Benitatxell (Alicante, España)
The same route a second time. This time it feels even better, which is probably because we know what lies ahead of us. We enjoy it more. The mood is also better than yesterday. I think about the body lying on the road under a white sheet. But this thought doesn’t come often and it doesn’t last long.
I could say that’s just the way it is. Life goes on and I didn’t know this person. But that’s not it. It touched me and maybe it’s somewhere in my subconscious, working away without me doing anything. I’m not one of those people who just get on with it.
Right at the beginning, when we get to the challenging part of the trail, a man sitting on a rock speaks to us. He switches to English when we show him that we don’t speak Spanish. He can’t go any further, he says, because his knee hurts. His wife and a small child had gone ahead. He asks us to inform them if we come across them. He gives us his name and we promise to do so.
It’s a warm, sunny day. That’s probably one reason why we’re never alone on the path for long. Whenever I hear voices, I look out to see if we are about to meet a woman with a child. But time and again this doesn’t happen. Sometimes it’s two men, sometimes a family. Then a group of young adults or a couple. We don’t see a woman with a child.
When we reach the upper part of the path, where the path consists of gravel, where the rock face stretches out on one side and a hand plunges into the sea on the other, I lose track of the woman with the child. Until I no longer think about it at all. Only when we are sitting on one of the rocks on the beach, Cala de Moraig - a stone beach with crystal clear water - and she says to me that she has seen an older woman with a child further ahead, does the thought of the man return.
It’s not her. Because she is not alone with the child. A young couple is also there, probably the parents. We conclude that we won’t find the woman with the child. We hope she has returned early. I go home with the thought that it ended well for this person. And why not?
Activity: Walk the SL-CV 50 Ruta de los Acantilados.
Distance: 7,6 km
Elevation: 527 m
Total Time: 2 h 45 min
Start/End: 38°42’05.2”N 0°09’31.2”E