Walk 2nd December

After a wet week, (yes it does rain in Spain sometimes!) Sunday dawned bright and clear, setting the stage for what to most people was a new walk.The walk starts from the car park at Sevilla above Cumbres Verde, christened the " Super Mario " after a super fit older gentleman left us standing, when we surveyed the walk last year. Our original route started with quite a strenuous 1½ hours of climbing, but by reversing the direction of the walk, the climb to the summit becomes an easy 3.½ hours walk. As most of you have probably noticed I tend to walk at the rear of the group, this is to give encouragement to the tailenders, and also so we don´t lose anybody. Noticing that the group was mostly comprised of good walkers and being a new route, I decided to walk at the front. A big mistake! We had not gone more than 2km when we noticed that the 12 happy wanderers were no more, one had gone AWOL, Peter had taken time out to inspect a tree, and in an effort to catch up with us had mistakenly taken the wrong path, being very concerned, but not knowing in which direction he had gone, we decided to sit down and have breakfast while we planned a rescue mission. Our main concern was that he had the car keys, fortunately before we had time to call out the Guardia he had realised his mistake, back tracked and found the right path, much to Stella's relief, as he was carrying the sandwiches. In future we will appoint an "off piste monitor" at the start of each walk. At our next stop at the Refugio we were delighted to see an Eagle flying at tree top height looking for unwanted tit bits, needless to say he did not find any, another unusual sight was a Andalusian sheep dog wearing a bell, out for the day guarding his flock. An aspect of the walk and something I have not done for a long time, was to walk in mud, what a treat! On the flat summit we had extensive views of the Sierra Nevada´s snow covered tops. The last few weeks most of the walks have had Trevenque (The Milton refusal) as a back drop, this has not been a deliberate policy, to put the fear of God into Little John, but it is quite funny to see his knees start to shake when it comes into view. A good walk that we will have to repeat in 2008, but again when have we been on a bad walk?

Afterwards we returned to Ken and Joan´s house in Albunúelas for tapa and a wonderful selection of Curries, pies and cakes. Once again thanks to everyone for another good day.

Our walk this weekend is Silleta. This is a great walk that normally sets off from Padul and climbs up to the cross of Atallaya before continuing on to the summit of Silleta, and then back by the window, which, if you don´t know it, you will have to come on the walk to witness this dramatic view point. For a change we will try doing the walk in the reverse direction in order to appeal to a wider audience. It involves about 700 meters of climbing over 3.½ hours to the summit and 1.½ hours back, note these are estimated walking times and are subject to the groups ability and stops. The paths are good and well graded. If you want to go on the walk please meet at the first Padul junction, on the road from Durcal at 9am. There is no tapa arranged this week.

The photo shows Pepa, Quina, Sandie, John ( Lord Travenque ) pending, Rob, Linda, Alan, Annie, Peter, Stella, Rob.