Sax to Caudette via Villena.
An easy day, almost level walking after a few km you are on farm tracks. The route passes within 200 metres of the high speed train stop for Villena and I think it is possible to get from the station and on to the Camino, this is about 6 or 7 km before Villena itself. Villena has an igelisa de Santiago and a historic barrio within an busy town, I spent two hours there looking for new walking shoes, I realised it wasn't going to happen so took a knife to the ones I was wearing to cut the area that I believed were causing the most pain in my feet, it relieved the pressure, however my attention which had been distracted by one set of pains was now free to look at other pains my shoes were causing me, it seems amusing now as I type this but at the time I was firmly digging into into my attachment to the Camino to keep me going.
Leaving Villena takes you along a busy main road on the road side of crash barriers and across a big roundabout with fast moving traffic, about 1km after this the roadside path takes comes to writing in yellow and two arrows, 1 points at a right angle to the busy dual carriage and says Caudette 14km the other points straight on, following the road side path and says Almansa 36km, which seems to be an alternative missing out Caudette. Going to Caudette means you head slightly westward then the next day you go slightly north eastward again to connect up with the path to Almansa. My recommendation is if you want to walk next to a busy noisy road for 28km then go straight to Almansa, however if you want to visit a friendly town where the locals are interested in the Camino and the Hospitalero is a gem then head to Caudette. The Albergue in Caudette is right in the upper part of it on rear part of town as you are heading into it, I can't give exact directions because the Hospitalero was waiting for me in his car about half way into town, he gave me a half hour guided tour of the town showing me places of interest and the way out the next day. It's a proper Albergue with places for 10. The only problem seems to be that the power cuts out at 7pm, my recommendation is arrive early do your washing, get your clothes out on the balcony drying, set your bed up and get your your torch outready. I had done the 1st three and I always have my torch readily accessible so it wasn't a problem. I went out out at 8pm to a Spanish/ Bulgarian restaurant had a goat cheese salad, 2 bottles of Beer, and to further celebrate my 50th birthday had apple flan. For people who like getting up early and want an early morning Coffee fix, there is a bar called El Charo which opens at 5:30am. I am pretty sure you could even have a full meal at around 8/9am it seemed to be full of workers coming in at 0830 and having a menu del dia with bottles of wine, it closes at 4:30pm, I have feeling it is the best place to eat in town and offers pilgrims a quite extensive Menu del Peregrino for 8 Euros, it is advertised in the Albergue.
Caudette to Almansa,
An unspectacular day for large parts on farm tracks next to a busy dual carriage and train tracks, no where to stop until you get to Almansa, take water and provisions. You do pass the site of a British/Portuguese defeat in the Peninsular wars and there is some boards up to show you where the battles took place and the route the defeated armies fled. I stayed at the accommodation the nuns provide in Almansa, strangely enough I didn't have a clue where I was going, I followed a long straight road into deepest Almansa the arrows disappearing again, and when I decided I better ask someone they pointed to door no more than 30 metres away and said next to the Sabinell bank, I didn't even have to knock on the door, someone else did that, the nun opened the door ignored the lady who had knocked and beckoned me in, I wish it was always that easy to find the accommodation. I was in bed by 5:45pm, I was shattered, the wind had been very intense all day, and my feet had drained me again, I have done a few Caminos now and my feet and suitable footwear is always a problem, I have what's called duck feet, they are very broad at the forefoot. Sometimes I find something which I think excellent I can live with these, but they usually stop making them so it's a constant search for the next footwear. This is not the first time my feet have been tortured, but usually I work my way through it and have a great time, this time I don't want to take one more footstep than I have to, wether it's backtracking or looking at something interesting or just going for a wander, my feet have hurt plenty in the past, this time just seems extreme, however no blisters which I don't quite understand.