A rebel without a clue.

 "In  Sax,  there  is  a  famous  medieval  castle…  that  I  never  visited,  because  I  was  too  lazy,  staying in  my  luxurious  hotel  room  or  eating  ice-cream  in  one  of  the  bars  in  town." After thirty odd kilometres I too won't be heading up to the Castello either! Checked into the Hotel, which is a sting at €35, this does include a proper breakfast, however I can't have it until 8am. The room has Aircon shutters and blinds so I expect I won't have a problem sleeping until the beep of my alarm, which I've set for 7:30: last night was pretty bad for an albergue as the street lights poured in, the bed was very short and the wind was intense! Tomorrow I must find a more reasonably priced option. The list of places suggests Caudete. In which case this is the way I'm heading. In Caudete there is a member of the Camin...

Walking out of Alicante gave me a slight problem breathing with sheer number of cars, trucks, etc. First thing this morning I have to get to next town for Desayuno as Orito is very small, without even a shop. Five kilometres on Asphalt to a very desolate town for breakfast - these types of towns exist fairly often on the Camino, but not as frequent as the historic ones. Monteforte del Cid. Day two is a little tedious so far as I follow the train tracks between Alicante and Madrid to my left. Soon I'm sure to leave the thundering of high speed trains behind? Finally away from asphalt to Via Pecuaria - which I think translates to drovers path? So after a lot of ups and downs, over a aqueduct where I dared not but walk straight ahead, no eyes Looking down, I'm in Petrer. Hasty Tapas and beer. Need to slow down and eat leisurely. They're doing me Menu del Dias early, thankfully, as I've another few kilometres ahead this afternoon - perhaps 10 - before I reach Sax. The touri...

Coming down from Cueva de San Pascual - 414 metres - I saw many many strips which seemed to be wrapped in plastic! The closer I got I realised this was tarpaulin/netting and these were vines. The leaves were dried but the grapes were secluded in packages. The occasional bunch had escaped so I saw massive grapes. Yet being here, near the sea, where wine is too much to ask of the grape, I thought this must be a mistake in my knowledge? Large grapes don't make Grand Cru wine. And until the lady of the Comisaria told me, and gave me a huge bunch that tasted just like honey, I didn't know they were just for eating! Heading in for repase I expected the wine must be awful here, being such a simple outlet, but the Rueda Verdejo washed down the fantastic paella, chicken and chips and copious salad, all for only €8, it felt only right and proper to sit in the shade outside and have another copa! Bed for the night turned out to be €16, not a Donativo and the beds are too short!