28 April 2013 Silleta

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This weekend we had two walks organised, an easy walk from Melegis organised by Hilary and a harder walk up Silleta. The weather forecast was poor, well it was worse than poor, it was approaching awful. Temperatures forecast to be as low as 10 degrees, rain and thunderstorms.

A team walk to Silleta
We met at the Renault garage in Marchena for our walk up Silleta, normally we do it from Padul but it is a little short for the end of the month walk. Mike suggested we could try a path we had seen last time we were up there, I never said anything to him but I was a little worried as to the state of the path as it went near a quarry. Just to reassure ourselves that the path was passible Graham and I checked it out mid week. Our conclusion was that it was well used and safe as long as you proceeded with caution, and had a rope with you just in case. Not wanting to arouse any suspicion that anything untoward was afoot, I buried the rope at the bottom of my rucksack.
In any case there were more pressing problems on the weather front. The clouds were low and you could hear the rumble of a thunderstorm somewhere down the valley. My tea leaves were predicting rain at 3 pm. I had allowed 6 hours for the walk, it was perfect with a 9 am start, the rain would arrive as got to the bar.
We set off at a brisk pace, obviously no one had any faith in my tea leaves. There are a number of tracks in this area, anyone of which we could use to adapt the walk if conditions continued to deteriorate. The quarry section passed without incident and the thunderstorm continued to stay some distance away but there was certainly a drop in temperature the higher we climbed. Ten minutes from the summit we were hit by a shower of hailstones. My tea leaf reading abilities were called into question but, as I use Yorkshire tea, they only predict rain not hail. On the summit we stopped for lunch, this was a hasty affair as the temperature had fallen to 5.4 degrees and there was no escaping the wind that had suddenly appeared.
The reason for choosing Silleta for this weeks walk was to look at the Orchids that grow on the hillside. Some years it is covered in flowers but this year, whilst there was still a lot about, it was not spectacular.
With the weather starting to close in it was time to make our return, we chose a different way back, I don’t think I would have got Mike on the quarry path twice in one day. Grahame’s knee locked up shortly after we set off but he dosed himself up with painkillers and made the return trip on cloud nine. The rate folks are going down with bad knees and feet we should be able to negotiate a good discount with Zimmer frame.
We arrived back at the car with an hour to spare before the predicted rain would arrive, plenty of time for a beer. At 2.55 it started to rain. You can’t beat Yorkshire tea!
We walked 16.9 km and climbed 808 metres.

Hilary’s Lavender walk
20 walkers, aged from under 7 to over 70, plus dog set of from Los Naranjos with the ominous sound of thunder and a black cloud overhead. The heady smell of orange blossom gave way to aromatic herbs once we'd crossed the rio Durcal and made the ascent through wilder country on the other side of the valley. The spring flowers including orchids were abundant and the bee eaters displayed their vibrant colours as the sun began to shine.

We reached Casa Lavanda to find plants, pottery, clothes, lavanda products and much more for sale. After sampling the wine from Bodega de Ignacio it was hard getting everyone together for the second half of our adventure, up to Castillo Lojuela. Indeed we said goodbye to eight of our party who decided on a on short cut back to Melegis and after a stop at the castle 3 more decided to return home via Talara.

With 9 remaining I hadn't expected more deserters but Carmen and Maria Jose just couldn't resist the idea of returning to Casa Lavanda so only 7 walkers arrived back at Los Naranjos at 2.30 p.m. an hour later than expected.
Some of us walked 8 km or maybe even more...
Hilary

Come on Hilary a few loses on the route are acceptable, but 13 is pushing it a bit.   

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