In Llançà: day 3

November 3, 2024

With the possibility of showers in the forecast, we wait until this morning to decide what to do with our day. Conditions look fine this morning though, so for Rachael we plan out a 12 mile walk north along the coast and into the hills walking back toward Portbou.

For myself, I’d been thinking I’d bike to Cadaqués and back if I got the day for it, which I now have; but this morning I’ve got a mild case of second day acheitis from my climb to the monastery and now the idea of climbing over the crown of Cap Creus to get to Cadaqués and then crossing it again to return has lost some appeal. After all, I can still ride there from our next stop in Roses; so I trim my sails and decide to just tackle yesterday’s ride again, which after all has plenty of climbing too that I skipped yesterday when rain threatened.

We both leave about ten with the agreement that we’ll be home by two, hopefully in time to find a lunch somewhere. My ride starts with my third run in three days up the coast to La Selva, so no stops for photography are needed but one gets made anyway.

It’s at this lush spot again. The lighting is better today for seeing the way the hillside appears cultivated all the way up to the ridgeline.

Just before entering Le Selva I cross a small creek, spot a moorhen in it, and decide I should bike up along it aways to see what else I might see. I don’t see any birds of course though because the creek is hidden behind a wall of giant reeds. Back at the bridge I have a look down at the creek again and even though the moorhen has moved on I’m intrigued by all the concentric bubbles forming and disappearing on the surface. My first thought is that it’s gas bubbling up until I look more closely and conclude that the creek is teeming with frogs.

It’s the sunniest it’s been when I bike into town, enticing me to stop for a few shots before continuing on to pick up where I left off yesterday.

From a distance, whitewashed La Selva makes me think of a Greek town, or maybe even Croatian. The facade of its church reminds me of the one in Hvar.

I bike along the waterfront passing through town, and once out the other side I start climbing the small road that curves around the point of rocky Cala Taramiura. It’s somewhere in here that I turned back yesterday, but today I keep going forward - and up, steeply as the road bends back south again following the top of the ridge above town. Views down and out are spectacular but come with a price as the climb stiffens to 16%, breaking just in time as I’m considering whether walking wouldn’t be the smarter approach.

Looking north up to the next point on Cap Creus from the tip of Tamariua.

Looks like petrified wood, riddled with wormholes.

The view north from the top. It feels so quiet and remote here, but I’m less than half a mile from town.

The view from the high point of the road. If I were on foot I could just keep walking up, presumably to the crest of the cape. La Selva looks like it would have been a great hiking base.

I’m at the high point of the road admiring views across a row of mansions and waiting for clouds to move past where I think the monastery must be when I get a text from Rachael. Typical - it’s too steep and dangerous, I’m turning back. So I give her a call to discuss the situation and get an ETA for when she’ll be back in town. She’s only about three miles away, so an hour. Given this, it makes more sense for me to head back also, putting us both back in town around by noon when we should have an easier time finding a table on a Sunday afternoon.

I take a few more shots and then gingerly and slowly make my way back down to the waterfront again, the grade just as steep as when I climbed up.

The clouds have cleared at the top, and I can briefly see what I think must be the fort above the monastery.

Looks like it. I can’t see the monastery or church though, so maybe they’re not prominent enough to stand out or are behind the trees. I can see about where they are though - that horizontal white scar is by the parking area.

This must be little La Selva de Mar, oddly named because it’s not particularly close to the sea.

We’re getting good at this! We’re both back in town within a few minutes of each other. I arrived a little early, with enough time to cruise the waterfront to check out menus and conclude that nothing looks better than Voramar, the place we see from the window of our apartment. They won’t open for another hour but I reserve a table for us and then we head up the room to clean up and wait. It’s worth waiting for and we enjoy the set menu, both of us ordering the grilled turbo.

Later in the afternoon, because that’s just who she is, Rachael decides that her six miles this morning only constituted half a workout so she leaves for a second one up through the upper neighborhoods to the north.

Blue: morning hike; red: afternoon hike; green: bike.

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Today's ride: 14 miles (23 km)
Total: 4,598 miles (7,400 km)

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