Wednesday, September 23rd - Salou, Spain

I'm writing this early because I can't do anything else right now.  I just walked about 12 km up and down cliffs via stairs and ramps and I'm now stuck in a patio chair and don't think I'll be able to move.  My pedometer says 23,095 steps and my feet and knees feel like they remember each one of those steps.

I was up reasonably early, had breakfast, changed the bed and got the linen ready to be picked up (Wednesday is our day) and probably out the door around 10 a.m.  My goal for the day was to walk to and do the 2.4 km camino de ronda or coastal path, which starts at the north end of the long Llevant beach and promenade in front of my apartment.  I figured I had about another .4 km walk to get to the start of the coastal path, and on the way home about half way back I was going to leave the shore and cut up Vendrell Street to go to Masia Catalan, an old Catalan farmhouse, and then come back Carles Bugas Street to the Municipal Park and then I would have that end of town totally finished as far as tourist sights were concerned.  Well, things didn't go quite according to plan.

First off I have to say that it was a cool, cloudy morning and that made walking very easy and relaxing so the first part of the walk went very quickly, even all the ups and downs.  If the coastline was beach, like in front of my apartment, the walking would be no problem but it is not beach and it is not sand.  Well, along the way there are indeed some beautiful beaches - not as long and as wide as Llevant beach but still very nice and definitely much more private.  The problem is that these beaches are between ragged, high outcroppings of rock which one has to climb over to get from one beach to another.  The part of the path that is the actual coastal path is well marked and maintained and very easy to follow.  The steps, sometimes 100 up at a time, are all pretty level and even and easy to climb and they have hand rails.  The ramps and other pathways are in good shape as well.  Whenever you get to an outcropping and climb to the top of it, there are usually benches to sit on and view points to enjoy.  Once you're relaxed you move on to the next adventure, and there were definitely a lot of us out there enjoying the adventure.  And I should just note that some of these lovely points/rocks/outcroppings/whatever you call them were over 70 metres high so you did a lot of up then some down and then more up to get to the next one.

Well, the end of the path came so quickly and easily that I decided to keep going.  From that point there is a path that takes you to the lighthouse on the farthest point.  Some of it is totally finished like the first path and some of it does not exist at all, but many of us walkers did not know that.  The signs all told you how far to town and how far to the lighthouse and how long it would take to get to either place so we assumed we could keep walking and get there.  And indeed, you can get there.  You just can''t take the coastal path all the way.  I started down paths several times only to hit dead ends or just places that I could not possibly go.  When the people in front of me were down on all fours scrambling over rocks and loose scree on a ledge that had  sheer drop into the Sea, I just wasn't all that interested in following.  So at times like those I went back up or out to the streets and kept heading the right direction until I found another path and hoped it would get me farther.  And eventually I did make it to the lighthouse, which was pretty unspectacular as lighthouses go.  At that point the signs said it was 4.95 km back to town so I know I walked at least 10 km.  On the way back I did go see my two other sights and I stopped for groceries so I probably did more than that but I'll never know for sure.  I just know it was much further than I anticipated.

By the time I got back off the coast and back into the city heading for my second tourist sight of the day, I was starving as it was well after 3 p.m. so I stopped and had dinner in an English pub.  I had chicken and ribs with fries, coleslaw and salad.  The food was delicious and there was lots of it so I even got to bring most of the chicken home for tomorrow. 

The Masia Catalan was not open.  Apparently it is only open in the evenings when the local artisans fill the place trying to sell their wares.  I may have to go back some evening because the structure looked very large and interesting.   It looks very old too but apparently it was built in 1974 from the stones of old buildings to show what an old Catalan homestead would have looked like.  It was certainly a bigger complex than I would have expected with lots stone buildings of various sizes.  At Christmas time it is used for a Living Nativity presentation and it would be a perfect setting for that.

The Public Park is very nice.  It is all fenced in and with a really high brick fence in places so from the outside it doesn't look very inviting.  However, once inside you see that there are many raised portions in the park and hence the need for the high walls.  There is a lot of green, mainly trees and shrubs but some flowers.  There is no grass but rather just the natural sand beneath.  There is a playground and exercise area at the one end and there are ponds and streams and lots of shade at the other end.  It would be a very peaceful park if it weren't for the announcements that are heard everywhere.  At first I thought there was a mosque nearby and it was the call to prayers but as I got farther into the park I realized it was the calling of a bingo game poolside at a local hotel.  How disgusting is that?  Some seniors were using the tables and chairs at the bar in the park to play cards and that was lovely and quiet.  It was just the neighbouring resort that was noisy.

On the way back to the hotel I stopped at another grocery store to pick up some more supplies.  It is much closer, much less busy and doesn't seem any more expensive so I might stick with it if I need anything else.  I got some fruit and vegetables and some more ice tea.  Those were my main needs.  After my big meal this afternoon I figure it will be cheese, crackers and fruit for dinner tonight - if I stay awake that long.  Anyway, I got back to the apartment, put away the groceries and plopped myself on the patio, which is where I am now writing this.

So I guess I should say a bit more about what I saw on my walk.  I seem to have skipped over that part.  The coastline is beautiful and the walk went all around the Cape of Salou.  The water is clear blue and today it was very calm so there were lots of people in swimming.  From up on the cliffs you can see right to the bottom of the Sea the water is so clean.  in some cases they had a sandy beach.  In others it was pebbly or even rocky.  The same is true of the water at the beach although most looked like there was at least a clear path to wade out and go swimming.  The amazing part was the rocky outcroppings.  The rock in some cases such as at Penya Tallada, just seems to appear from nowhere and looks like someone built a high straight wall with big stones that goes for hundreds of metres but in fact nature carved it that way.  The views from every one of the outcroppings was beautiful.  For most of the way you could see Salou and all its beaches and suburbs but as I rounded the final curves near the lighthouse I was actually looking at Tarragona up the coast to the north.  And there and at sea you could see large ships.  I thought the lighthouse was for the smaller local boats, and it certainly is, but it's also for the larger vessels from all over the world.  I guess we probably are only a day or so from Gibraltar and the Atlantic Ocean so a lighthouse would definitely be needed.  The old 1858 light house is of course closed now.  The new higher, shinier, automatic tower is rather boring looking but it is probably what works best in this age of technology.

Okay it's now almost bedtime for me.  For some reason I am tired and my body is saying that rest is needed.  Dinner was a lovely combination of cheese, crackers, carrot sticks, cherry tomatoes and a banana, all washed down with a lot of water.  I definitely didn't drink enough water today so I'm trying to make up for it now.  I hope it works.