Saturday 2nd April Venta Roman to Pinosa

Nice steady walk today, perhaps a bit low key, but maybe what was needed to get my ankle back on track. It's still a bit swollen but I'm not worried about it any more. What the "injury" has brought home however is how tight my schedule is, how vulnerable it is to anything going wrong, and how fed up I would be if anything did go wrong. I really want to do this walk.

Apart from being the perfect walk for my ankle the walk did not provide a lot to write home about. Miguel kindly took me back the petrol station at Venta Roman and had made me a great pack lunch. Weather was nice, not as hot as yesterday, good weather for walking. 26 kilometres to Pinosa, a very gentle climb, then across a wide valley, another gentle climb, and then a walk down into Pinosa. Just before you get to Pinosa you cross the border from Murcia into Valencia.

Heading east from Venta Roman

The boundary with Valencia

After my last attempt to point to what I thought was an unusual plant, which two people then dismissed as a daffodil, I'm a bit nervous about highlighting what looks like a cross between asparagus and a lupin. Is this interesting or just another display of my ignorance?

Lupin?

Almond and other fruit trees have to a large degree given way to vines which have still to emerge from their winter slumber. Given what they have to produce by September/October then they really have to crack on.

Vines in April

Pinosa is a small town (circa 1100 population) a significant proportion of which are British. The Bed & Breakfast I'm staying at, just outside the town, is actually British owned and the landlady is currently standing for election to the local council. Evidence of the collapse of the Spanish property market is everywhere in Pinosa.

Pinosa

Endless empty flats

The really big news is that for the next couple of weeks or so I have a walking companion, Christine Durrant, and logistical back-up, provided by Christine's husband John. Some of the walking in Valencia is a bit remote, accommodation difficult to find, so this should work really well.

John was able get the Tottenham Wigan game on his laptop, given the game on Tuesday, 0-0 was entirely predictable.

Friday April 1st Cieza to Venta Roman

Venta Roman is a good place to go to on April Fools day because it's the place that doesn't exist. The Murcia Mountaineering and Walking Association reference it as an end of stage point but apart from that reference it doesn't exist at all on the web. It took me days to work out that it was a petrol station so no chance of any accommodation there.

So I'm staying two nights at the wonderful La Linda Tapada and Miguel picked me up at the petrol station at the end of the walk and will take me back there again tomorrow as I head out of Murcia.

The beginning of the walk, for the first hour or so, was along the road. I joined up with walk from La Linda Tapada but it would have been the same if I had set of from Cieza. My leg was really sore when I started, had been painful all night, and I was getting a bit fed up. Walked slowly and after a while it eased up and in the end, although it is a bit swollen, it was not really a problem.

The most distinctive feature of today's walk was the heat. By the time I finished the 26 kilometres at about 3.30 it was 29 degrees. It was fairly low down, and I'm just a few hundred metres of altitude would have made a big difference, but the sun was incredibly strong and it's only April the 1st.

Having walked past the out of town industrial estate and got onto path proper the countryside matched the heat. Incredibly dry, almost desert like. There were some ancient terraces, and a derelict farmstead, but it really looked like agriculture had been abandoned on this stretch. The best thing about this bit of the walk were the views back to the Almarchon, the mountain I walked around yesterday.

To the east of Cieza - almost a desert

Distant view of the Sierra del Almarchon

Eventually the pine trees reappeared and fruit trees and vines started to become the order of the day. Crossing the final pass and heading down to the petrol station I was suddenly in fruit tree alley, a huge expanse of trees, some of them of under different coloured plastic, obviously a really important centre for growing fruit.

Had a beer in the bar near the petrol station while I waited for Miguel. A brand new dual carriageway was under construction behind it, you can see it in the picture, but work on it has postponed. Unfinished blocks of flats and houses are everywhere but it's the first piece of public infrastructure I seen stopped in it's tracks by the Spanish economic crisis.

Venta Roman - Abandoned motorway in the background

Thursday March 31st Calasparra to Cieza

This was a brilliant days walk with a slightly unfortunate sting in the tail. Scheduled as a 35 kilometre walk I managed to turn it into something in excess of 40, adding some unnecessary and nasty road walking to a trip which would otherwise be on very nice forest trails.

The route essentially takes you along the side of a fairly spectacular sandstone ridge, probably an outlier of the sandstone scenery I was was walking through a couple of days ago, which runs between Calasparra and Cieza.

Managed to get away from the hotel in pretty good time and by 9 had walked out of town and was walking straight into the sun along a route which contoured along the southern side of the ridge. This went on for about 15 kilometres with great views of both the ridge and the plain to the south. This is clearly an area where fire is a serious hazard, workmen were cutting the undergrowth to reduce the risk and further along you could see why, the trees along the whole hill side for several kilometres have been burnt down.

Earth scorched on Sierra del Molino

About half way along you arrived at the Embalse Alfonso XIII, a reservoir where the river running north through a gorge in the ridge had been damned. It was beautiful spot and, as usual, I had it all to myself.

Embalsa Alfonso X111

Heron at Embalsa Alfonso X111

After continuing along the side of the ridge for a few more kilometres you arrive at the undoubted star of the show, the Sierra del Almarchon, a mountain which stands out in really spectacular way, a sort of mini Matterhorn, or the Spanish version of the mountain in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. First impressions are good but actually it gets better as you get to the north and east of it - a really special mountain.

Sierra del Almarchon

Looking back all the time at the mountain you then have to cross a sort of sand bowl, perhaps the debris from the mountain, with deep ravines, before getting back to the contour walk again, this time walking along the northern side of the ridge.

Eventually it's a steep descent from the ridge down into Cieza and, after a very hot day, I arrive there at about 5.30. I had fixed up stay at La Linda Tapada, which is on the other side of the Rio Segura and out of town the north west. Miguel had offered to pick me in Cieza but having worked out where it was on Google Maps the night before I had decided to walk. Two mistakes, it was a lot further than I thought and Google Maps doesn't show all the roads. Instead of the second right it should have been the third right. So at about 7, the battery on my IPhone just about gone, I'm trying to explain to Miguel, who doesn't speak a word of English, where I am. This was a bit stressful. Eventually, and after failed attempts to send him a photo, I get to speak to his son, who is in another place, and we agree that I backtrack to bar and send him the name of the bar. At the bar there is a sign to La Linda Tapada which I had missed. As the crow flies I was about 300 metres from the Hotel and I eventually get there at about 7.45. It's lovely by the way, fantastic home food, and real vegetables.

I have picked up an injury by the way, some tendon or something on the front of my left leg. Very sore but haven't twisted my ankle or anything. I think is because Gareth Bale has picked up an injury in the run in to the Real Madrid game.

Wednesday 30th Moratalla to Calasparra

Feel a bit guilty about what I said about the pension in Moratalla yesterday. The water did get hot, the pension was clean and warm and I got a good sleep. It was also cheap.

Was starving this morning so had a double breakfast. The standard breakfast is a sort of bruschetta. Skinned and seeded tomatoes are given a rough blend and you either get the tomatoes on the toast or in a bowl in which case you apply them yourself. In Torres, Christine and I were given an application lesson. Firstly you do a couple of shallow cuts down the length of the toast, pour loads of olive oil into the cuts, pile on the tomatoes, season and then consume. Truly delicious.

Having double breakfast in the bar underneath the pension gave me more time to observe Spanish bar breakfast habits. While I was having double breakfast they were having trebles of all sorts of different alcohol, whisky, anise, brandy, sometimes straight and sometimes in coffee. Let's be honest if you go into a lot of pubs in the daytime in the UK then a lot of the drinkers are serious, and that of course is a euphemism. It might be true the people who gather at 8.30 in the bars of this part of Spain have the same pressing need for alcohol. Against that, however, is the evidence from lunch time today in the smart restaurant of the very nice hotel I'm staying at in Calasparra (Hospederia Constitucion). The two guys next to me, in their forties I would say, had a couple of beers with lunch and finished with herbal tea. Whisky was brought to the table and vast quantities were added to the tea. Perhaps drinking habits are different here.

Today's trip to Calasparra was a fairly short and very pleasant 22 kilometre walk which allowed me to get to Calasparra at about 2.30 (hence the lunch, lunch rather than dinner seems to be time to eat in Spain). After days spent at around 1000 metres I am now come down to 400 and it is noticeably warmer. The blossom has gone from the almond trees and in the fields the spring barley has lost the cold and pinched look it had higher up.

Moratalla

Looking back to Moratalla, the Sierra to Los Alamos (left) and the Sierra de Cerezo (right)

Although no longer in the mountains the views were great particularly looking back to Mortella and the gorge I walked down yesterday. Most of the mountains were behind in the west and to the north but there was a small and interesting ridge of mountains rising up in the plain in front of me. You go around the first mountain in this ridge to get to Calasparra and then along the ridge tomorrow to get to Cieza. Today's walk by the way was mainly off road and very well marked, the marking in general has improved enormously since Andalucia. If you haven't walked a GR, it's the white and red dashes you're looking for not the stop sign.









There are three towns in the north west of Murcia, Calasparra, Mortella and Caravaca de la Cruz. Caravaca is not on the E4 but there is a variant of the GR7 which goes there. It's one of the five most important towns for Catholics, has an amazing hill top location, and I may have missed a special place.

Calasparra, which is famous for its rice (has a rice museum and a rice walk), is also very nice. It is located between two hills with minimal remains of a castle on top of one of them. It feels more affluent than Mortella with more money spent on civic facilities. These include a new Greek style outdoor theatre next to the castle with an incredible hill top location and views across the wide valley to the mountains in the north. Tried to get some pictures of the town but as usual the sun was in the wrong place, will get some in the morning when I leave on a long walk to Cieza.








Got some nice coverage in Outdoormagic, special mention to you Juan so you had better check it. See http://www.outdoorsmagic.com/thoughts-from-the-outdoors/walking-across-europe---month-one/8087.html.

Tuesday 29th El Sabinar to Moratalla

In terms of accommodation I have gone from the sublime, Casa Pernias, to something else less luxurious in Moratalla, a pension. In fairness, when I did my research, I worked out there was only one hotel, saw it on the way in but walked past it thinking it was too far out and that, in the interests of seeing Moratalla, I should take pot luck. I have sacrificed comfort for mind broadening.

Today's 26 kilometre walk was very nice, spent it listening to Bruce Springsteen who I had been saving for a bad day, but decided not to wait. Nobody was about so was able to sing along. Strangely didn't see any wildlife.

As well as the music the scenery was good. The first 2/3 kilometres was through the upland plain I mentioned yesterday and it was then into another sandstone gorge. Maybe the upland plain was the bottom of some sort of glacial lake which eventually burst out forming the gorge.

The gorge was much wider than yesterday's but the cliffs had the same wonderful colours. If anything they were higher and some of the rock looked at lot harder. Unlike yesterday's gorge today's was predominately full of pine trees which, as you got lower, had lots of new growth on them and they looked springlike and fresh.

Through the gorge of the Rio Alharabe

Pine Trees with Spring Growth

The river at the bottom of the gorge, the Rio Alharabe, had to crossed twice and there was a lot of water in it. First effort resulted in wet feet. This was a real nuisance as I had finally got my walking shoes really dry at the Casa Pernias last night. They were starting to smell. Anyway waded through the second crossing which was fine but shoes are still wet and starting to smell again.

One of several fords

Moratalla is the biggest town I have been in since Cazorla but although in some ways comparable, it's a lot poorer and has a bit of a shabby feel. Lots of half finished blocks of flats. Impressive location,  lots of amazing buildings in the old centre including a castle and several churches, it still feels well of the beaten track. Great views across to Calasparra which is where I'm going tomorrow.

Moratalla

Convent of San Francisco