Tuesday & Wednesday 31 Jan & 1 February - Puebla de Farnals

Where's Bertie? He's still at the Aire in Puebla de Farnals.
Weather: Wall-to-wall sunshine. Max of 12 degrees on Tuesday and 14 today.

Tuesday
Only a day has passed, but it's a struggle to remember what we did yesterday. There was definitely a run, during which we (separately, as our aims didn't coincide) discovered that with some boardwalks and grit walkways joining the formal promenades, it's possible to keep to the coast all the way from here to Playa to Puçol, where we stayed in January 2020. (Playa de Puçol is 5km N of here, but it then has its own 2.5km-long promenade.) 

They don't skimp on facilities for walking and cycling. You're never many paces from a litter bin either.

My turn-around point was at the very car park where we spent a couple of nights on that trip.

The other big news of yesterday was that my shingles rash improved to a remarkable degree, scabbing over and no longer being raised and angry. With the discomfort in my back almost disappearing too, I took it as an indication that it would be entirely sensible to go and run 35k today.

Wednesday
Looking at a couple of weather forecasts before I headed out the door this morning, the BBC was telling me that it was 1 degree outside and YR was saying 7 degrees. On this occasion, I knew that YR couldn't be right, as Bertie's heating (set to 8 degrees) wouldn't have kicked in at 4am and again at a quarter to seven if it had been 7 degrees out. I poked my head out the door and reported back to Mick, who was very sensibly still under the duvet: there was a frost on the grass. Meanwhile my Facebook memories of this day on three previous trips to Spain show us out and about in short sleeves (in fact, I can't think that we've ever had a frost in Spain on the coast before).

Heading out at sunrise, it didn't take awfully long for the sun to get high enough to reach me, but to my surprise the frost lasted well over an hour - making the pedestrian bridge over the motorway, with a footway formed of metal sheets, a slippery proposition.

One lap (of 2) down, I popped back to Bertie where I ditched my windshirt and gloves, proceeding in just t-shirt and cropped leggings, as by then it was perfectly warm out.

Nearly daylight

Yet more excellent walking and cycling infrastructure. Despite the lack of people in these photos, it was being put to good use.

After a thoroughly enjoyable time, I got back to Bertie with 35.5k under my belt, with only one sore quad and one little blister to show for it. I then insisted that we had enough water for me to shower, even though we hadn't put any in Bertie's tank since a week last Monday (and then we didn't even half fill it). I was right, but only just, with the water slowing to a trickle just as I was done.

As per yesterday, the afternoon was spent on the laptop; we're not being hampered by a lack of power now.

It's a pity we have to leave here tomorrow. Whilst there are quite a few negatives to this place (including the barking dog who disturbed us at various points during the night and has just started up again now), another night here would have been convenient. Tomorrow's first job will be working out where we're going next.