I had to retrace my steps from the other day for three kilometers until I could join the GR-7 again. The day was spent walking north through ravines covered with boulders and later the path climbed out of the low terrain and went up to a plain.
Ravine
I stuck to my plan when I reached the crossroads at Tintoreto, where GR-7 continues out into the wilderness, and instead followed the tarmac road until I found a track at a fork sign-posted Enguera. With a pragmatic mindset you could argue that from that moment I was breaking new ground and was in the process of creating My Own GR-7.
Plain with deer
I went into Enguera and had supper in a restaurant at the village square where I also asked some people for a hotel and they sent me off along the main road north. After a few kilometers I found a very good motel. I had a swim in the outdoor pool and then watched World Cup football on the television for a while in the bar.
I was cruising all day from one village to another as they were lined up from south to north. In the municipality office in Chella I was handed information about paths that made it possible to avoid walking on tarmac.
Country road
It turned out to be a pleasant walk in nice surroundings with a couple of short breaks in the villages for refreshments. Especially Anna was nice because of the impressive water landscape outside of the village.
Balbeite swimming facility
I pushed on to Navarrés only to find that there was no accommodation available despite the fact that a bar keeper I spoke to even called in the police (a friend of his) in his eagerness to be of assistance in finding a place for me to lodge – but, in vain. So, what could I do?
The supervisors
The next village in my path, Alberic, was far away if I was to follow the winding road and it would be dark long before I got there. I checked my GPS and it seemed to me that it would be feasible to move on a straight line through the terrain and that way considerably reduce the distance to Alberic. All went fairly well; I soon saw a big river and an asphalted road far down in a valley and I had to climb down the hillside in the end to reach that road. I had hardly set my foot on the asphalt before I was captured by two men in a jeep asking me what I was doing there. They told me that it was a restricted area because of the ongoing work with the construction of a hydroelectric dam, so if I would be so kind to get out of there immediately! I argued that it was late in the afternoon and all I wanted was to continue north on my way to Alberic and that I soon would be out of the restricted area. They then told me that I could be allowed to pass if I used an old trail over the mountain and not continued following the road. They pointed me in the direction of this supposed trail and then drove off. I made an effort to find the trail but I found nothing that looked like a trail, so I continued along the road 🙂 As could be expected I soon heard the sound of the jeep engine as the jeep drove up beside me, and I was politely asked to step in. It then drove off, without anybody holding against me that I actually had trespassed a second time, instead we had quite a nice chat for a while until the jeep turned to a halt in front of a iron gate that closed off the road. I stepped out of the jeep and one of the guys opened the gate for me. I shook their hand, and thanked them for the ride, and was once again free to continue on my way to Alberic! I still had quite a distance left to cover but I reached Alberic before sunset. To my disappointment the only hotel in the village was closed for the day, and I asked at a bar if there was any other accommodation to be found close by. A teenage girl told me that there was a casa rural a couple of kilometers outside of the village. She tried to explain how to get there but in the end she had a word with her boyfriend and they drove me there! It turned out to be a wonderful little casa rural with maybe six rooms and a big balcony facing a beautiful valley encircled by mountains. The hour was late but I was served a rabo de toro equally delicious to the one I had in Múrcia some time before.
A day spent on the road in order to move close enough to Valencia in order to reach it the following day. Disappointing accommodation in a large highway hotel where the air conditioning was turned off with the result that I had a temperature of 29 degrees Celsius in my room all night.
I tried to get a room in the harbor area in Valencia but didn’t succeed so I had to use good old hotel SH Abashiri, a business hotel I have stayed at before.
This was to become quite an interesting Sunday. It began with a walk through nearly empty streets. Valencia was preparing for a street race of some kind, maybe a marathon, and many streets already were close to traffic. I went by a big flea market (rastro) were a large crowd had gathered despite the early hour of the day. I also went past the FC Valencia’s home ground which is a very impressive building.
Coastal village
The day continued alongside the Mediterranean Sea where one sandy beach followed the other. There were lots and lots of people everywhere enjoying the beautiful Sunday weather.
Gone fishing
Later that afternoon I was looking for a place to stay using my iPhone and my reservation was confirmed when I stepped through the doors of the hotel 🙂
Another day on the road that brought me some twenty five kilometers closer to Andorra la Vella. I was a little bit out of shape that day and made a relatively short walk to the typical Spanish holiday resort Oropesa del Mar. I had a swim in the hotel pool and strolled round in the village for a couple of hours in the evening sun.
I kept trudging on and made distance my priority for the time being as I wanted to reach into Catalonia the next day. The price I had to pay for that was being pulled back and forth by the wind around lorries and cars. Not very pleasant I can assure you.
I spent a rainy day crossing farm country under heavy, dark skies and reached Ulldecona in the autonomous community of Catalonia just as the sun broke through the clouds. I had a swim in the hostal pool before having dinner and a stroll in the village.
I made an early start from Ulldecona on yet another beautiful morning. The stage began with a steep climb up through a ravine to the top of the mountains facing the Mediterranean Sea overlooking the Ebro delta.
The Ebro delta
The source of the river Ebro is in the autonomous community of Cantabria in the far northwest of Spain and it mouths right here in the province of Tarragona, forming a wide delta. This delta provides a habitat for many different types of birds and amphibians and is also a very popular recreational area for everything from bird watching to kite surfing, and it is world famous for its large-scale rice production. Yep, Spain is a major rice exporter. The sediment that the river carries in its flow is set off just outside the mouth of the delta forming a big sand island with a strange shape. The views from up the mountain are breathtaking and very hard to take ones eyes off.
The river Ebro in Zaragoza
My resting place for the day was a business hotel in the center of Amposta just a few hundred meters from the river Ebro that runs through the city.
