Spring 2007

15 intrepid souls followed me along the Sierra Helada in brilliant sunshine whilst the hills inland rumbled with thunder. The spectacular scenery was only outdone by David Harbach's posing and Peter Barraclough's jokes. The 840 metres ascent were too much for some, but too little for Jack Sugden who disappeared in the direction of Calpe at phenomenal speed. Riener was also not to be outdone as he missed the bus to Benidorm and so did the trek twice in an attempt to find us. Back in Albir we consumed refreshments at Coco Loco where the waitress amazed us with mental agility and a trim figure. That's my lot for this year as I am due to be opened up on Monday - see you walking soon- John Mail

David's popularity was reinstated when 13 walkers joined him on a lovely sunny and warm day.

The energetic pace was sustained for almost the first hour, and then ground to a halt when the leader was forced to admit "It's OK - it's over there!" The path he meant!

The slight D tour (with some people on all fours) did not extend the programmed timing of 6.5 hours.

Encouraged by reports that it was “only spitting” further north, a total of six people and one dog turned up for Jon Lyons’s walk, excluding Jon who has flu (GWS Jon). Christine and Ralph had agreed to lead the walk jointly, and we set off optimistically, but were soon engulfed in cloud.

After about an hour and a half four of us decided that, wet through and not being able to see anything, honour had been satisfied and we abandoned the walk. Ralph and Bob carried on into the mist to the ridge…………………………never to be seen again!

We had to share cars because there is not much parking space at the start of the walk. After the heavy rains, the track to the starting point reminded us of the tracks in Cazorla Natural Park.

The walk is a constant uphill and downhill, including three hills. A small group of sensible people decided to leave out these three hills. They were waiting for the others to catch up at El Pantal Rock, They found a nice, sheltered spot in the sunshine and with lovely views. It’s a beautiful area, covered with pine-trees and it´s very quiet. It´s surprising that such a quiet and green area can be found just behind the N-332 and the motorway.

There was one little imperfection on this nice day. The estimated time, ascent and distance were not correct. But thanks to the people who have a GPS we found out that the distance was 13 km and a bit, the ascent was 725 m, which is considerably more than the 450m in the programme and the time was 5 hrs and 10 minutes. Sorry folks!

As usual we had a well deserved drink in the bar after this lovely walk. It will surely be in the next programme.

Clive and Jenny Axford deputised for Malcolm Blakeney who is unable to return from Guernsey at the moment. 38 walkers turned out on yet another lovely sunny day. All enjoyed the leisurely walk of 10k, 180 asc, which worked up the appetites of 21 of the crowd for a superb tapas lunch at Bar Varetes in Lliber for the astronomic cost of €6.00. (organised by Malcolm Blakeney)

Clive and Jenny joined CBMW in November 1987. They have offered to lead several of the walks they pioneered during the first season 20 years ago.

In Charles’s absence Dr Geoff took a group of 17 of us on an alternative walk starting from the same place but going up the Barranco de Galistero. Jon’s dog Xima has developed her own method of scrambling which has to be seen to be believed; Rocky needs a bit more help these days. Fugitives from the A team had brought ropes which were deployed on a couple of occasions to help us up a couple of the more difficult scrambles, but for the most part it was an enjoyable walk up the barranco.

We've had a late report on the Pedreguer Circular from Saturday 10th March

The walk led by Jack Sugden with support from Sandra provided us with some lovely views, which we achieved with very little effort -or so it seemed - an even pace helped no doubt. It was also a nice clear sunny day. It was rather windy at times but we were safely steered away to safer tracks. About 30-40 people came on the walk.

A blue and cloudless sky greeted the 12 walkers who turned up to support Kees for the El Realet Variant approximately 4 kms inland from the village of Finestrat. His vast knowledge of this area always guarantees an interesting and stimulating walk with the satisfaction of experiencing an area still devoid of mass human settlement. The dramatic mountain ranges provided lots of opportunities for those carrying cameras to click away and to be mindful not to include Kees in the picture in case the resulting exposure became chosen for either the front or back page of the CBMWs Autumn programme…………..lets face it, can you remember a programme where Kees was not featured on the covers! The first hour involved a fairly strenuous ascent though taken at a moderate pace and on reaching the track around the Puig circuit the walk thankfully levelled out for the next hour as the temperature rose to 24ºC. During lunch Keith from Benidorm realised that he had left his wallet and mobile on the seat of his car so he immediately dashed off to the start point to retrieved said items. Our steep descent via one of the gaps in the Cortina mountain range was littered with small loose rocks and demanded caution and consequently progress was slow. It was to everyone’s surprise to be met halfway down the mountain by a shirtless Keith who having successfully retrieved his mobile & wallet decided to make his way back up the mountain to meet us. What is this man made of……………………obviously his daily spoonful of cod-liver oil is doing the trick. The walk finished at 15.00 hrs and the après walk was taken on the sunny terrace of the Bar Font Moli. Thanks to Kees for a memorable day out.

The weather was not kind. Recent high temperatures had dropped, strong winds blew and the clouds built up. Short cut options were given by the leader if needed. The walk began and when the first spots of rain were felt an immediate conference was held. The leader remained strong and the walk continued. One person accompanied the leader to the Miserat Summit whilst the remainder sorted out a protected spot and chose to have an early lunch for much needed sustenance. After 4.5 hours another conference was held giving ‘short cut’ options. Only the Miserat Summit pioneer was still game! The party returned via The Refugio (cutting out half hour) in strong winds. Total walk time 6.5 hours.

A tired and relieved gang returned via the Refugio reminiscing mainly about the old (when I was fit) days. Quote of the day “The older I get the better I used to be.”

The steep climb up to the meeting point at the Bernia Inn proved a little too much for one of our winter visitors from the UK whose car overheated and came to a halt half way up the mountain amid billows of steam…………….no wonder Rover Cars has been given away to the Chinese! 28 enthusiastic walkers assembled punctually for the start and it was pleasing to note that the Bernia Circuit was virgin territory to several members of the group. Approximately 10 minutes from the forat light rain brought about a quick change into anoraks, bike capes etc but following the crawl through the tunnel the weather was much improved on the other side and waterproofs were removed whilst a banana break was taken. At this point a break in the heavy clouds produced a ray of sunshine on the distant summit of Sierra Aitana and this quickly spread our way to enable us to have an early lunch in the sun at 12.20 hrs. The walk from the fort back to the Bernia Inn was under a grey and overcast sky accompanied by a cool breeze but fortunately the rain held off. A lively group assembled on the terrace of the Bar Peon del Pinos for the aprés walk and the sun re-appeared to complete an enjoyable and satisfying walk.

Another wonderful sunny day, with the temperature reaching around 25. Not a drop of water to be found in the Barrancos – a first for some of us walking with Jon on a Barranco walk! Rocky did his usual good job of leading 25 of us – except through no fault of his own, his owner deviated for about five minutes from the track, but Rocky soon rescued him (together with the other 24). One walker decided the return leg of the walk was too short and opted out to do a longer return. This gave rise to a certain amount of confusion as to how many walkers there should be. A role call was almost necessary. It appears that some of us have now reached the point in our Third Lives when we have forgotten how to count. Two people had signed in after No 16 and left out nos 17 & 18 – they had signed in as numbers 19 & 20. (only Jon has the names) Maybe special ‘counting’ training is now required for the Sweepers!

The long pull up the Polop - Guadalest road was eye-opening as the hard shoulders on both sides of the road have been recently painted in a sensuous, tarty bright red…………but we had better not go along that ‘road’ in this report!

Seventeen enthusiastic walkers straining at the leashes were anxious to begin the walk from the picnic site near Font Moli but were held up by Brian Norman hunting around his backpack for a tube of total sunblock. Having applied the cream and passed inspection by Katrina we moved off to begin the gradual ascent to the summit of Aitana. After almost two hours and within sight of the fissure of Fatman’s Agony the group had become well strung out and for some unknown reason one group took the high road and the remainder the low road but fortunately both groups arrived at the fissure at the same time. Having successfully negotiated the Fatman's crack lunch was taken at the usual grassy knoll and some took the opportunity to walk the 15 minutes route to the summit. Bob from Sagra displayed his talents for fell running by sprinting down………….what is this man on! It was noticed that his lunch consisted of fruit and nuts so perhaps my Fray Bentos corn-beef sandwiches with Branston pickle will have to be substituted next week. The long descent along the ridge was slow going with the loose rocky terrain difficult to negotiate but the clear, breathtaking views more than compensated for the additional effort. At this point our able walk co-ordinator Brian Johnson demonstrated his undoubted talents by switching from walk leader to walk sweeper.

The après walk analysis was taken on the sunny terrace of the log-cabin near Polop and everyone agreed it had been an exceptionally satisfying and spectacular walk. Thanks all round to Brian. Finally, it has to be placed on record following Katrina’s agreement that she stated after the walk she ‘felt knackered’. Is the Iron Lady finally starting to slow down, are her cracks starting to show (no smut thank you Mr Barraclough)………………I think we should be told.

leaders Jack Sugden & Rosie 23-ish people + 1 dog

Beautiful views from the summits made the effort involved in the scramble to get to the top all the more worthwhile. Various unconventional methods were employed to get down the scree at the end of the “slippey slope”, but all managed it safely. In deciding which bar to go to in Calpe there was only one person we could possibly turn to, and Val suggested a newish place which had the advantage of being near and serving tapas with the beer.

An enthusiastic group of 14 joined Al Knight at the rastro site in Jalon at 10.00 hrs. It was rumoured that Val W emerged a few seconds later from the bodega across the road having carried out an earlier recce of the recently bottled vino tinto. Having delivered her report to the appreciative nods the intrepid group strode off enthusiastically with one eye on the grey and overcast sky. The strollie went well but everyone got 'clogged up to the eyeballs' with mud which emphasises the need to keep your eyes on the tracks rather than on the pretty almond blossom! Fortunately the rain held off and the walkers returned to the Bar Olé at 13.30 hrs feeling uplifted.

Due to wet conditions following torrential overnight rain Dave decided not to do the walk planned but to substitute it for something considerably more moderate. This alternative, which will be included in the Autumn programme, is a new walk for our group. It had only been recc'd a few days before so this "dummy run " proved most helpful.

Five turned up at the start, two chickened out before we could get underway due to a vague hint of rain ( both, incidentally from the so called A team - oh how the mighty have fallen !! ) and the remaining three set off a little latter than normal. O.K. the skies were grey and miserable, it was cold and damp, all 3 were soaked from the crotch downwards within 10min. of the start and the leader managed to get lost even before they got wet but all agreed it was a wonderful few hours out in the fresh air which they wouldn't have missed for the world !!

Dave, as you can probably imagine, is getting even more paranoid about about his lack of popularity, his last 3 walks having attracted 5,4 and now 3 walkers including himself. Who's going to volunteer to have a quiet word in his ear ?

The group of 29 set off on a bright morning and 23 returned some hours later in wet weather gear, the group having lost two to illness, three who didn’t want to miss a football match and the leader to a recurrence of his Achilles heel problem, which meant he had to be rescued in Dave Harbach’s Merc. Earlier Peter had caused some consternation by announcing loudly that “The walk up to the castle is obligatory” – he then had to concede that the word he was looking for was “optional”. The group then split into the Machos and the Wimps, with the Machos having the best exercise of the day in the climb up to the castle. Reforming after lunch we returned to the cars to the ominous accompaniment of thunder. By the time we drove to Tárbena the weather was getting quite bad, and when the nearest bar refused to serve us if we didn’t want lunch, there were some who were for giving up, but that wasn’t the spirit that won two world wars, and we pressed on through the rain to find a more welcoming establishment. Unfortunately in this process we once again mislaid the leader, and so were unable to give him the traditional vote of thanks.

16 of us set off, under Jon Lyon’s tender care, prepared to be enchanted by this beautiful barranco, hoping for decent weather, passable paths and not too much water in the bottom of the barranco – swimming not being considered de rigeur at this time of year.

We set off across groves, at the end of a ridge which gave panoramic views across the Embalse de Beniarres we came to easier ground and here Jon led the group steeply down to the barranco bottom and then followed it to emerge where it joined the river Serpis. A couple of us demurred here and sloped off in search of the wimps option to be detained shortly by an elderly Spanish farmer who gave us a short potted life history and then jogged off back into his farmhouse to return bearing poetic offerings (yes – in Spanish!) about the surrounding area. The Spanish sonnet we learned has 2 groups of 4 lines and then 2 groups of 3. Each line has 11 beats. I could go on, but the walk beckons……we emerged at said river junction almost exactly as the main group arrived.

From here a little bit of make it up navigation saw us tramping down a track with repeated warnings urging “privado”. We took this to mean for vehicles and continued with gusto until we reached a walled house where we tip toed around their garden to emerge on a good track leading up the hill on the opposite side of the barranco to make our return.

At last we reached our meandering high point for the afternoon – and indeed for the day – From here ‘twas but a straightforward trog down a few zig zags to regain our starting point and thence to the nearest hostelry, where, regrettably, round 3 of the inter- province smoking competitions were being held – another one off the list.

No roving reporter on this walk – clearly David Harbach is either doing something wrong or not doing something right!

He, plus the other 3 set off a little later at 10.10 am, hoping the ‘better late than never brigade’ would still arrive. The youngest at 60 and the oldest at 76 gave the little band an average age of 66 (not bad for a VS/C).

A phone call during the day reported 55 started on the ‘ALMA BLOSSOM’ walk including Irish ‘Peat’ and one or two other so called ‘stormers’.

Clive Axford, the oldest in the group joined CBMW along with his wife Jenny in November 1987. He can still put many and much younger walks to shame and on all accounts he still sees off 2 – 3 bottles of wine every day. So much for the BMA advice – 21 units a day – please!

55 walkers set out (looking like the Jalon Help group) on a perfect day for tip toeing through the ‘Almond Blossom’ – someone even wore a pair of gold slipper shoes for the occasion.

Alma led the walk confidently, at a reasonable pace and provided pauses for the blossom photos.

Rosie did an excellent job as Sweeper (assisted sometimes by Colin Bagnall), but despite the good organisation only 42 returned home (4 people actually signed out before the start of the 60m ascent)

This year on the usual Almond Blossom walk there were only 25 walks including a wounded 'A-team' member. Obviously the lure of a different Almond Blossom walk proved too much. Hopefully we'll have a more even split next year!

The weather was fine with a westerly breeze. and the temperature was 16deg C when we met at Benigembla. But, as we climbed into the mountains, we were buffeted by fierce gusts of wind. And since the path runs close to the edge of steep cliffs at times, you had to walk very carefully, bracing yourself in the manner of a sailor on a rough sea. But when we paused on this strenuous walk, the views were splendid. It was best when the stopping point was in sunshine because, in the shade, the wind chill was biting. Charles found a sheltered spot in the sunshine at the head of the valley for lunch, which was a great relief.

There have not been any cattle on these hills for 2 years, so the descent on the return journey into the the Barranco de Bouws is more difficult now, as briars and other shrubs are starting to block the paths. And Charles suffered a stab wound in a calf muscle while forging through the undergrowth. The ground was also wet after the unsettled weather.

There were 30 in total including the usual hangers-on from the A-team (A for Aliens). Good strenuous walk, enjoyed by all.

A dull, cloudy day in Monte Pego. Peter Barraclough stayed comfortably in his bed nursing a potential Achilles heel problem.

Meanwhile an assorted group (23) turned up to be led by Peter Barraclough alias David Harbach. Following the usual eloquent leader’s address, most people still thought they were being led by Peter Barraclough.

A relaxed confident start soon changed when the Leader lost the path and had to be promptly rescued by Irene.

The 350m? ascent came fairly early and a bit of a surprise for the newcomers – particularly when the leader produced a rope discreetly packed in his rucksack.

After the initial shock of the need for the rope and most people being very grateful for a ‘good pull’ and a few ‘good pushes’ the rope became an even greater asset.

After the strenuous uphill return to the Masts a short rest was necessary. It was here the Leader had a senior moment (or two), couldn’t stop talking, forgot about leading the final stage and then had to return to collect his rucksack.

Thanks to modern technology we now know the walk has a 537m ascent (not 350) and despite a little puffing and panting on the return haul, the team returned safely to the Monte Pego Bar, where the sweeper discovered there had been a total of 25 not 23 (obviously a retired accountant) owing to the Leader and Wife not being signed in.