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.

3 Oct 2009 - Lunch in Calpe

David and Rosemary are two friends who live in UK, but have a holiday home here in Spain and spend a few months here each year. Like us they enjoy walking, and always walk with the Monday Club when there are here.

They have just arrived for a short holiday, and we arranged to meet in Calpe to have lunch together. We met at one end of the sea front and walked to the town at the other end. It’s a very pleasant walk and takes about 30 to 45 minutes.

After an exceptionally hot summer, we have had a couple of weeks of torrential rain. This is a very green part of the Costa Blanca, so you have to expect some rain. But this was very much from one extreme to the other. So we were delighted to find that today was warm and sunny, with a pleasant cool breeze on the sea front. Actually David and Rosemary thought it was very hot, but they have spent all summer in the UK.

We broke our walk at the yacht club. David and Rosemary have a boat in UK, so this seemed appropriate. We just like sitting and looking at the boats come and go. It’s not as grand as it sounds, and is very reasonably priced. For less than 5 euros you can have two cups of coffee and two rounds of tostada while you watch the boating world go by. And they also supply a daily English newspaper.

We spent a very enjoyable hour sitting in the sun and bringing each other up to date on what we had done, or in our case not done, since we had last seen each other in June.

Calpe is also the home of a busy fishing fleet. Just opposite the port they lay their nets out to dry, and the seagulls come to feed on the scraps of fish left in the nets.

We then walked along the sea front to the town, and to our favorite Chinese restaurant. For those who worry about the exchange rate and think that eating out in Spain has become expensive let me tell you about our menu del dia. For less than 5 euro each we got a starter, a large choice of main meal, a coffee and a brandy, plus half a bottle of wine, water or a beer. A large meal for four for 20 euro, including the tip!

25 Sep 2009 - Iberian Settlements Walk

Its 14 weeks since our last “proper” walk, so it was lovely to get out and about again. We have had an extremely hot summer, and walking for pleasure has been out of the question. But 10 days ago the weather broke, we had heavy rain and storms, and the temperature just dropped. Today it was a pleasant 28c, just right for walking

Dave and Sue asked us to join them on a walk to the Montgo Iberian settlements. This is one of our old favourites, and being one of the less strenuous walks was ideal for our first walk since last June. Also in the group was their daughter Clair, two of their guests Paul and Jean and Steve a friend from Parcent. Plus of course their two dogs Charlie and Bailey.

On this walk previously we had been joined by a friendly dog, whose house we pass. And today was no exception. He suddenly appeared, and was welcomed by both Charlie and Bailey. During our first “water stop” he joined Jan and I. He was very excited and each time he shook his head we got “splatted”.

At one point we walk past the rear of some lovely villas with a very Moorish look about them. It seemed a good back drop to our happy group. The dogs had better things to do than pose for silly photographs.

We leave the marked track and head across country towards the hill on which the Iberian settlements were built.

Before long we reach both the settlements, or what is left of them, and our spot for lunch. Its so long since we were last here that I had forgotten just how beautiful it is here on the tail end of Montgo. And its such an easy walk for such lovely views of both the mountains and the coast.

Paul and Jean enjoy the view of Montgo and Denia. We were lucky today in that it was neither too hot or too cold, because there is no shelter from either at this open spot, just lovely views of the surrounding area.

On the one side the mountain ranges inland, on the other the coastal views from Denia to Ondara and on to Gandia. What a lovely place for a picnic lunch. And lots of space for the dogs to run around. While we had a well deserved rest, they had a lovely time exploring the rocky outcrops.

Having had enough of exploring, Charlie is ready to go home, and waits for us to catch up. Montgo looms in the background.

One of the nice aspects of this walk is that we go through two woods, very unusual for this part of Spain, where the walks are usually in open rocky terrain, often with high undergrowth but rarely the shade of trees. It always reminds me of walks in the New Forest.

Each time we passed a shaded spot on the way back to the cars, the dogs would lie down and give us a sad and imploring look which clearly said “just a little longer please”.

While we had lunch near the settlements, Jan found an interesting rock. We have a garden full of rocks we have picked up on various walks, but not often as big as this one. Jan’s idea to pick it up, but of course it traveled back to the car in MY haversack.

11 to 20 August - Stuart, Michelle and Jack

My son Stuart, his wife Michelle and son Jack came for their annual visit from 11 to 20 August. In the middle of a summer which the local people of Parcent swear is the hottest that they can remember, it rained on their first day!! Good thing mind, because it did lower the temperature a little.

It was too hot to do much during the day, except play in the pool. Fortunately they were more than ready to do just that - especially Jack. He loves being in the water, especially when his dad throws him around - the rougher the better.

Jack's favourite water game was hitting Stuart with his "thingy". He would hit Stuart on the head, and he would then have to pretend that he was knocked out in the water. Jack could play this game until Stuart was shattered jumping about.


One lunchtime we did go out, to the local Piscina (town swimming pool) where they have a lovely restaurant. There is a large outdoor area set amongst the trees and with a canopy. Its lovely and cool, even on the hottest day. And when Jack got bored, his Dad could take him for a walk amongst the trees.

At the side of the restaurant there is a large fish lake, which Jack loved. He had been to Mundomar the previous day, a water amusement park where Jack was much taken watching the fish swim in the large tanks. The ones here were pretty small by comparison, but he still loved watching them.

Stuart usually likes driving around to relax, but it was too hot this holiday, especially as our car does not have air conditioning! But they all seemed to enjoy their enforced relaxing holiday. To stop being bored Stuart would swim up to 200 lengths in our pool.