More (Port)Adventures in Salou - Day 5

[HEMANCLOFTY]

More (Port) Adventures in Salou
Day 5 – Saturday 2nd June 2018

The Index is here
Day 4 is here

Before I get started, apologies for the long delay between updates – I got a bit waylaid towards the back end of last year, with lots of UK theme park days and a Germany / Netherlands theme park road trip in October (hopefully, I’ll get around to writing that up soon, as it was awesome!).

I’m off work for half term, so thought I’d get back into trippie mode, however I’ve just dug out my Salou notebook and realised that I stopped writing full notes from this point, so only have a half page of summary to work from. I did take 100s of photos though, so hopefully I can piece something meaningful together….


Today was our excursion into the mountains with Routing Costa Dorada, and our pickup from the hotel was at 9am. I stated the day by making us a picnic of Bimbo bread rolls with ham and turkey slices, plus we had come crisps and various cereal / protein / cake bars to keep us going throughout the day, as well as water and cans of pop...

Tom and I popped down for breakfast. Chocolate pancakes and a bacon sandwich for Tom…

I had bacon, omelette and beans and then some pineapple rings (as they didn’t have any peaches today). I had my usual pot of tea too…

Back up to the room to finish off getting ready, and to round up Rich and we were outside the hotel lobby in plenty of time for our pickup...

Jorgi arrived at 9:05am and explained that he’d be driving us about 45 minutes into the Tarrogona mountains to our first stop of the day. It was a nice drive, through little villages and winding mountain roads. Jorgi explained that the yellow ribbons and plastic ties that were on posts and phone wires in some of the villages, were a symbol of support demanding the release of Catalan political leaders who were jailed during the region's fight for independence.

We arrived at our first stop at 9:50am, and hiked about 1km up into the mountains – Jorgi explained how the trails worked (follow the yellow and white lines), and I took a lot of photos…

It was a fairly energetic climb, but just right for our level of fitness

Jorgi then led us down into a steep ravine / cave, which was fab, but quite dark so the photos weren’t great…

After a few minutes we climbed back out of the ravine and started to make our way back to the car…

We arrived at the car at 11:10am and drove about 15 minutes to spot 2. This time we hiked down the mountain path for about 30 minutes, until we came to the first waterfall...

After a few minutes admiring the view, Jorgi gave us a choice of staying here for lunch (where there was quite a large noisy family), or walking on a bit more to a smaller, but quieter spot – we went for the quieter option, and it was lovely…

Jorgi offered to take some photos of us...

This pic of Tom is my favourite from the whole holiday...

We had our picnic here and dipped our feet in the water (we had our swimmers but it was too cold to swim).

After about 30 minutes or so, we packed up and began the climb back up to the car, passing a tour group on the back of a jeep driving down to the waterfalls on the way – Jorgi joked that this was the easy way to do it. We preferred our way, even if it was hard work .

It was about 1pm when we got back to the car this time, and our final stop was a 5-minute drive away to a village called La Massura, where we had about 15 minutes to explore the ruins of the old church and ice pond and see some more absolutely stunning views…

On the drive back to Salou Jorgi passed Tom his phone and said he could choose the music, which was a nice touch . We arrived back at the hotel at around 2pm, where we paid Jorgi the balance for the trip, plus a well-deserved tip. It was a fantastic way to spend the morning, and we’d highly recommend booking with these guys as Jorgi was a fantastic guide 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻.

FYI, here is a description of the tour from the Routing Costa Dorada website…

Meet some of the most emblematic corners of Tarragona, absolute silence in the avencs of the Febró, a 250meter route with walls over 20 meters high. Total relax bathing in the pools of the river Siurana with spectacular views from the viewpoint of the abandoned village of Mussara, a journey that you will not forget.

Our journey will begin with a visit to the avencs de la Febró, a chasm that will make us feel tiny. Then we will make a walking tour to the pools of the Febró where we can cool off with a swim in the river. Finally, we will visit La Mussara, an uninhabited town that offers us wonderful views of the golden coast from its viewpoint.


Unsurprisingly, we were all absolutely shattered, so we retired to our room for a well-deserved rest .

By 7pm, we were all up, showered, dressed and ready to head down the road to Roadhouse, for our reservation at 7:30pm…

We were a bit early, so sat outside and ordered some drinks. The boys had Coke and Rich said I should treat myself to a cocktail, so I ordered a Caprioska with Vodka, Strawberries and Lime – it was one of the nicest cocktails I’ve ever had…

It wasn’t long until our table inside was ready and we all ordered burgers, plus we had some wings and an extra portion of chips to share…

I ordered another Caprioska (as it was so good ) and the boys had another Coke each...

We had a nice chat with the owner Jonny, telling him how we’d first visited last year after finding them on Trip Advisor. He told us that his family also owned the Coko Beach cocktail bar and that the Caprioska was one of his dad’s favourite creations

It was a fantastic meal and great value at €76 – definitely deserving of it’s #1 spot on Trip Advisor, and a firm favourite for us that we’ll go back to every time we visit Salou .

After dinner, we mooched across the road to Michelangelo’s supermarket, where we bought some Bimbo bread rolls, ham and some drinks and picky bits to make another packed lunch for tomorrow. Tom chose a Chocolate Cornetto for pudding and I’m almost certain I would’ve had a tea from the coffee shop inside the store. We chilled at the tables outside until about 10pm, before making our way back to the hotel...

It had been a truly brilliant day

Day 6 is here...

[Melbatb]

What spectacular views! You certainly deserved a rest after all that hiking!