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.

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.

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 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.