The “wee toe” explained.
On my way to Alicante, I had put a *huge* hole in one of my socks. But I was completely unaware of this – and continued walking for 20km.
As a result, my wee toe was absolutely destroyed. At one point, the whole toe was enshrouded in a huge blister.
So, as I always wear proper kilt socks on these walks (a kilt just looks silly when worn with anything else, and because of the thickness, kilt socks are actually quite good for walking in), I contacted my kiltmakers (Highlander Tartan Wear Kilts) in Scotland, to have a replacement pair sent out to Spain.
Now this is some story!
On hearing of my plight, and seeing one of his kilts on the front page of the Ayrshire Post:
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/brave-ayr-man-wont-ataxia-8949553
Roy McNair, the boss at Highlander (formerly Debonair), offered to send me out not one pair, but *three* pairs, of replacement socks. Enough to see me through until the planned end of my walk in Gibraltar.
There was only one slight problem though. Where exactly to send them?
Simply addressing the package to “The Tall Guy Wearing a Kilt, Somewhere between Girona and Gibraltar” wasn’t going to help the Spanish postie much.
So I needed an address. But I was always moving, so it would need to be further down the coast somewhere. And, as it would take about 1 week for the parcel to arrive, it had to be quite far down the coast.
But I hadn’t been down there yet. I knew nobody who could hold the parcel for me.
Step forward the Spanish Couchsurfing community, and the wonderful Olivia Miller .
Olivia lives in Adra, Spain, and happily agreed to hold the package until I arrived in a week or so.
[photo: The Highlander/Debonair (Kyle Street, Ayr) logo. Without a doubt, *the* place to buy authentic kilts and accessories in the west of Scotland.]