Walking Spain

This stage starts on a paved road until you get to the Hermitage of Santo Cristo. Soon, after this, the tarmac ends. You continue along a dirt road with several crossroads, but they are well signposted, until we turn left onto a path that leads us downhill to the Fuente (fountain) de Ballester. Nice place with a fountain and table, the only problem is that the fountain is a tap, but the water is great. You continue down the path until you reach the bottom of the valley (the valley is called the “Barranco de Aspre”) and you arrive at Fuente de la Morera. The walk down the valley is on a narrow mule track with some very neat dry stone wall work.

The ground under your feet in Spain on most paths is very different from Britain. Paths are often very rocky. As most paths or trails are rocky, you need good walking shoes.

 Paths can vary from very narrow tracks to tarmac roads, albeit with hardly any traffic. Sometimes, you walk on very steep paths with stones that feel almost like rubble. You even have to occasionally walk up or down what can only be called scree strewn paths. However, scree is less common than loose small rocks. Then, there are stretches of paths which are just smooth rock or very compact hard clay soil, both of which are easy to walk on. Compact hard clay is as close to pavement as you’ll get on a soil trail.

Not so often you will walk on reddish brown earth tracks and the nearby fields will be the same kind of coloured earth and cultivated. I don’t know the composition of this type of soil, but it looks extremely rich in both organic and mineral matter. Generally speaking, the trails are rugged rocky dirt paths that lead you up to mountain tops and down again. There are few flat paths. There is a lot of up and down.

You can check out the route here:

https://www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/bocairent-la-font-de-morera-124314024