24 km today.
35.7 km this trip.
1121.2 km from start.
0 metres minimum height.
42 metres maximum height.
87 metres ascent.
128 metres descent.
Track Log: Logged.
Travel: Bus.
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2007-04-02-Aguadulce-to-Aeropuerto-de-Almeria-no-waypoints.gpx
2007-04-02-Aguadulce-to-Aeropuerto-de-Almeria.kml
Busy coast road. Almeria port and town. Nice coastal path. Airport perimeter.
Our walk from home started nearly an hour before dawn. We walked along the coast road with fairly heavy traffic. There were occasional breaks when the old road bypassed new tunnels. After Almería, there was less traffic and the walk became pleasant.
I wake up often as I need to flush out the water held during the flight. On one of the visits I also pick up a piece of pitta as I am peckish. Neil finds the evidence in the morning when he goes in the kitchen. I wake up when Neil delivers my breakfast. It feels like the middle of the night. Indeed it is the middle of the night (5.30am).
At around 6.00, he says he's ready but I am still drinking my coffee and it is still pitch dark and likely to remain so for another hour at least. At 6.30 I am ready and we set off still in the pitch dark.
Neil asks if I can't see the first signs of dawn in the east but I can't. There is a bit of a glow from the Almeria street lights and the odd darker streak from clouds but that is all.
We soon pass the port and climb up to the coast road. We really need high visibility jackets as we are now walking on the hard shoulder.
By 7.00am it really is beginning to show signs of daybreak. There is a rosy-fingered dawn. There are three tunnels between Aguadulce and Almeria and these provided lovely detours along the cliffs.
On the first of these during our little break we saw a school of bottle nosed delphines following a fishing boat. It was a wonderful sight.
On the second detour, on the cliff above us, we saw a Capra ibex (Iberian Mountain Goat) which we mistook for a mouflon - he was quite magnificent. When we looked up the mouflon, he has much more curved horns. We are not yet in the nature reserve but the animals are there for us. What a treat!
Neil wonders if he miscalculated the time difference as he has left his watch on English Summer Time. He meant us to get up, at 6.30 and leave at 7.00. Never mind, it was a great walk.
Going through Almeria was less pleasurable. Occasionally there were Ramblas and we could get away from the traffic but mostly it was busy as you would expect. Once beyond the town, the traffic thinned down and there was a marine parade with a cycle track which was much more pleasant. We had not got much for lunch and were delighted to see a little supermarket. We got wholemeal bread, moron peppers, strawberries, an avocado and some 85% chocolate (as we had forgotten our little Easter eggs - yes I know it's still Holy Week but we do keep the big ones for Easter Sunday.
We then went down to the beach and what would have been a snack lunch became a feast. Our meals from now on may be similar because we are unlikely to get home early enough in future to get in supplies. Once at the airport, we turned inland to circumvent it and, once there I used the facilities and then we asked at Centauro what the prices would be to rent a car. We also got the radio taxi number from a taxi driver.
We got the airport bus back into town and failed to get off at the optimum stop because we assumed the bus would go to the intermodal station. It didn't so it was a longish walk to the bus station. There we researched buses as above and eventually got an Alsina Graells back to Aguadulce. It took only 15 minutes so that bit of the commute will be short.
Mini has got chicken for supper so that will be a treat. It was a treat.