We decided to come to Guardamar a little earlier this year from January 12 th until March 9th, mainly to get away from the rain and bad weather. Although we knew that Guardamar can be a cold month, the temperatures are higher and with less rainfall.
We're now at the last day of January with a bright sky but severe winds all day, so an orange weather warning is in place. So far we have had some good days with temperatures in the low 20s but generally around 14 to 17 C in the daytime.
I have bought a second-hand electric cycle that allows me to keep-up with Helen and also go a little further a field. Unfortunately one of our favourite routes to La Marina is impassable because of engineering works near the harbour. We did try when we first came but got our bikes so muddied that we had to go to the car-wash to clean them. Since then we have found another route that is longer but on farm roads and cycleways or minor roads.
A good example of the variability in the weather is our walk yesterday in bright sunshine (highest temperature about 19 C) with no wind or later a gentle breeze that helped keep us cool whilst walking. We took the 10.20 bus to Santa Pola, coffee at the bus station there, and then walked to the road to Meleja where the gravel track on the PR-CV 061, a local sender, begins (yellow and white markers). This track continues straight to the lighthouse with plenty of waymarkers and finger posts.
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| The first finger post near Meleja showing the PR -CV 061. |
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| The long track to the lighthouse and skyward. |
The track is cyclable, rough in places and probably more suited for a mountain bike with wider tyres. We did meet a couple of cyclists and only about four others walking. It was a beautiful day amongst the pines and shrub vegetation. Nearer the lighthouse we saw lots of tall yellow Fennel-like flowers but I'm not sure if they were Fennel.
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| Wild Fennel ? |
Along the track there was various information boards about the bunkers and defences used by the Republicans during the civil war, particularly to defend Alicante from aerial attacks.
The track came to the tarmac drive coming from the main Guardamar to Alicante road but it was only a few metres from the car park and the sky walkway. The walkway gave magnificent views of the coastline, the Tabarca island and the coastal road that we had cycled last October.
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| The walkway with a view of the lighthouse in the distance. |
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| View to the south with Tabarca looking smaller from up here. |
We were lucky to get such a "summers day" for the walk and clear sky.
For the route back, we left the PR - CV 061 sender and followed another wide pista to the northern end of Santa Pola. This meant retracting our steps a short distance to a finger post directing us to "Torre de less Escaletes" off the 061. The tower is marked as about 2 km distance and again formed part of the coastal defences and was earlier used to spot pirates that occupied Tabarca island. The English translation seems to be "the staircase tower" that I think refers to a nearby access track down the cliff.
We continued on a paved road that twisted down to the road on the north side of town and then along parallel to the shore, to gain the centre and a drink and tostsdas before getting the 16.10 bus back. In the winter, there are few buses on this route that stop in Santa Pola . In all the walking route is about 15 km with moderate inclines but over rough ground in places.
On another more local trip, we joined a guided walk in the hills inland from Guardamar, the "Ruta Punto Geodesico", that started near the cemetery and was a circular walk to the limestone kilns, the civil war trenches and a summit (100 m) giving great views of the salinos, American tower and the coastline. In all this was about 4 km but took about 1 3/4 hours including stops. This was organised by Guardamar City Council with information through the tourist office.
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| The starting point of the walk with a view of the hills inland. |
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| Notice describing the walk. |
The path was through scrub and pines with some flowering Asphodels at higher elevations.
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| The edge of the path at lower elevations. |
The first stop was at the site of the limestone kilns, here just a large depression in the hillside. Further on we saw the remains of the civil war trenches, here in more rocky terrain than we saw further north last year. They were unused and abandoned when Cartagena was lost to Franco's forces.
We stopped for a while at the summit to see brilliant views all around. It was a sunny and a warm day by the time we reached the top.
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| Summit post. We did meet the occasional mountain biker but the track or path was rocky and uneven. |
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| The track from the summit looking north. |
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| View from the summit looking north along the coast with Guardamar in the foreground. |
The walk continued on a descent to the starting point and our bikes, to then a return to town for lunch.
Thought I'd mention the state of the river (R. Segura) as there has been a lot of work over the last few years in terms of tree planting along both banks, clearing reeds from the main channel, laying plastic sheets on the banks and also clearing branches along the side pistas. This year has been particularly wet, especially inland with the various storms. Most have not brought us rain here but we have had some high winds. The normal river crossing on a causeway has been flooded as shown in the photo, which has meant we have to use the main road bridge to go north.
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| Our normal river crossing, mostly flooded during our stay this year. |
Today we cycled to Rojales after our gym session, and had winds of about 42 km/ h gusting to 60 km/ h, so quite a challenging head wind on the way there. Really nice being pushed home along the river pista in the sunshine. I spotted a large group of Glossy Ibis wading near a central island in the river. We have seen groups several times this year.
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| A group of Glossy Ibis in shallows near the centre of the river. |
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| The reeds that were cut last autumn are now regrowing. |
