16.3 km today.
30.5 km this trip.
1425.3 km from start.
0 metres minimum height.
22 metres maximum height.
30 metres ascent.
39 metres descent.
Track Log: Logged.
Travel: Bus.
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2008-02-11-000-Alcazares-to-San-Pedro.gpx
2008-02-11-000-Alcazares-to-San-Pedro.kml
Beach and quiet coast roads until San Xabier airport. Busier roads.
We are old hands now at catching the 7am Costa Azul bus. This time we went as far as Alcázares and walked to San Pedro Del Pinatar. At San Pedro bus station we got the bus back to Alicante. This walk was cooler, greyer and windier but still nice. You can't walk along the coast behind Murcia (San Xabier) Airport. It is a military zone. At the southern end of the airport, there is a board-walk through reed marshes. This is very nice and well worth the de-tour.
I leave my preparations to the last minute and then have to rush and only do half my sausage which haunts me all the rest of the day. We get to the bus station in plenty of time but later than yesterday. We have a very smooth driver which is nice (yesterday's was very jerky) and additionally she checks with us as we get on that we are going to Los Alcázares (an unlikely destination) and asks which stop. We say the centro and she says which centro stop so we say we'll know it when we get there which we do.
Yesterday we spent coming up for six hours travelling. Today that was cut down to five and it will be one hour less each day until we get right to Alacant. Then we will start going north of the town and will build up again.
The sky is cloudy again and the wind remains strong. We had strong winds in Torrevieja when I stayed there with Mini 12 years ago too but it was bright. It got bright here by 3pm and didn't rain which it might have done. There was an extremely annoying man on the bus who shouted out the names of all the places in a very loud voice as we reached them. The man in front of Neil was trying to have a little sleep. Any way when we got to Torrevieja where he was supposed to get out, he didn't until the driver reminded him.
I haven't located Quesada yet (where Mini and I stayed) although I've see advertisements for businesses there. We pass the La Marina house (where we stayed I think 10 years ago) every day twice and see the pizza place where we got the enormous pizzas which, when we had had eaten all we could, we took home wrapped in napkins and finished up over the next two days. I had thought I hadn't started doing worms yet then but I must have done because otherwise how could I had got sand in my psion. I don't use it on the beach any more when it is windy. If I had known I could have checked the worms to see if there were any useful woos through. Probably not as there is now a bypass which has altered everything.
Just beyond Los Alcázares there was a walkway through some reeds. It was a tweeter nature reserve and very lovely. We had elevenses in there sheltered from the wind. Unfortunately when we got to the far end of it there was a narnula for a huge militar with a great big fence going out to sea. This was San Javier airport which we have missed out on our transfers So we had to turn inland and then circumvent the whole militar. We saw planes touching and going (is this where the expression touch and go comes from?) and others learning to fly in formation. Obviously there are not civilian flights every day so perhaps we did the right thing going straight from Almeria to Alicante.
Neil is not well today so he is the one wearing his cagoule. I don't need mine so must have recovered. It's lovely because I set the pace and decide when breaks are over. This delightful state of affairs lasted until after lunch where Neil ate only one small sandwich (the ladies in our street - I forget to mention we have discovered we are living in the red light district) - have made Neil amoureux and he is off his food) and we had decided to make a push and get the earlier bus so we had some time at home before going to bed. This meant reaching San Pedro bus station by 3pm which we did.
Going round the airport we were surrounded by fields of alcachofas which were being harvested. I didn't see the man in charge close enough to ask if we could buy some. We had our lunch in a lemon grove beyond the fields and screened by some boy cypresses. This was a bit out of the wind and as private as we could get so close to the airport. I got a windfall lemon to have with our smoked salmon which I had taken in my case as emergency rations. We see Thekla's larks. Neil says they must be what everyone sees because Bill Oddie always goes on about them. I always go on about them as well so maybe he is confusing us. I see a tame robin in the nature reserve-unusual for Spain and a surprise so close to the sea. We also saw swans and coots and duck and herons in the nature reserve.