23 December 2012 Peña Partida

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Peña Partida

This week we had two walks organised, the first our big end of the month walk, and second an easy walk around Talara.
We have had some very good weather this week, with temperatures around 20 degrees and a lot of the snow on the lower slopes of the Sierras has melted.
Whilst this may not be good news for the sky resort for us it was excellent news, and, with the weather forecast predicting 21 degrees in Granada, it looked like our first choice option to Peña Partida could go ahead. We have not done this walk on a Sunday before because of the need for either 4X4 or cars with high ground clearance. There are now a number of suitable cars in the group so we could consider putting this walk on our itinerary. It is a spectacular walk, amongst the giants of the Sierra Nevadas.
We drove to Guejar Sierra where we met up with Mark and Ursula and consolidated our transport, setting off again in 3 vehicles suitable for driving the 10 km rough road up the Loma de Papeles. The way up, whilst pleasant, does not prepare you for the spectacular views when you get on to the ridge. You are surrounded by the highest mountains in mainland Spain, Mulhacen, Veleta, Alcazaba and many more of the lesser 3000 metre mountains.
After parking up we set off on foot along the ridge path as it heads up to the refugio at Peña Partida, we had not gone very far before Rebecca started to feel unwell. She felt it best if she returned to the cars and await for our return, Plym very generously offered to go back with her.
The rest of us proceeded on to Peña Partida where we stopped for an early lunch. The weather was unbelievable, we were 2500 metres up on the side of La Atalaya and we were in our T shirts. It had been the original intention to continue the walk on to the Lavaderos de la Reina, a very picturesque valley a few kms away, but, with the group now split up we decided to head back to the cars.
Now normally I get complaints that the walk is either longer, tougher or higher than advertised. Over the years I have learnt how to explain away the little discrepancies, with “you can’t trust the accuracy of the GPS” or “the path has changed since last time”. This week the complaint was that it was shorter and easier than advertised. In this case, the only thing I can offer is to do it again under guarantee. We will repeat the walk again in the spring.
Arriving back at the cars we found Rebecca feeling a little better. In an effort to appease     
the bitterly disappointed walkers in the group. Mark suggested that we return to their house for tea and mince pies. This was a great idea and we spent a pleasant afternoon on the terrace, discussing where we had been and enjoying this years Mosto Nuevo. A big improvement over previous years.
Even though we did not do our advertised 20 km walk, we had a good walk with some stunning scenery.

We walked 10 km, and climbed 431 metres.
The photo this week was taken at Peña Partida.

Stuart

The B team this week had to manage without Hilary who unfortunately was too lame even to limp.
Hilary, hilariously appointed me stipendiary leader for the morning's walk from Talara to Melegis via the embalse, and those who know why and how closely I usually stick to Stuart, will instantly realise the chances of the B team successfully reaching their intended destination were minimal.

From Talara, uneventfully, we made our way to Hilary's house in the depths of Chite Bajo, where she supplied us with a map  - a colourful thing with squiggly lines? Also, with a mudmap - of undoubted success, as not once did we fall into the mud. Therefor, heading out of Chite Bajo we had no problems finding the campo, where we went up and down various tracks, passing various cortijos, enjoying the views of the embalse and the Valle at it's glorious best, the orange trees laden with fruit and the heady aroma of the earliest orange blossom. Jane, keeper of the mudmap, valiantly kept us on track whilst I kept everyone's spirits up, or at least the spirits of those actually with us, and as soon as Toñi pointed out that I had lost half the group, ie two out of four, we didn't have to wait too long for them to catch up and join the cheer of the front runners.

Numbers restored, we followed the lake around looking for our track leading up and off to the right. We took a likely looking trail which brought us to the Melegis cemetery, and continued up to join the carretera at precisely the point where we had planned not to emerge. From here, various options were discussed; more ramblings up the river behind Melegis to Murchas? To Murchas castle? In fact, we took a short easy option over the ridge directly back to Talara, enjoying a brief snack stop and joining the road down to Murchas where Jane and David left us and headed straight home.

Civilization was in sight; the more religious amongst us blessed themselves whilst others merely said thank-you or was it - whew?

We walked from 10am until almost 1pm, covering numerous kilometres very pleasantly- AND without incident. Whew.
XOX Rene
I think Rene is in line for a Brownie point for valiantly stepping in at the last moment.

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