Walk Sunday 11 December 2016 Ermita Pinos del Valle

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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 a “We don’t take prisoners” look from them. Fortunately they radioed ahead and let us continue our walk. I had intended stopping for a snack but I thought we had better keep going before they changed their minds. It felt like at any moment a war could break out.
 When we got to the path going up to the Ermita Hilary and Paul decided to head downhill while the rest of us continued on up. At the top it was warm and sunny and the views of our valley were superb. After stopping for lunch we made our way back down to Pinos and bar Venecia for drinks. From here it’s just a gentle stroll back down the footpath to the dam.

In the afternoon we went round to Elsa’s for tapa and it was wonderful to sit outside and enjoy the winter sunshine.

We walked 12.1km and climbed 630 metres


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