This two day walk was organised by Gail of the U3A Wednesday
Wanderers. The aim was to walk the 14
km route between Beniramma and Benissili and visit the eight villages in
between.
Gail had booked accommodation for the twelve members of the
group in the picturesque village of Benissiva, which is about midway between
Beniramma and Benissili.
We were joined on the first day by six more of the group,
for the first half of the walk to Beniramma. It was fortunate that though hot, it was not as hot as earlier in the
week. This was partly because of a
cooling breeze.
The walk is well sign posted, and we had no trouble
following the track to Beniramma. Indeed
we were quite surprised that we got there so quickly.
8 June is the Cherry Festival in Beniramma, and the village
was crowded with visitors, mostly Spanish.
The highlight of the celebrations was this giant paella. There were also quite a few stalls packed
into the narrow streets of the village.
Despite the crowd it was easy to find a quiet little corner
of Beniramma, which made us realise what an attractive village it would be to
visit outside the fiesta season.
We were back in Benissiva by mid afternoon. After a cooling swim in the hotel pool we
gathered in the village square to decide where to eat. We had not expected that almost all of the restaurants
would be closed in the evening. All had
been packed for lunch, and were determined to close at 6pm. Fortunately Gail had found one in the nearby
village of Beniali who was tempted with the prospect of 12 hungry walkers. It was not cheap, but it was a very good
meal. And there was no other option
anyway.
Next morning we tackled the other five villages from
Benissiva to Benissili. After a good
breakfast we set off at 10am.
It was much warmer than the previous day, and we had a
considerably longer walk ahead of us.
It was estimated to be 7 Km each way, which is quite a reasonable walk
even during the walking season. 14km is
a long walk in mid June when the temperatures can reach mid 30s. It was not that hot, but it was hot enough.
So a cooling font was a welcome find and even if the water
was not drinkable it was ideal for a quick rinse.
Not sure which village this was, possibly La Carroja. To be honest they all started to look much
the same, and indeed very similar to those we have in the Jalon valley.
The big difference was the abundance of well laden cherry
trees. On the outward journey these
were a great attraction, and everyone helped themselves to a handful. But after a couple of hours we had all eaten
our full.
The route is very well sign posted, both with finger posts
and maps at the entrance to each village.
The walk could well have been called “the armpits
walk”. Every time there was a slight
breeze Alan would bellow “armpits” and everyone would raise their arms to take
advantage of the breeze. So it was
appropriate to celebrate with a special “armpits” when we finally reached
Benisili (or Benissili as it is spelled in the map from the tourist information
office)
For the outward walk we had followed the twisting route
which winded through the villages. But
for the return we mostly followed the more direct road back to Benissiva. It was not as attractive, but it had the
advantage of being much quicker. The
outward journey took about four hours, the return about two hours.
We left as soon as we finished the walk to drive back to
Parcent. The rest of the group was
booked in for a second night at the hotel in Benissiva. No plans had been made for the third day,
but I suspect it would not include another such ambitious walk. There was a clear feeling that we had done
well to complete the whole walk, and that a more restful day might be a
fitting end to a lovely break.
