Cerbere to Llanca – Sunny Days are Here Again!

It’s a laugh to wake your mate up in the middle of the night and put a Blades sticker on his chest and then he goes into a catatonic state because he’s a Leeds fan. And when he does he looks like this! I don’t think he was happy.

The sky was blue and we set off shortly after a decent breakfast in the hotel. We were climbing up over the last little arm of the eastern Pyrenees, which stretches its forefinger into the Mediterranean Sea. Goodbye hotel.

And hello to a path from Spain to France that saw 100,000 defeated Republicans escaping Franco’s evil revenge. Seeking new lives in France and the UK, like Michael Portillo’s dad. Lucky they didn’t try to escape certain death nowadays. Suella Braverman KC would have sent the lot to Rwanda.

But we were travelling in the opposite direction, from France to Spain, the route that escapees from Nazi Germany took a year later in 1940. Terrible times with desperate folk treading the same route as me and Gary.

Up and over, past the redundant border post.

It was getting warm and we both were sweating buckets under the weight of our rucksacks. But dropping down to Portbou eased things.

This was the main through route for supplies to the Republican army, and Franco had it bombed to smithereens. By the Germans, Italians and his own evil animals. But amor vincit omnia and today people can rest in this land in peace.

We’re walking down as far as we can in the next 9 days towards Barcelona. It’s part of my John O’Groats to Africa trek, which I may never finish, but which keeps me off the streets. Well….on some streets sometimes. And Gary is here because he loves walking in Spain too.

It’s a shortish day today – 17 kms – but it has its ups and downs so it is a good starter. We’re not terribly fit so this is fine. Our route follows the GR92, which is a footpath covering the full length of the Costa Brava; and it’s great.

For January the weather is ridiculous. Sunny, warm and not too much wind. We are loving it.

We arrived in Llanca at two thirty. And it was shut. However with the help of some builders we were able to find refreshments and after a couple of phone calls we got decent digs. With a tapas bar around the corner. Heavenly. And an early night – asleep by 8.30!

The real walk starts tomorrow.

Night night.