Walks Sunday 29 April 2018

This week we had 2 walks arranged, a shorter walk with Hilary from Beznar to Melegis and a longer one with me around Moclin.

Stuart’s Moclin walk.

This months big end of the month walk started from Olivares, a small pueblo at the bottom of the hill below Moclin. As is usual with our walks I had no intention in staying in the moderately level surroundings of Olivares. Instead our first port of call was the village at the top of the hill, Moclin. To describe this as an easy climb, would be wrong. Whilst the track is a 4X4 route I think most off road  drivers would refuse to go up, especially if they had a nice, new, shiney SUV. A battered old Land Rover might be able to chug it’s way to the top.

We arrived in Moclin without one word of dissent, but in need of caffeine. After a democratic vote, and with the motion carried, we went to the bar for coffee.  

 There was talk about going to the castle but this was not scheduled into the itinerary, and besides, we were planning to visit a lot of important historical monuments. I did not want anyone to suffer from cultural overload.

 Moclin has a lot going for it, The castle overlooking a dramatic gorge, the cave paintings and stunning surroundings. But the recently opened cave of the animals out does them all. It’s a small cave near to the castle in which they have placed 1 dimensional black metal cats, rabbits, pigs and all manner of other animals playing happily together, it brings a lump to your throat.

From here things went downhill, literally, as we descended the steep path down to the cave paintings. Now these paintings could be a real money spinner for the town, with a visitor centre explaining the significance of the drawings and how they got the paint to stay on the walls for thousands of years, when it’s falling off our house after 12 months.

 Things were starting to look a bit black when we stopped for a quick snack at the picnic area. This was at a point where we could take a shortcut back to Olivares but we all had waterproofs with us and there was still many things to see in the next village of Tózar.

 I had found a new path that I wanted to explore as it went up to an Atalaya we have never visited. Obviously it’s a steep ascent but the views were superb. We had not realised until later that it was built on the top of a precipice, some of us might not have wandered off into the bushes if we had known.

 It was decided to head to the outdoor Arqueológico museum in Tózar for lunch, in the hope of finding some shelter from the wind, in the end we sat in the civil war trenches in the museum grounds, at least for once they served a useful purpose in this sad chapter of Spain's history. The museum itself is well worth a visit, I have never seen such a small area where there is evidence of man living through the ages, from prehistoric times till the present.   

 After breaking out of the museum by crawling under the fence we headed for our final spectacle of the day, the boardwalk. It wasn’t compulsory to walk it, it was just a small diversion. It’s like a mini Camioneta del Rey, the boardwalk is suspended above the river and there is a swinging rope bridge to go with it.

 All that was left now was the walk by the river back to Olivares and the bar.

 A great day out, lots of things to see, all our objectives were met, and we didn’t get wet.

We walked 17.2 km and climbed 882 metres

Hilary’s Beznar walk.

We had a sunny walk through carpets of wild flowers on a track that winds along the east side of Beznar lake.  It is all looking very beautiful at the moment with so much greenery and the water back up to a high level. People joined and left at various points and some were absorbed into a huge Spanish walking group at the Melegis “baths” but the average walk was about 11 km.