-from our roving reporter

Wednesday 30 January 2008  - Benimaurell Figure of 8

A lively and varied crowd of 38, on yet another wonderful sunny day led most professionally by Jean.

An informative introduction was given by Jean and then it was up to the ridge at a very respectable pace.  The Charles Pye influence clearly showed.

A couple of  deviations from the path were soon overcome, a tricky descent at one stage to be immediately followed by a tough and, for some, an exhausting ascent for lunch.

Thanks to Alan (our regular sweeper) the group kept together, although at times the pace left a few stragglers working hard to catch up. This lady certainly put us through our paces today – in a kindly, assertive and professional manner.

All returned home to enjoy drinks in the sunshine outside Bar Oasis.

Well done Jean and thanks for a great day.

28 innocent people arrived for a walk with Gavin, taking in the Al Ambra Castle as the first stop out of Pego.

They soon discovered this was not Gavin and little did they know but there was a slight deviation from Gavin’s walk and after 4hrs 50 mins (passing by the route to the castle) everyone declined the invitation for the excursion to the Castle.

Experienced a leader as he is, Jon showed obvious nervousness surrounded by such young turks (whom he didn’t know too well) when introducing himself as the day’s co-ordinator.

Talk over and everyone ready on the starting blocks at 10.05 the gang departed without their leader who had to be reminded to go and change his Noddy slippers for something a bit more suitable.

During his timely absence from this first stage of the walk it was agreed that a ‘tight reign’ should be held on the leader.

No-one seemed to notice the absence of the Castle on the outward route, and everyone coped admirably with the much tougher ascent chosen.

Another walk for us short legged ones to get a few pulls and pushes and Alan (husband of Margo) as sweeper seemed to have his hands full most of the time.

No-one had the energy to go to the castle but we did muster enough to get to the Plaza in Pego to enjoy a couple of drinks outside in the sunshine.

Thanks to Jon Lyons for once again stepping into the breach and also to Alan (husband of Margo) who also takes on the Sweeper job regularly – Thank you both for a great day.

Saturday 19 January 2008 - Tossal del Moro & Serrillas

Yet another glorious day – a total of 38 people including several relative newcomers to CBMW.

It was good to hear Crawford introduce himself by confirming his name as CRAWFORD and not Daly as many of us have called him for a couple of years now.The NEWCOMERS were noticeably attentive when Barbara was introduced as the Sweeper, and as she is recovering from a broken leg she would walking at a gentle pace and would not be going to the summit. (Nice one Crawford!).

Our long legged Co-Ordinator maintained a steady pace and led us through good tracks with wonderful views. The party divided to take in the summit of Tossal Del Moro and joined together afterwards to tackle the final ascent to enjoy our lunch on top of the world. (or so it seemed to one or two people with shorter legs than Crawford). The walk recorded by a GPS revealed 14K, 650m Asc and was completed bang on time -  5 hrs.

Most people returned to the bar to enjoy the traditional refreshment where Crawford got his long hairy legs slapped by Barbara for walking too fast!

Thanks a lot Crawford and thank you Barbara for looking after many of us with the shorter legs.

Lovely Day – Quote of the walk “If it wasn’t for those hills I would have enjoyed that walk”

Wednesday 16 January 2008 - Ponch from Finistrat

A wonderful walk Kees - very many thanks.

Although a little cold and breezy 24 turned up for this most interesting and challenging ridge walk.

When the coll at the start of the ridge was reached the wind had strengthened somewhat but after a short discussion it was decided to press on.

After a stimulating ascent luncheon was taken at the summit with everyone taking all the shelter available against the ever strengthening wind.

The descent was interesting. The wind was now blowing extremely hard and intermittently, so much so that on occasions we were forced to stop, crouch and brace ourselves against it. Little Lightfoot (Di) a 7 stone squaw from the Orba tribe was close on a few occasions to making a spectacular descent from the mountain to whom knows where but was gallantly saved each time from doing so by John, the " pale face " homesteader from the Javea settlement. Well done John, we were all so proud!

Within an hour from the end of the walk we met up with two of the " better late than never brigade " who had arrived late and failed to make the start. When asked what they had been up to for the last 3 hours they tried to persuade us they had been wandering around in the woods looking for the ridge - PLEASE. Anyway, no names, no pack - drill albeit to say, what with the Diplomatic sticker on the back of his car and her with her broad American accent the whole thing reminded me of a scene from the movie " Casablanca". Careful, we'll be watching !

A cold but beautiful sunny day – a total of 43 people (some bravely flashing their bare legs. Although a ‘No Dog Walk’, Rocky’s Leadership Skills came into play on at least one occasion.  Jenna’s shepherding instincts succeeded in rounding us up and keeping us together, and of course we were accompanied throughout by a rather strange looking sheep that Colin insists on calling ‘Rosie’

Colin Bagnall led a splinter group to the summit of Aixorta. The gang returned ahead of the others and were firmly fixed on the most comfortable rocks. We all enjoyed lunch in the sunshine with wonderful views all around.

A good strenuous pace was maintained by all and the walk was completed comfortably in 5.5 hours.

Our thanks to Brian for a great day out!

Again this week a total of 45 people turned up, many having made New Year’s resolutions to get more exercise and some keen to get back to their regular Weight Watchers meetings.

The walk was led at a fairly brisk pace through wonderful undulating countryside, with one fairly steep ascent, completed at various paces. At this point it was unanimously decided to have an early lunch to enjoy the stunning scenery in a clear blue sky giving a wonderful views including  Ibiza.

Sue, as ever, led with confidence and enjoyment. Her true love of walking in these mountains certainly spreads to everyone around her. She was very ably assisted by husband Ian who managed to keep us all together and enjoy a drink in the bar afterwards (just one senior moment after lunch when Ian got himself in line (near the front) forgetting he was the Sweeper – Sue didn’t notice!!

Our thanks to Sue Bonser (Coordinator) and Ian Bonser (Sweeper) for a lovely day.

Wednesday 2 January 2008 - Western Slopes of the Montgo

Notwithstanding 45 people had turned out the day before, 31 enthusiasts ioined J the day after.

Initially a lovely day.  The fairly strenuous pull to begin with was rewarded with wonderful views at the top. J, as always, led with precision and as ever added the extra value by pointing out the remains of an Iberian Wall which probably marked the boundary between two settlements/tribes.

A change in temperature around midday led to a speedy lunch, and brisk return. Thank goodness, for as soon as we arrived back at the cars it started to rain.  Our enjoyment of the walk was unspoilt.

Our thanks to J (Coordinator) and Chris (Sweeper) for the first Wednesday walk of the year.  A great start to the New Year.

Tuesday 1 January 2008 - Lleus Circuit

The New Year began with 45 delicate walkers meeting at a slightly later time and led very gently by Colin through a meandering route around Lleus.

Some of the more adventurous (those not so hung over) chose to divert withvColin through a flooded tunnel, but returned with not much evidence of trepidation (not many muddy boots).

A beautiful sunny day helped to keep eyes open and not regret the effort of getting out of bed.

The finale back in the village plaza was a marvellous spread of food beautifully presented and accompanied by Bob Fisher’s expertly prepared mulled wine.

A great collective contribution to what we hope is the start of a Very Happy 2008.

Our thanks to Colin Bagnall (Coordinator) Andrew Bennett (Sweeper) plus catering organisers and staff.

Having had to abandon her Castell de Castells walk just before Christmas because it was raining so hard, it was with relief that Sue Bonser led some thirty of us out on a beautiful day on Saturday 29^th.  But when we got down to the river to walk up to Fontilles it was full of water.  A river in Spain with water in it, how unfair is that?  We attempted to get across at a number of points, and tried to get Val to lay across the river and act as a human bridge, but she selfishly refused, so in the end we had to walk up the main road and down into the village. 

Nevertheless it was a very enjoyable walk, and produced what is undeniably the best quote of 2007:“I don’t talk much on walks” – Irene.

Photo by: John Dauris (more photos in the Photo Album)

Leader – Charles Pye 

Not a lovely sunny day!  Some of us heard heavy rain during the night. Many decided to stay in bed, but 14 of us turned up in Famorca. 

The rain had stopped about an hour earlier but the clouds were covering the mountains and the temperature had dropped dramatically.

Charles somewhat surprised by the turnout decided to do the walk but changed the programmed walk to keep us a little lower and hopefully out of the clouds and likely rain. 

We strode out enthusiastically but very mindful of the gloomy weather conditions. The new route proved to be worth getting out of bed for and the sun actually shone for a few minutes when we had a wonderful view of the Guadalest lake. 

The revised route took about 4 hours and the rain returned just as we arrived back at the cars.  We all enjoyed a drink in Benigembla where we met up with another gang of walkers who had ignored the alarm clocks but had eventually met up and walked together. 

A great day despite the weather – our thanks to Charles for wisely changing the route.

We set off on a beautiful morning at a brisk pace led by Charles who seemed determined to get the walk done in the 6 hours as opposed to the 6½ in the programme despite the surprisingly large number of 23 walkers.  He succeeded.  As the day grew warmer layers were shed, and even Pamela King took her top off – that is to say she took her windcheater off for five minutes before deciding it was a bit chilly after all. On arriving at the summit we were not rewarded with a banana break as Charles was concerned that our legs would stiffen for the descent, so it was all the more welcome when it came.  Under Charles’s baleful eye we ensured no rubbish was left at any stop. Nothing. Nada.  We passed around the back of Andrew’s farm and so were not inveigled into drinking or buying any of his distinctive wine. 

A total of 16.8km, a total ascent 739m, all in 6 hours - well done, one and all!

We knew it would be no ordinary walk once we had been told that it was a three can affair.  What could this mean?  Would we pass three cans strategically placed by Spanish farmers to mark their territory, or cravenly discarded once used to fertilise or weed kill their orchards? 

Other clues to the pedigree of this walk included Geoff's emphatic reinforcement of his walk route description including the ascent and the fact that it would be trackless all of the way.  Despite this 18 foolhardy souls set off from the Pla de Petracos on this lonely mountain foray - little did they know! 

However at first all was well as we ambled easily up the lower reaches of the Barranco de Seguir and a few of us were rewarded by a fleeting sighting of a pine marten scurrying up a small crag to disappear over the top and into the brush.  There was a little controversy over its pedigree - could it be a pine marten if there were no pines??  Checking later it was clear that there was an alternative - a stone marten - but the glance was too fleeting for safe identification. 

Soon we parted company from the barranco floor opting instead for easier ground a little higher on its left bank.  This meant that we failed to find Sally's hole! - a smallish opening into which she had disappeared up to the head (and unhurt) on a previous descent of this barranco.  But instead we did find a stagnant pool.  With Geoff issuing warnings about its unknown depth and the appearance that all life forms may have originated here, it certainly looked like one to avoid.

As we meandered up towards the head of the barranco Geoff took a sharp turning to the left and up onto a spur of the mountain, announcing with an impish grin that there would be a little more steep ascending from here.  Our party stretched a little here as we rose steeply over broken, trackless ground to eventually breach the summit ridge and shortly afterwards were rewarded with the sight of a deserted nevera.  Previous forays had not revealed the existence of any good mule tracks to this point so it was not clear how the frozen spoils of the hole might have been returned to the fleshpots of Benidorm or Denia.

Shortly after this Geoff broke with his tradition, when in the mountains, of fasting all day for spiritual reasons and called a halt for lunch at the unprecedented early hour of 1pm on a level grassy alp on the ridge which was sheltered from the cold north wind and bathed in sunshine.  From here we could gawp at uninterrupted views in all directions  - north to Montduver, south to Aitana and east to Montgo.  Above all the impression was of lonely and unforgiving hills immediately around us.  Fed and watered all that the party had to do now was stumble along the broken ridge line for a mile or so and then descend through steep trackless waste down to the valley where for some time we had been able to see our beckoning microscopic cars.

Now the awful truth of the "three can" walk emerged.  In order to find any kind of descent down from the spine of the Carrasca and avoid the vertical crags liberally dotted through the landscape Geoff had had to liberally mark his route and this had required the use of 3 cans of yellow paint!  We were glad of the marking and only occasional stops were needed to peer ahead to locate the next in the line as we dropped to the valley bottom, crossed it and tripped shortly down the remaining tarmac to our waiting cars.

All survived the outing and we give our thanks to Geoff for taking us to infrequently trodden terrain on a warm sunny autumn day.

There was some confusion over exactly where the walk was to start from but eventually 42 people took off into the countryside surrounding Gata, giving excellent views of the Montgo, and, less welcome, the new Gata estate.   A moderate pace and longish stops meant that an easy (330m ascent), short walk (9km) took 4 hours.  No bar chosen for drinks.

Despite the exceptional wet conditions 44 people turned out. 

Sue Bonser stepped in to lead this walk, normally led by John Dauris who is currently recovering from the cycle accident he had early in the summer. 

Sue had done a thorough recce the previous day to ensure the walk was passable.

Although wet underfoot there was no rain on the day but  the stream was crossed 7 times on the way up the barranco. 

The scenery was absolutely beautiful.  We had never seen the stream running and  waterfalls appeared around every corner. 

Thanks for a great day Sue – also thanks to Alma for sweeping.

Leader (in a manner of speaking): Jon Lyons & Rocky

Attendance 14

Stats 15k. 830 metres ascent, grade: bloody hard 

Jon excelled on this occasion by getting lost before the walk had started. We were to meet at the N332, Xeraco, on the service road outside the Peugeot garage. Several of us stood around for a while, wondering where our ‘leader‘ had got to, and finally we decided to go for a coffee. On the way who did we see standing at the side of the road but Jon, 150 meters past the where he should have been!! Coffee was had in the town amongst lots of workmen having huge Almuerzas with beer and brandy  (no wonder they fall off the scaffolding so often).

We drove up the valley to a parking place which I had visited only once before, and a few years ago. After 10 minutes or so, a few more CBMW cars arrived, and we numbered 14. There was large waterfall on the crags above which suggested that we might be in for a soaking but the ascent was almost all dry, with very little erosion compared with that in Jalon Valley, indicating that the recent gota fria had been much lighter in this area.

The ascent divides into two sections, broken by a brief spell on a forestry track. The first section was at a reasonable angle but the second was very steep with some scrambling. It was sunny and humid and several of us had a hard time. It is a tough walk only 3 weeks into the season. Jon’s dogs Rocky and Xima took it in their stride, and so did Christine and John Durrant’s little Rafa, who really is amazing for a dog with no legs. Perhaps it’s the all-carrot diet that does it (should I try it?). By the time the first summit was reached, we were spread out over several hundred metres, Jon appearing to have lost all interest in his ‘flock’. It really was a relief to get to the top. We spent a long time resting and rehydrating, before doing the final little ascent to the main summit, which seems to have many more masts than the last time I visited it. The hum of generators was unpleasantly loud so we set off down the hill on a now very extended concrete road, with Ralph Phipps (as always), screaming for his lunch. He had started about half an hour after we set off. You should try eating some breakfast Ralph, it really helps. We stopped for lunch on a very pleasant and rocky shelf, and we were all treated to a view of Crawford Daly’s bare feet, which is not a pretty site. I am not sure he realised why no one was sitting near him.

The rest of the descent appeared to have more climbing than the original ascent, which is difficult to understand, but Jon, sensing that we were all knackered. Probably took us the long way round. Lower down towards the valley, the view of the huge crags surrounding us was very dramatic and beautiful, but it was still pleasure to reach the car. So what is wrong with the people of Xeraco that all the bars were closed on a Saturday afternoon? Eventually, Ralph found an open pizza parlour, where we grabbed some beers.

Jon, it was a great day in the mountains, and thank you very much, but next time it is a sunny humid day, do you think we could stop for a drink occasionally?

To cap it all, that evening, England failed to win the rugby world cup, which was great, because I had 20 quid on S. Africa at 5:1.

Geoff Hall

Note from the editor: Geoff, glad to hear you put your winnings to good use by buying the beers.

As usual, it looked as tho’ there was little interest in a Dave Harbach walk, but he is a mate and to save him the embarrassment of walking alone, I spent 2 nights on the telephone begging people to come. In the end 20 not very enthusiastic warriors turned up at val d’Ebo and collected from me the 10 euros they had been promised. When Dave made the first route finding mistake on leaving the village, people were pressing 10 euro notes into my hand, saying’ we are f’ing off before it gets worse ‘. After calming a few fevered brows, the rabble agreed to press forward as long as I kept a watchful eye on our leader, which I agreed to do.

On reaching the first horrendously steep untracked ascent, the rabble was at my throat so I quickly asked permission to go on up the hill to escape, on the pretext of taking photos. I had hoped to get some photos of people enjoying themselves in the mountains but all I saw and heard were 20 sweating and suffering faces muttering 10 f-ing euros for this you bastard.

Well in for a penny in for a pound. We reached the point at which it was easier to go on than turn back, which is what I had been telling them for the last 2,1/2 hours. After another steep untracked ascent, I grabbed a glassy eyed man as he lunged at Dave with a large hunting knife and wrestled him to the ground. Di, Angela, Sally from Orba were screaming for me to let him get on with the job, but how could I, Dave is a mate. These Orba girls are hard!

Jon was shouting at Xima to kill, kill but she is a lovely dog and much softer than the Orba girls, so his cries were in vain.

The weather was perfect, which helped to calm fraying tempers and we walked through some gloriously beautiful and remote mountain terrain, which Dave enjoyed as much as the rest of us because he had never seen any of it before. Fortunately, and as always Ralph had a map which turned out to be of North Wales, but he noticed only towards the end, and he still swears that the terrain is exactly the same as the Glyders. It was a walk to remember, all of it was new and I take my hat off to the leader for successfully doing a recce on the pretext of doing a lead. Not many people can  pull that off, but he has had a lot of practise.

Congratulations Dave, it was a brilliant day, and with my help, you survived to do it all over again, which unfortunately will cost me another bunch of 10 euro notes. I rate the walk 8 out of 10 which is a very high score for me, and to think you did it all by accident, jammy sod!

Your very good mate

Geoff Hall