Overview  Alicante to Atienza

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This is a track I downloaded from Wikiloc to help me.  It is probably drawn by hand.  What follows is my own tracks, including all the twists and turns of visiting an occasional supermarket and the other oddities of using a GPS.  I think I was about 95% faithful to the marked path.

My first day is missing because this track swallowed it!!!

Alicante to Motorway E-15

I walked down to the port in Alicante after arriving by train because I wanted to start from the Med.  I also wanted to see if I could by a small size copy of St. John’s gospel – but that is for another post.

Boat parking in Alicante.

It was the Tuesday of Easter week and everything was shut and pretty bleak. It was not cold, but after I set off up through the town it began to rain.

Rain, the time and the first arrow, although for some reason it is white.

Leaving Alicante, the Camino is well marked.  Indeed it is well marked all the way to Burgos.  I will remark more than once that this Camino is loved and cared for by an active and enthusiastic group of volunteers.  More than once someone came up to me on entering a town, guided me to an albergue or house or flat where I could stay, welcomed me and offered help with the next steps of the camino.

The outskirts of Alicante are dull but I met some children in a fairly run-down area who were a joy.  They fired questions at me, touched everything and asked me to take their photo.

A joyful meeting with sisters and their little brother.

Once I left Alicante, the Camino follows a part of the Poet’s Way a path dedicated to Miguel Hernandez.  It sounds idyllic but the road passes through plenty of industry and the terrain seems to be scored through by railway lines and motorways.

Huge Cement works

Worse still, I began to notice a foul smell in the breeze which was coming from the north.  As I rounded this cement works, twice crossing the railway line, the stench became chokingly putrid.  Maybe I was unfortunate with the wind direction but the camino skirts, for a good 2 kms a gigantic mountain of rubbish.

Rubbish mountain outside of Alicante on Camino de Santiago

The Camino passes very close to this “Recycling Facility” and I was relieved to leave it behind, downwind.  Looking back there were now lovely views and a last glimpse of the Mediterranean.

Evening falling over the Med.

On all my Caminos I have found myself far from a hostal at nightfall.  Since it had been raining I looked for some shelter and found a house which had not been used for some time but which had a magnificent covered terrace.  It needed a bit of sweeping but provided a dry and pleasant corner for the night.

First night’s floor.