Walk Sunday 8 February 2015 The real acequia Granada

By -


A truly historic event took place on Sunday. For the first time ever the start time for a walk was put back by one hour. Some will question the reason behind the change, I maintain it was because of the bitterly cold Saturday night temperatures, 6 degrees that had been forecast. Others claim that, because I will be a pensioner next month, I am becoming too old and frail to go out when it is cold, Mike even suggested that it was to stop him watching his football team, El magnifico Burnley, who were on the television at 1pm. I feel vindicated with the decision to delay the start when you look at the group photo, no one is wearing shorts or skimpy tops.
Our walk this week was in Granada and started from above the Alhambra, There were 19 brave souls who turned up on a cold morning for the drive down to the city where we met up with another 6 who were waiting for us by the Muslim cemetery.
With our now expanded group we set off down to the Alhambra, which very conveniently has some loos you can access from outside, they were much appreciated.
We then followed the little track that leads down towards the Rio Darro and meets the road going up into Sacromonte. We continued along the road past the Monasterio Abadín de Sacromonte.
After walking about 5 kms on good hard dry surfaces we crossed the river again and hit the mud. This was a real treat for the Northern Europeans. Occasionally in Spain you may come across a short muddy section, but nothing like this. We walked for  nearly 1 km in the stuff. I kept expecting to hear a splat as someone lost their footing but no, we all emerged with muddy boots and legs but no serious casualties.
After a short climb we came to the path that runs alongside the acequia Real which supplies water to the Alhambra, not that you can see it because it is in a tunnel inside the hill. The path is level, well actually it falls by 4 metres along it’s 3.29 km length. How the hell those guys dug that out 700 years ago when our builder could not build a level wall is beyond me.
It was standing room only when it came to lunch time. With 25 in the group, and a bench that had room for only 6 people, we had to allocate the seating to the old or the infirm.
Our run of bad luck continued when we went to visit the historical site of the “Silla del Moro”, it was just closing. Well, at least it had been open, so that is an improvement over the past few weeks.
On our way back to the cars we came across another group of walkers, there must have been 200 in their group and we were all going up the same track. It was a hell of a job trying to separate the two lots when our paths diverged. I ended up just taking the first 25, so I don’t know if we came back with the same people we set off with but at least the numbers were right.  
It stayed cool most of the day but we had a enjoyable day out.    
We walked 12.6 km and climbed 300 metres.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Walk Sunday 2 December 2018 Sierra Manar

By -
Image
This week we went walking in the Sierra Manar, the range of hills behind Dilar.  The walk had been postponed from a few weeks back when it was raining every day, it’s not a walk to do when the ground is wet and muddy. The weather forecast for this Sunday was for sunshine and temperatures of 21 degrees, perfect walking conditions.  The walk starts from the Ermita Nueva and heads up a gentle slope through Olive trees.  After 1 km the path follows the tree line on what at first looks like a level track. It soon becomes apparent that it’s not level at all, but a series of switchbacks with steep ups and downs.  There were only 9 in the group, and we all walked together, chatting and enjoying the warm sunshine. Nobody thought to check that we all turned onto a path into the forest. It was only when we emerged on the other side we noticed our group had dropped to 7, Elsa and Martine were missing.  At first, we weren't worried, we thought they would soon rejoin us. After
Read more

Walk Sunday 4 November 2018 Nerja

By -
Image
This week with snow on the Sierras we decided to go down to Nerja for our walk, at least it would be warm down there. I left home in long trousers, fleece and a jacket. One hour later, at the start of the walk from the caves, I was down to shorts and a T-shirt, don’t worry I had not thrown caution to the wind, they were all in my rucksack along with another 2 coats.  The route was a circular one setting off from the caves and the idea was that we could do an easy and a harder walk, with the easy walkers walking with us for the first half of the route and then making their way back along a 4X4 track, whilst the harder walk went up a hill. Trying to keep track as to who, and how many there were in the group was impossible, even Einstein would have had trouble keeping up with all the comings and goings. For the first 1km, the track follows a 4X4 road to the picnic site, it then drops down into a superb barranco which fortunately, even after all the rain, was still dry. Th
Read more

Walk 18 November 2018 Talara

By -
Image
The walk this Sunday was a local one from Talara. The weather forecast was not promising. It wasn’t a matter of if it rained, it was at what time would it start and how heavy.  We met at the crossroads in Talara and the fallback wet weather option was coffee in Antonio’s where we could reminisce about walking in dry sunny weather. It would only be a short discussion as dry weather was sadly lacking in 2018. It was decided to skip the coffee, it wasn’t raining yet, and we had a walk to do. The route was designed with 12 options to shorten it when the rain started, it also went close by a number of Limper homes where we could seek refuge if necessary.  The walk passed through Chite where we picked up a couple of stragglers and then headed off down to the dam. This is a wonderful path as it winds its way down the hillside in and out of the Agave plants, Fortunately, I had brought my machete with me, as a number needed trimming. I had to be careful this week, my care
Read more