A Walk To Los Molinos from Javea
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A Walk To Los Molinos from Javea

Byrichard

This walk takes you from the Port of Javea up to the lighthouse near San Antonio before continuing along the top towards Los Molinos. These are old grain mills. They used wind power to grind grain for several centuries before being taken out of action as modernisation arrived.


The walk takes you along the port before you start to climb. As you walk along the port you will see a number of cats, either being lazy, or playing. You will then start to climb. The first few metres require some bigger steps but after that you will find that it gets easier. There is a good view over the port at several moments. You also get a good view of the sea.


Where a stair used to be

Hiking paths and duration

The Mediterranean sea and boats

A plant

Mediterranean view

View of the port of Javea

View of Javea and the Montgo

The Casio track

View of the Mediterranean sea


On this walk I could hear the bees and other insects buzzing. You can also see that many young trees are coming up. Many of them were destroyed by a fire a few years ago. In a few more years this will be a walk in the shade, once more.


A year or two ago, we did this walk. We came across the old kiln. Due to rain and nature recovering though, the kiln is hidden once again. I don’t remember if I have the GPS coordinates for the kiln. Nature will help keep it hidden and safe.


I tracked this walk with the CASIO GBD-200 and the Apple watch with the Steps app. The casio gave a good track although it did not track altitude and heart rate. The Steps app, with an outdoor walk, was crap. It didn’t track heart rate for some reason which makes it crap. The Apple Fitness app says that I didn’t burn my daily calorie goal today, as a result.


And Finally


This walk is quite easy, for those used to walking over rough terrain but it does come with seasonal difficulty variability. As soon as the weather gets warmer walking with enough water is important. You are exposed for at least an hour or three, dependent on how fast you walk. In 35°c heat you will cook. In 19°c you will feel comfortable. Consider this, before trying the walk.

Reading About The Camino De Santiago

Byrichard

Over the last month or so I have been reading Le Camino Seule, ou enfin presque and it is one of my favourite hiking books. It might simply be because it was written in French, by a french woman rather than in English by Brits or Americans but it made me feel more than other books. She often references Sylvain Tesson’s book Forêt de Sibérie, a book I read a few years ago.


I like the book because it’s about leaving life behind for 38 days to do a walk, to find herself, only to find that she doesn’t find herself, and that she has more questions than answers by the end of it. I like that it goes from location to location and day by day. I like the meetings that she speaks about, the people, the situations and more. I also like that she has choices to make, whether to walk the normal route, or to take the Primitivo.


When she spoke about the Camino Norte and Français I didn’t feel a desire to go for a walk but when she spoke of the Primitivo this is the part of the Camino that I would consider. It sounds more like the walking I am used to. Through mountains, clouds, remote villages and more.


I read this book during the solitude of a two year pandemic, where there is no end in sight. The people I have met during walks were pleasant and interesting to spend time with. It would be nice to go on such a trip, and to spend time with a community of people while doing something enjoyable like walking. It’s what I miss most from pre-pandemic life.


If you read this when the pandemic is over you will not understand. Pandemics are a moment where we can socialise, if we want to take a silly risk, or we can self-isolate to stay safe. I choose safety, but safety is solitude. When the pandemic ends I want to go on such walks, to spend time with people once again.


A Lot of Walking in Circles
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A Lot of Walking in Circles

Byrichard

People think that you need to get in the car, drive for half an hour to two hours, hike, and then drive home for from half an hour to two hours but this idea is wrong. We can do a lot of walking in circles. In reality we don’t walk in circles. We walk in loops. We walk from home to home, but via a different variety of villages. Some days it is the villages that overlook the lake, and other days it is the villages that are under the Jura.


The walks are in almost the same place, but with different dynamics. One takes you along fields, trees, the camino de Santiago and the trail of the Hughenots and the next takes you along vines, orchards, woods and more. They also take you along different groups of people.



Most people seem to walk from village one to village two in a loop. They usually finish within an hour but I often walk from one and a half hours to two, and sometimes three, depending on whether it is summer or winter. There is more time to walk in summer. So much walking, 365 or so days a year, does mount up. Depending on the app it amounts to 2600 or more kilometres of walking. That is a considerable distance. 28,000 metres gained, despite not going up to the Jura, or doing sporty climbs this year. Simple walks, with the occasional bike ride thrown in.




In a normal year I might spend less time doing sports, but the carbbon footprint from driving to do those sports would be higher. I would also have more to write about, as I would have been exploring and discovering new places. At this rate my discoveries were books in lending libraries. I don’t mind walking. I show that I have the stamina to do a real hiking journey, rather than the loop walks. With the way the pandemic I could spend many more walks wearing out shoes going around in circles.






Hiking And Tea

Hiking And Tea

Byrichard

This morning, as I was doing laundry, I found that I couldn’t focus so I started to look at all the teas that are available at a local shop. I saw that they had herb teas, mint teas, nettle teas, weed tea and more. I also noticed that tea is cheap. You can get twenty cups worth of tea for 0.95 CHF if you’re not picky about the tea you drink. What I find interesting about the broad selection and choices of tea is that it is so cheap compared to water, soft drinks, fizzy drinks, juices, coffee and more. Not only is it cheap, but it is light and easy to carry.


If I was setting off on a multiday hike I think I would transport several bags of tea, and I’d make tea. If it was in the middle of summer I would use the sun to warm up the water in which I would then put the tea, and I’d have a warm cup of tea within a few hours. If you carry fuel with you then you can boil the water, kill any bacteria and viruses and then drink it. Of course this may involve carrying more fuel than you’d like.


I noticed that some teas are cold brew, just put the bag in, wait, and within a certain period of time it’s ready. As you can tell, I have not read the instructions.


I will spend more time looking at different types of tea and I will experiment. It is easy to store, transport, and prepare. Easier than hot chocolate. This morning motivates me to be more adventurous with tea, and to find one or more that I like.


I ran my coffee experiment. I put four espressos into a single cup, and drank it, to see if I like the taste, to determine whether I would buy the grains, and a grinder. As the experiment was a success I can move ahead with that plan.


You see, pandemic life makes us eccentric. Months of solitude has that effect on our well-being.


A few months ago I walked by some nettles and I thought “it smells of mint” and today I looked up the taste of nettles and I saw that they taste of “spinach and cucumber, with a hint of mint.” I don’t mind mint and cucumber, but Spinach puts me off. Shame. It has health benefits.

A Saturday Walk During A Pandemic

Byrichard

Last week it was comfortable and warm so it was tempting to go cycling. This week it has gone back to being cold. Yesterday it was cold and windy and today was cold but sunny. I went for my usual walk but rather than listen to a podcast I watched TikTok videos as I walked at full speed. I am so used to the paths that I do not always need to pay attention.


The paths are dry. It hasn’t rained in days. The rivers are lower than they’ve been in a while and in theory river walking may be possible once again, as long as you don’t mind cold feet.


What was out of the ordinary today is that I saw people walking through fields on two separate occasions. On one occasion it was a trio of older people and their behaviour made no sense to me, for the simple reason that you can very easily walk around the field, and that the field has crops on it. If you’re going to walk through a field make sure that it has been harvested, that it is fallow or that no cows are using it.


I later saw a duo of people doing the same thing on another field and this does seem odd. Why would two groups of people have the same discourteous behaviour of walking over a crop?


Rather than walk along the usual routes I cut through the forest, walking through leaves, over dead branches, between trees and more. I filmed the progress I made. At the moment walking through forests is easy because none of the undergrowth is out yet. Walking between trees is easy, and so is navigating. When the undergrowth grows in spring such explorations will no longer be possible. That is when cycling will be more fun. I look forward to the cycling season starting properly once again. I went to be on the bike, and to explore. I also want to feel that something is finally changing.


I saw a Trio of older women and I thought that they may be having adventures like the three men in Last of the Summer Wine. A trio of friends going for mischievous adventures in nature during their afternoon walks.


The Slowness of Public Transport

Byrichard

Today someone something to the effect “If I go from here to there it will take me two and a half hours so it would require a car.” That’s what I have been saying for years. That’s one of the reasons for which having a sporty life, during the pandemic, is not possible, or at least requires a much bigger commitment.


Summer sporting activities are vulnerable because in times of pandemics car sharing is no longer possible, and is no longer advisable. If you’re in a car for an hour or two each way then the mask will not protect you effectively, especially if the windows are closed. Trains used to have windows that you could open. Now that they don’t their allure is diminished during such times.


The problem, during this pandemic, has been the same for months now. We don’t know where people were when they were exposed so we don’t know what locations are safe, and which locations are not. We’re stuck in limbo. We might have been safe for the entire pandemic, never being within a kilometre of the virus, but we have no way of knowing.


With fourty infections during the last two days is Switzerland back to Pre-21st of June numbers or is the lull simply because those who were most likely to be infected are now on holiday? Will we see a big increase in the number of cases shortly?


As long as that insecurity lasts summer socialising through sports is less appealing. People have also migrated to using Facebook to plan activities and a consequence of this is that if you want to dump Facebook, you have to be creative about finding other groups, and websites, to find activities to participate in.


Imagine an app like Happn or SwissCovid but for sports. That would be really useful. You would not have to spend hours on social networks, looking for opportunities and you would not have to be active about finding things. It would run in the background and if you spend enough time it could give you more info.


It’s like the flyby function on Strava. You go for a ride and you can see who the other cyclists were, that you crossed paths with. In theory, you can then start to plan group activities. We need apps to help us meet new people who live close by so that we can stop relying on cars, public transport, and social media websites.


As the pandemic has reset how we think of time and space we need to rethink how we use modern technology to connect with others. Do we really need to rely on American Social networks to connect with people in Europe? Do we really need to be so centralised?


With Apple Login it would be interesting to create apps that allow us to connect with others, without relying on websites with dubious moralities. With my learning of Ruby On Rails, PHP, MySQL, PHP and more, the opportunity to create such a service is growing.

Hiking in Switzerland

Hiking in Switzerland

Byrichard

In 2019 Swiss people spent 162 million hours walking and hiking in Switzerland. Hiking generates 2.5 billion CHF per year and there are 50,000 signs to help people find their way. In Switzerland people hike 20 times per year.


I go for a two to three hour walk/hike every single day and as a result I have walked almost 2 million steps since March.


The Canton de Vaud has 3736 kilometres of hiking trails of which 1538 have hard surfaces. 547 kilometres are in the mountains. 136 volunteers help keep the paths open.


The total number of hiking trails in Switzerland amount to 66,722 kilometres, of which 17444 have hard surfaces. 24,783 kilometres are in the mountains. For 2019 there were 1028 organised hikes by Randonner.ch. These facts and figures are from the 2019 annual report.