Playa del Cristo

What a marvelous morning we had. We felt like real walkers! It was just the kind of day one would wish for, especially someone who had an injured wrist and hadn’t been able to walk for a week. The coastal path was flooded with sunshine. It was easy to walk on the basically flat, sandy surface. The views were magnificent, and all the people we passed had smiles on their faces.

The first part of the track out of Puerto Banús was particularly interesting with numerous breakwaters curving out into the sea. We are guessing that they are there to preserve the beaches from losing all their sand to storm damage.

We stopped partway along to have something cool to drink, and within 10 minutes, everything changed. The sky went from blue to black, the wind picked up, and to top it all off, the coastal path disappeared. What had been a wide, level esplanade became jumbled boulders with surf crashing over them. We don’t know if this was due to recent storm damage or has been like this for a while. In any case, we peered at the maps on our phones, trying to shield them with our umbrellas, and debating whether the bridges over storm- swollen rivers would still be there if we managed to reach them along the beach. We ended up picking out a route that would take us through urbanizations, over a river about three times its normal size, and then eventually back to the coast.

All in all, I would say it was a very successful day. I was able to carry my own pack in spite of the wrist problems because Ned kindly carried ALL of the heavy stuff. The biggest problem was that every time I saw a slope I had to walk down, my mind started to race, I got dizzy, and I pictured falling. I think it will take a few days before I feel confident again. Luckily, this is a route where we can just amble along at a slow, comfortable pace. We are staying overnight in an area called Atalaya, and will walk to Estepona tomorrow.

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