Wind, wind, wind!

Halfway through today’s walk, we had a discussion about whether this was the strongest wind we had ever walked in (gusts of 45 mph/ 72kph). Our conclusion was yes; it could only be rivaled by a day near the Rodalquilar gold mines on the Transandalus mountain bike route and a day near Alcaucin on the Andalucian Coast-to-Coast walk. The wind was actually quite invigorating because we were walking east today to meet the point where we stopped yesterday and so the wind was at our backs pushing us along.

For a good part of the day, we were the only ones on the path. I think the wind and the intermittent showers must have kept a lot of people at home. We again had good luck with bridges having recently been completed along the coastal path to cross three rivers, even though the map and the Wikiloc track did not show those bridges.

The only really tricky part of the day came right at the end when we walked out to catch a bus back to Estepona. We had to cross over the six lanes of the motorway on a high pedestrian-only bridge that was completely open to the wind. At that height, the wind was so strong that I was terrified I was going to get blown off the bridge and into the traffic racing along below. Ned held on to me to provide an anchor. That was enough of an adrenaline rush that we completely forgot to turn off Wikiloc when we got to the bus stop, so if you look at today’s track, ignore the straight line return. At the end of the ride, a nearby Mercadona supplied freshly baked rolls, jalapeño guacamole, and salmorejo for us to celebrate the day.

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