Lecrin Valley Limpers

This week we set a new Limper's Record. We started the walk with 21 people and finished with 4, this beats by one the mark set the first time I did this walk. We met at Cozvijar at 10 o'clock, except for one person, who shall remain anonymous and drives a fancy Mercedes, who pitched up at 9 o'clock. We drove to Lidel to meet up with the rest of the group. I'll have to find a different place to meet, because every year somebody disappears into the shop. Eventually we set off on our walk, a nice FLAT gentle walk as promised. After 45 minutes or so we arrived in Plaza Bib Rambla for hot chocolate and Churros. I selected a nice cheerful café with a cosy heated outside sitting area, but this didn't meet with Conchi's approval, so she led us further along the square and eventually we found a café that would serve us. The chocolate and Churros met with general approval, except for Jan who gave them the thumb's down; give him another 20 odd years in

Last week it finally snowed in the Sierras , it was also a bit damp in our valley. The snow was ideal for myself, Kees, Conchi and Fernando who were having a weekend away on Veleta on a photography course. Mike volunteered to lead the walk to Pico Lopera. I think that the 22nd of December is my favourite day of the year. We have passed the hurdle of the shortest day, and from now on the sun greets us a little earlier each morning and stays with us a little longer in the evening. Everything is on the Up! With this in mind we embarked on our journey to Pico Lopera, one of our more scenic walks, and there are a good many. We parked our cars outside the Bar, always a clever move. The day was perfect; a clear deep blue sky, little or no wind, and the sun rising over the snow clad Sierra Nevada shining down on us, warming our cold bones. What more does a body want? In Jan's case a new one. He'd gone down with something horrible, so he opted to take himself and

This week we went on a new walk that started high on the hillside above Monachil. We have driven on part of it, walked on part of it and there was a new bit, but we have never combined them into a walk. We had two meeting points, one in Cozvijar and a second one in Monachil, where we were joined by another 9, including Jesus and Christina on a motorbike. Our group now consisted of 10 Espanolas, 8 Brits and 1 Dutch. The walk starts from collado del muerto, an auspicious place to start from, and follows an old Mule track, the Camino de los Neveros. That dates back to 1526 when it was used to bring ice down from the summit of Veleta to keep the good people of Granada cool in the summer. Nowadays it makes an excellent way to climb up the hill towards Dornajo, the Sierra Nevada visitor centre. Just before Dornajo the track the meets the Sulayr long distance footpath that some in the group walked in 2011/12. A book of our travels on the Sulayr path will be published soon, let m

Whilst we are still experiencing cool weather it is under a clear blue sky, so as long as you wrap up well you can have a fabulous day out. Our walk this week was to Silleta but this time we approached it from a different direction. We started from Dilar and climbed up Sierra Manar, a good way to get warm. But with the temperature varying between 14 and 2 degrees, depending on if you were walking in the sun or shade,  you had no idea whether to strip off or add another layer. We stopped for a quick break on the top of Sierra Manar before tackling Silleta. The summit would have been the obvious place to stop for lunch but we were far too early, even Conchi wasn’t hungry,so a few intrepid souls climbed the last few metres to the marker post. It was well worth the extra effort, the views were spectacular. The walk continued by dropping down the Padul side of Silleta and then heading towards the Ermita Vieja. Finding a sunny spot with good views we stopped for lunch. Afte

It was another cold morning on Sunday as we stood in the car park waiting for folk to arrive. Everyone had their hats, coats and gloves on, and were stamping their feet and flapping their arms. Eventually we numbered 27 and I thought it was time to go before anymore arrived, 2 more managed to sneak in at the back whilst we were making our way out of the village. The walk started from the carpark in Nigúelas and headed down hill before turning off and heading to Acequias. Hilary had decided to do a shorter walk suitable for the kids so we stopped in the plaza for a full group photography session. If the group keeps expanding Conchi will have to buy a wider angle lens. Hilary took her group of 5 on the lower level route and we picked up the GR7 as it headed uphill towards Lanjaron. After 3 km Arthur and Mike decided to take a shortcut back to the bar. The path continued uphill for a further km and as this was the end of our climbing we stopped for a quick snack. We didn’t sta

It’s been a cold week in the valley, with a bitter northerly wind blowing most of the time, why they can’t turn those dam windmills around and suck warm air up from the coast is beyond me.  The idea of heading off downhill for our big walk, and walking on the sunny side of Sierra Lújar, seemed like a good idea. The starting point for our walk was Lagos, a small pueblo nestling on the side of the Sierra Lújar, its main claim to fame is the bar, whose owner definitely never went to the charm the punter school. By the time we arrived the windmills above the village were turned off and there was no wind. The last time we were here they were going around like the propellers on a spitfire and you could hardly stand up.    The walk starts by heading uphill on a little path that winds its way up to the windmills, everyone was hoping they would not turn them on and blow us away again. From here we headed off to the pueblo of Lújar. There is a bar here whose owner can’t do enough fo

With the temperatures predicted to fall by the weekend it was decided to head downhill this week for a walk from Gúajar Faragúit. It was an easy walk and we had plenty of time for a coffee before the start of the walk. By the time we had all met up in the bar there were 24 of us, so a good turn out for a cold morning. We set off,all wrapped up, by heading downhill through the village, they have spent a lot of money over the years improving it and it is now a very pleasant village to walk through. At the bottom there is a bridge over the river and then the climb starts. We had not gone far on the path up to the castle before we had a stop to take the coats off. It’s strange how quickly you warm up when there is a hill to climb. The castle covers a large area and it gives you a good idea of the layout of a Moorish castle, a lot of the internal walls are still in place. We had a look around the castle before setting off again, this time we headed off down into a steep

There was a traumatic start to our walk this week in the Huétor Parque Natural but, in the end, it turned out to be a superb walk. We had two meeting points, the first was at the BP garage in Cozvijar and I could not believe the number of people who turned up, there were 27 of us and we needed 7 cars. Can you imagine the problems of trying to keep track of all those cars, especially when my Suzuki is not only turning out to be a Friday car, it was obviously the last car on the last Friday of the year. The poor garage mechanic has now been reduced to a gibbering wreck who retreats into a corner sobbing every Monday morning when I turn up on his doorstep. Fortunately I had written directions for all the drivers on how to get to our second meeting point in Huétor de Santillan where another 3 people and 2 cars were waiting for us.       True to form the Suzuki broke down on the autovia, I have to stop, wait 2 minutes and then it goes again, so I was the last to arrive in Sant

Hi. This week we had planned a very easy walk to Mondújar castle, so easy in fact we had to have a walk around Talara to try and get the kilometers up a bit. There were 20 in the group when we set off from the cross roads in Talara. To start with we headed off towards Beznar and to the statue of Zoraya, Muly Hacen’s favorite,  who he took with him to live at Mondújar castle when he was expelled from Granada by Boabdil in 1483. Turning off the main road we went under the autovia and headed for El Cerrillo, the little pueblo now isolated from Mondujar by the autovia. We said goodbye to Arturo here, he had decided to returned to Talara. He is still recovering after a recent trip back to the UK. The climb up to the castle is a bit of a scramble, and after some huffing and puffing we all arrived safely. The castle is famous for its association with Boabdil, the last Nazrid King of Granada, who settled here in 1492. The remains of his mother, Aixa, are said to be buried he

The walk this week was our big end of the month walk and we went on a very interesting walk around Moclin that had a bit of something for everyone. The walk started from Olivares and followed a campo road alongside the Rio Velilos before joining a delightful little path that meanders along the hillside. The autumn tints were just starting to appear and the trees looked superb. After following the river for about 3 km you come to a wobbly bridge. For anyone of a nervous disposition it is best crossed solo as it swings about a bit with two or more on it. There then follows a suspended walkway above the river, real Indiana Jones stuff, ideal for the adventurous amongst us. We stopped for elevenses at a picnic site with tables and chairs, Dave was nearly overcome with emotion after we found this, the perfect place for him. Continuing, we went to look at the cave paintings, these are small single figure paintings of hunters and animals, just left exposed on a rock face, no s

This week our walk was to the Ermita Christo del Zapato above Pinos del Valle. There were a number of options available for our group to be able to mix and match their own walk. 14 elected to do the full walk from the dam to the Ermita, 3 did the walk from the dam to Pinos del valle and 3 did the walk from Pinos up to the Ermita. 5 decided not to stop for refreshments on the way back. With all the coming and going I had no idea who was walking with whom, and we ended with a car crises at the end of the walk. The walk begins from a little car park just above the dam and initially follows a campo road alongside the reservoir. This track soon comes to an end and you start the climb, which does not stop until you get to the Ermita 5 km away. The path is superb, obviously laid with the intention of attracting tourists to the area, needless to say we were the only people using it. Possibly it could do with a few more signs that make some sort of sense as to where the path is

The walk this week was from Acebuches, the little village at the end of our valley, well, not really a village, just a collection of  houses  shacks. The walk was a linear one, so a bit of car shuffling was needed. The plan was that we would leave a car outside the bar El Puente in Velez then drive up to Acebuches and meet the rest of the group, walk back to Velez, have a drink at the bar, the drivers would then be driven back to retrieve their cars in Acebuches and then return to the bar and pick up the rest of the group who would, by then, be barracho. The plan started to unravel when Kees informed me that the bar was closed. Various options were considered, including taking an ice box full of cold drinks and some chairs so that the ones waiting could have a cool drink and somewhere to sit while the rest of us drove up and down the road to Acebuches. This option was soon dismissed, there was no way I was going to leave them there drinking cold beer whilst I was driving