Walk Sunday 14 January 2018 witches and waterfall




This week’s walk was a disaster, none of the advertised spectaculars worked as planned.
The idea was to go Soportujar to escape the forecasted northerly wind, get some potions from the Witches to banish the colds and sniffles, have a warming morning coffee and anise and visit a spectacular waterfall and returning home before it rained.
 The first part of the plan worked, there was no wind, it was cold and cloudy but at least we were protected from the wind. Our first attraction was the Witches cave at the entrance to the village, this was open and the young, good looking witch was at home sweeping up.  Things started to go downhill when we walked into Soportujar looking for a bar, they were all closed, 10 O’clock in the morning and the bars were closed. The village was deserted, there must have been one hell of an orgy going on the night before (Soportujar is famous for it’s orgys).
 For me the most important part of the walk was a visit to the Witches caldron in the centre of  the village, this is normally bubbling away and dispensing potions for all ailments. Whether it was too cold to get the fire roaring or what I have no idea, but there was nothing happening. Oh well! another week of the sniffles.
 At the top of the village there is another Witch's house where the ugly old mother lives, and an area where they keep all their old family pets which they have had cast into bronze ornaments.  
 Our next attraction was the waterfall on the Rio Chico, the sight of which can reduce a man to tears such is its magnificence. After all the rain and snow we have had it was going to be a wonder to behold, the niagara of the Alpujarras. After climbing up a steep track and walking along an acequia we came to the waterfall. It was dry, not even one drop of water. I was in tears, my credibility was in tatters.
 Despondent we carried on climbing, this time on an easy 4X4 track that zig zagged through the forest. At same time as we were climbing the hill the clouds were coming down it. It was going to be a race as to who would get to our zenith first, the clouds or us. We won but it did turn damp, and there were unconfirmed reports that there were some snow flakes floating about.
 The return path is straight and direct back to Soportujar and we arrived back  slightly damp. This time the bar was open. It would have been a shame to walk past it again, so we all piled in, we ejected a few locals occupying a table we wanted and sat under the heater getting warm whilst we had a drink. We got back to the cars about one minute before the rain arrived,  it was 2 hours early.
Next week we will just do a normal walk with no disappointing spectaculars scheduled.

We walked 10.2 km and climbed 517 metres.

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