13 September 2024 – Monday Ramblers Monthly Meal

During July and August we met every two weeks for a lunch, just to keep in touch during the summer break

It proved so successful that we decided to meet once a month during the rest of the year

This was our first such lunch and we had a great turnout of 21

This was considerably more than our summer meals

The idea is to have a casual get together and enjoy a “non walking” social occasion

We will use the same cheap and cheerful restaurants we used during the summer break

This week it was the Cooperativa in Parcent

The meal was a great success and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves

Let’s hope that it is the first of many

9 September 2024 – Lliber Zoo

Lovely sunny morning with clear blue sky – what a difference from last week

There were 24 of us walking today

Still considerably more than our preferred total of 16

There were also three on the reserve list

And six more regular walkers who were not available today

It’s nice to have so many who want to walk with us

But I am hoping that it will ease off a little as it has in previous years

We had two new members walking today

Teresa has just moved to Jalon from the UK last week

 

Yolanda is our first Spanish member

The weather made it a particularly good day for photographs

Tina and Pierre also took photos, making it possible to include some of me this time

At 21c it was very comfortable when we started the walk in Lliber

But the temperature rose steeply and it felt much warmer than the 26c high forecast

It is difficult to gauge the temperature; a lot depends on the humidity

And also the amount of direct sun

There were quite a lot of both today

But fortunately quite a lot of the walk was wooded

One of my favourite parts of this walk is bar Varetes in Lliber square

Fortunately it was not too busy

Otherwise it would have been difficult to find seats for us all

On the way home we called into Jalon and met Dave and Sue.   He took a photo in the car park and having worked his magic sent me the above

Temperature – 22 to 27c

Time taken –3 hours

Distance – 8 km

2 September 2024 - Jalon to Alcalali

This was our first walk after the summer break

After weeks of hot dry days it came as no surprise that we had a storm warning of heavy rain for today

 

This prompted me to change the planned walk from Lliber Zoo to a valley walk, where we could adjust the walk depending on the actual weather

24 booked for the original walk, and I was surprised that all 24 agreed to join the alternative walk

This included David, a new member for the group

It also included Ruth and Alan who last walked with us in March 2019 

We were not pleased when it started to rain as we left the house

 

Fortunately it had stopped when we arrived in Jalon

It was overcast, with rain clouds in the distance, as we started the walk

I abandoned a planned extension because the weather looked threatening

But it remained dry as we continued towards Alcalali

There was no sun, but the humidity was very high, so it felt very warm

So we were all ready for a banana stop when we reached the mirador

Normally some of the group get restless after five or ten minutes

But today everyone seemed quite happy to sit and chat

 I had not planned to visit the Ermita, but we were ahead of time and had a water stop there

It was still dry and overcast as we made our way back to Jalon

And it was just on midday when we reached the car park

With such a large group Riu Rau was the obvious choice

Our drinks arrived at the same time as the storm

It was quite pleasant to sit in the dry and watch the rain pour down outside

It proved the right decision to do the walk, but we were very lucky the storm did not arrive 15 minutes earlier

Temperature – 21 to 26c

Time taken –3 hours

Distance – 9 km