Sunday 30 November 2015 Almuñécar

Hi

This week we had two walks planned, one the big end of the month walk and a second shorter walk from Restabal.

The weather had steadily been heading downhill all week, with a drop in temperature and a significant amount of rain. By Friday the snow had fallen down to the 1000 metre line above Talara. Our big walk was to the top of another Caballo, this one over towards Alhama de Granada, at 1500 metres there was a serious chance of snow on the summit and the forecast was suggesting the temperature would be down to 4 degrees in the Northerly wind.

A major rethink was needed, as I did not think I would be able to tempt many of my friends out of their beds for a walk in these conditions.

A new plan was devised, one that would take us to Almuñécar on the Costa Tropical. Even the name sounds good when the snow is virtually in your back garden. The benefits were obvious, sun and temperatures around 18 degrees. There were only a couple of slight problems, heavy rain was due to pass through Almuñécar around 4 in the morning,

and the area was completely new to us. We had not walked here before, but it was all on driveable tracks so no problems were expected, well nothing we could not overcome.

We left Almuñécar in high spirits, the sun was shining, the temperature was already 17 and the rain had passed on. The route passes through a Chirimoya plantation, I have never seen so many of them. Who eats them?

After about 20 minutes we came across a problem. The route crosses the Rio Verde, now normally this is not a problem as the river is dry around here. Today, after the overnight rain, it was about 5 metres wide, and there was no bridge. Some of us had plastic bags for our feet, some took their shoes off and waded across, and some cheated. They stopped a couple of passing cars and cadged a lift. I could not believe it, the hussies, getting into stranger´s cars.

Cees has been desperate to win some Brownie points this year, but so far his performance has been well below what is expected for such a prestigious award. After keeping his feet dry by making the crossing in a car he promised that, for 2 Brownie points, he would carry everyone across the next time we had to cross a river.

The track now turned serious, it started to go uphill, straight up. For the next 4km it climbed and climbed, finally at the top we stopped for a little lunch. The views were superb and it was 21 degrees. Incredibly a few kilometers away the Sierras were covered in deep snow.

We then continued on a high level track as it crossed around the head of the valley. It then slowly made it’s way back down, and what’s in the valley? Yes, the Rio Verde, and this time there weren’t any cars to flag down.

We all stood around waiting for Cees to fulfill his offer, but once again we were let down. He’d got himself safely across and his attitude was “beggar thy neighbor”. We were left with either wading  across or taking a running jump, inevitably some made a big splash when they misjudged it. It will be a long time before the Brownie point committee convenes to consider issuing Cees with any points.   

With wet feet and heavy hearts we trudged back into Almuñécar and headed to the bar for a beer.

A good walk and one to keep in mind for when we are in need of some more sun.

Finally Happy birthday Cees from us all.

We  walked 16.6 km and climbed 522 metres.

Hilary’s walk from Restabal

We had a lovely 3hr walk in warm sunshine exploring the hills and rocky outcrops above Saleres and Restabal.  Abandoning my planned route for interesting looking paths we found ourselves eventually clambering up the terraces on the West side of Restabal castle.  Last week' strong winds made the pickings good: sweet, new season oranges and late walnuts made desayuno a bit special. We walked about 10 km.