Walk Sunday 25 February 2018 Almond Blossom





It’s that time of the year again, when the worst of the winter weather has left us, the temperatures are rising and the whole valley is awash with the first signs of Spring.
With the Almond trees in full bloom it was time to do our traditional Almond blossom walk from Saleres. It had to be last weekend, which should have been the big end of the month walk, because we are forecast to get the wettest week I can ever remember. There will be be so much rain our dams will be overflowing, and we will be selling our water to the UK when they get their traditional 2 weeks of dry weather. Then again if things go as usual we will get a couple of damp days.
 It was grey overcast day when we met in Saleres, and it was great to see so many people, there were 18 of us when we set off but 2 had to turn back on the first hill as they were overcome with the lingering effects from a cold, which once you have had it seems to last for weeks. Hilary had the right idea, she got Graeham to drive her to virtually the highest point on the route. Next year he can take us all up the hill.
 The best part of the walk is as you start dropping  back down into Albuñuelas, it’s a stunning valley, especially at this time of year, and it was also our chosen lunch stop. Continuing  down into the pueblo we took a slight detour to look for a path we had used years ago, unable to find it we retraced our steps. Now someone in the group did not believe this explanation and maintained we were lost. I put it to you. Do you accept the utterances of a gypsy girl or the words of a man you can trust, to lead you instinctively in the right direction, a man who, if he says “it’s all downhill from here”  you know there will no more hills to climb?
 Things went pear shaped in Albuñuelas, it’s not the easiest village to find your way out of. In the past I have spent days wondering about, it’s like being in a maze.
I was at the back, shepherding the stragglers, the rest of the group were by now 2km away and nearing Saleres when I became convinced we had lost Gustavo. I tried searching, phoning, backtracking, all to no avail. Eventually I discovered he was back at the cars waiting for us. How he got from the back of the group to the front without passing us I don’t know.
It was a good walk and the grey clouds only dampened our enthusiasm slightly.  
In the afternoon we went around to Elsa’s for tapas.

We walked 12.2 km and climbed 463 metres.

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