Sunday 24th April Morella to Moli l'Abad

The plan was to stay at El Boixar but there isn't much accommodation there and sure enough when I tried to book on Saturday it was all gone. This was a real pain because just after El Boixar, at Fredes, things navigationally get a bit more complicated. So far the E4 has followed the GR 7 but at Fredes and it heads down to Ulldecona, near the coast, on the GR8. Couldn't find any accommodation at Fredes and the only accommodation I could find was at a place called Moli l'Abad which looked about 15 kilometres to the east of El Boixar. So I decided not to go to Fredes but go direct from El Boixar to Moli l'Abad, stay there for the night and then try and find the GR 8 again next day and continue to Ulldecona.

By the way the GR 7 carries on all the way to the Pyrenees. The E4, which travels along the coast to Tarragona, and through Catalonia to the Pyrenees ends up almost in the same place. I must admit I'm sorry to be leaving the GR 7 not least because I had the route well defined on my GPS. My E4 GPS route is very messy in Catalonia so I'm bound to get lost.

So I was a bit fed up when I left Morella, fed up about having to contrive a route and fed up about the weather which continues to be poor. Spending my time trying to find accommodation last the night (fortunately I had an internet connection) meant I missed the supermarket and all I had with me food wise was the last bit of my birthday cake and a lump of cheese.

After about 4 kilometres I left the road and headed up along a farm trail where I met a farmer who was rounding up his cows. Everything was very wet and I started to gingerly cross a stream. The farmer, who was in the middle of his cows and associated mud, and was wearing bedroom slippers, kindly pointed out the stepping stones.

The route follow the stream along a valley and then climbed fairly gently to the top of a ridge. The stream included some brilliant natural swimming pools. As you got higher you had some great views back to Morella spoilt a bit by the murky weather. The ridge walk itself went on for 2 or 3 kilometres before eventually descending through an oak wood, which has just come into leaf, to the town of Vallabona. It was now pouring with rain and at just before one o'clock I decided to stop for some lunch.

Lovely Swimming Opportunity

Spring growth

The next stage of the journey was up along a bottom of a dry river bed heading north. Although the heavy rain had gone it was still drizzling and didn't stop until just before El Boixar. Again a lovely trail which as you approached the top started to open up. It was uphill nearly way and by the time I reached El Boixar at about 5. 30, I had walked 35 kilometres and climbed over 1000 metres.

El Boixar

The sign to La Senia, at El Boixar, said 23 kilometres which I must admit was a bit of a blow much further than anticipated. Setting of and just outside the village I took the first left rather than the second and had gone about 2 kilometres before I realised my mistake. There were no GR signs to follow. To get back on track I could go back or head straight down the side of a gorge, through trees and get on the right route the direct way. I went with the second option and had to survive some very wet, very steep bushwhacking.

Once on the right road it was just a case of walking as quickly as possible. They told me I would need to be there by 7.30 to guarantee the room but it was nearer 9 by the time I arrived. This was the first time I had had to walk on the road in a prolonged way since Andalucia and my feet were very sore at the finish. The signs to La Senia were now reading 5 kilometres so I had walked 53 kilometres in total.

Wednesday 13th April El Rebollar to Chera

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.

April 11th and 12th Cortes de Pallas to Requena

Having a rest day in Requena, about 8 kilometres away from the GR7 for reasons which will become apparent, so a double day blog.

The two big news items, firstly an equipment failure and secondly an accommodation failure.

Walking is not exactly a technical sport so a bit of kit actually failing is very unusual and I suspect some will find it interesting. My water reservoir sprung a leak. The alternative name for a reservoir is a bladder but the idea of a leaking bladder is particularly unpleasant so I'm going to stick with reservoir. I know exactly how the leak came about and it's a clear design fault, really exciting, so I will have probably write a separate blog on it.

Anyway as I was leaving Cortes de Pallas the bottom of my back felt a bit damp. This has happened before, usually when the bag has been left on it's side, so I didn't worry. After about 10 minutes I decided to investigate and sure enough there was a leak.

What to do. It's a relatively busy road walk out of Cortes de Pallas, I didn't have anything I could put the water in and I reasoned it was slow enough not to matter. After about 35 minutes the do nothing option was becoming untenable,it was starting to look like I had a leaking bladder as well as a leaking reservoir, an impression reinforced by the underpants which were drying on the back of my backpack.

Leaking Bladder

Nothing to do but find an old bottle, put a chlorine tablet in it, drain the reservoir and change my clothes. Down to less than a litre of water but a half way stop on the route where I might be able to get more. I thought that was all the excitement I was going to have for the day.

My original schedule had involved walking all the way through to El Rebollar and then somehow getting to Requena which is where the nearest accommodation is. Christine Durrant thought she had found an auberge in Milares and had booked and paid for it in advance. They were going to refund me her costs when I got there.

Apart from the wet clothes the walk, despite being along a road for the first 5/6 kilometres, was interesting. This area has a lot of infrastructure, a nuclear power station, a reservoir at the bottom of the gorge and another one at the top, power cables everywhere.

Cooling Towers

After a while you leave the road and start the first climb up the side a very impressive gorge. Climbs are a feature of the walk and heading north I'm definitely crossing the grain of the landscape and will complete five climbs before I finish. The other feature is a lot of overgrown forest paths, difficult to follow despite good marking, the GPS is really useful. Just before I get to the top I see my first snake sunning itself on a rock. A light yellow or olive colour with black markings all along it's back - about a metre long.

Gorge to the north west of Cortes de Pallas

Ancient Cave Hose

It's a flat top for 2 or 3 kilometres and then down into the next valley. The restaurant at Venta Caeta is open so I stop for lunch at about 12.45. It was Sunday yesterday, I was on the road at 7.45 and have very little food on board.

Leaving the village the second climb goes to the top of the Col Rodona, again through a really thick forest trail, down the other side and then up again on the third climb. It's then a long and meandering descent on a much better trail down to what looks like a campsite but not yet open and with access to a road. It's now about five o'clock and I'm starting to look for Milares. Slightly worrying is a table of services at the campsite for the GR7 which doesn't mention Milares accommodation.

Worry not, after about 30 minutes a GR sign saying 45 minutes to Milares and an auberge. The GR route takes you on a complex route (ignoring the direct one along the road) and eventually I'm in Milares. It's about six houses, non have mains electricity and there is absolutely no one there. Having wandered around a bit I ring the number Christine Durrant gave me for the accommodation but no answer. I wander through the village and eventually find a sign to an auberge, find the auberge but it's long closed. It does however have a different name to the one Christine has booked so the evidence is not conclusive, although the chances of two auberges seem a bit remote.

Decide to go back to small village on the other side of Milares to see if the auberge is there. This place at least has mains electricity and dogs start to bark at me - life at least. At the end of the village there is some activity. As I get closer I see it's a man spraying the back of his small lorry with a high pressure hose. The lorry, would you believe it, has something to do with bees and the man is dressed in gear you associate with a nuclear disaster, I decide to leave him to it.

On the way back I see some elderly people with some sheep, they tell me where Milares is and tell me the auberge is closed. One final brain wave, I ring up Christine and John Durrant. Encouragingly they are confident that the auberge does exist, they had spoken to them yesterday, and they will SMS me the details. The connection is very bad.

I march back to Milares awaiting the SMS and determined to turn over every stone to find the auberge. My confidence starts to slip, no SMS and no auberge. I get back through to Christine by which time she had worked out the problem, the auberge is in Milanes, or somewhere with a slightly different spelling.

What to do?

I could either go back and throw myself on the mercy of the sheep people (who had not offered to help despite my predicament) or press on. I pressed on.

Climbing out of Milares

This is about 7.30. I didn't really know how far El Rebollar was but knew I would have to get there in good time to organise transport to Requena. Dusk is now arriving and it takes me just under 90 minutes to climb to the top of the pass. It's now dark, half moon, but the sign is clear enough, El Rebollar 3 hours. It's a small place and arriving there at midnight seemed a pretty desperate plan.

As it happens the walk was OK, the path was fairly clear, and it's amazing how much you can see with even a half moon. After another hour I arrived at a old cottage, which had a flat grassy area in front of it. I decided to put all my gear on and see if I could sleep. Flat, smooth surfaces by the way are very unusual around here, the standard surface is rock, or packed soil, covered with rocks.

I did nearly go to sleep but the forest is a noisy place at night what with the owls, larger things crashing through the trees and my stomach. At one point I was convinced that my stomach was sneaking up on me.

Eventually I was just too cold and had to walk just to warm up. This didn't take that long and I wanted to go to sleep again but no flat, remotely comfortable surface presented itself. I did sit on a rock for a bit and some animals came rushing past, had to be deer or possibly even boar.

Had to decide whether I wanted to hang around on the mountain or head into town. Didn't really know what the final approach to town was going to be like or indeed the reception I might get at this time of night from the Spanish dogs. Stayed on the mountain until 3 (found another flat place) and then headed down. Only one dog in El Rebollar and two on the outskirts of Requena. Not counting the roaming around the Milares conurbation, I had walked 50 kilometres.

Was in the centre by 5.30 and watched the town wake up. Two very heavy smokers with terrible coughs ejected from somewhere at 5.45, hospital workers changing shift at 6, the first bar open at 6.30 with the first drinkers in there almost immediately. I kill time with a couple of coffees and manage to get into Hotel Avenida by 7.45.

I had originally planned to do the whole thing in a day but always knew it would be a mega challenge and was pleased when Christine found an alternative. Christine's mistake was an easy one to make and I'm sure I will make similar ones before I'm finished. The particular issue with this stretch of the walk is that there just isn't any accommodation.

Thursday 7th April Bocairent to Vallada

Having spent most of my working life suffering from chronic lack of sleep (inability to disengage the brain), one of the joys of massive amounts of exercise is that this isn't normally a problem. Even in a different bed every night, with a lot of unfamiliar noise, I'm dead to the world. For some reason, however, it didn't work like last night and for once a 26 kilometre walk with 1500 metres of climb didn't feel like the best thing to be doing.

As usual had agreed to meet Christine Durrant, my walking companion at the moment, in a bar at eight in the morning for a coffee kick start, and two coffees were enough at least to get me moving. It was a lovely morning, the old part of Bocairent looked great, but soon we were out of the town and travelling across a huge expansion of what looks very similar to moorland in the UK accept it was dry and had been burnt to a cinder by a disgruntled bombero (nicer word than fireman). He started three separate fires to prove to his ex-workmates that they couldn't do without him.

Bocairent

Fire damaged mountain side

After that it was a long descent into a broad valley via some ancient Moorish mule tracks, brilliant walking particularly as by now we had left the cinders behind. The only problem was the initial boost provided by the double coffee shot was a long way behind me, the temperature as we descended into the valley was shooting up and there was a middle distance and slightly depressing challenge of having to climb up the other side.

Ancient Moorish mule track

No option but to bring out the big guns - Van the Man - aka Van Morrison. Pull down the hat, plug in the Ipod and let the heat do its worst. With Astral Weeks and the rest of the catalogue, the walk was transformed and I was motoring.

Suspect I could get a few days of this sort of walking, huge wide open countryside, wide tops and wide valleys. Not quite so dramatic as the last few days but the long views provided by this moorland type of scenery make it very attractive and you can crack on.

Hot and wide open countryside approaching Vallada

As it was today's walk was a good one, particularly liked Moorish mule track already mentioned, the well restored "fincas" (big farm houses) in the valley, and having climbed up to the moor again, crossed it, the really steep descent down into Vallada. Vallada doesn't have the magic of Bocairent but has everything you need. We are staying in the Giners tourist apartments which were fine.

Finca near Vallada

Monday 28th March Canada de la Cruz to El Sabinar

Have now been trekking for four weeks and although I didn't really expect it, today was one of the best walks. There is no English language guide to the walk and my expectations, based on staring at Google Earth, were not high. I was expecting a long road walk up a valley and then back down again. Well it was a lot better than that.

It was a long walk, and by the time I got to the Hotel, which is 4 kilometres beyond El Sabinar, I think I've walked about 38 kilometres. It was also cold, I'm still well over 1,000 metres above sea level, and it was a fleece walk all the way.

Looking back to Puebla de Don Fadrique

The first part of the walk took me out of Canada de La Cruz, along a very quiet road, and up between the Sierra de Moratalla to the south east and the Sierra de Taibilla. The Sierra de Moratalla have the highest peaks in Murcia at just over 2,000 metres. After a steady climb through pine the road descended and then, after about 8 kilometres, turned into a nice forest track.

I was looking out for the Sanctuario de la Virgin de la Rogativa, the site of one of several local Virgin miracles, and although it was a bit dull it did signal the start of a really wonderful stretch. Essentially a sandstone gorge which went on, I guess, for 8 or 9 kilometres, the cliffs on each side, although not enormous, had just about every colour of sandstone imaginable.

Stunning Sandstone Cliffs 

Gorge before El Sabinar

After the gorge the walk went up around the Cerro de Castillar through some really high fields of spring barley and lavender. Obviously to early to see them at there best. There was also a lot of wonderful trees a sort of yew tree or something similar.

It was then through the village of Calar de la Santa and onto into much more open countryside, across a high level plain, in the middle of which sits El Sabinar. All a bit cold and bleak but great long views. I didn't quite know where the hotel was so walked down the road south of El Sabinar rather along the trail which ran parallel to it. Looks a good trail and will be able to get on it again really easily when I set off tomorrow. By the way the way marks are pretty good and the GPS trail I found on Wikilocs is on the nail and takes me all the way through Murcia.

Plain above El Sabinar

Saw a very interesting caterpillar phenomena today. Basically long lines of caterpillars following in a trail nose to arse. Now if they weren't caterpillars this could be regarded as strange behaviour. I don't now how the caterpillars go about choosing their leader but he/she was definitely the pick of the bunch. In the interest of science I temporarily removed the lead caterpillar and I can report that chaos set in with the followers just bunching up into a heap. Amazing.

Pine tree eating catapillars

The hotel I'm staying at, the Casa Pernias, is also amazing, extremely spacious,very comfortable and very friendly. I guess you would describe it as a boutique hotel, so lucky me. Full details can be found via the accommodation tab on the home page.