So I've finally started hiking again! If it hadn't been for that damn cycling accident I would have been doing this all Spring, and wouldn't have been so apprehensive of starting up again now... nothing like a bum knee (added to an iffy ankle from last year's incident) to make you think twice about hitting some rough terrain and climbs...
When I got back from Belgium / New Zealand last January, I immediately started looking for groups of people based out of Alicante who go hiking together, hoping to find some like-minded people I could discover our backcountry with. Not an easy task! Sadly, I think for most people in this city the mountains are just there to decorate the landscape inland, and go play in the snow whenever that happens... Otherwise they're mostly city and beach folk! Fortunately I did find the Centro Excursionista de Alicante (basically a group of people who enjoy mountain-related activities i.e. hiking, mountain climbing, spelunking, mountain biking...). Unfortunately for me they only do one hike per month! (they organise 1 activity per weekend, so the other weekends are mountain climbing or biking or spelunking). There were only 2 hikes I could have gone on before my accident, and I was out of town for both of them! So I ended up bookmarking their website and waiting for the leg to get better and then summer to be over to try again (almost no one goes hiking here in the summer, the heat and sun make it suicidal!).
Last weekend was it! First hike of the season , so a relatively "easy" one to allow people to get those muscles going again... I found their "local" (offices/meeting rooms) and went in to get some info, and then showed up last Sunday bright and early (ugh!) at the Bull Ring to meet everyone and hop in a car and head into the mountains.
We may not have the Pyrenees in Alicante, or any of the other major Spanish mountain ranges, but I did learn that Alicante is the 5th most mountainous province in Spain! Never go to bed without learning something new, right? ;o)
So we piled into the cars, and headed inland, straight for Biar, a small town about an hour west of Alicante. We started the hike walking into the morning sun, headed towards the Cumbre del Reconco, height 1210 m above sea level (you can just make out the antennas marking our destination if you click this photo bigger, just off-centre):
Usually I'm a shutterbug, can't keep my itchy shutter finger still! But because of the knee I was trying out my parents' walking sticks for the first time, and having your hands full isn't conducive to photography! By the time I took my first photo we'd been walking for almost half an hour... and as you can see we're already pretty high up... it was pure climbing!
My face was its usual bright red after half an hour of non-stop climbing... I guess that's what happens when you're off your legs for over 6 months! :p
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