Roy Nash North From Granada

[Tay]

In 1982 Roy Nash (former merchant seaman, trooper in the Royal Horse Guards, model, singer and guitarist, door to door salesman and night club bouncer) and Bob an American doctor of psychoanalysis walked from just outside Granada to Madrid. 260 miles on today’s modern roadways. But they decided to avoid main roads and went from village and small town over the ever changing landscape. Staying in cheap hostels and inns, amusing and confusing the locals who at that time had never heard of people walking for the ‘fun’ of it. So much so that the local hostel owners would think if you were walking it was only because you were poor and wouldn’t entertain allowing them to stay the night until money had been shown.

 

On the way there are blisters on the feet and too much sun, hangovers and dalliances with local ladies. It’s a funny and entertaining account taking the reader to some remote parts of Spain, throwing light and shade on a time, even though only 40 years ago, when things in Spain were very different. I was lent this book by a friend because he knows I love Spain. The book felt and looked like a cheap self publication, though it is published by Oleander Press of Cambridge, and I wondered if I was going to have to wade through the kind of drivel I would write if I ever had the energy to make the walk and find time to write about it. But I was completely wrong. Well written and engaging throughout. It made me long to be on the open dusty road with nothing but sun and time and the thoughts on my mind to accompany me and a (lot) of cold beer at the end of the day to look forward to.

 

Walking is supposed to be good for us so assuage your doctor’s worries and tell him you’re planning on a long walk in Spain, open the first page and get on the road.