An extraordinary find out on the N332 main road.

A long hike out on a fresh February morning through the nature reserve, across the motorway and over wasteland to locate some of the most stunning pieces of Spanish Civil War military archaeology I have yet uncovered. If you walk down the track from Carabassi the full length of the fence that runs alongside the Clot de Galvany eventually you will come to the N332 main road. The first thing you will find is a derelict bunker at the roadside. Check that out and the very carefully cross over the road and enter what looks like a dump for hardcore. Climb up the mound opposite you and you will be amazed. Despite being overgrown and with some sections buried and running through private land there must be about a kilometre of reasonably well preserved Republican defensive positions on what would have been the old Alicante/Cartagena Road. This find really blew me away. It's effectively laid out like a fortress and must have been home to large numbers of Republican troops. The scale is breathtaking.

The anti-aircraft positions by the lighthouse up at Cap De L'Horta

Bit of a nuisance of a thing for the amateur Spanish Civil War historian when you schlepp out some distance from base on tram and on foot only to be confronted with fences and locked gates. Where there's a will there's a way and I haven't come all this way for nothing so it's a case of scale a wall and hang off a chain link fence and hope for the best. Not bad for an old geezer with a dodgy back and shot knees. This republican anti air craft position is by the lighthouse at Cap de L'Horta north of Alicante. It would have been part of the network of defences circling the bay, taking in El Faro and Serra Grossa. Plans are afoot to open these positions up as part of the Historical Memory initiative. I will be back. It's an easy run out on the tram to Cabo Huertas and then walk the rest. Great to see the original iron gun mountings in place.

One last untouched Civil War relic up at El Faro

Up at El Faro between Gran Alacant and Santa Pola, where this adventure started for me, much of the Civil War era archaeology has been refurbished and merged into the new cycle and walking routes. But if you hack through the pine groves behind the old barrack blocks you will find this one remaining untouched, collapsed and overgrown republican anti aircraft position. The concrete mounting hole for the gun remains intact. Eighty years ago this would have been in full operation trying to take out Condor Legion planes on bombing raids into Alicante. I like the fact there is at least one unmolested relic left up here.