So what route did Matthew take to get to the main Ocean Club reception?

[gilet]

The reason I posted yesterday, the map which has been reposted above was to highlight how ludicrous the claim was that it would take Matthew eight minutes to go to the OC Club 24 hr Reception (and having a copy of the book I was aware where it was).

When it was suggested that the short cut that I suggested was not possible I countered that it appeared eminently possible to me especially for a man who was very urgently seeking help (even if it may have been private or semi private). However I was already aware that some of the Tapas group knew of a short cut. Indeed that was one of the confirmations that the OC main reception was as on the map because a short cut to the club just beyond the Tapas Bar would have been silly.

In deference to the other poster I accepted that she may have been right. I did go on to point out that this was largely irrelevant because even if Matthew took the main road it would still have been a distance significantly less than 400 metres. One point I did not make yesterday is that the route is also quite steeply downhill for a significant proportion of the jog or run which I would expect a fit man with an urgent task would be doing.

The reality is that such a run/jog or even fast walk would not take eight minutes or anything like eight minutes for a fit person.  It would take between one and two minutes (especially with so much of it being quite steeply downhill)

I still think given the facts that they knew the Reception would be staffed by excellent English speakers (and when abroad even well-educated English travellers do prefer to deal with such people), that the people at Reception would be far more used to dealing with emergencies than a busy waiter in a bar and that they might well believe they would be dealing more immediately with senior people at Reception than they would in a bar, it is perfectly natural to assume that would be their first port of call rather than try to make contact with the police via a waiter in the restaurant or bar.



Click this link and the resultant picture for a larger version of the map.

http://i1296.photobucket.com/albums/ag1/gilet2013/0c1600i_zpse2c75b32.jpg

And here is a map showing that the distance at its greatest (from the corner beyond the apartment where the 400m sign is) to being right inside the OC carpark is still just under the 400m mark.

[John]

Here is the right short cut, as photographed by JdA



http://www.gerrymccannsblogs.co.uk/Jeanne_d_Arc.htm

Thanks for that Anne.  There are two other routes equally as direct but I fear we will never know which one was the favourite for them.

[gilet]

Well if the route that Jeanne-d-arc guessed at (as I don't think any of us know the actual route) was accurate then it would possibly take even less time.

I can see that this would be an attractive short cut when walking with toddlers as it cuts out much of the roadside distance.



Whether Matthew took this Jeanne-d-arc speculative route or the more direct route which would (if what we have been told by everybody about PDL being very quiet at night) would have been largely traffic free is irrelevant.

We know where he went and we know it would have taken him only a couple of minutes.