Except the heat. Good lord, the heat.

Thankfully Lilly prevailed upon me to choose a different route. I searched and the googles delivered. It wasn't quite a via ferrata, but it was a walkway suspended from the side of a canyon. Cool.

No. Hot. Damn the heat. It slayed me.

Our route started in the town of Relleu. We wound down the valley through almond groves to the head of the valley. We did find some lush spots, but not many. One, in fact.

It costs a few Euros to go down the "footbridge route". We got a headnet and a helmet. I was so hot just putting it on made me woozy.

A little ways into the route we turned a corner and the descending stairs stretched out before us. Lilly was having the time of her life. She went out on the glass-floored platform. I held on to the cables and leaned on the rock wall.

When we got to the end I was in bad shape. Very dizzy. Nauseated. Not sweating at all. Pale. I sat in the shade and Lilly fanned me. I drank water that was slightly cool because we had loaded our bladders with ice. I recalled I had a couple of ice packs so I held them in my armpits. Slowly I recovered enough to climb out. Slowly. Very slowly.

When we turned in our helmets we realized they sold drinks and OMG-OTTER-POPS-WE'RE-SAVED! We sat and consumed before buying a couple of bottles of cold water for the hike back to town.

That hike in itself was hard. There was minimal climbing, but it was all in the sun. We stopped frequently. The icepacks fit perfectly in my shorts pockets and they helped. But we stopped in every tiny sliver of shade.

Finally back in the car with the AC blowing I realized how lucky I was that Lilly had been with me. It would have been a very different story without her.

Heat aside, it's definitely worth getting an international driver's license, learning the road signs, renting a car, dodging other crazy drivers, and finding your way to the town. Seriously. Do it.