21 January 2016 – Tormos to Campell

Nine of us for today’s walk, including Rod who joined us for the first time.    Jan had to miss this walk due to her knee and foot injury.   It is getting better, but she is unlikely to be able to do any “proper walking” for another week or two.

Soon after we left Tormos we passed the start of the “Bull Run” walk, though I don’t see how a bull could walk (let alone run) us that narrow track.   Both David’s have done this walk, and made light of it.  But I can’t see either the Monday or Thursday group wanting to attempt it.

We turned right down the dry river to have a look at Isbert Dam.   Quite a few of the group have never seen it, and it is worth a water stop to admire the dam.

I had always understood that the dam was a sort of folly.  I was told that after the dam was built the water ran underground, making the dam unnecessary.    However David told us that the area behind the dam was intended to flood after a heavy rainfall, reducing the amount of water pouring over the dam and along the river bed.   That sounds much more likely than the earlier (and popular) story.

We then walked through the tunnel.  I had brought two torches, because for the early part of the tunnel there is no light, though the exit soon comes within sight.   I need not have bothered, no one was worried about the dark.   We stopped for a banana break just after the tunnel.

The rest prepared us for the next section of the walk, which is a quite steep climb from the valley up to Fontilles.

We stopped a couple of time to catch our breath and to admire the view

 

 As always we had our lunch stop at the church above Campell.  There is plenty of seating around the church, so it is usually possible to find a sun trap – or at least get out of the wind.

And the view of Campell and the coast beyond is pretty impressive.   We took a photo of this village on our first visit to this area back in 2005, and Jan used it as her computer screen saver at work.  So it has very sentimental memories for us.

David, who led the walk, took a slightly different route in order to get to the church at the appointed lunch time of 1pm.   So we walked down to the valley along the track we usually use to climb to the church.   This is the only rough part of the walk, and it was more difficult going down than it would have been to climb.   Despite this no one had any problems.

Even in the summer there is usually a some water where we cross the otherwise dry river bed.   It looked particularly attractive today with the reflection of the mountains in the water.

A good excuse for another group photo

We always stop to admire the large stables and the healthy and happy collection of horses.   It covers a large area, and each group of horses have their own fenced area.   Jan often keeps an apple to feed them, and Susan did the honours today.  

I had promised an easy level walk back to Tormos, but I had forgotten that in fact there is one short but steep section.   It gave the group another opportunity to comment on my less than perfect description of the walks!

Thursday 28 January 2013

Next week, weather permitting, will be the lovely coastal walk to Granadella.   We will start from the Hipica at 1015.   I will send an email to confirm intermediate meeting points in case anyone does not know how to get there.