Page 115 - WINE DINE AND TRAVEL EATING IBERIA

dozen pale pink specimens high-stepping
among the marshes.
While bird-watching may be the main at-
traction of the Delta for many, it’s the pan-
cake-flat landscape that appeals to me. We
enjoy a morning of effortless cycling around
L’Ampolla, following a coastal route past a
sandy white beach before veering off onto
gravel trails threading through the marshes.
Despite the heat, we’ve hardly broken a
sweat by the time we arrive at Port d’Illa
Harbor, where we’ve arranged a boat tour of
the oyster and mussel beds in El Fangar Bay
with Mirador de La Badia.
Our captain sluices between skeletal
wooden platforms made of sun-bleached
logs which squat low above the shallow
seabed. We have an opportunity to sample
these fruits of the sea for ourselves when we
dock alongside an overwater restaurant,
where a cheerful group clad in swimsuits are
enjoying glasses of cava with fresh mussels
and oysters, and when I say fresh, I mean
fresh. A fisherman scampers across an ad-
joining platform with the alacrity of a gym-
nast on a balance beam, clutching a sack full
of shellfish, and soon we, too, are slurping
oysters and gobbling mussels as greedily as
popcorn at a blockbuster film.

Reluctantly abandoning the coast, we
head further inland towards the north to
discover still more dramatic scenery. In Tor-
tosa, we sleep in a stately castle converted

A Spainish feast. Right: Effortless
cycling around L’Ampolla. Left: The
captain sluices between skeletal
wooden platforms made of sun-
bleached logs near the overwater
restaurant. Copyright Amy
Laughinghouse.

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