I'd picked up a tip from an ex-pat blog post from some years back in Torrevieja that there were some Republican slit trenches near Rojales. Probably defending the old road inland from the naval base at Cartagena. The information was sketchy but suggested that they were just outside Rojales along the dried river bed of the Segura as it heads towards the coast to Guardamar. On a fresh February morning I jumped a couple of buses and decided to do the walk inland along the river. It's about two hours each way. A lot quicker to hire a bike if the bike hire shop is open! Anyway, I made it into Rojales in time for a lunch and it's a beautiful, historic little town. Over lunch I check the limited details I had and headed back out on the hunt. After a couple of false starts I found a hill cut back from the road that seemed to fit the description. Unfortunately it had been recently fenced off and I needed to get on top of it. I'd walked a long way and didn't want to go back empty handed and where there's a will there's a way! Squeezing through a narrow gap I clambered up and was rewarded with an extraordinarily well-preserved network of slit trenches elevated above the old road. Snapping my pics I got away as quick as I could. Nowhere on the web have I seen pictures of these important anti-fascist military positions. I was chuffed and headed off for the long walk back to Guardamar and some celebratory beers and tapas before the bus home rolled in.
