What a Terrible Mess I’ve Made of my Life – Sant Celloni to Adenys de Mar

Thanks Morrissey.

We woke early and had breakfast in the hotel at 8.30 (am. if you were wondering). The taxi driver from last night wasn’t free until 10am so we walked in to town and looked for a bank to exchange some sterling for euros. No chance.

We rang the taxi to tell him where we were. He said he was in Barcelona and not available, and then switched his phone off. A bit concerned, in view of the fact we needed to get back to Vallgorguina and walk 20 miles to the nearest hotel, we went to the local station and checked the bus timetable. It said the next bus was at 11am. Holy poo poo.

We started ringing taxis and nobody answered. In the end we waited at the station for the 11am bus until 11.45. And it still hadn’t showed up. Oh no! We legged it to the nearest cafe and asked them to ring for a taxi. The landlady looked gone out and none of the customers came up with anything helpful. One bloke gave us a phone number. It was the number for the taxi that had let us down earlier!

There was a hospital up a hill and we made our way up there, hoping that we’d get a taxi. Bugger all. Walking back down towards the station it was now approaching 1pm and we spotted a parked taxi. Whilst we were walking around it another turned up and we flagged it down.

Surely now, after hours wasted and thinking we were never going to escape from this place, we’d get away. He said he was busy but he would call a friend. The friend wasn’t free. In the end he phoned another friend who turned up reasonably quickly and drove us to Vallgorguina. At last!

We were far too late to make it through the mountains. There was a hotel which was expensive but not too far away, from which we could make an early start. We rang and it was fully booked! Jesus H Christ!

We went to the bar that we’d been in the previous night, sat down and looked at the map. Our only chance of progressing today was to cut down across the mountains to the coast. Only about 7 miles but it had a hotel where we could stay. We would have to make up the distance towards Reus, our final destination, over the next few days. So we strapped on our rucksacks and set off finally at 2.30pm hundred hours.

Up, up and up into the mountains.

Finally free.

How lovely the hills.

And then over the top and down to the coast.

We found a nice hotel at a reasonable price and I fell asleep instantly. Waking up at 7.30pm Gaz had gone for refreshment and I headed down to the port in the dark. This place took the day’s catch straight into the kitchen.

Oh my God. The seafood was so fresh. Amazing.

Then I contacted Gaz, joined him in the bar he was frequenting and we chewed the fat of the day before retiring.

It started so badly, but ended as well as we could make it. Life’s a gas. Thanks Marc.

Night night.