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Slept in Reno airport to ensure timely arrival for early flight to Oakland. Flight from San Francisco to London delayed by 3 hours. Because I had long layover, delay did not affect me. Arrival in Madrid on time. Plenty of euros on hand from last year, so no need to withdraw from ATM.
Small bottle of ReviveX Odor Remover leaked during flight. Bottle also leaked during bicycle tour when frozen fluid pushed cap loose. Evidently, frozen fluid then also made tiny hole in bottom of bottle which I didn't notice previously because leak only occurs under pressure, such as from low outside air pressure during flight. Discarded bottle. Still have 125ml bottle.
RENFE train from airport to Estación Sur de Autobuses (€3.10). SIM card vendor at Estación Sur de Autobuses was closed when I arrived about 21:00, so bought €10 Lebara SIM from vending machine. Activation requires internet connection to allow automatic system to obtain details from passport photo and then match photo of passport with photo of face. If automatic system doesn't work, photos are sent to Lebara customer service for manual verification. While studying Lebara system, SIM card vendor returned from break and opened kiosk. So then I bought and had vendor activate Másmóvil SIM: €10 for 30 days service, 40GB data, unlimited calls, evidently affiliated with Yoigo.
Alsa night bus to Granada. Pullup bar about 500m southeast of Plaza del Humilladero, across from Mercadona, which opens at 9:00. Bus to Dúrcal (€2.7) at 10:40 departing from Plaza del Violón. Hiked up to usual campsite. Rain and strong wind during night.
Sunny, cool and breezy. €75 through booking.com for 2 nights at Hotel Lanjarón.
Lebara customer service finalized vending machine SIM activation and sent information by email. Evidently, their customer service only operates weekdays during normal business hours.
Sports center wanted €3 to use indoor pullup bar. Instead, used goal structure at nearby outdoor soccer field.
Beautiful weather. Body feels weak. Still recovering from jet lag and possibly another mild covid or flu infection. €35 at Hostal Poqueira in Capileira.
Brand new pullup bars on highway (along GR7) on way out of town. Next year eat breakfast there instead of in town. Bought food for tomorrow at store in Trevélez. €33 through booking.com for single occupancy at Hostal Mulhacén.
Pullups in Juviles at gate to Colegio. €35 through booking.com for single occupancy at Pension El Montoro in Cádiar. Bar Cadi was closed, maybe because Thursday.
€40 through booking.com for single occupancy at Pensión La Fuente in Yegen.
Raining, so stayed another night at the Pensión. Horrible disco music until 1AM. Probably need to plan on camping in the future so as to avoid this place, in case El Tinao has no vacancies, as was case yesterday.
Beautiful spring weather: sunny, cool, windy. Carried 4.5L out of Bayárcal in case Fuente La Ragua dry. Camped on side road 1km as crow flies north of Bayárcal. Made hotel reservation for tomorrow.
Fuente La Ragua running strong. Trail at bottom of gulley getting near to overgrown with thorns. Carrying lightweight pruning shears, which are effective against both thorn vines and thinner branches of wild rose thorn bushes. As soon as possible, cross dilapidated wire fence to escape worst of thorns. Plan discussed in last year's trip report, to continue along ridge then descend slope to road so as to avoid thorns, is probably no good, based on looking up from road: slope steeper than contours suggest, slope obstructed in places by wild rose thorn bushes. Would be possible to create trail down slope using pick and shovel and other heavy tools, but simpler to just keep existing trail clear.
€35 at Hostal LaBella in La Calahorra.
Pullups in Charches using bus shelter frame. Occasional patches of snow above 1700m from Saturday. View back towards Sierra Nevada shows them totally snow covered. Camped ät usual site, after loading up with 4.3L at Fuente Fragua, which was running strong.
Almost continuous snow above 1900m, but no trouble walking through. Picked up 2L at La Canaleja Alta. Camped at usual spot.
Pullups in Baza park. €30 at Hostal Casa Grande. Town full of Sub-Saharan African men sitting in the parks who weren't there in my previous visits.
Used the MásMóvil app to add €15 credit via credit card. Hopefully, SIM will stay valid 9 months after I leave Spain and then I can reactivate by adding €10 while in USA.
Pullups using soccer goal in Zújar park. Picked up 4L water from fountain in park. Camped at usual site.
Bought food in Cúllar for tomorrow and loaded up with 4.3L water. Camped just outside town.
Warm day. Camped before Orce.
€35 at Hostal Ruta del Sur in Huéscar.
Pullups in park. Camped 5km from town.
Walked back to town to buy more food and pick up water, pullups in park, camped about 8km from town. Trying to slow down because of hotel reservations made in anticipation of Semana Santa next week. Also, feeling tired and want to camp more. Very light drizzle in evening.
€30 at Hostal Puerta de Andalucía in La Puebla de Don Fadrique.
Another night in hostal. Don't want to arrive in El Sabinar on Saturday.
Fuente running in Cañada de la Cruz, left town with 4L. Camp slightly closer to Cañada de la Cruz than usual, excellent campsite amid pines with okay mobile service.
Fuente La Rogativa running strong but still had water from Cañada de la Cruz. €25 at Pensión El Nevazo in El Sabinar. Pullups possible using bus shelter in Plaza Mayor.
Drizzling in morning, continued drizzling or raining all day. Set up camp in rain in usual spot. Rain stopped in evening.
More drizzle in morning, then windy and cool. Bought food in Moratalla, camped in usual spot.
Felt weak all day, then had to get up to empty myself of increasingly watery diarrhea: twice during night (moonlight allowed seeing my way), again at dawn, again after doing language exercises. Felt better each time, but then my rectum filled again with diarrhea a few hours later. Body feels very weak, muscles aching, chills. Fortunately, short days today and tomorrow, so can rest up and heal. Bought probiotic yogurt in town. After eating, felt need to pass gas, but what actually came out was diarrhea: never pass gas when suffering from diarrhea. Cleaned up in the hotel 20 minutes later.
€55 at Hotel Primavera in Calasparra (reservation made 9 Mar through booking.com).
Visited toilet at least 6 times last night to get rid of diarrhea. Body felt very hot in evening, then sheets soaked with sweat when I woke up during night to visit toilet, but back to normal this morning, neither chilly like Tuesday night, nor feverish like last night. No feeling of tiredness and able to do morning exercises without difficulty. Ate big breakfast with no stomach discomfort afterwards.
Left town with 7.3L water: 4.3L in usual bottles, another 3L in temporary bottles. Camped 5km from center of town, in olive grove. While setting up camp, spotted adult tick on backpack. Tick didn't move when I touched it, so maybe already crushed by pressure between backpack and back while hiking. Crushed between rocks to be sure it was dead.
Body hot and sweating at times during night, but not feverish like yesterday night. Slept well. Soft but otherwise normal bowel movement in morning. Body felt normal strength during morning exercises and while hiking. So illness appears over.
Found another adult tick on backpack in morning, again appeared crushed. But when I picked it up, it began moving. crushed between rocks. Campsite is nice, but maybe too close to clump of brush used by animals. Maybe move 20m away in future.
Good Friday. Camped at usual spot.
Spotted another adult tick on backpack in morning, while packing up. Instead of carefully lowering partially lifted backpack onto ground then grabbing tick, lifted backpack further to inspect more closely: tick slid off into pine needles and became impossible to find again.
Bought food for lunch plus next 2 days. €44 at Hotel Mesón del Moro in Abarán (reservation made 9 Mar through booking.com, would be €38 without booking.com).
Daylight savings time starts. Easter Sunday. Drizzling all day, finally ended in evening. Cut day short and camped midway between hotel and Torre del Rico.
Pick up water in Torre del Rico, camp at usual spot on way to Pinoso.
Found adult tick crawling on bugbivy during morning exercises. Crushed between rocks, did quick self inspection, found nothing.
€36 at Hostal La Cañada in Pinoso.
Camped at usual spot on way to Elda.
€55 through booking.com at Hostal Carrizo in Elda.
Camped at usual spot on way to Castalla, near sign for Collado de Roque, or 600m SW of collado as marked on map.
Bought food in Castalla. Made booking.com reservation for tomorrow. Camped 1.8km along GPX from road CV-801. Close to last year's campsite, but area was logged since then, so moved slightly to get more shade.
€46 through booking.com at Hostal Savoy in Alcoy. Pullups using soccer goalposts on way into town.
Street workout pullup bars off Carrer Sant Sebastià, where N-340 crosses dry river. Camped at usual site.
Bought food in Bocairente. Children's playground removed equipment I previously used for pullups. Used swing set instead. Carried 4.3L out of town after drinking several liters with lunch. Camped at usual site amid pines, with beautiful view across valley.
Camped at usual site, just off road to Vallada.
Took road route into Vallada, to avoid overgrown and tick infested GR7 trail. €50 through booking.com at Casa Peseta in Vallada.
Pullups possible using bus shelter across from park on Carrer Josep de Ribera. Drank 2L plus 1.5L liquid food (yogurt, tomato puree, fruit) with big morning meal, left town with 4.3L and 2 days food (plus extra peanuts and chocolate). [Note for next year: carry 3 days food from town, so no need to rush to get to Cortes de Pallás before stores close.] Camped at usual spot.
Fuente de Benalí not running, but clear water in spring box. Loaded up with 4.3L. Camped at same spot as last year. Wild boar nearby during evening. Placed pruning shears near head, for use as stabbing weapon.
Collado Carroche running at about 2L/minute. Drank 1L and loaded up with 4L. Because sunny and warm (30°C), drinking about 5L/day. Camped at usual spot.
Tripped and fell while rushing to get to Cortes de Pallás before 14:00 midday break, but luckily no damage to body, clothes or gear. For future reference, takes at least 6 hours (including rest break) to get from campsite to town, so need to start no later than 7:30. Hostal El Rincón closed and no answer on numbers in my list. Local resident called new number, but no vacancies, probably because filled with construction workers renovating main square. Local resident than called Casa Rural Las Anas, which did have vacancy, €40 single occupancy. Owner out of town, so gave money to local resident then check-in by keycode system.
Possible to do pullups at new children's playground just southwest of bridge, on way to picnic tables between museum and Fuente Chapole.
Original plan was to stay 3 days in Cortes de Pallás then go slow to Requena to delay schedule enough to avoid weekends in Requena and Montanejos. New plan is 2 days to Requena, stay in hotel Thursday, camp just outside Requena on Friday and Saturday, stay again in hotel in Requena on Sunday. So same delay but 1 more night camping.
Some issues with postal forwarding service in USA. May be necessary to return to USA for several months next winter and rent short term apartment to re-establish residency.
Hot day again. Drank 3L with breakfast, carried 4L from town, drank 2L with lunch. Camped at usual site.
Much cooler than yesterday. Drank 2L with breakfast, 2L at Venta Gaeta, carried 4L from Venta Gaeta. Fuente Pozico Valentín running, so drank 1L to supplement 4L intake earlier in day, leaving 4L in bottles for tomorrow. Camped at usual site.
Long days hiking in heat are tiresome, but no alternative, because lack of reliable water sources and need to haul more food means going slower would be even more unpleasant. Pullups on way to hotel at playground at intersection of c/Constitución and c/Casablanca. €42 through booking.com at Hotel Avenida in Requena.
Camped a few km outside town.
Walked to town to collect water and buy food for today and tomorrow, then returned to same campsite as yesterday.
$151 ticket from Madrid to Belgrade, Serbia on AirSerbia. Had to use UltraPayGo roaming service on spare phone to receive 2FA SMS text: so annoying.
€37 for single occupancy at Hotel Avenida, direct reservation. Smaller room but lower price than reservation through booking.com.
Stock up on good floss. Arrange flights, hotels, etc.
Hotel in Cedrillas
camp in forest
Hotel in Teruel
Hotel in Teruel
Bus Teruel-Madrid, depart 14:00, arrive 18:15, €30. Night in airport.
90th day in Schengen. Flight Air Serbia, depart 10:30, arrive 13:35. $182.
Total of tbc nights in Spain: initial night on bus, tbc nights camping, tbc nights in hotels. €tbx total hotel expenses, or average of €tbc/night (about $tbc/night).
tbc