28 November 2022 – Gata Soldates

16 of us for today’s walk

Yet another sunny day, though much cooler and quite windy

Everywhere looking its best in the winter sunshine

It was nice to welcome Marie back after a break in the UK

Living in Denia, this was a local walk for David and Sabine

 

We started the Soldates climb as a group

But were soon split up and climbing at our own pace

 

P8

We were surprised to find a cyclist at the top, though pushing his bike

 

Great sense of achievement to reach the summit

Too cold to stay there too long, soon set off down again

Reached our sheltered lunch spot right on time

Even sheltered from the wind we still needed our jackets

Fully refreshed and rested we now had a pleasant walk ahead

We also had one more spectacular viewpoint

Much lower than the summit this is still my favourite view of the walk

We stopped for ten minutes to admire the view

Exposed to the wind it was too cold to stop for longer

Then it was a long descent on a difficult track

Finally reaching Gata right on time

And a much needed drink

Temperature – 16c

Time taken – 5.5 hours

Distance – 12km

Total Ascent – 566 metres

 

24 November 2022 – Tormos Circular

 Nine of us on today’s walk

Including Barry and Linda

We were lucky to have much better than expected weather

This is another recce for the shorter morning walks

I extended the walk to include the bull enclosure

Which was probably a mistake

Because it made the walk half an hour longer than expected

We had our banana break at the entrance to the tunnel

Where we took the regular group photo

By now it was clear that we would exceed the normal three hours

We did not increase the pace

To make the best of this lovely walk

 However we did cancel the extension past the horses

And used the faster road back to Tormos

Arriving just half an hour later than planned

And plenty of time for a cold drink at bar Tormos

Temperature – 24c

Time taken – 3.5 hours

Distance – 8 km

 Total Ascent – 100 metres

 

22 November 2022 – Alt de Ample (Dead Dog)

16 of us on today’s walk

This included David and Sabine, recently returned from the UK

And also Tina, also back from the UK

It was overcast, but fortunately did not rain

Cooler weather made it difficult to know what to wear

Though everyone had removed top layer by the time we completed the climb

Colin demonstrated how the very Spanish bird drip feed contraption worked

Including a wire barrier to keep wild boar out

Not sure how true it all is, but no one dared to question this reasonable explanation

We had strong wind for most of the walk

Which kept us moving at a brisk pace

Which decided me to have our picnic at the abandoned finca

Rather than climb up to the usual lunch spot

The views were still pretty impressive and we were sheltered from the wind

 The long winding descent required careful attention to the track

But we did have a few water stops to admire the view

This fallen tree has blocked the track for at least a year

We clambered over and under it, while Colin found a detour

We had our after walk drinks at Riu Rau

A very pleasant end to a very pleasant walk

Temperature – 22c

Time taken – 5 hours

Distance – 11 km

 Total Ascent – 415 metres