If you decide to walk the E4 and you want to start in Spain, an early choice you have to make is whether to take the northern or southern variant of the GR7 through Andalucia. With no great application of science I chose the northern option. Checking if this was the best option was just the excuse I needed to return to Spain and in October, five weeks after finishing my E4 trek in Budapest, I was on my way back there with Christine.
I only had 9 days which isn’t long enough to do the whole variant. The GR7 splits into two at Villanueva del Cauche in Malaga and doesn’t join up again for 450 kilometres (at Puebla de Don Fadrique). I figured I would need at least 15 days to do the whole stretch.
To help me decide which bit to do I turned to Juan Holgado. I had met Juan in March on my second day out of Tarifa on the E4 walk. This was an amazing coincidence and a real stroke of luck. Juan had helped Michele Lowe and Kirstie Shirra write their guide “Walking the GR7 in Andalucia” and is the expert on the GR7 and all things walking in Spain. He has his own web site (www.jaholgado.com). Although we only spoke for a few minutes we struck up a friendship and Juan, through comments on my blog, advised and encouraged me all the way across Europe.
Leaving Ventas de Zafarraya and arriving at Alhama de Granada
From Villanueva de Cauche you have a northern and a southern option for the GR7/E4. I chose the northern option, which is generally described as the less developed route, because, and without a lot of evidence, I thought there might be snow on the southern route in March. I now know better and could definitely have walked either route.
In total my Stage 2 is 443 kilometres long, involves around 112 hours walking, and goes from Villanueva del Rosario through the Malaga and Jaen provinces and joins up with the southern option at Puebla de Don Fadrique where both options join before heading into Murcia.
A sea of olive trees
There are a lot of olive trees along this part of the walk. Spain is the world's largest producer of olive oil and this part of Andalucia (Jaen in particular) is where much of it happens. To be honest I got a bit fed up with olive trees.
Day one was mixed arable, not yet 100 per cent olive trees, and while it wasn't brilliant walking the trail was nearly all off-road. I stayed at the wonderful Hotel Rural Paloma which is just off the route and couple of kilometres before you get to Villanueva de Tapia (near where the route crosses the main road) - don't miss it!
The next day, a short 20 kilometre walk but now 100 per cent olives. Pleasant open countryside but olives as far as the eye can see. Villanueva de Algaidas, the day's destination looked a pretty dull town, although it was pouring with rain when I arrived. The Hotel Algaidas is at the southern end of the high street.
After the rain the walk from Villanueva de Algaidas to Rute was tricky and sticky (with argillaceous mud sticky to everything). Streams which needed to be crossed were in full flood and the route was at times very difficult to follow. This was a shame because, despite the olive trees, this is pretty countryside with the route taking you through the lovely villages of Cuevas Bajas and Vadofresno. Rute the final destination is also interesting, a centre for the production of anis, the whole town seemed to smell just slightly from the drink. I stayed at the Hotel el Mirador which was OK but lacked any Spanish soul.
Spanish breakfast at Hostal Rafi
Nice walk to the lovely town of Priego de Cordoba the route takes you along two linked valleys. Hard to find the route leaving Rute but important that you do as the route takes high up the side of the first valley and away from the road. In the second valley it's along a quiet road still annoying because there is a lovely green lane running parallel to it nearly all the way. Preigo de Cordoba is a lovely town with some amazing Rococo churches. Stayed at the Hostal Rafi, a really nice hotel with a good restaurant.
Priego de Cordoba
After a 23 kilometre walk to Priego de Cordoba I chose to do a much longer, 35 kilometre walk to Alacala la Real. Could have had a short day by stopping at Almedinilla but to be honest the walking was not that good so not that much to hold you back. Quiet a lot of road walking although at times I may have walked along the road rather than the path because I missed the route.
Alcala la Real
Stopped for half a day in Alcala la Real staying at the Hotel Torrepalma. Impressive castle towering over the town and from the top you can see the line of watch towers that marked an old border with the Moors. A short afternoon stroll took me through the Alcala la Real suburbs to Frailes with accommodation at a wonderful bar in the middle of the village, really friendly, enormous portions of food and great fun.
Frailes to Carchelejo is a big but wonderful walk, 35 kilometres and 1300 metres of ascent. Climbing steadily up from Frailes to the little village of Los Rosales your soon out of olive country and into open moorland where the agriculture is based on sheep. Climbing up over a ridge with brillant views to the north you then into a empty and seemingly never ending valley before, after several hours, climbing up again over a ridge, past some amazing wind blown rock, with brilliant views of the Quiebrajano Reservoir, before getting onto moorland again and heading down to Carchelejo. We stayed at the Mezquita de Magina Rural Apartments, whatever you do don't be tempted to walk onto the Hotel-Restuarant Oasis, its miles away.
GR7 above Frailes
Couldn't find anywhere to stay at Cambil, the walk for the next day, but the owner of the Mezquita in Carchelejo was happy to act as taxi driver. Easy walk to Cambil, a very pleasant little town, although you do have to go underneath a motorway. Recent comments on the blog suggest that the route may have got washed away in places so it might be necessary to make some local enquiries, as it was, even when we were there, the river along the valley looked a bit treacherous.
After a slightly dull walk to Cambil, the walk to Torres next day was much better. Again you get to climb up out of the olive trees, this time into the Sierra Magina Natural Park, over a pass a 1600 metres with some amazing views back to the Sierra Nevadas, and then a long meandering walk down through trees to Torres. A good walk. Stayed at the Hotel-Restaurante Jurinea which was excellent.
Albanchez de Ubeda with castle above
The walk to Jodar is a good one going through some nice countryside and visiting the lovely towns of Albanchez de Ubeda and Bedmar both of which are stop-over options. Jodar is an "interesting" place, nice town centre but the rest of the place feels poor and slightly oppressive. There are two hotels and we probably stayed at the wrong one - would try the Hotel los Molinos which is much better positioned than the Hotel Cuidad de Jodar.
Would give the walk to Quesada a miss unless you're desperate to do the whole of the GR7/E4. A lot of road walking through boring olive tree country. Gets better from Hornos de Peal to Quesada and Quesada is a lovely village with good accommodation options. We stayed at the excellent Hotel Sierra de Quesada.
Limestone cliffs in the Sierras de Cazorla, Segura y las Villas Natural Park
After Quesada you enter the Sierras de Cazorla, Segura y las Villas Natural Park, a magical place full of wild life but with a total absence of people when I went there in March. This was one of the best parts of the whole E4 as far as I was concerned and as well as deer, huge numbers of birds of prey and vultures, I got to see my first wild boar and either a wild cat or a lynx. Definitely want to go back there.
You cross into the Park somewhere between Quesada and Cazorla after you have climbed up along a forest trail. The scenery changes quickly with huge limestone cliffs looking into the park and huge views across the plain looking out. Along the way you pass ancient churches and castles before getting to Cazorla which itself is an absolute gem of a town. We stayed at the Hotel Guadalquivir which was a success.
Sticking with the route there is no accommodation on the route into the park so I walked to and from Vadillo de Castril and the hotel gave me a lift back there the following day. I'm sure there are better options if your not a GR7/E4 purist. The paths through the park were excellent, a combination of paved mule trails and more recent forest trails.
It was on the second day into the park that the wild life started to reveal itself in numbers. Usually walking high up, contouring around valleys, you're often looking down at the hovering Griffon vultures and birds of prey. It was on the second day I saw my family of wild boar.
I stayed in an apartment in Cotos Rios, a small village on the edge of the park, although I'm sure the Hotel la Hortizuela is close by but on the road on the other side of the river from the trail.
Sheep country around Pontones
Although you're out of the park the quality of walking is more than sustained next day on the trip to Pontones. It was pretty wild when I did it with snow falling going over the pass. It was at this point I saw what was either a Lynx or a Wild Cat. Pontones itself is very much a mountain town, very remote and in an area where making a living looks especially hard. The Hotel Restaurant Ruta del Segura was a authentic, old fashioned good fun place to stay.
Last decent day's walking on the northern variant of the GR7, a walk across dry open limestone countryside followed by a long descent down a valley to Santiago de la Espada. Stayed at another mountain hotel, the Hotel San Francisco.
Although I walked to Puebla de Don Fadrique there was little pleasure in it. Mostly along a sometimes busy road and a long way - would definitely recommend catching the bus. The Hotel Puerta de Andalucia is a good place to spend a last day in Andalucia (or a first day if you're walking the other way).
If you want to know what the walk felt like on a daily basis then have a look at the walk diary.
After a week of really good walking, Christine has gone back to the UK and I'm on my own again. It's been great going from mountain town to mountain town and unfortunately she is missing the best one, Morella. The only consolation for her is that the weather continues to be bad.
Set off on a 35 kilometre walk having seen Christine go at 9. The weather was already looking poor which some heavy rain clouds to the south.
Having climbed out of the village the sky was clear enough for a short time to get a view Penyagolosa, the second highest peak in the Valencia region, as well as some great views back to Culla.
Penyagolosa
The first target was Ares de Maestre yet another hill top town. You could stay here it you had a more leisurely schedule, or just stop for lunch. It looked like a great place with lots of visitors on Easter Saturday.
Ares del Maestre
The main issue for me was how far I would get before it started to rain and sure enough it was pouring from about 1.30. It wasn't the end of the world. With the rain, the dry stone walls and the more open scenery you could easy have been in the north of England. In addition to the stone work there was livestock out and about, and for the first time since the early few days of the walk I was amongst grazing cattle, cows with suckling calves.
Another storm
Another feature of today's walk were the wonderful ancient caminos, old cattle trails which in this part of the Spain have not all been turned into local roads. I guess the nearest equivalent in the UK is a green lane but here they are much more widespread. Some of them today, with the dry stone walls on each side, and bedrock running along the bottom were particularly impressive.
Camino
One picture I would have taken if I had had the nerve was that of the bull standing astride a particularly deep camino about 20 yards ahead of me. I've been told that bulls with cows are not dangerous but wasn't going to test the theory, even less ask him to stand to one side, and within seconds I had climbed over the wall and disappeared.
Morella
Got to Morella at about 6 by which time it had stopped raining. It really is the jewel in the crown of the wonderful mountain towns along this part of the route. It still has it's city walls as well as usual brilliant location. Had a good look round, not least because it was packed and finding somewhere to stay was not easy.
The past six days have really been excellent. If it wasn't for the schedule it would have made sense to walk at a much more leisurely pace and take 8 or 9 days to cover the distance. As it is, because I can't get accommodation at the next planned stop, Boixar, tomorrow is going to be a big 40 kilometre day.
So we watched the first half of the Copa del Rey game last night and went to bed. There was a lot of noise later on but it was difficult to know who won. When we came down for breakfast for the first time since arriving in Spain the television was not on. The owner of the hotel was a Barcelona fan and in mourning. We make a fuss about football in the UK but it is nothing compared to Spain, albeit that it feels like there are only two clubs here. It really is wall to wall.
Christine's birthday and a nice 20 kilometre walk to celebrate, unfortunately the weather was not going to help.
Started by climbing up into Villahermosa and dropping into the bread shop. Full of superb extras for Easter.
Easter baking in Villahermosa del Rio
The first part of the walk was brilliant even if it was a little bit cloudy. It was along a valley with a stream in the bottom. Sometimes you were walking next to the stream and sometimes higher up the valley side. Like the walk a few days ago the stream formed natural pools which on a warmer day would have made a great spot for a swim. We even see some wildlife including deer high up the cliff and staring down at us.
Following the gorge behind Villahermosa del Rio
Being watched
After about 6 kilometres you have to climb from about 800 metres to 1200. The path is brilliant typical of the ancient mule paths which have been such a feature of the walk through Valencia. We gain altitude without noticing the effort. All around are tiny abandoned villages, some clinging high up on the side of the valley, which, particularly as the weather was now getting worse, made everything feel extra remote and wild.
Abandoned villages in the drizzle
It was now drizzling so full waterproofs for the first time in a least three weeks (Christine had decided to leave her waterproof trousers in the UK). Visibility was poor which was such a shame as we were walking along the edge of a huge gorge at 1200 metres.
Eventually the really dramatic scenary comes to an end and we arrive at Sant Joan de Penyagolasa. There is a well restored hermitage and amongst other things a restaurant. Lunch isn't served until 2 and that's not for another hour and I'm a bit nervous about the number of people Easter has attracted into the mountains as we have still to find accommodation in Vistabella de Maestrazgo.
The last couple of hours walking is easy (because its pretty flat, despite being high up), and really fast but it's now raining heavily and very unpleasant. When we get to Vistabella de Maestrazgo it's a typical mountain town in the rain, water everywhere and without anyone in sight. Eventually get the directions of a bar that might have accommodation but it turns out to be full. They see the mess we are in, ring around and find somewhere for us to stay. The bar has a restaurant and as it's still only three we have plenty of time to sit down and have a really nice meal. Chicken for me and braised ox cheek for Christine, washed down with lots of red wine. As we eat and dry off other cyclists and walkers come in steaming from the rain and we feel very much at home.
Well it was a good job I got lost a couple of times yesterday and didn't attempt to walk all the way to Chelva. It would have been too far and I would have rushed a good walk. Anyway stopping at Benageber worked out really well.
Left at 8 this morning, no one about in any of the 2 bars, so no coffee. Spotted the owner of the supermercado arriving with provisions and persuaded her to open up and sell me a stick of frozen bread and a tomato. I think she might have given me the tomato, could be a developing trend.
For the first time in a couple of weeks it's been a bit cloudy today which was a shame because there were some great views. Without doubt the star of the show was the scenery just below Benageber and crossing the Rio Turia. Really dramatic sandstone gorge, the deepest I have been in so far. Getting down involved a really steep path. Some amazing waterfalls not something you associate with this corner of Spain. Once at the bottom it wasn't long before you had to recover all the altitude you had just lost with a steep climb up the other side.
Rio Turin gorge with some early morning light
Waterfalls down to the Rio Turin
Once on top it was easier, walking through olive groves and almond trees, and after yesterday's excursions I kept a close eye on the GPS track and was in sight of Chelva by one o'clock. The final walk into town was marked by another gorge, but on a smaller scale, including a lovely and well restored old bridge.
Puente de la Mozaira
After really small places for the last two nights Chelva is a metropolis by comparison. Still has its ancient Arab quarter with a dense and bewildering street pattern. Stayed at the Hotel La Pasada, very nice, and the manager help sort out my accommodation for tomorrow night in Andilla which was just as well as it turns out there is marathon there and it's very full.
Might wander out later and see if I can get my hair cut, supertramp to supersharp, although of course anything could happen. Just had a very nice lunch with red wine and I'm feeling very relaxed. Christine (my wife) joins me tomorrow and I can't wait to see her.
By the way the GPS clocked me at 20 kilometres today which seems about right so maybe I did 54 yesterday after all.
Mi hija Hannah described me as supertramp in a tweet with reference to my all night walk, slightly double edged to say the least but it did set me thinking. My head teacher at junior school, Miss Gledhill, had a slightly unhealthy obsession with the poet John Masefield, who before George Orwell, hit the road and wrote Diaries of a Supertramp. Perhaps being bombarded with Masefield has lead me to this. In addition as a teenager I had an obsession with the pre-electric Bob Dylan (what a sell-out he proved to be) who of course modelled himself on Woody Guthrie (check the picture on first album cover) who of course, possibly not out of choice, was a famous hobo. It all fits.
To be honest the all night walk has left a bit of mark. Although it was fine at the time the memory of it is disturbing. Particularly this morning I really felt that I needed to get back from Supertramp to well resourced walker. Maybe the totally wrecked sleep pattern has given me a bit of a jet lag sensation, I'm "Lost in Translation" (which for some reason is a favourite film) and quickly need to get from Woody Guthrie to Bill Murray.
Today provided the antidote opportunity, short 20 kilometre walk to Chera with accommodation booked at other end. Had a double breakfast and got a taxi to El Rebollar. There is a public transport option but I wasn't messing about.
Not long after the start I had to cross a railway line. This can't be happening, John Masefield gets his foot stuck on a railway line and looses it and boxcar Guthrie's railway connections are just too obvious to mention. Manage to walk across it safely when just for a few seconds I think the route takes me across the High Speed Route as well, then I see a bridge and start to calm down.
After that things get better. The route takes me across fields of vines which happily are starting to sprout leaves and then through a valley into hillier country. Essentially you're contouring around the Sierra de Tejo which at the top is over 1100 metres. The route is well marked and looks used. All of a sudden in runs into a two metre deer fence. Just to get the message across the deer fence has panels of steel reinforcing laced into it, the stuff they use in concrete.
To the north of El Rebollar
Block Trail
Hidden Waymarks
Approaching Chera
Now I don't want go anywhere if I'm not welcome but after going up and down the fence looking for the please come through gate, I realise that the only way to get to Chera is once again to climb a deer fence. The absence of "welcome walker" signs are reinforced inside when I realise that someone has gone the trouble of painting over all the GR signs. Not sure but I suspect that this has something to do with hunting. Although, given the almost total absence of anyone on the walk so far, the chances of suddenly bumping into a hunter was virtually zero, the clear inference that I wasn't welcome did spoil an otherwise nice walk. I did see three captive deer but they failed to realise that I was on their side and shot up the mountain.
The deer San Quentin must have been 10 kilometres across and finally emerged about 5 kilometres before Chera. There was a open gate across a cattle grid, the gate was open because a satellite dish installer was visiting a house and had to get access. Either side of the gate were turnstiles to let pedestrians through. On the other side the GR signs started again and shortly after there was a sign pointing me down this route to El Rebollar. No idea what's going on.
In Chera the municipal auberge I had a room booked in was closed until tomorrow but fortunately there was another one in this very small town.
Chera is an interesting little town, population about 2,000 I guess. Have seen 5 bars, a baker, 2 little "supermecados" one selling meat as well, and a chemist. Non of the above look prosperous. On the other hand the road to the town has been completely reconstructed, not a dual carriageway, but high quality non-the-less. In addition to the road the immediate approach to the town has a new street lighting scheme, parking bays, bus shelter etc etc. Neither the road or the new facilities seem to get any use.
Missing my water reservoir. Particularly miss the fact that the pipe which goes over your shoulder and connects to a strap on your bag made you look you look like a serious walker and less like a tramp. Also had a certain ghostbuster, Bill Murray, look to it.
What a dreadful day, joking yesterday about taking each day as it came and not really planning ahead came back to bit me big time. Just about everything went wrong.
Planning on this part of the GR7 is really difficult, there is absolutely no accommodation on the route, and I had changed my mind several times about what to do about it. One option I played with was walking through all the way to Cortes de Pallas but that would have been about 55 kilometres. Some itineraries split the route at Casa de Callado but the GR7 doesn't actually hit a metalled road until for another 6 kilometres making that the logical place to leave the trail and get a lift. I had worked that out during the planning but because I didn't check it last night I had forgotten and had Casa de Callado fixed in my end as the end of stage.
To add to the scope for confusion, Christine Durrant's husband John had agreed to pick us so we had to know exactly where we were to be able to arrange this.
The walk started well enough, it was sunny, but a breeze kept it from being too hot. It was also a bit hazy which perhaps suggested that it was going to get hotter. The first couple of hours involved a long but steady climb along a forest trail. a climb of just under 500 metres, and then a walk along the ridge before descending into the next valley.
Heading down towards Caroche
Caroche
In the distance was the mountain of Caroch, which at 1126 metres was our target. This involved going right down to the bottom of the valley and then climbing up another 500 metres to the pass near Caroch.
It was now getting really hot and after lunch in the shade we started the climb. I saw this line of bins in the distance and worked out that they were probably bee hives but thought nothing of it, was listening to an interesting set of Yale lectures about the history of Europe. All of a sudden I was being attacked by bees, never happened before and it took me a few seconds to work out what was happening, absolutely horrible. Dropped my bag, I tried to beat them of with my sticks and then my hat but they just kept coming. They were getting in my hair and flying straight at my face. I felt like running but where to and my bag was on the floor covered in bees. Eventually my mind cleared enough to remember that I did have a weapon, mosquito spray in my bag, and focusing on this rather than the bees, I was able to open the bag and find the spray and let rip. I sprayed everything with it and, apart from a really persistent bee that had got into my hat, they at last retreated.
It felt like I had been stung all over but it is was not as bad. Christine had some anti-sting cream and some anti-histamine and I'm sure that helped. I was a bit shaken up however and for the next hour or so started to concentrate on the location of the bees hives, there are lots, rather than the route. As it happens it seems there were two GR7 routes, one for cyclists around the Caroche and one for walkers almost over it. We took the former rather than the later.
By the time we got to Casa de Callodo we had probably walked an extra 5 kilometres and because I hadn't checked the map properly last night thought than John was meeting us here. The phone signal was very poor and it turned out he had gone to the wrong place anyway. We decided to stay put and wait for him to get to us which involved an 8 kilometre drive along the bit of the GR7 we should have walked to finish our stage.
Not a very nice trail for driving, although the views looked great, better than we had seen all day. I very much doubt that I will be able to persuade John and Christine to risk their car along the route again tomorrow so may have to sacrifice this bit of the trail. Feel really annoyed with myself and a bit fed up.
Postscript
Stayed in Hotel Murphimer in Ayora, a hotel which should have been condemned rather than given two stars. The discotechque looked so derelict it seemed impossible to think that it was going to be used. It was and although I didn't wake to the noise until about 3.30, John and Christine decided to leave and return home. Looks like I will walking on my own for next week until my own Christine turns up.
I must admit that I was starting to think that I had seen all the fireworks in Andalusia and that the landscape was not going to be as interesting at least until I got to the Pyrenees. Today's a walk, however, had just about everything and has raised my expectations as to what else I might see in Valencia.
In total the walk was about 34 kilometres with 1000 metres of climb. We started walking at 8.15 and were in Alcoi by about 4.30. The weather was warm but not too hot, a good walking temperature.
Walking through the gorge to the north east of Castalla
Castalla sits in a fairly broad valley going roughly east to west and the first thing to do is finish crossing the valley and get to the mountains on the northern side. The route takes you to the mountains, parallel with them and then through them, firstly via a gorge and then, turning east, along a gentle valley. Particularly at this early part of the day this was a really nice walk, a mix of pine trees and cleared fields.
Once you get to the top of the first pass, at about 900 metres, you see the higher mountains on the other side of the second valley which form the centre piece to the Parc Natural del Carrascal de Font Roja. Getting up to them involves a brilliant ridge climb which levels out at 1200 metres. The climb is about 500 metres and although it wasn't that clear you could just make out the Mediterranean to the south and the passes crossed on the three previous days. Towards the east you can see Alcoi and to the north tomorrow's walk to Bocairant.
Climbing up Menejador (1352 mts)
The next bit was may favourite involving a gentle descent down through ancient woodland. Trees included different types of evergreen oak, Valencian and Holm, as well as maple, flowering ash and white beam. This was a special nature reserve inside the natural park and the ancient woodland had perhaps survived because it was hard to get with a steep valley on one side and limestone cliffs on the other. At the end of this stretch was a very nice visitor centre.
In the Font Roja Natural Park
It was then a steep descent to the bottom of the valley, a wrong turn which took us to a wonderful but impassable gorge. Retracing our steps we found the right route into Alcoi only to loose it again after about three kilometres. Deciding to take the road for the last stretch we were rewarded with some really interesting victorian industrial buildings clinging to the cliffs above the town.
Gorge near Alcoi
Alcoi is quite a big place with a population of around 150,000. It looks a great place, lots of fabulous turn of the century buildings including some which look like the Guadi buildings you see in Barcelona. I was particularly impressed with the street lights.
Well it has been one of those days. Really frustrating and I'm still not quite sure what has gone wrong.
First things first, I knew Canada de la Cruz was going to be difficult for accommodation, all I had was a phone number for a Casa Rural, and although I've been lucky with these twice so far, their preference is to fill them weekly rather than have one person there for a night. Rang this morning and indeed they were booked for the week. Not the end of the world, I thought, it's only a 13 mile walk, I'll go there, see what's what, and might even walk back.
In the back of my mind was the thought that something would turn up.
I had a trail on my GPS which was based on a local walkers route, it didn't say it was the GR7 but when I was putting the trail together it was the only one I could find. Funnily enough I checked Wikilocs this morning and Bornem, a Spaniard who is walking the whole of the GR7, has recently published his trail for this section of the walk but too late for me to use. A glance at it confirmed that he entered Puebla de Don Fabrique the same way as mine left so that was good enough for me. He has also walked the route I did yesterday so he must be mad as well.
Set of down the A330 and sure enough at the designated point there was a footpath sign, not a GR sign, but a footpath sign and a trail. Carried on for at least three kilometres, the trail got a bit sticky, the weather was looking changeable but it wasn't until I met a two metre deer fence that I started to worry. Right across the trail, a trail marked on the map.
2 metre high deer fence
Walked up and down the fence to see if there was an approved way of getting through but nothing.
Should I climb the fence, would it hold my weight?
Thought about throwing my bag over but the image of my bag stuck on one side of the fence and me on the other was just too awful to think about so, after some hesitation, I made the dash for freedom. It did occur to me that where there is one fence, there ought to be another, and I might be breaking into prison rather than escaping. I put this thought behind me reasoning that it was perhaps the border between Andalucia and Murcia which had to be nearby.
Anyway was now back on my track making good progress in attractive and increasingly open countryside with ever longer views. Had to climb a ridge but yes in the distance I could see Canada de la Cruz (keep thinking Penelope). Walked for about 40 minutes and then had to descend a really steep slope with, you guessed it, a fence. A deer popped out of the trees, my side, looked at the fence and went back into the trees.
Cerro del Celar in the distance
At the bottom of the slope I climbed the fence again and walked on down the trail and all of a sudden GR signs were everywhere, even an E4 sign, on the same path as my GPS trail.
And then I lost them again. Not sure what to do, I stuck with my GPS trail, it was continuing to follow a trail on the map even if local deer keepers had a habit of blocking the trail with 2 metre fences.
The route, still heading towards Penelope got increasingly remote, eventually I really was wacking bushes and, despite the trail on my GPS, there was nothing on the ground to suggest that this was the right way. I studied the map decided to go the long way round and pick up a Camino, a Spanish cattle trail. It took the best part of a hour to get to it and it of course turned out to be the GR7 which I then followed, uneventfully into Canada de la Cruz. I also crossed the real border between the two regions.
The boundary between Andalucia and Murcia
Nothing by the way of accommodation in Canada de la Cruz but a really helpful barman organised me a taxi so I'm now back in Puebla de Don Fabrique. The taxi is going to pick me up in the morning for the next stage of the route which actually does look straightforward.
Slightly worrying is that when I looked at Bornem's route again, his route didn't go anywhere near the first lot of GR signs I came across, he was coming in the other direction and seemed to prefer a long road walk to the uncertainties of going cross country. In terms of the GR7, I feel none the wiser.
