I walked on with good speed passing through Elda ending up in Castalla for the night. The mountain between Elda and Castalla gave me a hard time walking on slowly climbing forest tracks hour after hour.
For the first time I encountered a hotel that was full and I had to continue to a motel a few kilometers further ahead.
A nice walking day with real hiking tracks that takes you fast up and down steep slopes compared to moving slowly on serpentine forest tracks.
I walked into Alcoy in the late afternoon and had plenty of time to make preparations for the next day.
In the evening I went looking for a sports shop and found one in the center of the city after a minor investigation where I bought a new 70 liter backpack.
My old backpack had broken down completely and was not possible to carry anymore. It was a challenge to fit everything from the old 100 liter backpack into the new and I had to make a few sacrifices. But I was very pleased with the result in the end.
