Walk 17 April 2016 Barranco del Arco

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Something went wrong on this week's walk, we got wet!!. Yes that wet stuff that comes from the sky. It has never occurred before that we have actually set off in the rain. Whether it was the Gods trying to punish Grahame for coming with us I don’t know, but when he returned to his car it stopped raining.
 Our walk this week was another new one for the Sunday group, and followed the barranco de la Arco just off the Carretera de Cabra.
 We met in Cozvijar and as we were driving towards Padul it started to rain and the mist came down, by the time we arrived at our starting point it was obvious we were going to get wet, fortunately we all had our wet weather gear. Even though it has been in the bottom of my rucksack for 13 years I knew I would use it one day.
 The walk starts on a nature reserve for the Alondra Rizoti, a rare un-crested Lark, only found in a few areas of Spain. Not that we stood any chance of seeing it, the visibility was down to about 20 metres. For the first couple of kilometers the path follows a good track across the hillside and then turns and heads across a boulder strewn, open moorland. This made a good turnaround point for Grahame and his new knee.  Why there is no easy way across this bit of land I don’t know, but by the time we reached the path at the other side we were well and truly soaked, even Mike with his umbrella had no protection from the wet bushes we had brushed past.
 Arriving in the barranco we had 2 options on offer, a climb up the hillside to a cave with Jan, or a route up the barranco with me. The superfit went with Jan, the rest went for the barranco thinking it would be the easy option, I had forgotten to mention the rock climbing on some of the waterfalls, fortunately the barranco was dry.
 On one of the climbs I heard Maria Jose say she couldn’t get up it, as failure was not an option she soon found herself being pulled and pushed to the top, so top marks to you and everyone else who made the climb.
After about 1 km the two paths meet up again so we waited a few minutes for the others to join us and we then continued up the barranco. After stopping for a quick break we headed across some farm land, when we had discovered this route in the winter there was nothing growing, on Sunday we found ourselves in the middle of a Wheat field, fortunately we found some tractor tracks to follow. With the rain gone and the visibility improving we could now see where we going, and could enjoy the views over the Sierra Nevada. Walking through farmland we headed off back to the cars, passing the Padul Pigeon club along the way. I still don’t understand the logic of putting it here in the middle of nowhere but someone has gone to a lot of trouble. We stopped for lunch in a sheltered spot out of the wind and then made our way back to the cars.
I don’t know where the rain had come from, there was nothing forecast and even my shiny new balls had failed to predict it. I will have to go back to the tea leaves, but as it is Yorkshire tea they always forecast rain.
In the afternoon we went round to Dave and Julie’s for tapas.
     

We walked 14.6 km, climbed 360 metres.

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