Walk Sunday 22nd April 2018 Siletta

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This week we did a local walk from Marchenna to Siletta. The original plan was to get a steep climb over and done with at the start of the walk, but we changed our minds and decided to do it in the opposite direction as this would give us some extensive views of the snow covered tops of the Sierra Nevada.
It was a bit misty as we set off  but I remained confident that this would soon burn off as the sun got out. By the time we got to the Ventana the expected extensive views had not materialised, the mist was still obscuring everything. I was starting to think that once again we had been cursed with the red Sahara sand, which seems to appear when we are doing this walk. We stopped for little lunch on the top of Siletta, in an area protected from the blustery southerly wind, another indication that it was dust in the air not just slow to clear mist.
I had hoped the the hillside of Siletta would be covered in wild Orchids, in fact I had offered a money back guarantee that we would see some. You can imagine my dismay when there weren’t any to be seen. Fortunately we discovered a few a little further along the track.
 After our snack we walked along the craggy  top of Siletta, in the distance we could see, well it’s better to say we could imagine, the the ridge of mountains all the way from Caballo to Veleta. We stopped for lunch at the Ermita Vieja.
 The way back involves a slight climb of about 50 metres and then a long descent back to the cars.
A good walk even if the views did not live up to expectations.
In the evening we had a thunderstorm, this confirmed the Sahara sand theory, everything was covered in a red dust.
We walked 14.8 km and climbed 742 metres.

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