Lecrin Valley Limpers

Hi We had a local walk this weekend to Restabal castle and yes, we finally found a castle that was open and not closed for renovation. We met in Restabal and then drove up to Pinos in 5 cars, making sure that we had left 2 cars in Restabal so that we could recover the cars from Pinos and that the drivers had the keys. You would be amazed at the number of times we have planned something similar to this only later to find that the driver did not have His/Her keys with them when we arrived back at the car. From Pinos you follow a level path, in the past this has been a bone of contention, as it does in fact rise by 110 metres. Around here a 110 metres incline must be considered a flat walk.   At the campsite, which now looks to be a scout camp, the group split with Hilary leading her group on a cross country ramble whilst we made our way on forest tracks around to Restabal castle. I kept expecting to see the ubiquitous crane strategically positioned over the castle an

Our walk this week continued with last weeks theme of closed castles and coffee. After last week's major disappointment when the star attraction on our walk, the castle at Salobrena, was closed for renovation I thought we would visit  the 14th century castle in Moclin, it had a major renovation 3 years ago.  It was bound to be open. We are having some superb weather at the moment, cloudless blue skies but bitterly cold nights. What was needed was some vigorous exercise, firstly to warm up and secondly to shift the excess weight acquired over the last few weeks. The walk started from Los Olivares, a small pueblo below Moclin, far below. We didn’t take the usual marked route to Moclin, I thought that was too easy. Instead we walked through Olive fields in the direction of Tiena, it wasn’t long before we were shedding our coats, hats and fleeces on the inclined path. We continued the climb up to a lookout point where we stopped for a breather and refreshment. The path the