2 November 2026 – Lliber River Walk

Autumn has arrived and with it the wet season

Once more we have had a weekly weather forecast of rain almost every day

Unfortunately this year the forecast has proved even less reliable than previous years

Most days it has only rained for an hour or two, if at all

However there have been a couple of days of heavy rain

Saturday was one such, but Sunday was sunny and warm

However Monday was promised to be another very wet day

We spent many hours pondering whether we should cancel the walk or not

We leave the decision until midday on Sunday

But even then it can be a difficult choice

We check four different apps for the local weather

And on Sunday morning all were different

They ranged from heavy rain all day to light rain for a few hours

I was tempted to cancel, but Jan wanted to meet and make a decision on Monday

As always Jan won!

And very pleased that she did

It rained Sunday night and early Monday morning

I got one email asking if we were still walking

When we met in Lliber square it was very much sunny/cloudy

But we were pleased that everyone had turned up – no cancellations

The weather improved as we set off

There were a few big puddles of rain

But everywhere was passable

The river was dry, though with a few pools of water

But could be crossed easily both times

We had a lovely walk and were glad we had not cancelled

Temperature – 16 to 19c

Time taken – 3 hours

Distance – 9km

26 October 2026 – Parcent to Alcalali

 

We cancelled last week walk because of storms and heavy rain

We had a series of yellow and red storm warning for Sunday to Tuesday

The worse day was Monday when schools were closed

It was a terrible day and we were proved right to cancel the walk

It was compared with the Gota Fria in 2008

But fortunately no real damage done locally

However it is normal for the rivers to rise for a few days after the rain stops

So we designed a one off walk to avoid all rivers for today

I planned a circular valley walk but could adapt to circumstances

There was little sign of the storm, though the river was high and fast flowing

We had 18 walking today

Another 8 cancelled for various reasons

This is a good indication how difficult it is to predice actual numbers each week

It was much better with a smaller group

We were surprised that Paul and Kathryn joined us today

It is less than a week since they completed the Camino de Santiago

They did the full walk from St Jean to Santiago de Compostela  

It is 800 km and they completed it in just 46 days, an average of 17km a day

In the bar after todays walk we calculated it was 88 of our weekly 9km walks

We normally do about 40 walks a year, it would take us more than two years to do 800km

Temperature – 21 to 24c

Time taken – 3 hours

Distance – 9km

12 October 2026 – Jalon to Alcalali

We reverted to 1000 start because of the lower temperatures

It was nice to have an extra hour sleep

However the temperatures were actually higher than last week

25c is pretty low compared to our usual summer temperatures

But it would still be considered a heat wave in the UK

And we still need to take sensible precautions

We all need to take more water and to find shade for our water stops

But I know these walks so well that finding shade is not a problem

We were also lucky to have a cool breeze for the latter half of the walk

This from the pipeline to Jalon, and very exposed

There were 23 of us today

This included two couples just arrived from the UK

And also Lorraine back from her summer travels

It is lovely to see familiar faces again

But it does highlight the lack of success reducing the numbers

We originally had five more expected on this walk

That would have made 28

One had an injury, two cancelled and two had visitors

I have had to abandoned my plan to reduce numbers on each walk to a maximum of 16

I don’t want to refuse any regular walker who has supported us for a long time

But anyone who does not walk regularly or who frequently cancels at short notice will be put on the reserve list

It also means that we will not be able to accept any visitors, unless there are less than 20 walking

And I will have to put new members on the reserve list

This is a shame because we feel it is important to encourage new arrivals to explore the valley

Numbers have varied a lot in the past, and will no doubt do so again in the future

And we do appreciate having so many friends who join us week after week

We have solved the problem of which bar to use with such large groups

Mike warns the bar, he then write a list of what everyone wants to drink and takes it  to the bar.   They give him the bill, and we pay it amongst ourselves.   It makes it easier for the bar, and for us

Temperature – 21 to 25c

Time taken – 3.5 hours

Distance – 10km