01 April 08

Features

IS THE COAST CLEAR?

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The wind, which is named the garbi and can blow for days on end, propels me up the steepest climb of the walk so far to the lighthouse of San Sebastià above Llafranc, which has the most powerful torch on the Spanish Mediterranean coast. Here, at the viewing point 120m above the sea, I find one Manuel Padros, a retired bank worker sheltering from the wind, watching two trawlers tossing in the angry sea below.

“There were smugglers here,” he says, “in the Civil War. They brought in tobacco from France and hid it in caves below. The Guardia Civil were always trying to catch them.”

In Franco’s time, he tells me, the police would say in Spanish to anyone they heard speaking Catalan (a language outlawed by the fascist regime): “No habla usted cristiano?” (Don’t you speak the language of Christians?) I ask him whether there could still be some forgotten smuggled goods in the caves below? Manuel smiles. “It’s unlikely, as tobacco was in such short supply in Catalonia until 1945, they must have scoured every cave!” he says.

I walk on in the sheltered lee of the headland through woods to the tiny village of Tamariu, where I leave the Cami de Ronda trail for the last time, climbing away from the coast to the pretty medieval village of Begur and the ramparts of the old castle perched above the main square. From here I can see as far as the French border and the shimmering peaks of the snow-capped Pyrenees.

After a calorie-packed lunch of butifarra and allioli – a rich grilled Catalan sausage, with a powerful garlic mayonnaise – in a tiny restaurant below the castle, I set out across a plain of vivid green young corn to Pals, an ancient village with a watchtower dominating the plain. From here I can see my final destination, the large old fortified manor house of the Mas de Torrent, now converted into one of the most luxurious hotels in this part of Catalonia. For the last two kilometers, the path leads through fields bordered by small woods bright with yellow mimosa and white almond blossom and, as the church bells strike 5pm, I finally put down my pack.

I hadn’t found any secret treasure, or smugglers, but floating in the indoor pool at the Mas de Torrent after an hour-long massage and a sauna, I didn’t mind so much. I’d walked 60km of some of Spain’s most spectacular coast in Catalonia and met spacemen and centaurs along the way. I couldn’t ask for more than that.

Walking specialist Inntravel (tel: +44 (0)1653 617 906, www.inntravel. co.uk) offers a week’s independent walking, staying at quality threeand four-star hotels, from €777pp based on two sharing, including seven nights half board, maps, notes, and luggage transferred ahead between the five hotels. Upgrade to the five-star Mas de Torrent for an additional €124pp. Return rail transfers to Girona cost €97pp. For Hertz car rental, visit www.hertz.co.uk. For BCP car parking from Holiday Extras at major UK airports, call 0871 360 1467, or visit www.parkbcp.co.uk.