This was a new walk, led by Sue. It consisted of parts of other walks we had
done, but never in this particular sequence.
The walk started at Murla sports centre.
After a short walk through the woods we walked alongside
the Fontilles wall.
Fontilles was built as a leper hospital and the wall was
built to reassure the local villages, rather than to keep the patients in.
We followed our usual walk through the woods up to Campell,
but then continued uphill rather than follow the road to the church for lunch.
We then followed the road uphill towards the lower slopes
of the Green Horse. We walked this
section some years ago on a CBMW walk.
We were surprised to find this assortment of jam and
marmalade offered for sale on a very well laid out table. The cooler box contains bottled water. There is a house just to the right of the
photo and the owner offered change if we wanted to buy anything. Mike bought one jar, but no one else wanted
the extra weight for the rest of the walk.
The route involved a considerable climb, but it was in
reasonable sections with some level walking in-between. So it was not as difficult as we expected it
to be.
We now joined the track to Benimaurell, which we followed
on the CBMW last year when we walked the full length of the Green Horse in
reverse.
The mild winter has resulted in early almond blossoms, and this
collection of daisies. This particular
section looked more like England than Spain
It was downhill all the way to Benimaurell on a very good
track, so we could relax and enjoy the views
The almond blossoms are not in full bloom, though I suspect that they
will be by next week. They normally
only last a week or two, so I hope that there are still some in bloom when the Jalon Valley Help do their annual Almond Blossom Walk on 21 February
Pat and Wendy seem fascinated by the photo Mike is showing
them. I did not see it, but wonder
whether it might have been of Almond blossoms.
Everyone was taking lots of photographs, so it is quite likely.
We reached Benimaurell at 1pm, right on schedule for our
picnic lunch. We had it outside the
cemetery, not the most appropriate place but it does have lots of seating and
today was a sun trap.
The return journey was mostly downhill, and on the opposite
side of the valley as far as Fleix.
Another section of the walk which we had not used before.
The track downhill from Campell to Fontilles was dry and unsteady, which
explains why Peter is holding Rosemary’s hand – and neither Pat nor David look
concerned
Sylvia is striding ahead and obviously not in need of any assistance
We stopped in Fontilles to visit the museum. I have visited the grounds quite often, but
I had not known that there was a museum.
It was just a one room display covering the history of the hospital, and the text
was in English and Spanish. Very easy
to follow and quite interesting.
Monday
1 February 2016
Meet in the village car park in Benimaurell at 10am for
walk to Juvees de Alt (The Deserted Village).
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