Planning

When I first committed myself to the idea of following Laurie Lee's journey I scoured the internet for more precise details of his route to flesh out that described in his writing and shown by the outline map of the book's preface. I could find none. I did find though that what I had thought of as an original idea was not that at all and that others had already retraced his steps, albeit on foot whereas I am planning to use a bicycle. Clearly they too have been captured by something in Lee's story, and enough to want to repeat it. Whether this was to embrace a lost moment of history, capture vicariously the thrill of youthful adventure, or to seek the simplicity of a Spain gone by only they know but I am not the only person who finds inspiration in the journey that Laurie Lee undertook.

Map from 'As I Walked Out…'

In the absence of additional detail from elsewhere I was left with what was to be uncovered in Lee's writing. He mentions by name some of the larger towns and cities he visited and the occasional village he passed through. But outside those specific locations the book describes a journey through woods and open countryside, nights spent under the stars and time spent in unnamed villages. Identifying in any detail the exact route of a journey described largely in broad terms and on anonymous tracks and paths is impossible, made more so by ninety years of development and road building. 

For my part I had always anticipated it would be a case of following an approximation of Lee's journey, taking in those places named in his book and linking them by quiet paths where I could. A re-read of 'As I Walked Out..', a highlighter and a road map of Spain allowed me to develop the outline of the route after which it was then time to play join the dots. A couple of stretches were conveniently linked by short sections of the EuroVelo 1 and EuroVelo 8 bicycle routes, in my experience likely to be quiet and away from it all. Another leg coincided with part of the Via Augusta Camino route that I walked two years ago and which from memory was a peaceful and easily cyclable gravel track. One of Spain’s Via Verdes, old rail lines converted to cycle paths, connected yet another stretch. For the rest I turned to my map to find minor roads, hopefully quiet, to complete my route from Vigo on the northwest coast of the country to Almuñecar on the Costa del Sol.

I am left with a journey of some 1300 miles, a journey I estimate will take about five weeks including stops at cities and places of interest. In addition to my Spanish map and a copy of 'As I Walked Out…' I have a 1913 copy of Baedeker's guide to Spain; a small and personal indulgence which I thought might be interesting in indicating how the country I am to see might have appeared to a traveller in a time not too far removed from that of Laurie Lee's journey.