18 May 2014 Monachil

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This week we went to Monachil, but we did things a little differently, we didn’t do the usual swing bridge walk.
We had arranged to meet everyone by the river in the village, I was a bit shocked to see that it was in flood as we had to cross it higher up. I have experience of involuntary swimming in this river, and the thought of all 21 of us floating down through Monachil, all waving away, was quite amusing.
Instead of heading for the gorge we went uphill on a country road that soon headed into the campo. We were surprised to see that they were picking cherries, it only seems a few weeks since we were looking at the cherry blossom. José had a good idea and went off to buy some cherries, coming back with 5 kilos of them, much to the delight of the rest of us, who promptly set about helping her eat them.
The path continued up, until eventually it started to drop down into the gorge. There was a short sticky section where the path had dropped away, the last time we came up this way it was raining, with thick fog, and you couldn’t see the drop. It was fortuitous that Mike was away sunning himself on the Cabo de Gata, this week. With a few helping hands we all made it safely across, and then continued on a delightful level path high above the river.
I had heard that a bridge that we wanted to use to cross the river had been washed away, so I had advised everyone to bring plastic bags to cover their boots, with the depth of the river we would have needed waders. I don’t know where my adviser had tried to cross but the bridge is still there, and it looks set to remain so for another 100 years.
We stopped for lunch overlooking the gorge before continuing the walk back to Monachil on the goat house track. The views down into the gorge from the Era were superb, a real treat for the ones seeing it for the first time.
It was an enjoyable little walk in a valley that always delights, no matter how many times you visit.
   

We walked 9.9 km and climbed 481 meters.

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