine hours continuous walking and scrambling and that’s it. Too dangerous to continue. Let’s be sensible here.

Teresa’s kitchen was closed but her bar was open. And she knew a bloke thirty miles away who would drive over, pick us up and take us to Morella. We look forward to the opportunity in the future to visit Vallibona, stay at this wonderful woman’s hotel, arrive when her kitchen is still open and bridge the gap by walking to Morella.

Thanks Teresa. We were dropped off at our hotel in Morella at around 19.30. Wow! I never fails to disappoint.

Spag Bol and we slept well.

Night night.

We had a dormitory to ourselves last night, and Maria Jose had stoked up the log burners before we hit the sack, which kept us warm throughout the night. We are usually the only customers, which suits us as I snore and Gary roars.

For breakfast she cooked us a great dose of scrambled eggs on toast. Lovely it wa! She warned us that it had been rainy in the night, in fairness Gary heard it, and that there would be lots of mushroom and fungi hunters on the trail. There are many types of edible fungi which burst out overnight in October in the rain. And she wasn’t wrong!

Today was to be a spectacularly difficult, and in parts, fairly dangerous, trek cum climb. Our walks don’t require technical climbing equipment, and in any event we’re not trained and qualified to use it. But on occasions a bit of climbing rope would be a welcome addition.

We bade farewell and strode off down the local road, which was quite busy with a car every five minutes. Then the GR7 turned a sharp left up a steep and high mountainside, with a few pairs of fungi hunters roaming around the lower levels.

It was a decent slog in the shade of the mountains, and putting our heads over the parapet we were rewarded with a magnificent view of the Ebro delta.

The path wove around the cliff face for mile after mile. This is looking back at a section where we had to climb down a crack in the rock.

It was exhausting work and the temperature climbed steadily. It’s a good job that we are real men. Well, oldish but in a George Clooney type of way. Well ok then, Danny Bloody De Vito.

The views just kept on getting better, and we sweated a lot, getting wetter and wetter.

After three hours of cliff clambering the path steadied and developed into a track, with a group of folk collecting mushrooms. What a haul!

When me and Maggie had our house in France and before the kids were born we went in search of walnuts and mushrooms in the countryside. We found loads of walnuts and, as it was a damp October, we found loads of fungi. Our dear elderly neighbour Marthe reviewed our haul and threw most of it away as inedible or poisonous. However she was very impressed with a large number of the type that I’ve arrowed below. Nez du Chat in French, the Cat’s Nose. And very tasty they were too cooked in butter and olive oil with garlic and parsley. Very happy memories. I love her more than I can explain, thirty five years later. Marthe, not Maggie.

The track rose higher into the mountains and we found a spring where we could sit, rest and take the local waters. Oh, oh the water, get it myself from a mountain stream. Thanks Van. Beautifully refreshing.

After another two hours of climbing we were over the top.

Then it was head down on difficult ground aiming for the Refugi Font Ferrera. This one was in the forest, six miles from the nearest proper road and we hadn’t heard from them. Our concern was that we had no signals up here and couldn’t phone them to see if they were there. And if we could phone them we wouldn’t understand what they were saying because no-one speaks English and everything’s broken. Thanks Tom. Absolute epic.

The sun was starting to sink.

Our pace quickened but Gary had discomfort in his left knee. He rode it out as we were getting a bit anxious about spending the night in our sleeping bags in the open.

Gaz was looking for a signal but we struggled.

Ten hours after we set off we spotted the Refugi, without any lights on. There was a link chain gate locked but a car inside. As we got closer we saw that there was a fire going and as we pushed the door it opened.

Quite a relief. The beds were basic bunks but there were three other walkers there and the manager with his young son.

Dinner was fantastic. Soup, carbonara pasta and bread. Local red wine and a warm fire. In the middle of a forest miles from the nearest road. Heaven.

Night night.