Villahermosa del Rio - Vistabella del Maestrat

 We were a bit apprehensive this morning about the day’s walk. 19.5 km would be ok for us, but the ascent of over 1000 metres seemed challenging for our old bones. We set out along the road of last night’s walk, but after about 1/2 mile my brother said “I can’t see any markers”. He was right. I had relied on the IGN map which has the GR7 marked along the road we were walking on. But I should have looked more carefully because after about a mile the dashed line plunged straight down the ravine. It was clearly a notional path. So we had to retrace our steps into town and think again. I was somewhat disheartened and rang the owners of the Buhardilla to find out if there was a taxi that could take us some of the way. 

To my surprise the woman who answered the phone offered to take herself. This was more than we could have hoped for. We arranged to meet in the church square.  A quick coffee and we were off on what turned out to be a very long lift round into Aragon, past puertomingalvo and back into València to access the road up to Sant Joan. 

From there it was an easy walk to Vistabella, past deserted farmhouses and barren fields. 

 

Our stop in Vistabella was for two nights. We had a flat overlooking the valley below and the Calvary route, which we walked up the following morning. It’s quite a little trek up if you’re old or infirm, so there are handily places benches for a rest.