Orito to Sax, Jan 20, 30 km

This was a long stage for early in the Camino (while our aging bodies are still adjusting to the walk): 30 km of mostly steady (but gentle) uphill, with a very strong headwind and clouds threatening rain.

We started with a breakfast of toast (slathered with a tomato mixture) in Orito's bar, and headed out in chilly weather.  Our route followed quiet roads to the industrial city of Monforte del Cid.  It being Sunday, plenty of people were out walking, and we met a lovely older couple along the way; he had walked the Lana some years ago and has walked other Caminos as well.  We've learned from past experience that route marking frequently disappears in cities, and we saw this again in Monforte del Cid.  Once we did locate markings, they did not correspond with the written descriptions in the big guide, but things were close enough and we eventually made it out of town.  About 4 km of road walking later we entered Novelda, and except for a few key spots found the markings adequate to get through town and on our way.  As we left Novelda the route diverted off pavement to roughly follow a river course.  This was sometimes rocky, other times smooth, as we meandered back and forth upstream about 12 km to the city of Elda.  We passed many people trail running and mtn biking along the same paths.  Although it was great to be off pavement, the strong headwind and sometimes rough surface made for slower progress than we expected.



By the time we arrived in Elda, we'd only covered about 20 km and even though it was mid-afternoon we had not yet taken a break.  We stopped at a small market, picked up pastries (one of cheese and ham, the second filled with chocolate), a couple of boxes of juice, and wolfed it all down as we sat, rapidly losing body heat in the wind, on a park bench.  We left Elda well bundled (even gloves).  From here our route mostly continued up the river path, but with a much less rocky walking surface all the way to Sax.  For about one km our route followed an interpretive path which included walking up and over the remains of a 300 year old dam.



We'd called ahead to a three-star hotel in Sax which has a great pilgrim rate, and finally staggered in after 9 hours of walking just as the full moon was rising above the nearby hills.



Washed up, took a little rest, and found a quiet bar for giant sandwiches for dinner.  Ellen's burger also had bacon, cheese, and an egg.  My giant bocadillo (sandwich on a large roll) had pork, chicken breast, cheese, and egg.  A couple of beers and an order of calamari to top things off left us feeling much better.