Morella to Benassal – More Mountains (2nd blog today)

You must leave now, take what you need you think will last. Thanks Bob, but it’s not quite all over yet Baby Blue. We left the hotel at 07.00 on another sunny day, but as the sun bore down on the hilltops a harsh frost hung around in the hollows.

At 07.45 we pulled into a restaurant where the owner derided us for our paltry Spanish speaking skills. Then the next minute he was all over us like a rash. Iffy bugger.

However his food was world class. Sausages, black pudding, artichokes, stewed peppers, coffee and back for second helpings. The black pudding melted on your tongue and the mild herby finish to it was worth fighting for. Not that we fought. We’re men of peace and we’re scaredy cats. Taking massive detours round bulls and running from dogs.

Setting off from Iffy’s we mounted the nearest mountain and looked back at where we used to live, Morella.

Heading over the back it soon became apparent that we were in for a random signage day. Now you see it, now you don’t. My Garmin had broken and the only way I could start it was sticking a knife in the hole where the ‘on’ switch used to be. Even that outback engineering was hit and miss. So we struggled to find Frank frankly. The printed maps I had taken off some tacky website were inaccurate and got us even more lost. There were no signals for my iPad or both of our iPhones. Buggered, buggered I tell you!

Then another major detour around a bunch of cows, bulls and bullocks blocking the path and showing an interest in us. An unhealthy interest some might say. A deadly interest I thought and Gary wasn’t waiting to test my theory. We legged it over walls and fences, culminating in me falling six feet backwards over a fence into a briar bush. Gary threaded himself ineffectually through a multi-stranded barbed wire fence. It’s amazing how well he bleeds. And as the miles wore on he was struggling more and more with his painful knee problem.

After half an hour roaming around we eventually found a way mark. Half hidden in the shadow on the back of this wall. But it was enough to get us back on route. Unfortunately the route was along the other side of the wall along an old stream bed which had been taken over by thick reeds, weeds, briars and bushes. Coupled with unseen drops underfoot which threatened to trip us into deep holes. This lasted around a quarter of a mile and was exhausting.

We finally climbed out of this ridiculously badly managed public right of way by straddling a farmer’s wall and landing in a field of sheep. Not a bull to be seen. But there was a huge Pyrenean mountain sheepdog that spotted us from two hundred yards away and came running at us. The loudest bark ever and I climbed back up the wall but Gary was stuck behind me. He turned to face the dog and it stopped a couple of yards away from him. He froze and the dog didn’t know what to do, other than continue to bark at us. I descended the wall and we moved in slow motion away from the dog, who ran towards us and then backed off again. Eventually we climbed a gate and legged it. Our heart rates were off the scale. That dog could have eaten us. He was bleedin huge.

The temperature was pushing into the thirties and we were gunning through our water bottles just to keep our temperatures at a reasonable level.

We lost the track several more times and came to a difficult decision point. We were heading up into the mountains and far away from the nearest road. This was not a continuous track, as we had to switch from one track to a footpath to a track to a path to a track. Should I have used commas?

Once again, despite our best efforts our circuitous progress, the absence of a breeze, the heatwave hitting us hard and the rucksacks on our backs were all conspiring like Brutus to stab us in the back. We were leaking our own body weight in perspiration. We needed water and would we find it up in the mountains? And we were lost. The way marks had taken us away from a track and left us on a hillside, desolate. Will nature make a man of us yet? Thanks Smithy.

We had to decide now. Do we climb or find a road and flag down an old flag?

Find out later!