Walk 20 November 2016 Autumn colours in Pitres

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.

 We parked in the plaza and made our way down to the start of the walk. I could not believe it, there were hundreds of walkers getting off the coaches, and they seemed intent on following us. What was worrying me was, would there be enough fizzy water to go round?

By the time we got down to Mercina  we had left them behind eating our dust, they were obviously not up to our standard. In future, if they want to join our group, they are going to have to train a bit harder. We continued down into Fondales and came across a sight you sadly don’t see anymore. An old guy with his mule ladened with straw, I was just about to take his photo when his mobile phone started ringing, it spoilt the whole image.

 In Ferreirola we stopped at the Fizzy water fountain for a small snack and refreshment before starting the climb to Portugos, along the way we lost 7 when they stopped to pick chestnuts. They eventually caught up with us, coming from the wrong direction. There elected leader will have to go for retraining. From Portugos back to Pitres it only takes about 30 minutes walking on the road. But where is the fun in that, when you can climb an extra 470 metres up onto the ridge, besides which, the colour of the trees is stunning from up there.

 With virtually all the climbing over we stopped for lunch and afterwards the group photo. Now last week I got a bit of criticism for always standing in the same way for the photo, you can guess who the critic was. Next week I will go back to the usual position after nearly doing a Lovett and falling on my arse whilst having my photo taken.

 The way back down to Pitres is all downhill but steep at times, it is a delightful path amongst the chestnut trees.

 By the time we got back to the cars it was just starting to rain, perfect timing. So we decided to seek shelter in the coziest bar I have been into in Spain, and the waitresses weren’t bad either, as Elsa and Conchi took over bar duties. My only complaint was that they got to eat cake and the rest of us got a few Olives.

 The rain did not last long because it was dry by the time we came out of the bar, but according to the weather forecasts we are in for a wet week.

 

We walked 16.7 km and climbed 886 metres