17th October Four Go Off On An Adventure

We've had a bit of an adventure today. There were several options for today's activities with Paul choosing a visit to Peralada and some geocaches.

After we made a booking for tomorrow's tour of a fort in Figueres we took Rolo over to the small village of Villanova de la Muga. Here there is a church containing a mural and a Roman font.

Church of St Eulalia - unfortunately the door was locked so we couldn't see the mural or font.

Paul looking very knowledgeable about the lock 😄.

After a potter around the village we jumped back in Rolo and continued on to Peralada. Taking our walk through the town to take in some of the medieval sights we passed the castle and stopped for a coffee.

We tried some of the maggot balls we'd spotted previously. A bit like a lemon marzipan ball coated in almonds - called Panelletta.

Looking relaxed - before we started on our geocache route.

After our cuppa we continued on to a geocache route taking the route of St James. Plenty to see on route.

We all tried a freshly picked pomegranate. 

It's the equivalent of blackberry picking out here. They're just growing in the hedgerows.

Then it was figs!

We didn't need a packed lunch with our foraging.

This was about our 4th geocache - it took a bit more searching for as it was quite deep in the undergrowth.

We're not sure if this was cannabis. It smelt decidedly dodgy 🤔.

As the geocache route was taking us in one direction, it seemed sensible to try and make a circular route. Now knowing my navigational history (when our short walk ended up in an 11 mile hike under fences and through ditches) I was surprised that all agreed to my suggested route. I wish to stress at this point that everyone had the same information as me as all were shown where we were on the GPS map, where we were going and the possible route. I did make it clear that there was an area that was difficult to interpret but it looked like a path that went under the main road and railway line. So all of us decided to take the cross country route rather than walk along the busy main road.

All went well with a bit of apple scrumping going on as we walked around the edge of a large apple orchard (it looked like everything had been harvested but there were a few apples still on the branches). Then we came to a dead end. No worries - we could go through the undergrowth as it didn't look far!

We ended up in a dried waterway, dodging brambles, hacking at bamboo, climbing over fallen trees and pretending to be on a jungle safari 😅. Made worse by the fact that the path I'd seen under the bridge was a river! And initially we couldn't find a way over it. I've definitely been demoted on navigational duty - I did warn everyone though.

Eventually the avid explorer found civilisation and a bridge. There was even a bloke parked up, sitting on his deckchair. I think he was quite surprised to see 4 sweaty and dusty Brits, armed with bamboo sticks, which we used as homemade machetes, coming through the undergrowth.

Just glad to sit down under the bridge after our adventure.

Then we were on the home straight returning back to Rolo parked in Peralada. 

We still managed a few geocaches on route.

 

With another 6-7 miles racked up this week we were pleased to get back to the apartment for a refreshing shower and glass of tinto. This evening Ian got the coals lit for a barbecue for dinner.

Tomorrow we're planning to have a less energetic day and hope to get a bit of snorkeling done in the afternoon.