7. Alicante inland - The Vall de Pop & Vall de Laguar

Having failed to get in at a couple of campsites on the Alicante coast, we decided to head inland instead. Surprisingly the same thing happened there - the 2 places we identified were both full too! Yet again we were shocked at just how popular this area is as an all year round tourist destination 😊 Anyway, as luck would have it, the owner of the second failed campsite, Maria, messaged us and said she had a friend in a neighbouring village with a campervan aire, that he had space, and if we liked she would speak to him and book it for us as his English was quite limited - and that’s how we ended up at the old finca in Alcalalí, within the Vall de Pop 😊 What an absolutely great find it was too! 

In former times the old old finca had been used to breed and train bulls, and has retained the original bull ring in the centre within which horses are now kept. The area has been developed with loads of tropical plants and flowers, horse carriage paraphernalia, and vans park freely around the area - beautiful. Run by a lovely couple Octavio and Susana, they soon had us parked up just outside the bull ring, with an extremely warm welcome 🤗 

Settling in at the finca

Horse carriage and tropical plants all around the finca

Us outside the bull ring 😃

Inside the bull ring

Dave making friends with the horse

Beautiful church in the finca grounds 

Vall de Pop is a new area to us, with loads of walking and biking opportunities 😊 The valley is laden with orange, almond and olive trees, and the mountains that surround are awesome - we were very happy 😂 Did a couple of low level walks, around the groves and between the villages, and Dave did some fabulous mountain biking - lots of single track, so great for him 😃 The village was hosting its annual almond blossom festival while we were there - couldn’t book on to any of the organised walks as they were all full, but we did venture into the main square late one afternoon to listen to the live music - we enjoyed it, but Rubes didn’t 🤣

Parcent village in the distance 

Abundant orange trees

Almond & olive groves

Out exploring 😊

On arriving in Alcalili we spotted a lovely looking restaurant, just 500m from the finca  - something which had been quite sparse on this trip so far 😃 So off we headed the first evening - and the food was absolutely amazing! Apparently it’s a new venture, just 6 months old, with a lovely outside space, a central bar, tropical plants, and with live music at the weekends. Having enjoyed it so much, we went back a couple of times for drinks and tapas - and were intrigued to see so many English people there too - apparently there is a very high British population living in this valley, and Sunday afternoons at this bar / restaurant is where they all seem to congregate 😃 

Burrata on a red pesto base with basil oil - absolutely awesome 😎 

Hake on a lobster bisque 

Sunday afternoon tapas

Cod & Jamon croquettes- delicious 🤤 

Tasty bruschetta 

We couldn’t leave this area without tackling one of the more challenging peaks, so one morning we set off to reach the mirador at Coll de Rates, 650 metres high - a really tough climb up (rubes stayed in bed 🤣), but well worth it for the views from the top. Seemed like this was a popular road cycling challenge too, and also somewhere that international cycling teams use for training 🤣

The landmark!

We made it to the top!

Looking down to Alcalili

Looking out to the coast

Panoramic views

We really enjoyed our time at the finca, but decided to move on a short distance to the next valley, Vall de Laguar, to explore further. But, just as we were leaving the finca our fresh water tank sprung a leak, and all the water came gushing out! That’s a broken step and a broken water tank we have now 🤣 No options for getting it fixed right now, but not the end of the world - we can manage without 🤣

The Vall de laguar, only @10km further inland was stunning 🤩 We’d managed to get a place at the camping we’d originally tried for - and so pleased that we did - we both really loved this place, and were very quickly talking about coming back next year! We squeezed into the last remaining spot, needing to trim overhead branches and used wooden roller blocks beneath to soften the steep drop from the road way - but as usual Dave manoeuvred the van perfectly - just needed to think now how we would get out in a few days time! Soon found out one of the reasons why the campsite was so difficult to get into - apparently a large network of friends, from the UK ( ex fell runners from Yorkshire / Lancashire) come here every year for the whole of February, so the site gets quite booked up 😃 We met loads of nice, welcoming people, and the weather was great, the scenery stunning, and the opportunities to walk and bike endless. Another fabulous bakery in the village kept us well supplied with tasty croissants, pan au chocolate, and lovely crusty bread 👍 Tried to buy some locally produced organic olive oil, but supplies were short - apparently olives are only harvested every two years in higher altitude areas, and supplies have now dwindled ☺️

Squeezed into our tight spot, but a great view over the valley to the coast

Exploring & great signposting 😊

Lemon trees fully laden with fruit

Ruby’s favourite walk to the font near the campsite 😂

One of many original washing baths scattered around the valley 

Small hermitages like this dotted around the countryside 

Did some fabulous walks around the valley - again, all well signposted, and Dave had a great time exploring trails on his bike too. Think this was the best region overall for mountain biking, so I’m sure we’ll be back 😊 Perhaps our most momentous challenge was a walk up onto the Penyal Roig ridge - a tough climb up, followed by a 2km scramble along the rocky ridge itself, including via ferrata chains at points as well! Great fun, fabulous views, and a real sense of achievement - possibly the most technically hard walk we’ve done in years 🤣 

The scary ridge 

Not sure how I managed this!

Navigating the ridge

Exploring bike trails 

After only a short stay here we needed to move on, heading north - but totally loved this area, and definitely want to return. Being outdoors in the warmer weather, and with quite a lot of sunshine has been fabulous - so great to be able to walk and bike without getting totally wet through or needing to wade through mud - we can both definitely feel our fitness levels have improved from when we left the UK in mid January 😃

Sunrise looking out from the van

Hasta luego 😊