2015 Requena-Utiel to Chera

Taking the AVE train from Valencia to the station at Requena Is a strange experience, like taking an aeroplane. Your have to put your luggage through a scanner, and then charming flight attendants await at the carriage doors to usher you to your seat. Not exactly like Ryanair then.  The Train slices through the countryside at 160mph - so fast that the 80 miles between Valencia and Requena are covered in twenty minutes or so.

I'm on my walking trip again, from the south of Spain to the Pyrenees. This time I have an old friend with me to provide intellectual conversation as we walk. We plan to talk of Wittgenstein and Kant. 

Another, Valencian, friend has brought us from Alicante to Valencia and we've had an evening meal with him and a friend of his, kindly paid for us. 

 The AVE station at Requena is surreal. - a concrete wonder  in the middle of miles of field of vines with one station official and five shuttered shops. Clearly they thought it would be a lovely palace, but it's a lovely white elephant at the moment. 

There were no taxis to be had at the station so we had to start our walk there and then rather than in the approach to the hills as I had planned. This meant a long slog through fields to add to the 24 kms originally envisaged. After three hours walking we did start to go up and arrived at "el Corral de Paula", a deserted farm in the hills overlooking the vines of Requena.

  We carried on walking up a narrows path through rosemary and thyme bushes till we arrived at a fence across the way with an armed response security sign fixed to a tree next to it. No way to retreat so we climbed over the 8ft fence with some difficulty and carried on feeling annoyed that Spanish landowners think it's ok to block off an official route. It's even on the ign maps now! Later on we saw herds of deer so I guess the fence is designed to prevent these escaping rather than humans entering. 

We began to worry about our ability to complete today's walk. The five extra miles at the start were telling on our unpractised bodies, and the rucksacks which we'd taken so much care to pack lightly weighed heavily on our backs. 

We also had very little to eat as we'd balked at the idea of paying €8.60 for a bocadillo at Valencia train station. oh well  what the hell archie its cheerio my deerio that pulls a lady through. 

On to a tiny village called el Reatillo where we phoned out ahead to confirm our accommodation in Chera and then a deviation from the gr 7 on to a local path, which followed a river through a gorge and involved some exciting rope work. 

Over the wire rope bridge. 

Straightforward after that and we got to Chera at about 8:00pm. Our kind hosts met us at the door of Casa Montesinos (we're the only residents) and left us to it. 

A simple but tasty meal in bar avenida and we were in bed and asleep by 10:30