Long walk, first day, continued. El Paisatge gran, primer dia, continuació.

OK, where was I? Ahhhh, the skid in the concrete, pretty cool, no?  Llavors, on era?  El ciment, no?

We kept on walking, Chuck and I.  We had quite a lovely time in fact.  There were lots of lovely mountains overhead, we had plenty of water and lots of places to get more. Vam continuar, en Chuck i jo.  Era un dia fantàstic, moltes muntanyes, vam tenir molt d'aigua, i moltes llocs per buscar més.

Plenty of food, and generally pretty lovely scenery.  Molta de menjar, i vistes molt maques.

See?  Sheep: Mira?  Ovelles:

Hills and villages and mountains.... Puigs, pobles i muntanyes.....

There were also quite a lot of cyclists.  A LOT of cyclists and at first Chuck was pretty good about them, going over to one side and letting them pass, but gradually he got kind of tired of their frequent passing.  As we were coming up to the river and bridge in the next two photos, he was hilarious.

Hi eren moltes ciclistes.  MOLTES ciclistes.  Per començar en Chuck li comportat força bé, anava a una banda del camí per deixar-los passar, però amb temps va cansar dels ciclistes.  Un cop, quan estàvem més a prop del riu allà baix, era hilarant.

He tends to walk about 20 yards ahead of me most of the time, so when we overtake people, he tends to do so first.  I always find this amusing when I am walking along as the person in front of me in generally unaware of our advance, then Chuck appears.  They normally look slightly surprised, but rarely look around, instead watching him.  This is what happened, this time, except that just after he passed an older man, three bicycles approached abreast.  Chuck seem to have decided that he was done with bikes, and he didn't go to the side of the road, in fact worse still, he decided to weave around a bit in the road.  The cyclists were ...ah.... distracted by this, one stopped completely and the other two pulled off some neat maneuvers to avoid him.
Normalment en Chuck caminar unes 20 m a davant de mi, per això quan passem gents, els passa en Chuck primer.  Sempre ho trobo divertit perquè la persona no sap que estem arribant i de seguida, en Chuck apareix.  Normalment, semblant una mica sorprès però tampoc no em buscant, en lloc, els mira cap a en Chuck.  Que va passar?  En Chuck passava un avi i just desprès, tres bicicletes estaven apropant-se cap a en Chuck i era evident que en Chuck ha decidit que ja està no li acomiadarà ni un més.  Llavors, no va anar a una banda, pitjor encara, va començar d'anar xino-xano aquí i allà al mig del camí.  Els ciclistes trobava aquest....difícil.  Un havia de parar i els altres dos havien de fer unes maniobres per evitar un accident.

The old man was having a blast watching this, funniest thing he'd seen in DAYS apparently.  Guess he's a little tired of cyclists too, on his home stretch of path.  I didn't even have to apologize as they all thought Chuck was his.   Had a good laugh with the old man as I passed him too.
El avi estava rient!  El cosa més divertit que ha vist en DIES.  Imagino que està força cansat dels ciclistes també.  No havia de disculpar-me tampoc, que tots pensava que en Chuck fos el gos del avi.  L'avi i jo vam riure quan li vaig passar també.
 

It was starting to warm up a bit, and Chuck went for his signature maneuver of lying in a puddle (here a canal) and drinking out of it simultaneously.  This is a bit of foreshadowing....just letting you know.
Començava de fer més calor.  En Chuck va utilitzar un dels seus trucs molt característic, va ficar-se en un canal i va beure d'el aigua a l'hora.  Fes nota d'això, influenciarà el futur.

Lovely bridge!  Un pont molt maco.

Mountains.  Muntanyes.

A neat house....I was actually yo-yoing with some bikes, which was pretty strange, I guess I was the ultimate tortoise to their really skittish hare.  An American couple and I passed each other three times, they were not sure they were on the right route, repeatedly, and I reassured them repeatedly.  They had been sent on this route by a tour of some sort who had given them a list of sorts, but no map.  I ended up showing them my map book, which is in Catalan, so they can't read any of it, but hopefully I convinced them that if they just stay on the trail, they'll get to Girona with the added bonus of no highway time!

Un casa molt bonica....em va sorprendre però estava passant i repassant unes ciclistes.  Ho trobava estranya, havia de ser molt més lent, no?  Vaig passar una parella americana unes tres vegades.  No estaven gens segur que la ruta els portaria cap a Girona.  Han comprat la ruta d'un empresa de viatges i els han donat una lliste però cap mapa. Els vaig ensenyar la meva i els vaig convèncer que sí, arribaran a Girona i no haurà d'anar als autopistes. 

These are the gegants from Celler de Ter.  I would like to say to anyone reading this blog about the Vies Verdes, that if you are going to do only a portion of this walk, do the bit up to Cellers, or at most Anglès.  After that you are walking right next to a two lane road with cars whizzing by at 100K all the time.  It is safe and all that, but it is a good deal drearier and not nearly as nice as it is up to this point.  Not so much fun once we got past Cellers.
A baix pots veure els gegants de Celler de Ter.  Voldria dir que algú que trobar aquesta escrit sobre la via verde, si només vols fer un part de la ruta, para a Cellers, o per molt a l'Anglès.  A bais d'allà, estas a costat d'un carretera, i les cotxes passen a unes 100K tota l'estona.  Està segur, però gens maca.  

Still heading into Cellers.  Encara tirant per Cellers.

You can see the road in this photo: Pots veure la carretera aquí a baix.

By now it had started to rain on us.  The other thing that had started was that his Chuckiness had started to go rather slower.  By the time we got to about km 46 he demanded a rest.  So we did, sat down right in the dirt as there wasn't another option with the cars flying past, I called the man and told him what was up and my doubts about getting to the booked hotel in time (ie before the kitchen closed at 11pm) and about if Chuck was going to do the distance.  We rested a good 15 min.  By the time I hit the 50K (or so) mark, I was pretty much pulling Chuck along.

Ara ha començat de ploure.  L'altre cosa que ha començat era que en Chuck ara va més i més poc a poc.  Quan vam arribar a 46K va manar que parem.  Ho he fet, vam seure-nos allà mateix al terra, no hi havia cap altre lloc, amb les cotxes allà mateix.  Vaig trucar l'Home per explicar-li on estàvem i que estava passant.  Tenia dubtes de arribar abans de quan tanca la cuina - a les 11, i si en Chuck podria anar més.  Vam descansar per 15 minutes.  Quan vam arribar a 50K, jo estava tirant-li. 

Decided to call it quits at this point.  It was still raining, Chuck was clearly unwilling and we still had a good four hours to go and there was some doubt about making it in time at all.  So, I called a cab.  I had thought we would take the lift through Girona and out the other side, leaving us with just about 2 hours of walking left.
Vaig decidir que ja està prou.  Encara plovia, en Chuck no tenia gens de ganes de continuar i encara faltava 4 hores de caminar i començava de fer tard. Vaig trucar un taxi.  Pensava d'anar a l'altre banda de Girona i caminar un altre dues hores....

But while we were waiting for the cab, we sat in the window of a friendly baker's with an awning, and look at his poor Chuckiness;
Però quan estàvem esperant pel taxi, vam seure al finestra d'un forner molt simpàtic, i mira pobre Chuck:

He's solidly asleep.  Just lay down beside me and passed out.  Head on the camera case.  I decided it was time to call it a day at this point and we went straight to the hotel.  A good thing to, while we were in the cab the heavens OPENED and it POURED down rain for two hours.  We would have been utterly miserable.
Adormit.  Simplement va estirar-se al meu costat i paf, dormint.  Amb el cap ficat a sobre la fonda d'el camera.  Vaig decidir que estàvem acabat pel dia i vam anar directe al hotel.  Bé que ho hem fet, perquè quan estàvem en el taxi va començar de ploure, però MOLT, i plovia per dues hores.  Hauria estat una misèria.

Instead we hung out in the hotel, Chuck slept and slept and slept, I listened to podcasts, phoned the family and had some dinner.  Oh, and a long hot shower.  Ready for the next day.

En lloc, vam descansar al hotel, en Chuck va dormir i dormir i dormir.  Jo escoltava podcasts, trucava la família i sopava.  Oh, i m'he dutxat, ben calin i ben llarg.  Preparat pel dia següent.