9th February 2014 Murchas castle

By -


The weather forecast had predicted rain for our Sunday walk, the prediction was correct.
Because of the poor forecast we had arranged to meet in the Puerta del Valle Bar in Melegis. I was surprised how many turned up for what promised to be a miserable day. Now you have got to take this miserable day in context, this is a Spanish miserable day. One where we know that, in a few days time, the sun will return and we can go back to wearing our T shirts. This was not like a English miserable day which, like groundhog day goes on and on for ever.
Whilst it wasn’t raining at 9am it was damp, so we retired to the bar for a coffee around the log fire. After a quick discussion it was decided that the conditions were good enough for a walk to Murchas castle . We would then review our plans for the rest of the walk.
The beauty about this area is that there are a lot of tracks, which allow you to adapt the walk as conditions change.
After a slight detour when I missed the acequia path, it was pointed out that this didn’t happen on a walk around here with Hilary, we made it to the castle. Now usually from here you have fantastic views up to Caballo but with the weather continuing to deteriorate, and the clouds getting lower we decided that after a short break we would head off for Murchas.
By the time we got into the village it was starting to rain, so we decided to head off back down the hill, and the bar and log fire in Melegis. We just made it back in time before the rain really set in, this continued for the rest of the day. Even down in the beautiful village of Velez de Benaudalla where we all went in the afternoon for tapas at Cees and Marjan’s.
It was only a short, easy walk of 7 km with 223 metres of climbing, given the weather conditions over the last few days we were lucky to even do that.    

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Walk Sunday 2 December 2018 Sierra Manar

By -
Image
This week we went walking in the Sierra Manar, the range of hills behind Dilar.  The walk had been postponed from a few weeks back when it was raining every day, it’s not a walk to do when the ground is wet and muddy. The weather forecast for this Sunday was for sunshine and temperatures of 21 degrees, perfect walking conditions.  The walk starts from the Ermita Nueva and heads up a gentle slope through Olive trees.  After 1 km the path follows the tree line on what at first looks like a level track. It soon becomes apparent that it’s not level at all, but a series of switchbacks with steep ups and downs.  There were only 9 in the group, and we all walked together, chatting and enjoying the warm sunshine. Nobody thought to check that we all turned onto a path into the forest. It was only when we emerged on the other side we noticed our group had dropped to 7, Elsa and Martine were missing.  At first, we weren't worried, we thought they would soon rejoin us. After
Read more

Walk Sunday 4 November 2018 Nerja

By -
Image
This week with snow on the Sierras we decided to go down to Nerja for our walk, at least it would be warm down there. I left home in long trousers, fleece and a jacket. One hour later, at the start of the walk from the caves, I was down to shorts and a T-shirt, don’t worry I had not thrown caution to the wind, they were all in my rucksack along with another 2 coats.  The route was a circular one setting off from the caves and the idea was that we could do an easy and a harder walk, with the easy walkers walking with us for the first half of the route and then making their way back along a 4X4 track, whilst the harder walk went up a hill. Trying to keep track as to who, and how many there were in the group was impossible, even Einstein would have had trouble keeping up with all the comings and goings. For the first 1km, the track follows a 4X4 road to the picnic site, it then drops down into a superb barranco which fortunately, even after all the rain, was still dry. Th
Read more

Walk 18 November 2018 Talara

By -
Image
The walk this Sunday was a local one from Talara. The weather forecast was not promising. It wasn’t a matter of if it rained, it was at what time would it start and how heavy.  We met at the crossroads in Talara and the fallback wet weather option was coffee in Antonio’s where we could reminisce about walking in dry sunny weather. It would only be a short discussion as dry weather was sadly lacking in 2018. It was decided to skip the coffee, it wasn’t raining yet, and we had a walk to do. The route was designed with 12 options to shorten it when the rain started, it also went close by a number of Limper homes where we could seek refuge if necessary.  The walk passed through Chite where we picked up a couple of stragglers and then headed off down to the dam. This is a wonderful path as it winds its way down the hillside in and out of the Agave plants, Fortunately, I had brought my machete with me, as a number needed trimming. I had to be careful this week, my care
Read more