20th April 2014 Capileira

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We had two walks organised this weekend, Hilary led an easy walk around the gardens of Nigúeles and I led an easy walk around Capileira.
Most of the group going on the Capileira walk met at 9 at the Beznar roundabout and then drove up to Capileira where we met Jan and Martine, who had driven to Pampaneira and then walked up to Capileira, they thought our little 9km needed extending a bit. Antonio also joined us in Capileira, he hadn’t got out of bed in time to make the Beznar meeting point.
The weather forecast was predicting light rain after 2 pm, no problem, we would be heading home by then.
With 12 now in the group we set off towards Cebadilla, the hydro station in the Poqueira gorge. We had sunshine and cloud but the temperature was a little down on  what we have been used to over the last couple of weeks, three of the group had shorts on and they were complaining it was a little chilly.
We made good progress to Cebadilla, but the clouds were starting to build up. As we started on the return trip down the opposite side of the gorge the cloud came a little lower and there were a few spots of rain, but nothing to cause any alarm.
We came across a group of New Zealand youngsters out for a walk with a teacher. They were doing the same walk but in the opposite direction. They had no food, drink, maps, guides or equipment, they were just in shorts and T-shirts. I pointed out to them the route they needed to follow to get back to Capileira.  We stopped for lunch near to the river and the sun was shining, there was no rush to get back, so we had a leisurely stroll up to Capileira. In the village we tried to get Jan and Martine to accept a lift to Pampaneira, but they were keen to walk back.
We headed for the bar, we had only just sat down when the heavens opened. No warning, nothing. Visibility went down to about 20 meters, the road turned into a river. We could not have timed it better, at least we were under cover, we raised our glasses to Jan and Martine, somewhere on the path to Pampaneira, and then got stuck into our tapa, well I gave it a miss, it was snails. I hate to think of the condition the New Zealanders were in when they got back because they would have been out at least another hour.
A timely reminder to always have some spare warm clothing and waterproofs when walking on the mountains.
The drive back was horrendous, heavy rain, hailstones and fog, unbelievable. In all my years spent in the mountains, I have never seen conditions change so quickly.        
We walked 9 km and climbed 449 metres.

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