Walk 28 February 2016 Almúnecar

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At the roundabout in Beznar at 9 am it was 3 degrees, the skies were black and with the wind blowing you could hardly stand up. I did question my judgement for going ahead with the walk, but the tea leaves were predicting better conditions down on the coast.
When we got to Almuñecar it was 8 degrees, the sky was blue and there was no wind. In a straight line it was 21 km from Beznar, it was like being on a different planet.
 The walk starts in the valley of the Rio Seco and heads uphill, you haven’t really got a choice in this valley, you have to go uphill. The first attraction of this walk is the Orchid field that you pass by. Normally we do this walk in the middle of March when the field is full of them. This week they were just coming out but they were superb.
Our destination was Pico Moscaril which, at 753 metres, occupies a commanding position overlooking the valleys of the Rio Seco and the Rio Verde. Even though we were higher than Talará, having by now climbed 700 metres, we were able to sit and enjoy some warm sunshine for the first of our  break on our 2 sandwiches walk.
With most of the climbing done we set off again on an undulating ridge. Just before we started our descent we had our second lunch break at a carefully constructed viewing point. Whoever goes on this waymarked walk besides us I have no idea. Which is a shame because it is a great walk.
 The way back goes down into the barranco del Doctor and you pass his house on the way. If he had worked from home I don’t think he would have had many customers, 2 km up a campo track at the head of the valley. In the valley bottom you have to follow the road back to the cars, it is not too much of a problem as we only saw one car and, as you pass field after field of avocado trees, we were able to help ourselves to the windfall fruit.
 We stopped for a drink in the Rio Verde valley and guess what we got for tapas, you guessed it, avocado, it was delicious.
It was a great day out after all the bad weather.

We walked 14.3 km, climbed 807 metres.

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