DÍA 5 - VILLENA A YECLA - ADICIONAL

Hoy completamos una gran etapa. Salimos a las 6.30 después de tomar un desayuno de tostada con aceite y llegamos a Yecla en 6 horas! Un día agradable sin demasiado calor y siguiendo la 'Vía Verde' gran parte del camino. Un sendero creado sobre la ruta antigua del tren Chicharra. Fácil de caminar y bien señalizado. Campos de cultivo de cereales, viñedos, olivares... Luego caminos asfaltados para entrar en Yecla y llegar al hotel. No hay albergue. Esta noche es la gran fiesta de San Isidro en Yecla y todos los negocios están cerrados. Gente vestida con trajes típicos, gran ambiente! Hay desfile de carrozas, todas decoradas con papeles de colores, primero pasan los de los chicos con motivos juveniles y luego las de los adultos de gran tamaño e increíblemente decoradas, también hechas de papel.

DAY 5 - VILLENA TO YECLA - 27KM

Alarm clock went off at 05:30, we were having breakfast at 06:00 and set off on our way at 06:35.  The path today was quite flat, being a "Via Verde", an old railway line that has been converted into a path for ramblers and cyclists.  I had assumed it would be quite boring but we were pleasantly surprised at how much we enjoyed the trek.  I must be feeling a lot better as we covered the distance in record time (at least for us!).  Along the way we passed the "Santuario de Nuestra Señora de las Virtudes", a 15th Century Monastery.  Along the way we saw plantations of wheat, olive trees, vineyards and for a short while the path was lined with fig trees, the smell reminding me of a large, old fig tree in Rosia Bay.  Is it still there, I wonder?

As soon as we left the Via Verde, the yellow arrow markings were difficult to see or in one place at least followed a path that disappeared into nothingness!  The local Camino Association please note!

Yecla is celebrating its "Feria de San Isidro" today.  It is suponed to be one of the best in this región (Murcia) and we are looking forward to the parade of some 50 floats in about two hours time.  Getting up at 05:30 tomorrow is going to be a struggle!

DIA 4 - ELDA A VILLENA - ADICIONAL

El camino de Elda a Villena fue bueno. La temperatura bajó desde ayer y la máxima fue de 25 C, fresco temprano por la mañana y con una brisa agradable durante toda la etapa. Pasamos al lado de campos de cultivo de cebada, trigo, etc con sistemas de riego automático y vimos las primeras amapolas en flor. Caminamos un trecho sobre la antigua calzada romana. Villena es conocida por su industria del mármol. Visitamos la interesante iglesia gótico-renacentista de Santiago que fue quemada durante la guerra Civil española y restaurada años más tarde. También se destaca el castillo árabe de la Atalaya del siglo XI. !Una buena etapa!

DAY 4 - ELDA TO VILLENA - 23 KM

We left at the crack of dawn expecting another extremely hot day.  Instead we found a very pleasant day with a nice cool breeze and temperatures never exceeding 25 degrees.  Suffice to say we had a very enjoyable day!

The terrain too was in sharp contrast with the previous day's.  Gone were the arid lands, giving way to    an expanse of arable lands and trees, giving a fair amount of shade from time to time.  We made very good time and arrived in Villena some six hours later.  The town boasts one of the most important Gothic style churches in Spain and a splendid castle.

Along the way we saw our first poppies, a reminder of all those who fell in both world wars to ensure we could live in freedom today.  Thank you. Rest in peace.

Day 3 - ORITO TO ELDA - 20 kms

We were supposed to a travel to Petrer today but we were advised that due to the towns festivities there was no accommodation.  We then sorted out a different route to Elda which is in fact quite close to Petrer.  This will enable us tomorrow to continue our trek without having to make a long detour.  We started off at 6:30am as we knew today would be very hot.  We made good time walking through deep gulleys and following the river Vinalopó.  The worst aspect of today, which unfortunately is going to be replicated on many more days, is that there was practically no shade anywhere.  By 11:30 in the morning the temperature had risen to 35 degrees.  Six hours later on the outskirts of Elda we run out of water with the temperature reaching 38 degrees.  We found a cluster of trees and lay down in the shade.  Luckily we found a local who gave us a two litre bottle of ice cold water, which saved the day.  Suitably refreshed we reached our destination seven hours after leaving Orito!  There is no Albergue here so we stayed at a small hotel Federico had suggested.  There we had the cheapest "Menu del dia" we have ever had.   4.5 Euros for Gazpacho, Paella, dessert and a beer!

DAY 2 - SUPPLEMENT

As we were resting in Orito we received a visit from Federico Ramirez Huerta, the President of the Asociacion del Camino de Santiago en Alicante, who had displaced himself from Alicante to see us and make sure I was OK.  He could not believe that all the bridges had been closed until we showed him photographs! He told us this must have happened very recently, without their knowledge.  He was most apologetic but we understand that this us totally outside his control.  He is a nice man and has continued to help us with contacts further down the Camino.

DAY 1 - THE BEST OF DAYS - THE WORST OF DAYS

Day 1 - 12 May - The best of days, The worst of days!
I awoke feeling awful. Something I ate the day before disagreed violently with me. Nonetheless we decided to go. Set off at 7:00am. After leaving Alicante behind we started to climb the mountainous region. Stunning countryside reminiscent of the old cowboy movies!  Soon we had to traverse a valley with numerous small ravines connected by narrow bridges.  To our horror we found the bridges had been closed off. We then had to climb from up the mountain towards the base of same and then back up the mountain to the other side of the respective ravines. We had to repeat this several times leaving us totally exhausted! What should have been 23km turned into more than 30km. To make matters worse the delay meant we were stuck up the mountain when the sun was at its highest. Spain is currently having a heat wave. 35 degrees when you're exhausted and still feeling nauseous from the food poisoning is definitely not good! Eventually after 11 hours (we had to rest periodically) we made it to our first destination, Orito. We had phoned ahead and were made very welcome at the local Franciscan Monastery. Here we enjoyed the run of an albergue run by the fathers. We were the only ones there and enjoyed a hot shower and a lovely bed.  This days trek has been the mist arduous we have ever done over very hostile terrain. Now we understand why only some 30 people a year travel this particular route. Oh well, we were looking for a challenge and we have definitely found it.

Day 2 - 13 May - we have decided to rest today in the peaceful setting of the Monastery at Orito. We will continue our journey tomorrow. We will try and set off very early as the temperature is set to reach 39 degrees max!