Day 2 GR48 - Hinojales to Cala

Day 1 was a brilliant walk but if anything Day 2 was even better. The landscape the route takes you through was similar to the first day, with the same wonderful trees and brilliant paths, but if anything opens up a bit with the views just a bit bigger.

The day started particularly well with the bill for the accommodation - 32 euros all in, fantastic value - and Juan confessing that his legs ached a bit after yesterday's 44 kilometres. I told him mine were fine which was not quite true but made me feel better.

Leaving Hinojales as the sun comes up

We were also out in time to see the sun come up through a red sky, excellent start to the day. The sun seemed to trigger of a Hooper bird whose distinct clacking song is, Juan tells me, a harbinger for spring in Spain.

Day 1 - GR 48, Encinasola to Hinolajes

Huge walk today, 44 kilometres, knackered but feeling good, very close to getting blisters on the my first day but after a soak in cold water my feet have stopped cooking and now feel fine.

So where am I and what's the walking like?

Well I'm in Huelva which is the most westerly province in Andalucia, on the border with Portugal, and I'm walking, with Juan Holgado, directly east through the Sierra Morena. It's fairly gentle walking, hilly (we're at an average altitude of around 500 metres) and although the route takes you through a series of small villages, the countryside feels empty.

We are walking through the Sierra de Arecena y Picos de Aroche Natural Park and the landscape is lovely. Most of countryside is used for low intensity animal grazing with the animals sheltering under trees. We have seen the whole range of farm animals: sheep; the famous black Iberian pigs (this is an area famous for the quality of its ham); cattle (supposed to an area where fighting bulls are bred); and even a few goats.

Iberian Pigs

Walks for 2012

Definitely getting “stir crazy” and ready for another big walk. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not looking for another six month trip like last year’s walk along the E4, but I need some more adventures.  So, as well as tidying up E4 notes and photographs, doing a bit of baby minding,  I’ve spent the winter putting on weight and planning trips for next year.  I now have a schedule that takes me from the end of February through to October.

The first trip takes me back to Andalucia and four days hard walking along the GR48 Sendero de Sierra Morena. The GR48 goes west to east from Barancos, just inside Portugal, and through to Santa Elena on the eastern side of Andalucia. The total distance is 581 kilometres and over four days I’ll be doing the first 160 or so, starting at Encinsola, the first “stop” inside Spain, and finishing at Cazalla de la Sierra. I’ll be walking with Juan Holgado, the No 1 Spanish walking expert, and the mad 40 kilometre a day schedule has been set by him - just hope I can keep up.

If I have any energy left at the end of each day I’ll try and blog but will definitely be writing the trip up when I get back.  In the meantime, if you’re interested in the walk than go and have a look at the GR48 Sendero de Sierra Morena website, really good, lots of detailed information including a GPS trail and everything you need to plan your own trip.  Really nice people as well. I left a comment on their Facebook page and they came straight back offering to send me English language versions of their Topoguides.

Andalucia along the Southern Variant of the GR7

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

Accommodation on the E4

One of the great pleasures of a long distance walk like the E4 is the chance to experience the full range of different types of accommodation.  Because you’re following a route you have to take what’s available and never know quite what you’re going to get and indeed who you’re going to meet.  Taking pot luck is a key part of the fun of this sort of walking but finding somewhere to stay is not always easy and often determined where I stopped each night and how far I walked each day. 

 Castillo de Castellar and Casa Henriette 

Just in case anyone wants to follow in my footsteps, or even do something similar, I thought it might be worth describing how I found places to stay in each country and what to expect in the different sorts of accommodation.  Attached to this blog is a link to a schedule of all the places I stayed at and how to contact them.

A few general points first.  I’m a tight fisted sort of guy, I don’t like spending money if I can avoid it, and set myself a daily budget which I enjoy beating.  My daily budget (accommodation, food etc) was 50 euros.  This was easy to hit in Spain (many single rooms), slightly harder in France (double rooms the norm - so easy with 2 people), impossible in Switzerland, fairly easy in Germany and Austria and completely over the top in Hungary. 

Stage 14 - The E4 from Koszeg to Budapest

By the time I got to Kozeg I was obsessed with getting home and could only think about finishing the walk.  My pre-occupation with the end of trip inevitably meant that I rushed at things through Hungary and missed some of the local colour.  Still I enjoyed I enjoyed the last two weeks, had lots of adventures and came away with some wonderful memories.

I knew less about Hungary than any of the countries I had visited. I had been to Budapest a couple of times before, and loved it, but had never left the City boundary and didn't really know what to expect.   More than any stage of the trip the last part of the walk felt like a real journey into the unknown.

The Countrywide Blue Route

Stage 13 - The E4 through Eastern Austria

Coming up with a simple explanation for my route through the eastern half of Austria is not easy.  Firstly I have to explain that there are two E4 options through Austria, one which takes you along the Nordalpenweg 01 and one which takes you along the NordAlpenweg 04.  Secondly the route I took combined bits of both options - I took the 04 for the first six days after Salzburg and then switched south to the 01.  Thirdly I have to explain that my last two days in Austria were on an option which I made up myself designed to avoid what I considered to be an unnecessary diversion which goes north and then south again before joining up with the E4 through Hungary.

Of course I was trying to save time.  I had been walking for five months and was keen to get to Budapest and home to London.  The bad weather through Bavaria had taken its toll on my morale and the forcast was for more rain.  More important neither of the official E4 options seemed to make sense to me.  Both routes struggle to join up with the start of the Hungarian section in a direct way.  The northern variant takes you to Vienna and then south while the southern variant takes you east, close to the Hungarian border, but then heads north to Neusiedler See, before retracing its route south.

The truth of the matter is that the international long distance routes don't always make sense.  They are superimposed on national routes which vary in complexity and develop over time.  Given the huge potential for beautiful walking, the route is particularly complicated in Austria.  Not only are there two basic variants (one following 01 and other the 04) but there are variants within variants (with the 01 splitting in eastern Austria with one leg going to Vienna and the other to Rust).

Nordalpenweg 04 and 01