Having run out of World Heritage sites this side of the French border, the main purpose of today’s run was to establish a base camp for an assault on Andorra tomorrow .I drove 350km to the East, into northern Catalonia, and turned to the north just before Barcelona. Leaving Zaragoza, I could see the Ebro, beyond the constraints of the city, had burst its banks and spread over a wide area of flood plain.
Despite this inundation the remainder of Aragon, which I crossed,was still dry and dusty, the difference being that the dust today is more of a cream colour compared to yesterday’s orange! But approaching the Catalan border, I began to enter a much greener area, the motorway wending its way through green valleys with pine clad hills. Despite having glimpsed the Pyrenees yesterday, they are invisible for most of the journey: I’m too low down and it’s too hazy. But they appear again as I pass Manresa. I can’t get out of my head that it’s the old address of Chelsea College of Art, Manresa Rd, Chelsea –useless information !! The same thing happened as I was driving past Zamora in Castile: extremely annoyingly each time I saw a sign I couldn’t stop thinking of Bobby (Bobby Zamora=plays for QPR)
Despite this inundation the remainder of Aragon, which I crossed,was still dry and dusty, the difference being that the dust today is more of a cream colour compared to yesterday’s orange! But approaching the Catalan border, I began to enter a much greener area, the motorway wending its way through green valleys with pine clad hills. Despite having glimpsed the Pyrenees yesterday, they are invisible for most of the journey: I’m too low down and it’s too hazy. But they appear again as I pass Manresa. I can’t get out of my head that it’s the old address of Chelsea College of Art, Manresa Rd, Chelsea –useless information !! The same thing happened as I was driving past Zamora in Castile: extremely annoyingly each time I saw a sign I couldn’t stop thinking of Bobby (Bobby Zamora=plays for QPR)
 Stork nesting on Avila Cathedral. Along the road the Storks are nesting on all available poles. They must cause havoc with the Electrical supply. They have been in most place in Spain that I’ve seen. When they feel threatened they clatter the two parts of their beak together in an alarming way. |  Crispy stork coming up ! |
Catalonia! I was following directions from one of my guides to a known overnight camper stop, in the little town of Ripoll, about 60 km south of Andorra and just at an altitude of 750 metres. It is only a car park ,actually. It's pretty quiet but there are a few cars here and there’s river running past. Its right next to the town police station.-it should be OK,although as it will be my first night not on a campsiteThe only snag is it also turns out to be right next to the rail line over the mountains to Toulouse and I am parked about 10 metres from the track ! The trains seem to come only every hour or so and hopefully I’ll get some sleep but I have visions of that scene from the Blues brothers. As I watch out of my window there is a queue of slow moving traffic coming down the hill into town. Only a few cars are going the other way. I assume it’s the queue of weekend skiers heading home.
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