Spain 2013 - Coast to Coast

Using the route laid out by Guy Hunter-Watts, we walked 416 kilometers in southern Spain from Maro on the Mediterranean to Bolonia on the Atlantic. Weiterlesen

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Beginn der Reise
10. Dezember 2013
Spain 2013 - Coast to Coast Reisender
Seattle - Madrid - Málaga
10. Dezember 2013 in Spanien ⋅ ☁️ 59 °F
We are in Málaga! We arrived to sunny, 66 degree weather at 12:45 p.m. Tuesday after a very nice Iberia flight. Madrid was only 25 degrees so we were glad to be continuing on via a short flight. The only time Ned can take off from his conducting duties for Island Sinfonia is during the Christmas break, so we are glad the temperatures seem to be walkable in Andalucia at this time of year.

We figured out how to take the train from the airport into Malaga city itself, and from there it was an easy walk to the Eurostar Astoria Hotel. We forced ourselves to stay up until 6 pm and slept until 3am. Our essential immersion coil, which worked fine at home, doesn't work here, so no hot coffee or instant soups. Tomorrow we will try to get a SIM card for the iPad and monthly service for the old cell phone we used on the bike trip, plus a new immersion coil. Powdered milk would also be nice.

Using our iPad here in Spain is proving to be a challenge; it often won't connect. None of our email accounts will let us send outgoing messages other than Century Tel. We can open Hotmail to read messages, but not Gmail or Yahoo. Another challenge will be how to send photos. Lots to figure out!Weiterlesen
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Laurie ReynoldsI just got a notice that you posted some new pictures. This is a trip I never saw, and I will enjoy following along.
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Spain 2013 - Coast to Coast Reisender
Málaga
11. Dezember 2013 in Spanien ⋅ ☁️ 61 °F
Today was devoted to errands: getting a Vodaphone plan for our old flip phone; Orange SIM cards for the iPads; exchanging dollars for euros; getting a haircut in a small salon on the tree-lined central avenue... The Centro Comercial Larios shopping center was nearby the hotel; we were impressed by its size. In the afternoon, we walked into central Málaga and returned by way of the port and its neighboring park.Weiterlesen
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Málaga to Maro
12. Dezember 2013 in Spanien ⋅ ☁️ 63 °F
Playa de Maro, 1.5 km - Apartmentos La Casa del Barrio

We took the early morning Alsa bus to Maro, a tiny village on the Mediterranean and started our Coast to Coast walk this morning. We only did 1.5 km though - just down to the beach below the village and back so that we can say we have truly started from the Mediterranean.. We were the only ones there on this December day.

We are staying here in a big, inexpensive apartment for two days so we can explore the area. Ned and I walked 6 km this afternoon to get groceries nearby in Nerja. On the way, we saw the tremendous Acueducto del Águila, built in 1880 to carry water for irrigation from Nerja to the local sugar refinery in Maro, Las Mercedes. It was so hot we were wishing we could get out of the sun! I am sure we will be longing for those temperatures soon though. In the mountains, it will be cold!Weiterlesen
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Maro
13. Dezember 2013 in Spanien ⋅ ☁️ 63 °F
Torre Vigia de Maro, 5.8 km - Apartmentos La Casa del Barrio

This morning we walked to the Torre Vigia de Maro, a 16th century watchtower built as a defense against pirates. The view through the avocado tree shows the tower on the horizon. The steep uphill climb was good practice for tomorrow when we will start the actual Coast to Coast route!

This afternoon, Marie and I explored Maro. The tile work around every door in this village is beautiful. We could have taken many more photos. We ended up in the tiny village shop and got a few things for dinner.Weiterlesen
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Maro to Frigiliana
14. Dezember 2013 in Spanien ⋅ ☁️ 61 °F
Maro to Frigiliana, 16 km - Apartmentos Rosamarina

Wow! We thought that since we were so close to the Mediterranean , the trail would be fairly easy, through foothills. Instead, it was a rugged trek through the Sierra de Almijara. We went over four passes with descents at my limit to negotiate. Lots of loose rock and steep drops on a narrow path led us into the Chillar Gorge. The entire walk was absolutely beautiful, with crossings of the Río Higuerón and stops at the passes for snacks and by the water for lunch.

It took us nine hours to cover the sixteen kilometers! We had to call the manager of the apartments where we are staying twice to let him know that we would be arriving later than planned. Then, just before reaching the village, Marie fell from a steep bank near the water catchment area and twisted her knee quite badly. We are hoping the swelling will go down overnight.Weiterlesen
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Frigiliana
15. Dezember 2013 in Spanien ⋅ ☀️ 59 °F
10 km (7 km on C to C route; 3 km around town) - Apartmentos Rosamarina

Ned and I walked out the first few kilometers of the Coast to Coast route to Competa this morning. Tomorrow morning, we have arranged to take a taxi to where we left off (where Camino Pedregal turns off the MA 5105) so that tomorrow's walk will be shorter for Marie. She stayed home this morning to rest her knee, but this afternoon felt good enough to explore the narrow, flowered streets of the village, some not even wide enough for a car. The street layout of the village reflects its Muslim origins, as do the acequias that brought water for flower and orchards. Frigiliana is often named as one of the most beautiful villages in Andalucia, so getting to see it in today's warm sunshine was a special treat.Weiterlesen
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Frigiliana to Cómpeta
16. Dezember 2013 in Spanien ⋅ ☁️ 54 °F
14 km (starting at Quatro Caminos) - Hotel Balcón de Cómpeta, bungalow
A great day with a surprise ending...

We took our prearranged taxi to the end of the paved road at Quatro Caminos; that saved Marie's knee from 4 km of uphill. Then it was down to El Acebuchal, across the Rió Patamalara, past Casa de la Mina, and up a long climb to the Puerto del Collado pass where there was even a bench to enjoy the view. The sunshine and the mountain scenery were superb, We reached Cómpeta by three pm, but when we checked into the hotel...no passports! The last time we used them was when we checked into the apartments in Frigiliana. We are really hoping they are still in the manager's copy machine, but there is no one answering the phone there. A frantic search ensued on the internet for a bus route that would get us back to Frigiliana, but no luck. There is no bus between the two villages. It seemed we would have to take a taxi back there tomorrow to retrieve the passports.

But late in the day a welcome phone call came in. The manager at Apartments Rosamarina still had them in his office. He had started to hand them to us during check-in and then turned around to get us keys and got distracted. At the time, I was too tired after nine hours of walking to notice that they were not in my hand. He is bringing them to us tomorrow. That is a huge relief.Weiterlesen
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Cómpeta
17. Dezember 2013 in Spanien ⋅ ☀️ 54 °F
Alvaro brought the passports to us around 11 this morning. What a relief! It was so nice of him to drive them here as the road is slow and twisty.

Ned and Marie spent the morning exploring Cómpeta while I stayed at the hotel to wait for the passports and to try to find lodging options to continue beyond here because the one hotel in Sedella has closed. I had emailed several casa rural owners before we left home, but none of them are currently renting. So I curled up in the reception room of the hotel (no wifi in our bungalow; the hotel is having wifi problems), and searched and searched. Finally I found a B&B south of Sedella that agreed to pick us up in the village and return us the next day when they do mail runs.Weiterlesen
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ReisenderSuch wonderful memories.
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Cómpeta to Canillas de Albaida
18. Dezember 2013 in Spanien ⋅ ☁️ 57 °F
Cómpeta to Canillas de Albaida, 3 km - Hotel Posada La Plaza

This morning's walk was a short stroll between Cómpeta and Canillas de Albaida along an almost level promenade with railings. The path goes through irrigated terraces with avocados, prickly pear, agave, olives, almonds, and even an ostrich or two! We met a friendly man with a horse on our way into the village. He and his companion struck up a conversation with Marie and generously explained various bits of the horse's trappings.

Hotel Posada La Plaza is in an old nunnery right on the square with atmospheric rooms. The school kids below our window are practicing for the Christmas play!

It is supposed to rain here today...but no snow! We have to walk tomorrow in any case. With the Christmas holidays coming up, we've had to make reservations ahead, and so, have to stick to a schedule.Weiterlesen
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ReisenderAll my old haunts and familiar faces ❤️
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Canillas de Albaida to Sedella
19. Dezember 2013 in Spanien ⋅ 🌧 54 °F
Canillas de Albaida to Sedella, 11 km - Finca Duende

We had another great walk today in spite of a rain shower mid-morning. We started out dropping steeply down from the village to cross the Río Cájula on a Roman bridge. We then climbed up the other side on what a plaque in the rocks identfied as a calzada Romana. Some of the next parts parts were really steep, but the elevation gain gave beautiful views of Maroma, the highest peak in the range. The rain lasted just long enough to cool us off and stopped as we came to the village of Salares. We continued on to Sedella where we warmed up in a bar while waiting for our ride to Finca Duende.

Our Dutch and German hosts, Heike and Christian, are very generous, not only picking us up, but also fixing a selection of delicious tapas for our dinner. We can hardly believe our luck in finding such a nice place. There was a huge storm after dinner with wind and rain raging outside as I write. Thankfully we are snug inside our little house with a log fire rather than still out on the trail.

Note added after the trip: The route to Sedella went through Salares when we walked in 2013. It has since been changed to enter Sedella from a trail to the northeast rather than by the road from the southeast as we did.Weiterlesen
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Sedella to Alcaucín
20. Dezember 2013 in Spanien ⋅ 🌬 50 °F
Canillas de Aceituno to Alcaucín, 8.27 km - Apts. Cortijo Del Alcázar

The rain stopped by the time we got up and there were clear blue skies, but oh my, the wind was incredible. It sounded like a freight train. We had to walk on because Finca Duende had other guests arriving, and we had reservations in Alcaucín. Christian drove us to the village of Canillas de Aceituno; from there, we stuck to small lanes and tracks, afraid to venture off into the mountains in such conditions. I have never walked in wind so strong, not even in Alaska. Even without the strong wind, we would not have taken the official route with its trajectory high on Maroma because - sadly - there are not enough hours of daylight at this time of year for me to do the longer route safely.

This is the last photo you will see of Marie in her favorite purple buff… As we were posing for Ned to take a photo of us leaning into the wind, a strong gust whipped the buff right off of Marie's head and sailed it out over the rocky defile below us. It is long gone now!Weiterlesen
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Alcaucín
21. Dezember 2013 in Spanien ⋅ ☀️ 54 °F
Alcaucín, 4 km - Apartamentos Cortijo Del Alcázar

We had a rest day in Alcaucín today, walking into town to get fresh fruits and vegetables at the weekly outdoor market, chicken from the butcher, and bread from the bakery. On the way back, we ran into a real charmer of a cat. He was stout, solid, and friendly - and absolutely determined to hold onto our attention! Back home, there was time for washing our socks and shirts and bandaging Marie's eye because something flew under her contact in the wind yesterday. It is really cold here tonight, so I built a fire in our upstairs fireplace. These duplex units are run by a young couple, Raul and Eva, who live here with their children. Raul has been very kind and helpful.Weiterlesen
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Ventas de Zafarraya to Alcaucín
22. Dezember 2013 in Spanien ⋅ ☀️ 52 °F
Ventas de Zafarraya to Alcaucín, 18 km - Apartamentos Cortijo Del Alcázar

The hotel in the next village , Aquí Te Quiero Ver, where we stayed in 2009 on the TransAndalus, is closed for the winter, so Raul, the extremely kind young man who runs the casitas we are now staying in, drove us to Ventas de Zafarraya so we could do today's walk in the reverse direction. He will do the same again on Tuesday so we can continue on to Pulgarín Bajo. In return, we will help him with translations into English because he is trying to get more tourists from the US.

It is quite cold now that we are far enough into the mountains that we have lost the influence of the Mediterranean. There was a thin glaze of ice on parts of the trail until noon today. As it warmed up, we had beautiful views from the track and several miradors. Shortly after the busy Area Recreativa de Alcázar, we ate a great meal at the restaurant where Raul's wife Eva does the cooking.Weiterlesen
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Alcaucín
23. Dezember 2013 in Spanien ⋅ ☀️ 54 °F
Alcaucín, 4 km - Apartamentos Cortijo Del Alcázar

We did our Christmas grocery shopping today because we have to carry all our food for the next three days into Pulgarín Bajo. It is not near a village or a store. That means we are eating lunchmeat, cheese, and bread for Christmas dinner!

From the little mountain casitas where we are staying we can see the U-shaped break in the mountains on the skyline that is called the Bouquete of Zafarraya. That is where we started walking yesterday, following a route to the east that brought us back to Alcaucin. We can also see the route we will be following tomorrow: it is an old railway line that starts at the Bouquete and continues straight west, the higher of the two lines we can see. Coincidentally, this is the same route we followed on our bikes in 2009 on the Ruta TransAndalus, the first time on this trip we have had such an overlap. After enjoying the view, l sat on a bench just above our casita and read a history of the Sephardic Jews in this area and their expulsion from Spain in 1492, The Forgetting River: A Modern Tale of Survival, Identity, and the Inquisition. It's by an American journalist who works to uncover her family’s long-buried Jewish ancestry in Spain.Weiterlesen
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Ventas de Zafarraya to Pulgarín Bajo
24. Dezember 2013 in Spanien ⋅ ☁️ 52 °F
Ventas de Zafarraya to Pulgarín Bajo, 15 km - Cortijo Pulgarín Bajo, Casa Mirador

We are warm and snug in front of the fireplace in Pulgarín Bajo awaiting the storm with hurricane force winds that is headed this way. Gusts of up to 87 km per hour are predicted for Christmas day. The only source of heat in our 150-year-old house is the fireplace in our central room, so we have all our clothes and jackets on, as well as blankets wrapped around us. Thank goodness we are carrying our down sleeping bags with us!

Today's walk was marvelous, first along the line of the old cog railway that once carried potatoes and vegetables from the cortijos of the Axarqia to Málaga, and then on an old drovers' path that led from Málaga to Granada. We had Christmas "dinner" ( ham and cheese sandwiches) a day early at the same restaurant in the little hamlet of Guaro where Ned and I revived ourselves with ice cream on our 2009 bike trip. It was the week after I broke my shoulder, and today I marveled at the fact that we had cycled such steep ascents under those conditions.

The owner of the cortijo where we are staying is very kind. He reminds me of my dad. He and his wife drove up from Malaga to check us in! He gave us a tour of all the buildings here. The cortijo has been in his family for generations. 60 men used to work here. He has preserved the old olive mill where the millstones to press out the oil were turned by donkeys. It was like having a personal tour of a museum.Weiterlesen
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Pulgarín Bajo
25. Dezember 2013 in Spanien ⋅ 🌧 52 °F
Cortijo Pulgarín Bajo, Casa Mirador

What a strange Christmas Day! The storm is raging outside, and all our attention is focused on our battle to keep the heat from the fireplace from whipped out by the wind. We have our bathroom towels rolled up and set at the base of the two outside doors to try to plug the gaps between the bottom of the door and the floor, but the wind is winning. We hope it dies down by tomorrow as we will be out of wood by then. How we wish we had purchased more than one extra basket of wood...! The chairs around the outside table, so neat and tidy yesterday, have all blown over. We are mulling over our options about how to move forward if the wind has not let up by tomorrow. Will we have cell service to call a taxi? Can we find a phone number for a taxi? Can we find a hotel room at the last minute?Weiterlesen
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Pulgarín Bajo to Colmenar
26. Dezember 2013 in Spanien ⋅ ☁️ 52 °F
Pulgarín Bajo to Colmenar via taxi - Hotel Restaurante Belén

We took one look outside this morning and called a taxi to get us to the next town...where we have a hotel with heat! I spent an hour in the bathtub trying to get warm. The wind gusts in northern Spain last night reached 190 km per hour!!! They were "only" 140 km per hour where we were. It was impossible to sleep with the terrifying noise. Colmenar, where we are now, is not actually on our walking route, but there was no hotel in Riogordo. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny again, so we will be able to walk and rejoin the official route.Weiterlesen
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Colmenar to Villanueva del Cauche
27. Dezember 2013 in Spanien ⋅ ☁️ 57 °F
Colmenar to Villanueva del Cauche, 15 km - Hotel Las Pedrizas

We had a good 15 km walk today... Nice sunshine but (same old story) lots of wind. We were walking on paved roads all day - we even ate lunch on the shoulder of the road - but we did see lots of olive groves and little cortijos, and there wasn't much traffic. Now we are at a very friendly small hotel, Las Pedrizas, in the middle of nowhere where you have to wear all your clothes inside and huddle inside your sleeping bag under the covers to try to keep warm. It's right on the autovía, not in a village, so not much atmosphere, and the view from our window is that of a huge parking lot, but we are grateful to have a roof over our heads.Weiterlesen
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Villanueva del Cauche to Antequera
28. Dezember 2013 in Spanien ⋅ ☁️ 54 °F
Villanueva del Cauche to Antequera by taxi - Hotel Las Villas de Antikaria (Now Hotel MM)

The view from our window this morning: heavy rain, fog, and wind. The bad weather combined with the fact that there is no hotel in Villanueva de la Concepción helped us quickly make up our minds to take a taxi to Antequera where there are hotels with heat! We are getting good at scouting out country taxis! The next four days are supposed to be sunny, so that will be good. We have a great mountain walk coming up that will take us from Antequera over La Escaleruela to reconnect with the Coast to Coast route.Weiterlesen
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Antequera
29. Dezember 2013 in Spanien ⋅ ☀️ 50 °F
Camino de Las Arquillas, 5 km - H. Las Villas de Antikaria

Ned and Marie walked out on the same track he and I used to enter the city on our 2009 TransAndalus trip, the Camino de Las Arquillas. It is an old path built in Roman times to bring water to the city. Along the path are the remains of the “arquillas” through which the water flowed. It is lined with railings and traffic-free, so makes for a nice walk. Ned also showed Marie the small hotel where we stayed in 2009 - too cold for us this year. I stayed at the hotel, recovering from being quite sick.Weiterlesen
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Antequera to Valle de Abdalajís
30. Dezember 2013 in Spanien ⋅ ☀️ 54 °F
Dec 30
Antequera to Valle de Abdalajís, 24 km - Hostal Vista de la Sierra

Wow! Today was the kind of day you dream about - as challenging as can be handled, with rewards galore. I felt good enough to walk today, so we set out for the great trail that goes right through the La Torcal Pass on the challenging track called La Escaleruela. It was zero degrees Centigrade when we started up the pass, but we had sunshine and very little wind all day. The rocky track up to the pass meant we had tremendous mountain scenery all morning, followed by remote tracks trough high cortijos after we rejoined the Coast to Coast route. Now we are the only guests in the Hostal Vista de la Sierra in Valle de Abdalajís, the same hotel where Ned and I stayed in 2009. Tomorrow...El Chorro.Weiterlesen
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Valle de Abdalajís to El Chorro
31. Dezember 2013 in Spanien ⋅ 🌫 41 °F
Valle de Abdalajís to El Chorro, 11 km - Complejo Turistico Rural La Garganta

We left Valle de Abdalajís this morning with a beautiful climb beside steep rock faces with glorious colors, and then a descent to El Chorro, which attracts people from all over the world for its rock climbing. We watched climbers on several walls on the way in to the gorge. Luckily for them and us, it's short-sleeve weather in El Chorro this afternoon. Tomorrow: a steep climb up the cliff opposite us and on to the old spa of Carratraca for a rest day!Weiterlesen
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El Chorro
1. Januar 2014 in Spanien ⋅ 🌧 59 °F
El Chorro loop, 5 km - Complejo Turistico Rural La Garganta

We decided to stay here another day to enjoy the area and made a short loop hike out to see the famous bridge on the Camino del Rey. We climbed high above it - not a trail for anyone with a fear of heights!!! We had good views of the cliff on the other side of the gorge that we are going to climb tomorrow. If it goes up as steeply as the water pipe we can see, it is going to be a very difficult climb. Given my difficulty today on sheer loose rock, I am worried about tomorrow.

There are rock climbers everywhere here. Every time you go around a corner you see more campervans. I'd say the village has at most a population of 150 , and there must be 300 climbers here.Weiterlesen
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El Chorro to Carratraca
2. Januar 2014 in Spanien ⋅ ☁️ 57 °F
El Chorro to Carratraca, 14 km - Casa Pepa
We've left the land of olive trees and entered the land of sheep! We made it up the 1100-foot cliff opposite the hotel in two hours with no problems, and got to the abandoned Mozarabic village of Bobastro only to find it is only open Fri to Sun in the winter. Too bad...we really wanted to see it. We consoled ourselves by having lunch out of the wind in the information booth across the road from the ruins.

We are in the tiny village of Carratraca tonight. I don't think many tourists find their way here. The whole town is full of Spanish families that are gathered for the holidays. Casa Pepa is a real find. Dinner here is a must if you are anywhere nearby. When we dragged ourselves in about 4 pm, the narrow street in front was filled to overflowing with local people waiting their turn to eat in the tiny dining room. We put our packs in the bedroom (don't sleep here unless you like beds like hammocks), and joined the crowd. The afternoon meal is all served family-style in what must have once been the family dining room, complete with photos on the walls. Every table gets the same menu of dishes. And they keep coming and coming! Maybe 10 courses in all. The family at the next table was celebrating a one-year-old’s first birthday. Great fun with everybody from great-grandparents to the baby. They included us too! We would love to stay here another day just to be able to eat here again, but bad weather is coming, so it is off to El Burgo tomorrow.Weiterlesen
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Carratraca to El Burgo
3. Januar 2014 in Spanien ⋅ ☁️ 59 °F
Carratraca to El Burgo, 23 km - Hotel La Casa Grande

Wow! We made it...23 km...through rain and mist...following cairns when the trail disappeared. We are really proud of ourselves. This is almost as long as the longest walk I have ever done. That was 17 miles (27 km) in Glacier National Park without a pack when I was 21. So today's nearly 15 miles with a pack at age 66 made me feel like I am in good shape. We started before it even got light, just in case, and made it to El Burgo in 8.5 hours. Ronda is next, 27 km. Along the way today, we came to an abandoned marble quarry, so of course we thought of the marble altar with the crack in it at Our lady of the Rock Monastery. (Note: the video of the lambs is from yesterday. Too cute to leave out!)Weiterlesen
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