Carretera de Cabra

The walk this week, the 25th March, saw us all meeting in Padul and, even though the clocks had gone forward during the night, everyone was on time. The big feature of this walk is the great car shuttle, which involved leaving 2 cars positioned at the end of the walk, 16 walkers and 3 dogs squeezed into 4 cars which were then driven to the start of the walk., about l 2km down the Carretera de Cabra., The cars had to be retrieved when we had completed the walk.. The walk is on a good quality campo road that twists and turns through farm land, and so far it has escaped the attention of the cement mixing road builders. The road is as near as you will get in these parts to a 12 km long down hill road, having only 3 short up hill sections. At all times you have extensive views over the Sierra Nevada. The weather was good and the strong northerly wind that had been blowing all week had abated. After all the walkers were reunited with their cars we all headed off to Rob and Sandy's house in Mondújar, where to the delight of the vegetarians we could eat just about everything on this weeks very extensive menu. The only sour note in the proceedings, was when Arturo put garlic favoured yogurt on Sandy's celebrated Cornish scones instead of cream.

To celebrate the return to the Valley of little John, the group secretary, this weeks walk, the lst April, sees us returning to the area above Cumbres Verde, so he can see the peak of the infamous Trevenque, otherwise known as the Milton refusal. The walk should take about 3 hours and is classed as multi ability as you can do or leave out sections depending on how you feel. The walk starts at the car park at Cerro de Seville and heads off on a level path towards Boca de la Pesca, a peak we have passed on a number of occasions but have never climbed. It only takes about 20 minutes to the top, and the 360 degree view is well wealth the effort. If you feel unable to do this section you can continue along the level path to another view point. When the group reunites we head across country on good paths for Cumbres Verde, where once again you can drop out if needed and sample the local hostelries. The rest then returning back to the car park for the cars. Tapa will be taken at Colin and Lesley's house in Monachil. This walk has been planned to take place on a number of occasions, but has had to be cancelled due to low cloud, if once again we are unfortunate with the weather we will do the Monachil gorge walk instead. Colin and Lesley have a cat so dogs will have to sit in the car for the duration of the tapa. If you are going on the walk please meet in the car park in Nigúelas at 9 am. for the drive to Cumbres Verde.

Last week I put up for auction either to publish or destroy a picture of a guy wearing a paper hat, I can now disclose that I have received a unspecified amount to publish the photo on the web. This and other photos can be seen on the photo site.