Day 62: Hospitalet de l'Infant to Amposta

October 27, 2023

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As the season progresses the sunrise is coming later. Grampies are slow to adjust to that, and tend to be champing at the bit before either the daylight or the hotel staff are ready. For today's breakfast the lady had said 8 or 8:15, but when we showed up at 7;45, 8:00, and 8:10 there was no sign of activity at all from the locked bar. What's more, our bikes were locked up too, so we could not just grab them and flounce off. At 8:15:00 someone did show up and sort of began to prepare something. It became clear that the tight timing was possible, because our breakfast was going to be be one croissant and a coffee (but seemingly nothing for Dodie, who was outside loading the bikes). I gulped the small coffee and the croissant, made the lady dig out one more to bring to Dodie, and we were off.

Ok, the sun is up say the Grampies, let's go!

We started with our favourite type of path by the beach, but very quicky we were on N-340, and climbing. We climbed enough that we actually reached the top of some sort of col. Unusual for Grampies.

If you go up, you have to come down. The road continued with a good shoulder and few cars. Boring as road numbers and road conditions may seem, when you are in an area where the route could crash into a beach, a mountain, or a fast highway, the road condition starts to be the top consideration for the tour.

This is not to say there was nothing of interest for this part of the route. We got to look at large plants, and to wonder about a nuclear station, right on the shore of the Med.

At least here we are crossing over the big road.

We have two tracks for this portion of the route, and we are a little fuzzy on where we got each. At this point, one track said go straight and one said turn right. We chose the smoother option!

At least the authorities know we could be here, and are warning drivers. Of course, they extend the same courtesy to deer, so we are not so proud of our status.

We passed through quite a large area leading to Almadrava, of nicely groomed houses. I was calling it a suburb, but Dodie more correctly tagged it a holiday community.

We came around to Almadrava by the sea, finding a nice fishing port. The upper town itself was quite workaday, but ok.

We found the covered market, which was small but which did have a selection of quality fruits and vegetables. I paid 6o euro cents for two plums, and thought that a bit much. A very soon to be stale baguette was also 1.30.

Although the town may have been workaday, the tourist facilities were significant. For example, look at the "Ametlla Mar" hotel outside of town.

Just as sometimes we get taken up into the vines by a route, we now went up into the olives. We could see here the value of the many stone walls, which were creating terraces, or at least were blocking runoff.

The time came to again descend to the beach, and this time we were directed through a blocked off tunnel.

Once again, they did not want us camping in the tunnel. We assume it was blocked because of the potential for flash floods. Right, so in we went.

The end of the tunnel was sort of blocked by debris, so we walked ahead to scope it out. There we met two girls from Texas, Natalie and Olivia, who had come from at least Valencia.

Natalie and Olivia were surprised that we were down on EV 8. They actually thought we were kidding. That could be the difference between being young and optimistic and old and crabby!

Beyond the tunnel, the beach was beautiful, but then we got to climb out of it.

Dodie thought this rock wall was really nice. Whether Roman Ruin or Road Cut, she likes walls.

We stopped for lunch in a park at L'Ampolla. The park had a statue called The Warrior. It was given to the town by the French government in recognition of help for a ship that was sunk nearby in 1917 by a German submarine. Interestingly the original statue was stolen, and was replaced with this replica in 1998.

Looking back at the town we see the typical white buildings and beautiful sea.

The Ebro River rises way far back in the mountains, in fact, seemingly almost at the Atlantic, passing though Zaragoza, Logrono, and on toward Basque country. It comes down and enters the Mediterranean right here, with a delta that is reminiscent of the Camargue, formed by the Rhone river. The major town in the delta is Amposta, and we are set to stay there an extra day, to go look for birds, and rice.

Of course, cycling to Amposta, we could not help seeing some birds, and rice!

Egrets are the main birds we have seen so far.

This rice seems to be sprouting from previously cut plants. We also see the imprint of tractor tires, showing that at some time, machinery can get onto the paddies.

Burning of stubble is something we have heard of, but we really have no knowledge of the whole cycle of rice culture.

The delta does not grow only rice. Rather we saw many field crops, including artichoke, and we even picked some oranges and some figs that were foolish enough to be right by the path.

These olives are harvested by being knocked off onto the nets. A tractor passed us with a big load of olives, no doubt headed for a press.

We crossed the Ebro on a moderately fancy bridge.

The town of Amposta, our headquarters for exploring the delta.

Our hotel is plain, but it works. We just wish it had more electrical outlets!

Today's ride: 54 km (34 miles)
Total: 3,098 km (1,924 miles)

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Gregory GarceauThe last couple of days have been the grooviest part of your tour so far--in my opinion. The scenery, the agriculture, and the egrets are spectacular.
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1 year ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Gregory GarceauThank you. We have enjoyed the whole trip, but the last few days have really been pretty special
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1 year ago

Scott AndersonI’m envious. One of our earlier versions of the tour we just completed would have taken us down to the Ebro delta - we even had a place booked there at one point. It dropped off the plan when I had to come back early for my procedure.
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1 year ago

Scott AndersonAnd keep an eye out for glossy ibis, which you’re likely to see in large numbers but at a distance.
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1 year ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Scott AndersonWe will make an extra effort to find and photograph some special birds for you.
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1 year ago