Hillwalkers from Holland
Rob and his partner Matthew from Holland contacted us to ask if we had a room free at short notice, as they were currently in Extremadura and wanted to come to our part of Spain – partly to leave the rain behind (hopefully), and also they were in search of a good hiking and hill walking spot. We were more than happy to welcome them, and they duly arrived the next day. They initially booked in for two nights, but soon felt so much at home and realised the possibilities for walking in the area were so good that they extended their visit to a total of four nights.
The weather was mixed during their stay, but they found a good balance – when it was bright and sunny they stayed around the pool and in the gardens, and when it was cloudy they went on one of the signposted walking routes in the surrounding orange groves or mountains. One day they even took time out to explore Valencia City, which they found a great place for a change of scene. Most of the time, however, they spent out and about in the local area and made use of the information available to hikers at the “senderismo” centre near to La Drova. From there they could go on various marked out routes through the mountains and they were very impressed with the scenery and natural beauty of the La Safor region. It had never been on their original agenda to come to this part of the country at all, and it was only because they had encountered very wet weather in Extremadura that they ventured to the Costa Blanca coast. However, in the end they felt that the bad weather elsewhere had done them a favour as they were glad to have discovered Gandia and the hillwalking opportunities of the La Safor region.
On the morning of their fifth day, they had to leave to catch their flight home from Madrid, so were glad that the motorway network is within easy reach of Villa Florencia. They were able to leave in good time to make their late afternoon flight back to Holland, and who knows – they seemed so impressed with their surprise discovery of this area that they may return to explore the rest!
