4. The mountains call - Alcalali & Sierra Espuna

After our city fix for a few days, we were keen to get back to the peace and solitude of the mountains. Unfortunately there was still no word from the bike shop in Denia (waiting for a new part), so we headed north again to stay at one of our favourite places, Alcalali, in the Vall de Pop, and only 30 minutes away from Denia, to wait it out - a beautiful old finca run by the extremely friendly and welcoming couple Susana and Octavio. An old bull ring remains, now dedicated to horses, and surrounded by beautiful planting and old style horse paraphernalia- we soon found our spot to settle 😃

View from our park up

The beautiful finca

The old Finca

Horse paraphernalia 

Former bullring now houses horses

Spent a lovely couple of days pottering around - and Ruby even came on a walk with us! Sadly Ruby is really struggling with her legs now, and is mostly keen to stay at home and “look after the house”. But her spirit remains, and she’s still having lots of fun 🤣 In fact a Dutch couple came over to say hello to her, having recognised her (not us!) from a previous campsite that we were on - it was her monkey teddy which caught their eye too - something which Ruby likes to show to ALL passers by 🤣 To top that, our camping neighbours, an elderly Italian couple, suddenly came over and presented us with a beautiful watercolour painting that he had done of Ruby that morning while sitting out and watching her play - a lovely gesture - we were so touched 💕

Portrait of Ruby

Ruby’s daily walk

Daily walk around Alcalali

Getting out into the hills (Ruby stayed at home) above Alcalali was great. Fantastic views once we got up high over the valley below, and Dave got super excited discovering a network of new biking trails - but seeing the gradient of the drops in the jumps that have been constructed,  I’m sort of glad that he doesn’t currently have a bike and is tempted to test them out - they look really scary!! Had a great walk anyway, and both are slowly starting to notice our energy levels improving after our disappointing start 👍

Don’t fancy these jumps!

Then the phone call we’d been waiting for came - not good news! After a week of messing around and waiting for a new part to be delivered, turns out that replacing the sensor wasn’t actually the fault, and that basically Dave’s bike is knackered - needing a whole new motor, at the very least 😢 What a blow! Just getting into our stride now after our initial illnesses, our plans for the next few weeks centred very much around activity, and particularly getting out on his bike into the hills for Dave - some great mountain biking locations planned ahead. So leaving Alcalali and heading to the bike shop in Denia, we decided that the only option was to try and rent a bike for a couple of weeks. 

The bike shop very kindly agreed to hold on to Dave’s knackered bike for a couple of weeks (as we couldn’t carry 3), so we set off complete with hire bike, to one of our favourite locations, Sierra Espuna in Murcia. It’s a bit of a trek to get there as quite remote, but camping site is great, has all you need, and the natural surroundings of the National Park are truly stunning 😍 A Mecca for walking and biking, so here was our opportunity 😃 Always surprised how busy it gets here, mainly with foreign tourists at this time of the year, all escaping the Northern European weather. Temperatures were rising, and while only reaching @17 degrees, the sun was really quite fierce, so actually felt a lot warmer. Out of the sun is a different matter though, but perfect for walking and biking 🚴‍♀️  Mornings here are fabulous, with a routine trip to Dave’s Panaderia in the village - always freshly baked bread and croissants, and something different and tasty on each day of the week 😃

Sierra Espuna

Almond blossom starting to emerge

Dave’s Panaderia

Did some fabulous walks and rides through the national park - I’m loving my new bike 😃 Dave less so with his rental - complaining of no back suspension 🤣 But great to be out and active, in the clean mountain air, taking in the wonderful smells of almond blossom and pines (15 minutes exposure to the latter apparently having huge health benefits, according to a recent article in the Guardian). I’m quite obsessed with the emerging blossom, so stopping every few minutes for another photo opportunity - Dave finding this irritating 🤣 Ruby mostly stayed home, although did go on her short blossom walk every day 🌸

Ruby’s blossom walk 🌸

Walking in Sierra Espuna

Cycling Sierra Espuna

Dinosaur bridge Sierra Espuna

Almond blossom 

Almond blossom 

Riding through the blossom

There are a couple of restaurants in the village, which only open at weekends in the winter, but the campsite bar and cafe is good - just basic home cooked food and tapas - which we really enjoyed. Also, the lovely fire in the evenings - definitely needed once the sun goes down. The staff are lovely here - all speak fluent English, so perfect for us given that we’ve forgotten so much of the Spanish we’ve learned previously 🤣

Delicious prawns

Perfect lunch time stop 😃

Keeping warm by the fire

Fabulous meatballs, ratatouille and chips with aioli

Marinera - a typical Murcian tapas - Russian salad on a bread stick topped with anchovy 

Initially only booked for 5 nights, but the time seemed to fly past, and given the great weather, we we reluctant to leave. Five nights eventually turned into 10 🤣 There always seems to be some drama which occurs, and this time it was Dave going missing in the mountains - or so we thought! Having gone out on a (challenging) ride, with assurance he would be back by 2pm, despite sharing his ride route with me, my worry antennae kicked in when he wasn’t back by 3pm, wasn’t answering his phone (no phone or internet signal in the mountains), and the last location I had for him on Find My Phone was 3 hours ago at the top of the highest peak! Anyway, to cut a very long, and stressful story short, Angela and Roldon, the lovely Campsite staff, sprung into action, and before I knew it Rolden and I were heading out in his van to the top of the mountain to try and find Dave. Leaving the van as close as we could, we still had a 20 minute walk to the last location spot - both of us calling DAVE! But no sign of him at all. After lots of searching, and tramping down ravines, Roldon was just about to contact the emergency services when suddenly a message sprung in from Dave - he had problems with the bike so was having to walk, and only just in internet range - what a relief 😅 So 2 hours later we were all safely back at the camp, thank goodness - but don’t want a repeat of that - am going to fit Dave with a GPS tracker in the future 🤣 This also only added to Dave’s frustration with his “rubbish” rental bike 😢

After much tinkering with the bike, Dave managed to get it functional again, so our final ride out was to a local mountain restaurant in the National Park. Sitting in the lovely sunshine, with perfect blue skies, and probably some of the tastiest food we’ve had so far, was bliss - a perfect antidote to the cold grey weather back home - we felt extremely fortunate 😃 We’d vowed not to have a beer at lunchtime but somehow, once there, the setting and the occasion made it irresistible 🤣

Final lunch stop - La Perdiz

Lunch at La Perdiz

Tasty grilled mushrooms  - probably the best tapas we’ve had so far on this trip!

Tasty tomato and olive salad 

Tastiest croquettes we’ve had this trip 😃

Ready for the ride home

So time now to leave Sierra Espuna - although it would be very easy to just stay longer 😃  In fact a British couple who are MTB enthusiasts actually base themselves here for @6 months over the winter each year - we met them last year, and they are here again now.  But no such luxury for us, so we need to move on (we only have limited days 😢). Our camp host Roldon has recommended a place on the coast not far from here - apparently very naturalistic, with limited tourist development, so we are heading off there for a couple of nights. Think this will be one for Rubes 😃

Hasta Luego 😃