Hoy Estoy en Alcoy

I spent some of yesterday (a day of rest) wandering around Castalla, which is a pleasant enough place, and some of the time studying my maps to see how to get from Bocairent to Xativa, which is not on the gr7 but is where I want to finish. I was also looking at whether to break today's walk which is about 29km for the whole trek from Castalla to Alcoy.
I more or less made up my mind to break at Ibi for the night. It's a small town on the other side of the valley from Castalla, and stopping there would make two fairly short days.
This morning I started out in good spirits and soon put the industrial estates of Castalla behind me. As I climbed up into the sierra de la parque natural del font rojo, and through a pass to the other side of the mountain, it occurred to me that I'd have to come down and go up again the following day if I were to break my trek in Ibi. So I began to rethink the plan.
By the time I got to the point where I'd have to make a decision I was still feeling pretty chipper so I decided to carry on to Alcoy. It was a great day for it: again there was a cool, and, on top of the mountain, a cold breeze blowing which made walking very pleasant, and visibility was good too. This was only the second day of mountainous terrain and I got up to 1207 mtrs - not quite impressive as or sounds as I started in Castalla at 750 or thereabouts.
A lot of the walk was through pine forests - not thick dark pines but mountain pines spread out from each other. I'd chanced to read an article about processionary caterpillars yesterday: it seems they have extremely irritating hairs which can cause severe pain. Evidently dogs can lose their tongues if they eat them and even die if not treated. Moths lay the eggs in pine trees and they grow in a ball at the end of a branch. When the caterpillars hatch out they march off down the tree in single file: hence the name.
I was much more careful when I walked under the trees today than I have been up to now.
Soon enough I was descending on the other side of the mountain and could see Alcoy down below, only moments away.
I'd decided to devise my own route down the hill into Alcoy because the gr7 skirts the left hand side of the town. So I came down another track which claimed to be private and possibly belonged to an enormous country house 'Masía de la Mota' why ha a high fence and security cameras around it. Most of these country houses are derelict, so I was interested to see one still in use and evidently owned by the bourgeoisie - probably friends of Tony Blair. (I've just looked it up - it's a hotel).
Ages later I was on the outskirts of Alcoy and by happy chance stumbled across a via verde - the old train line into Alcoy. This took me right into the centre and I'm now in the Hotel Reconquista and about to sally forth for an evening meal.
Ps there are no restaurants that I could find in Alcoy so I ate an indifferent but cheap meal in the hotel.