Travel: Catalonia.
"Don’t worry. If you capsize we will see you.” Inspired by these words of encouragement, I ease myself into my bright yellow plastic kayak but am slightly sceptical of my ability to stay upright for the two-and-a-half-hour journey. As the sun has not yet risen over the mountains surrounding the Ebro delta, there is a primordial mist over the slow-moving waters. We are in Terres de l’Ebre, in southern Catalonia.
As I try to figure out where my centre of gravity is, having already had one very close call, I notice the current has begun taking us downstream. With two hours and 25 minutes still to go on our journey, I am finding it increasingly difficult to stay in this awkward position, but fear of capsizing keeps me from fidgeting too much. As almost all my fellow travellers have paddled on ahead and are out of earshot, I am beginning to feel a slight foreboding. I can’t get the line from Apocalypse Now out of my head: “Never get out the boat!”
The next time I look up we are at the village of Miravet. overlooked by its hilltop Moorish castle. I feel we are drifting back in time. Everything is perfect, down to a cat sunning itself on the river bank. Having caught up with the rest of the group, with my kayaking skills improving with each paddle, I relax momentarily … until a very large, pink-scaled fish (probably a carp, I am told later) cruises by within arm’s reach.
Now that my impression of travelling in a prehistoric river is confirmed, it is unnerving to say the least. After a few more near capsizes, we group together for a quick mid-morning snack, which entails all 10 kayaks lining up side-by-side and passing around pastries and red wine. The wine, incidentally, comes in a gourd, as if it isn’t difficult enough.
Setting off again down the Ebro river we are given our next challenge: to paddle through an abandoned boat shed with a tiny, two-foot square entrance. With paddle in hand, I can’t help thinking I resemble a dog with very large stick trying to enter a narrow doorway and getting repeatedly stuck. Eventually I crack it, I’m off again and the finish is, at last, in sight. By the time we get there, I am numb from the waist down due to the cramped seating position, and need to learn how to walk all over again.
This part of Catalonia is almost tourist-free. With no real rail service inland from the coast, and a good two- to three-hour drive from Barcelona, you have to want to make the journey. The upside is the feeling of seeing the real Spain, the one where people are genuinely friendly and totally uninterested in equal measure.
Spain’s vias verdes (green ways) are often reclaimed rail routes and a great way to discover the countryside off the beaten track and away from traffic and urban fuss. The next leg of our journey is by bicycle along a vias verde which runs along the route of the old Zafan Valley railway line, built to link Tortosa and Aragon to export the region’s products. It closed in 1973.
Unlike kayaking, I have cycled many times and find this far less daunting, to the extent that we are coasting rather then cycling -- it’s all downhill. The only way to describe the scenery is that it comes straight out of an old Western movie. As we zigzag through tunnels and over viaducts, the mountains and gorges seem to float by as if we are watching an unedited panoramic shot from a John Ford film. Our first stop is a town called Bot, which is unremarkable other than for the ice-cold beer served in a local cafe and vaguely funny name.
There are more than 40 tunnels along this green way. Some we pass through in the blink of the eye, while others are more than 800m long. Some can be extremely dark in the middle -- as I discover after almost falling off twice.
We end our journey at El Pinell de Brai, a town with a Modernist-style co-operative wine cellar, complete with magnificent glazed ceramic frieze on the facade.
Getting there
KLM has return flights to Barcelona from Glasgow from £250. Visit www.klm.com. Ryanair has return flights to Barcelona from Edinburgh from £106 return. Visit www.ryanair.com.
Where to stay
Hotel Les Capcades, Horta de Sant Joan, has double rooms from £220. Visit www.hotellescapcades.com. Hotel Vilar Rural, Arnes, has double rooms from £85. Visit www.vilars rurals.com/vrarnes. Hotel Berenguer IV, Tortosa, has rooms from £54. Visit www.hotelberenguer.com.
Other info
For kayak hire visit www.beniemocions.cat. For bike hire visit www.viasverdes.com.
