Hiking through Castellón - Day 9 to Morella

The last day of the hike through Castellón is both a suitable climax to the whole trip and somehow, in a single day, sums up what makes walking in Spain special.  The walk between what are arguably the most attractive hilltop towns on the whole route, Ares del Maestre and Morella, journey’s across a wide and open landscape, still farmed in places, and travels along paths that have obviously been used for centuries.  It’s an old fashioned countryside in every sense of the word and the walk across it to Morella is the perfect way to end the journey through Castellón.

The Day 9 walk is 23km long and can completed in about 7 hours.  There is nowhere on the route for lunch so ask the hotel at Ares del Maestre to prepare a sandwich.  There are of course plenty of places to stay at Morella, a good choice of restaurants for an end of trip celebration. From Morella there is an early morning bus back down to the town of Castellón on the coast and the train network.

Hiking through Castellón - Day 6 to Penyagolosa

It’s possible to take ‘place-to-place’ walking too literally and go crashing on to the next town missing out on local treats.  At Vistabella del Maestrazgo, with Penyagolosa on the ‘doorstep’, this would be madness, you just have to take ‘a day off’ and walk up what is Valencia’s most iconic mountain.

The full circular

Last time I walked the GR7 (on my E4 - Tarifa/Budapest trip) the weather was poor and I hardly saw the mountain. I  was down on the coast and long past it when it revealed itself for the first time and but its importance to the locals was immediately apparent.  In good weather you can see it for miles, it stands out like a sore thumb.  The mountain (Peñagolosa in Spanish - Penyagolosa in Valencian - golosa derived from collossal) at 1813m is not the highest in Valencia (pipped at the post by Cerro Calderón - 1838m) but it’s by far the most prominent.