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ONCE UPON A TIME
Paco, the ferryman, beckoned me on, and I changed, been upgraded or improved at all, was amazed to see that he could actually bar the odd paint job for the benches and the crush up to 3 vehicles and a couple of MIRAVET, or a couple of caulies! motorbikes onto his masterpiece of 'It's only for five days,' my new friend reassured engineering. me, handing over the house keys. Not having had time to do the touristy thing and have a There wasn't a ramp or anything; just get into look around the area in the two short weeks I first gear, close your eyes and rev the car up had been in Catalunya, I was interested to onto the ferry! If there are the maximum of drive away from the coast, towards the three vehicles, which there was on this mountains and to Miravet in order to water her occasion, you have to rely completely on Paco's hand signalling to know how far to plants for the days she was away. 'sidle' until there is room for the third car to get occasional nails to hammer down the planks. From L'Ampolla, I drove along the N340 and on too. This means driving to the other edge It has to stop operating when the sun goes branched off at el Perello onto the Rasquera of the ferry, with no barriers. Thank God the down as there is no light. road. Then I simply followed the signs to Mora. handbrake worked! Just in case, I got out for the trip across and introduced myself to Paco. Oh, I forgot, there was big drama and 'You can take the ferry across the river', she adventure a couple of months ago – informed me. 'It costs 3€, and only 2 € for unbelievable really, but absolutely true – when residents. So, with an image in my mind of a thieves, in the middle of the night, set to and 'proper' ferry, housing maybe 50 vehicles or removed the heavy duty industrial cables all so, I went looking for the signs for 'CAR along one side, around 700m, hacksawing or FERRY' and the slip road. There was indeed boltcropping it into manageable bits and piling a slip road: with a little warning/informative it into lorries! sign 400m beforehand, 'Barca'. It wasn't quite the standard 21st century ferry I'd sort of But Fate stepped in and the Mossos managed imagined,but then for 3€, I suppose it was 'the Ten minutes later we had arrived safely at the to catch and arrest them. The ferry was business': a rickety wooden affair, planks of other side, saving the round trip of an extra consequently out of action for 2 or 3 days, until wood basically, thrown over a couple of 20km by road had it been lunchtime or windy the electric company, FECSA, supplied a new oversized rowing boats with a couple of and the ferry was not operating. cable. The poor ferry was floating away from rudders, all connected very technically to the bank, suspended from one sole cable, parallel wires stretching from one side of the In the weeks that followed I got to know Paco unable to be winched to shore, as the power and his sidekick, Vincent, and found them to had been cut. Ebro to the other. be friendly, interesting characters, salt of the earth the pair of them. In all his 26 years of A kilometre along the little road from the ferry working the self-same ferry, Paco informed and you arrive in the square of the village, set me that not one car had driven into the river, on the river bank, with cafes and their tables nor anyone suffered any kind of injury or fallen and chairs set out attractively. Here you can in either. find the information point of Miravet, named, 'Lo Raco del Temple', (The Templar's Store), Vincent agreed, though could go one better, where guides, maps, books and magazines as he has actually been working the ferry for are all available. They also provide various 28 years. In fact this infamous ferry hasn't
The Catalunya Chronicle - Issue 3 December 2009 - www.chroniccat.com
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