After a few days of grey skies and low cloud we were
delighted to find sunshine and blue skies for today’s walk. The start of the walk at the Hipicia can be
difficult to find, so we met at Masymas in Benitachell.
The walk starts with a gentle walk along a very good dirt
track towards the coast. Apart for a
couple of dogs (wearing collars) who wanted to join us, there was no one else in
sight.
We soon reached the first challenge, which is the headland
overlooking the fort. Here there is no
path, and we had to scramble over an assortment of large sharp rocks. David, who led the walk, knows the area
well. But even he had to retrace his
steps once.
The coastal view at the end of the scramble makes it all worthwhile. There is still a steep path down to the
fort, but the worse is over (at least for the present).
The fort is one of a series along this part of the
coast. They were built in the 18th
century to deter Moorish pirates. This
one was destroyed by the British during the Napoleonic Wars (early 19th
century). It does not say whether it
was held by the Spanish at the time, or by the French. The former were both allies and enemies at
different times. The latter were enemies
throughout.
This is a very suitable place to have a short break, enjoy
a banana and a cold drink. It is a very
popular spot and we had to share it with other walkers. But there is sufficient space for us to find
a suitable collection of rocks to sit and enjoy the views.
The next section is the coastal path to Granadella
beach. The path is broken and
indistinct, and quite difficult in a few places. But it does offer excellent coastal views, providing
you stop to look. Whilst walking care
must be taken and looking around is not advised.
We soon reached the next challenge, which is a short
descent using a well-placed chain. It
is not difficult, providing you have confidence in the chain. But it is unusual enough to make the walk
interesting.
A little further on the path is badly eroded, and a
permanent chain is in place to help cross.
It is wise to make full use of the chain, though Rod did not feel he
needed to do so. A few weeks ago a lady
fell during a walk along this section of the coast, and had to be lifted and
flown to hospital by helicopter.
The final part of this section of the walk is a steep climb
to the mirador overlooking Granadella beach.
Fortunately the path is reinforced and has a sturdy hand rail. But it is still a steep climb to the top.
Again the view makes the climb well worthwhile. This is also a very popular spot, as it is
possible to climb here directly from Granadella beach, although it does involve
a steep climb on a mostly concrete road. It can be exhausting on a warm day.
We reached the beach at 1pm, which is our preferred time
for lunch. David put it down to
excellent timing on the part of the leader.
I suspect it was more due to luck.
Whichever was the case it was good to stop and have a well-deserved
picnic
We did however have to share our lunch with these two. They are obviously used to humans providing
their lunch, because they were very vocal if we did not feed them quickly
enough.
The return journey involved a long uphill walk, which left
everyone in need of a long cold drink.
In future I hope to include statistics of each walk.
David will provide distance and elevation
Dee will provide calories and difficulty
Difficulty will be expressed as measures of Gin and Tonic
from one to four
Time – 5 hours
Distance – 9 ½ km
Elevation – 378 metre
Calories – 465
Difficulty – 3 G&T
4
February 2016
Next week will be a five hour Jalon Valley Almond
Walk. Meet at the Tramonti in Parcent
at 10am.
