Day 48 – EU – Spain [Oliva to Favara]

22/01/20

34km

  From Oliva (Spain) to Favara (Spain)

Europe

Hail storm, lightning, flooding,… cutting short today’s run

The first part of the run had been very encouraging, weather-wise. The wind was quiet, the rain had stopped and I managed to get out of the National Road, towards the smaller and tranquil seaside roads. Running past Grau, I got an idea of how bad things must have been in the past few days. The beach had been swept all over town. All the streets were covered in sand and marks of water on all the buildings were quite high up.

After running through Grau, I continued my way inland on a “CV” (small road) instead of the NR (national road). It went fine for awhile… then I encountered a series of closed roads, with police cars on vigil. I chatted with them and they explained the roads were too flooded and uncrossable. I had no choice but to head back to the National Road again.

As I was past km25, the sky got significantly darker and rain started to pour. At nearly the same time, my phone went on. I took shelter under BoB to read the message: my hotel for the night in Cullera was cancelling on me, as their water boiler had been damaged in the Storm and they had no hot water for the guests. Dammit. So, I’m in the rain, partly covered by BoB, 15km from my destination, and no hotel booked! Damn!

Going closer towards the coast was no option. And all other hotels in Cullera were either booked or closed. I pondered for a while, decided I would think about it over the next 10km of running, then will hit Favara and have a coffee somewhere warm to rearrange my logistics.

I thought about it for the next 10km. Hit Favara. And then the sky opened and I got hit by a hail storm, lighting and flooding! All at once! I was running, looking left and right till I finally saw a Hotel sign. And that’s where I stopped for the day!

Hopefully all the bad weather should be over by tonight. All the forecasts I’m seeing have a beautiful sun in store for tomorrow. I think I still have to be cautious about flooded areas. I probably won’t be able to cross the Albufera Lagoon by the East and most likely will have to go inland instead.

Check my daily run GPS data on or

Here is the map of today’s run: