Lecrin Valley Limpers

What a change to the weather we had last week, gone are the damp miserable days, to be replaced by glorious sunshine, and to celebrate the return of  the sun we climbed up to the Ermita del Cristo Zapato in Pinos del Valle. It was cold when we met up down by the dam for the start of our walk, hats, scarfs and gloves cold, but you could tell the day had promise. To start with the path winds around the hillside slowly climbing its way up. Mike was convinced he knew the way and tried leading us off piste. We let him go off by himself, knowing that he would soon return. We then resumed the walk, following the correct trail as it started to do some serious climbing.  It wasn’t long before layers were starting to come off.  As we progressed up through the forest we came across some hunters, who they were or what they were hunting we had no idea. They looked more like Special forces, with their assault rifles, radios and camouflage gear. I tried surrendering to them but I got

Once again the weather was not looking promising for the weekend, with rain forecast throughout the day on Sunday. It would have been unprecedented for two walks to be cancelled in a row, we would have become a laughing stock. The English walking group afraid to go out in the rain. I was determined we would go somewhere, and, like Hilary last week, I had a back up plan. We could always go to the bar.  We met at the crossroads in Talara and it was dry, but low cloud was hanging about on the hills and it did not look like we would get away without a soaking. The route I had chosen had numerous options to cut it short if it did start to rain. Someone suggested we could start off with a coffee in the bar, but I was worried that once we got sat down I would never be able to motivate anyone into moving. We set off for Mondújar castle, it’s only a short distance away but you do get a reasonable climb to warm you up in the morning. We didn’t stay long as there was a bit of ra

It was touch and go this week whether we would manage our autumn colours walk from Pitres  before the forecasted first heavy rains of the winter swept in.  It was not our scheduled end of the month big walk, but timing was critical to get the best of the colours, so it had to be this weekend.  We had arranged to meet at Beznar, well all except Cees, who, for whatever reason known only to Cees, thought Cozvijar would make a better meeting point for a trip to the Alpujarras. He rang me at 09.00 to see if the walk was cancelled, as he was the only one there, the other 16 of us were at Beznar. I don’t think Ford had designed the Transit to go at 200 kph but it only took him a few minutes to drive to Beznar. To my friends at traffico he didn’t know what speed he was doing, his speedo was broken.  Distance wise it is not too far to Pitres, timewise it takes a long time to drive the 45km, particularly when there is a procession of coaches, all making their way to Pitres.  

This week, we had the first of this years  autumn colour walks, which started from Nigúelas. It was cool on the car park at 9 am but we had a hill to climb, don’t we always. We would soon warm up when we started climbing. First though we had to walk across to Acequias which involves dropping down to the Rio Torrente, I have only once seen it living up to its name and that was in 2006, and it’s not due to flood again until the 18th September 2021.  We joined the GR7 long distance footpath leading out of Acequias, heading for Istanbul, not our destination as we had only a short walk planned this week. Dave and Julie had decided not to join us this week, preferring a lazy Sunday in bed instead, so Mike took the lead. Now normally he prefers to walk at the back, just tagging on behind everyone else, but with Dave’s position at the front vacant, he took the lead and charged off up the hill, leaving everyone in his wake. Poor Jim went A**e over T*t and ended up floundering abo

The weather forecast for Sunday this week was not promising, wind, rain, and cool temperatures. It was the kind of forecast to make you want to pull the covers up and go back to sleep. By 6 am Sunday morning the rain had passed over, it was still cold and windy but that was not going to bother us as we were going down the hill to Guajar Faraguit, always a good valley to walk in when it’s cool on the hill. Mind, I was still surprised to see folks turning up at Beznar in their summer walking gear of shorts and T-shirts. I had my fleece, coat and scarf on, much more in keeping with the 8 degrees the car was saying. Even Jan and Martine had long trousers on.  After driving to Faraguit we set off walking up the hill and it wasn’t long before Elsa acquired a new dog, he followed us and played with Floppy the whole walk.  I don’t know if was all the exertion of climbing up the hill, or wether the temperature was actually rising, but we were soon stripping off our coats and fleec

What a fantastic day for a walk, clear blue sky, not a cloud to be seen anywhere all day, perfect walking temperatures. This week was our big end of the month walk, as it turned out it was not quite as big as advertised, but it was still a great day out.  The walk started from the Puerto Lobo visitor centre in the Húetor parque natural, we had arranged to meet Mari Carmen there but, unfortunately, she had gone to the wrong place. So after waiting a few minutes for her we set off for the trenches, a sad reminder to all those who lost their lives in the civil war. The walk continued on to the Cueva del Gato, an unusual name because I can’t imagine any self respecting cat living here, there are no beds, sofas or any of the on demand services required by a cat. After a short break we continued down to the lowest point of the walk. I think some of the group were hoping I had had a change of heart and that it would be a downhill walk for a change. Sadly this was not true be

With the unsettled weather continuing we had organised an easy, short walk from Lanjaron. The walk had numerous options for modification to fit in with the weather.  It had rained first thing in the morning but the tea bags were predicting a dry walk. By the time we met at 09.00 in Beznar there were black clouds swirling about above us, leading some to question the the accuracy of using Yorkshire tea bags in Spain.  The walk started from the Casita de la Papel in Lanjaron, a convenient place for drinks and tapas after the walk. It was closed for holidays, and there was me thinking we could help Ray kick his 70th birthday celebrations off in fine style. The path goes up past the ermita de San Isidro, a chapel built for the labourers of Lanjaron in the early 20th century. The path continues up through the campo, and past a quarry before finally coming out on the GR7 Nigúelas/ Lanjaron road. Ever since Mike and I discovered this route years ago I have never understood how

The autumn rains came to Spain with a vengeance last week, summer is well and truly over and the daytime temperatures have dipped down to 25 degrees. We even had snow on the Sierras.  Our walk this week was to the windmills above Albuñuelas. We met at the carpark and then drove up onto the ridge for the start of the walk. Since the last time we did the walk they have concreted the road which has made parking difficult, we ended up abandoning the cars at a cortijo.  Setting off I did not need to consult the GPS as we have done the walk a few times before and I know the area quite well. After a couple of kms we came to a junction I did not recognise. It was time to look at the GPS, and yes, we should have turned off 1 km back. All was not lost though as the good track we were on did lead to where we wanted to be. After another couple of kms we joined up with our original track, which we then followed.  Over the years we have been walking in this area fences have started

On Sunday we went to Monachil, and for a change we walked through the gorge It’s a while since we have done the gorge walk, instead we have been going around it. What’s changed in the intervening years are the number of people out walking. If you saw 20 other people you would thought it was busy. On Sunday there were hundreds, there was even 3 coaches in the car park by the time we arrived, and by the time we got back there were cars parked everywhere. I blame it all on Decathlon, they have all this fabulous walking gear that people are buying and, instead of wearing it as a fashion statement, they are actually going out and using it. We followed the path through the gorge, crossing the swing bridges which we had to queue up for before making the crossing. If things continue like this it will worth while opening up the abandoned buildings and selling tea and coffee whilst you await your turn, they could even do jam and cream scones, I would come back every week. We all made

Our walk on Sunday was to Moclin. The walk started in Olivares, a small village at the bottom of the hill, Moclin with it’s castle sits at the top of the hill. So yes, you have guessed it! We had to climb up to it. There was a lot of cloud about when we met up in Cozvijar but, by the time we arrived in Olivares, it had cleared away and turned into a spectacular day. We made good progress on  the climb up to Moclin and I thought we had time for a coffee before we went on to the castle for a quick visit. The bar was packed, I have never seen so many people in Moclin, by the time we had all been served it was getting too late to go up to the castle. Going on past experience it was to be expected as we have never managed to get into a castle in the 13 years the group has been running. In anticipation of this, and to avoid disappointing all the castle lovers, I had arranged for some guys to bring along a bouncy castle and erect it in front of the bar. Even this failed, the cast

We had 2 walks planned on Sunday, our hard end of the month walk following the route of the Neveros and an easier walk with Hilary from Melegis. The hard walk. We had a small, select group of walkers this week, in fact there was only John and myself in Cozvijar for our late 9 am start. Fortunately  Rafa, Antonia, Fernando and Mark were waiting for us at the alternative meeting point near the Dornajo visitor centre on Veleta. The weather was perfect and the temperature was just right for exploring this new area. In the past I have walked on all the paths but this week was the first time we have put it all together into a circular walk. The walk starts by following the first section of the Sulayr long distance path but, after a couple of kilometres, it crosses the los Neveros path coming up from Granada, this was used until the advent of refrigerators to bring ice down from Veleta for use by the Granadinos during the summer.    This is an excellent, well graded trail t

Our walk on Sunday was the big one, yes, it was Mulhacen and they just don’t come any bigger in mainland Spain. We are so lucky to have this enormous lump of rock on our doorstep.  Every year I think no one will want to go up it again but every year, in spring, someone will say “when are we doing Mulhacen this year” and the numbers just keep growing. Poor Paco at the information centre keeps having to find bigger and bigger buses for us.  There were 26 people originally booked to go but, at the last moment we had 3 who were not feeling too good and this is the last place to be if you are not 100%.   We had a very early, 7 am, start from Beznar, and then drove to Capileira and met up with the sensible ones who had spent the night up there in hotels. After a quick cup of coffee we were off in the Medio Ambiente bus that would takes us to the start of the walk at 2500 metres. The conditions were superb, clear skies and the temperature perfect for a day out in the hills.

Phew! It’s hot, my newly cleaned and polished crystal balls were right in predicting dry sunny weather. I am sorry for the misunderstanding in last weeks email, it should have read “Olwyn has spent the last few days cleaning and polishing my crystal balls”. Some folks thought I had had a very good week, and that I had also found a new way to forecast the weather, neither of them were correct.  Anyway we are having a heatwave, not an English heatwave of 22 degrees, this is a full on 44 degree Spanish heatwave.  Because of the heat we had a short walk planned to Pico Lopera. We had an early 8.30 start from Cozvijar and stopped off in Padul to pick the Granada contingent up.  There were 21 of us and a puppy for what is an easy walk in spectacular countryside.  The walk starts from the Mesón de los Prados, the little bar on the carretera de Cabra, and it follows a farm track through rolling countryside. We were lucky to see a family of Jabali out for their morning stro

This week we had 2 big walks planned. One for the sensible ones and one for 6 guys who wanted something a bit tougher.  We all started together from the carpark at Hoya de la Mora on Veleta for the first half of the walk to the refugio Elorrieta. To start with the walk passes through the ski area above Pradollano, not the prettiest area in which to walk but the going was easy, something that was appreciated by those carrying heavy packs.  We stopped for a quick bite to eat at the Laguna Yeguas and then the serious climbing began. The scenery becomes very dramatic and it doesn’t look possible that they could have put a path through it. With Martin leading the way I decided to help the stragglers at the back. Between gasps of breath I offered a few words of encouragement to the inevitable question “are we nearly there yet”. At least I had not unloaded my pack onto a long suffering wife like Dave  had. I carried every kilo the whole way.  The weather was perfect and we h