14 December 2014 Guajar Alto

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Can I start by thanking everyone for the magnificent Silver Boot that was awarded to me on Sunday. It was an honour to accept it, and it will take pride of place on top of my map drawer. Can I also say a great big thank you for the Christmas present, I will buy something extra special with it.
If anyone is wanting to take out the walking insurance this year can you please read the notes at the end of the email.

On Saturday we had the group Christmas dinner at the WOK in Granada. A lot of food was consumed in what must be one of the best value restaurants in Granada.
The weather last week had been pretty good, with a decent amount of sunshine, and temperatures you would expect in December, but the weekend weather was predicted to be poor, with low temperatures and increasing amounts of rain forecast as the week progressed.
We had arranged to go down to Guajar Alto and walk back to Guajar Faraguit. Hoping that this valley would protect us from the worst of the weather.
7 am Sunday morning found me staring into my crystal ball. We had had heavy overnight rain, and the forecast was for it to continue for most of the day, but the old mystic crystal, (well really it’s a jamjar we got from Lidl) , was showing a ray of sunshine over Los Guajares. Only later, after sending an email to say the walk was on, did I discover it was the street light reflecting off a bit of jam in the bottom of the jar.  
Surprisingly there were 10 people waiting at Beznar with the rain beating down, fresh snow on the hills and thick cloud coming up from the coast. I knew my reputation was in tatters. Only my faith in the jamjar could save the day, so we set off to meet Cees in Guajar Faraguit.
The planned walk back to Faraguit was along footpaths which by now would be slippy after all the rain. Plan B was put into action, this involved going for a coffee in Alto, waiting until the rain had passed, which the jamjar was saying would be at 10.00 and then walk out on the forest road towards Albunúelas.    
We found a cozy bar on the square with a log fire, and made ourselves comfortable waiting for the rain to pass. We emerged from the bar at 10.10 and to say that we were immersed in warm sunshine would be stretching the credibility of even this tale, but it wasn’t raining. We set off through the village towards Albunúelas, we had no destination in mind, it was just a matter of going out for a 3 hour walk. The weather continued to improve and we even had a bit of blue sky and some sunshine, and most importantly, not one drop of rain fell on us.
With my reputation intact, and my faith in Lidl’s jamjar restored,  we returned to the bar for a drink.  
We  walked 12.3 km and climbed 457 metres.
In the afternoon we went to Graeme and Hilary’s for tapas, and a good time was had by all, especially me.

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