03012019

Cleaning and washing day for the first part of the day. And after lunch we took the dogs and some water and headed out to the Monte de Santa Pola (which is 500 meters from our front door).

Our Monte has some impressive ravines and from the top we can see over to the south side to the salt lagoons of Santa Pola and to the sea. Usually we just stare to north to Alicante. In this picture we're looking to south.

We did 10 km over the Monte in 2,5 hours. So quite slow walking and just enjoying the scenery and tranquility. Dogs were pretty tired after that, but they were very excited to have new smells all the way over the Monte.

Our little mountain is only 160 meters high, but has hundreds of kilometers of paths all over the ravines. It's very nice place for walking and biking. Also it includes several paths to the city of Santa Pola (south) from our side (north).

I don't often walk on that side because of 1) I feel bit intimidated to be there alone. The mobile doesn't work in the whole Monte, so if anything should happen, the mobile might not work. There's not many people around on weekdays. It's quite lonely.  2) There's so many paths that even if you had mobile access it would be very difficult to explain on which path you are. Most people don't walk as long and as fast as I do, so I mostly walk alone. 3) Half the year hunting is allowed in the Monte on weekends, so it's dangerous to walk there during that time. Hunting season ended on 22nd of December for this area, but we could still hear shots fired after that over there. So the fact that all the hunters don't stick to the rules, makes me also hesitate walking there, especially alone.