Walk 31 May 2015 Pico Caballo

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I apologise for the missing walk report last week, but the Mrs and I were dashing off to Madrid for a short break. We had a good time and I would recommend it to anyone who hasn’t been yet, there must be others who have lived here for 12 years and never been.
 Our really, really big walk to Caballo on the 31st of May was a new walk for the Sunday group. It’s a walk we have done many times midweek but we have never had sufficient 4X4s to be able to do it on a Sunday.
 This month we were fortunate enough to to find  5 people willing to supply cars, so a big thank you for that, as it enabled us to take a group of 23 up to the summit.
 We had planned an early 8.30 start from the carpark in Niguelas as we had to drive up the mountain to reach the start of the walk.  I had just marked John up as a no show when he rang up just as we were setting off from Niguelas. He had mis- read the start time, could we wait 10 minutes for him. We all agreed, subject to him buying the beer if  it rained.
It takes around 1 hour, up a rough track, to drive the 14 kms to the start of the walk at the Mirador Riconada de Niguelas. At an altitude of 2150 metres it’s quite astonishing to find a carpark, seats and viewing area, especially as most cars would be incapable of getting up there.
 The morning was spectacularly clear and, with the temperature around 14 degrees, the conditions were perfect for a walk  up the ridge to the summit. The only thing we had to worry about was a chance of rain around 3 pm.
At 3013 metres El Caballo is the lowest of the 3000 metre peaks in the Sierra Nevada range, this takes nothing away from the mountain as it sits in a spectacular position overlooking  the Rio Lanjaron.
We had a mixed age group with a wide range of walking abilities, we had the lame and the sick, it was  like a trip to Lourdes, all we needed was a guy in a wheelchair, some were returning to their favorite mountain and we had a lot of Caballo virgins We set a nice gentle pace in order to keep everyone in the pack and we all made it to the top well within 2 ½ hours, which was a great time, particularly as a lot in the group had not been up to this altitude before.
Most of the way up we had walked just in T shirts but, as we neared the top, the clouds came in and the temperature started to drop. Mindful of the weather forecast we stopped for lunch and then headed off back down the path to the cars. We had not gone far when the sound of thunder could be heard in the far distance. Fortunately that was where it stayed and as people arrived back at the cars we loaded them up and sent them back down to Niguelas. Luckily for John the promised rain arrived a couple of minutes after the last cars started off on the return journey.
To round off the day, and reward ourselves after our great adventure, we stopped for beer and tapas at Miguel's bar in Niguelas.
Well done to everyone, and particularly to all those who had wondered if they would ever walk up a mountain again. Perhaps it is like Lourdes, maybe that is why so many people visit the spar in Lanjaron to bath in the magical powers of El Caballo   
We walked 10.3 km and climbed 874 metres

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