Monday, October 5, 2009

5 Oct 2009 - Advocat to Calpe


Lovely day for our first Monday Club walk of the season. It’s hard to believe that last week, which was meant to be the first walk, had to be cancelled because of heavy rain.



We met at Advocat bay and walked to Calpe, a walk of about 8 miles. Shorter than our normal walks, but it was meant to be an easy walk to “break us in” after the summer break. In fact it turned out to be quite a challenging walk due to a very warm day and a lot of “ups and downs”.



The walk was along the coast, with lovely views of Calpe Rock for most of the journey.



Part of the walk was along a good coastal path, but some was clambering over rocks.



Photo 5

Our first short break, just long enough for a much needed “water break


The path has been greatly improved since we last did it about two years ago. The local council have provided nice little seating and picnic areas with attractive views.



Calpe was the half way point, and we had a short break in the welcome shade. It was surprisingly warm, and we were very pleased to find a nice shady wall to sit on. However being a shorter than normal walk it was too early for lunch, so we had a “banana break”.



We don’t normally have a proper café to stop during a walk, but this one is the exception. A short distance from Calpe there is a water sports centre with a café offering one of the nicest views of Calpe. It was too tempting for our group, who insisted on a short break to have a cold drink.



A few miles on we came to the Tourist Information office, with its shaded picnic area. Again we do not often have a proper shaded picnic area for lunch, and we made the best of it.



Being our first walk we were all a little stiff after our lunch break, but we were soon back into our stride for the short walk back to the cars



We were all very impressed by this lovely “cairn” on the beach



It’s traditional for passing walkers to add a stone to any cairn they pass. And David did so with this one – which promptly collapsed



The harder he tried, the more it fell apart, and of course everyone did their best to help him – not!



The last stretch of the walk is a steep climb, followed by a flat walk through the woods. Lovely spot, especially with the cool wind off the sea.

Great to see everyone again, great to have such a lovely walk to get us back into our stride.