While Others Are Sleeping...

9 months ago

I have mentioned in my previous posts that we had a long heatwave in our area with daily temperatures over 30 Degrees Celsius for almost a month! It doesn't get better during the nights when it goes to 24-25 Degrees and not lower than that... And that temperature last probably for 2-3 hours, or so...

As I like my daily walks, and I don't like to sweat and breathe heavily while I'm doing them, I was experimenting with hours to take these walks... The easiest hours were in the evening, which I was practicing in the fall and winter when days are shorter... So, I did try it recently, but it didn't work... Even around 9-10 PM, the temperature would stay high, with all the concrete and asphalt releasing the heat accumulated during the day... And I don't want to mention the humidity, which is known to go up to 90% which is insane!

So, the only logical hours were early in the morning... I do go to bed almost every night after 1-2 AM, and it's not that easy to get up early... lol... So, the last few days, I was trying to "cheat" my body clock, by getting up a couple of minutes earlier, every next day...

Today, I awakened around 6, and got up around 6:30, which was the August record! 😃 As we in Spain should be in the same time zone as Portugal (but we aren't), the sunrise comes a bit later than in other countries... The first photo was taken around 7:30, the moment when we left the car and went for a walk around the edge of Altea town...

As I don't like to go back on the same road, I try to "invent" circular paths for my daily walks, so we began this walk in a long street/road that will take us out to the fields and gardens...

This part of the street is interesting as houses are very close to the road... Which is cool because you have these interesting narrow hallways... This one caught my attention as the sun was shining right through it and it looks like a night lamp is shining from the back part...

I don't know how many little churches there are in Altea, but there are a lot... In Spanish, they call them "ermitas", and sometimes they are in the middle of a field, or between two gardens... I suppose that those places had a completely different meaning BEFORE the big expansion of the town...

Slowly, as we are walking further, the houses are disappearing and the trees are taking over... In the above photo, you can see the 500+ year-old Pine tree... If it could talk, how much history it would be able to tell us...

Along with pine trees, you can find a lot of olives, almonds, carob trees...

As we walked up on the hill for some time, the moment of going down came... But before doing that, look at these magnificent views of the area, bathed by the morning sun! I didn't expect that these 2 photos would look this amazing!

This is the place where two rivers are kissing and turning into one... River Algar and river Guadalest, but they are doing it very discreetly, somewhere hidden in the cane... What you can see in the photo above is a small artificial pond created from the water from the river(s)...

Not sure if you can spot them, but there are dozens of swallows on these 3 electric cables...

Appreciate the reminder, Mrs. Bee!

Perfectly fitted net to protect the medlar fruits from birds, hailstorms, and other harmful events...

... and right behind that one, an abandoned field with destroyed nets in the past...

These guys were protecting their garden by barking as much as they could... lol...

I have spotted this horseman (or in our case, horsewoman) too late, so I have just this one photo of it!

...and we are slowly getting back to civilization after an hour and a half walk... After doing under an hour's walk, maybe this wasn't the best decision to take, but OK... In total, this route is 8.5 km long! My legs are still hurting, but it will get better with more training in the next day...

Btw, The last photo was taken around 9 AM, The sun was already high, and the temperature was almost at 30, the perfect time to hit the beach and jump into the sea to cool off!

Thank you for your time,

~ph~