I spent some time last night looking for an appealing idea for a bike ride, but nothing jumped out that looked as attractive as just walking along the beach. I’ve biked three days straight anyway so I feel like I’ve earned some leisure time.
I don’t do much - maybe four miles? I walk west on the beach as far as I can, which takes me to the short jetty that serves as a breakwater to protect the beach and calm the waters in front of town. Beyond that the beach disappears, the rocks beneath the cliff extend to the waterline, and the cliffs are no longer covered by a steel mesh to control rockfalls. There’s a faint trail that continues on, but I wouldn’t like it if Rachael went out there beneath that eroding cliff, so I don’t either.
A colorful staircase leads down to the beach at the west end of town.
The short jetty marks the end of the beach in this direction. Note also the cliff - the wall is restrained by steel mesh on the right, but not the left. There’s a sign warning of falling rocks if you continue walking past the jetty.
The view from the jetty to the next headland to the west, Morro de Toix. If you look closely, you’ll see a trail angling up the face of the cliff and crossing over through a gap. If I got the timing right and my zoom was powerful enough we could see Rachael up there.
So I turn back to town, and then double back on the trail along the top of the cliff. I follow it just about as far as right above the jetty, but when it starts dropping steeply down the other side into a neighborhood I decide to turn back. My knees aren’t doing particularly well today and I don’t really need to be trudging down all those stairs and then back up again. Instead I’m pretty to content to just walk back to town again, find a comfortable spot sheltered from the wind on that colorful staircase, and soak up the sun and stare at the sea until Rachael returns from her own much longer walk and we can go get lunch.
The west end of Calpe and its beach. There’s a stretch about equally as large on the other side of the rock.
Rachael’s subcontracted her share of the post to me this morning so she can sift through the reams of video she came home with from the day ahead. I didn’t agree to say much about it though, so mostly you’re going to get a photo dump from her phone with a few words of context.
She’s on a route I sketched out for her that follows the coast to the west and back. It begins with the same cliff-top trail I just mentioned, but instead of turning back at those stairs as I did she continues on for another four miles, first by dropping down and meandering through a very upscale residential area of stylish homes with dynamite views.
This is along the same stretch of the trail I walked. I took a photo of this spot too, but her phone really does better with this sort of thing.
Here are those stairs I turned back. Its a good spot for perspective though, because looking ahead you can see where she’s headed - to that trail that angles up the farthest headland, Morro de Toix.
There’s no straight path through the gap, so s she zigzags her way through she gets plenty of chances to ogle at these mansions and the colorful rocks backdropping them and imagine we lived here.
Steve Miller/GrampiesGuess we may not get an invite, if the criterion is good behavior. On the other hand, if it could be based on good intentions......... Reply to this comment 1 month ago
And here’s the trail. When I drew this out for her I was a little uncertain how safe it would be, because on the map view it looks like such a thin line along a precariously steep cliff. It’s just fine though, obviously.
The photo earlier showed the trail she’s on, angling up the face of that headland. It only shows half of the trail though, because once it reaches the top it passes through a gap and doubles back on the other side. Easier to understand if you look at the map.
Once she’s through that gap she gets views down to the Bay of Altea, which we’ll bike along tomorrow on our ride from Calpe.
