13 October 2013 Acebuches to Velez

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 up and down in a hot car. They were just going to have to hang about for 15 minutes, until we got back.   

It was quite chilly when we met at 9.15, this has to taken in context, most of us were in T shirts and shorts and the sun only reaches down into Acebuches in August. So we set off at a good pace going through the village and then heading uphill on a steepish path, there were no further complaints of feeling chilly.

The path continued uphill for a further hour but this time following a well graded campo road. At the top we stopped for a early lunch and it was here I had to impart the sad news about the bar being closed. It was obviously a great disappointment to some as from there on in there was nothing but a string of complaints, just because we drifted off the intended path by 20 meters and had to take a short diversion across country, no one will see the scratches after a couple of weeks.

Then there were complaints about a short downhill section we had to do. I maintain if they can dig a trench and lay a gas pipeline up here then surely it is not beyond human endeavour just to to be able to walk on the path and maintain an upright posture. The way down from our lofty heights was via another campo road which twisted and turned as it made it’s way down to Velez.

As we were leaving Acebuches in the morning we acquired a small dog who wanted to go for a walk, this has occurred  numerous times in the past and normally it is not a problem as the dog goes home when we return to his village, notice I did say his, a female dog would not go for a walk with a bunch of strangers. Today it was a bit more difficult because we were not walking back. As we were approaching Velez I found some string in the road and, after a magnificent rugby tackle by Frank, we managed to capture the dog and secure him with the string. The idea was we would take him home to Acebuches in the car and release him there. We know now why the farmer had discarded the string,  it broke as soon as we put the dog down and there was no way he was letting Frank near him again. We left him to make his own way home.

We walked 12.9 km and climbed 580 metres.

In the afternoon we went around to Mike and Sheila’s for an enjoyable afternoon’s tapas.

The photo was taken by Conchi.

Due to the high number of complaints we received on this weeks walk we have decided to offer a full refund of all monies paid. In order to receive your refund please fill in the enclosed complaints form and return it to our complaints manager.

Complaint procedure

First and most important point :  
  a simple procedure to submit a complaint
  

Par. 1 :  to submit a complaint an amount of
  € 20,00 has to be paid to the  
  Complaint manager (in this case Kees) by
  the Complainer

Par. 1 :  in general the Group manager (in this  
  case Stuart) is always right

Par. 2 :  if not, the Complaint manager is right

Par. 3 :  if not, a final commission existing of the
  Group manager, the Complaint manager   
  and the Complainer will make the
  definitive decision; most votes will win.

Par. 4 :  the amount to be paid if the Complainer
  is right will never exceed € 10,00

We hope this helps in restoring the group's reputation as a fair and honest organisation.