Huetor Parque Natural

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Dear All
I know I keep saying in our walk reports how wonderful the walks have been, and that the views were great, but our walk this weekend, to the Huétor Parque Natural, must rank amongst best. To get to the park, which is north of Granada, involves a 45 minute drive, and I know that you who still live in the UK will consider this trivial, involving a journey of probably no more than 2 miles. For us hillbillies from the valley it was a major expedition, to a land far away, that not many Lecriners had ever seen before. Surprisingly the start of the walk is only a hundred meters away from the A92 autovia, but you would think you were a million miles from anywhere in the thick pine forest and the views over the park. So with a group of 12 eager walkers we set off to discover this natural paradise. The walk is a circular one and for the first part follows a forest Camino as it meanders along in the valley floor, and it is only when you have gone about 3 km and gained a bit of altitude that you get to see the stunning back drop of the snow covered Sierra Nevadas behind you. At the halfway point we stopped both to enjoy the views and our midmorning snack. At this point so intoxicating were the views that it was hard to get the group walking again in any coordinated fashion, and serious words had to be said with the tailenders, especially as the hardest part of the walk was coming up and I was worried that they would curl up and go to sleep instead of climbing up the hillside. The path then follows a contour along the side of the hill, with uninterrupted views in all directions, and at all the best vantage points the forest rangers have very kindly provided comfortable seating where you can sit and contemplate the troubles of the world, or just sit back and think what a fantastic walk this is. The sky was a deep blue, the sun shone all day and the air was fresh, what else could you wish for on a Sunday afternoon. Upon our return to the valley we retired to Annie's house in Mondujar for our usual tapa treat. So infamous have the tapa parties become that television cameras were on hand to film it for a new Sky TV channel about living in Spain.
A couple weeks ago I mentioned that Joanna had slipped and twisted her ankle while walking down the path from the Hermita in Pinos del Vale. It now transpires that it was more serious than we thought and she had in fact broken it, and she will have her leg in plaster for a few weeks. We all wish her a speedy recovery. On this note we are looking into the costs and problems involved in joining a walking federation and having insurance cover for this sort of thing. If anyone has any thoughts about this please let me know.
The walk this coming Sunday the 18th March is a local one from Nigúelas famously named the Gold finger walk. which starts by following the GR7 path towards Acequias and up Cerro Alto before dropping into the los Canjarros and returning to Nigúelas. The path is not difficult but does involve climbing about 300 meters and it is about 8 km long, estimated time about 3.5 hours. Tapa will be held at Alan's house in Nigúelas upon our return. He has suggested that we can drop the tapa off at his house which is near the start of the walk. If you want to go on the walk meet in the carpark in Nigúelas at 9.30.

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