Walk Sunday 5 May 2018 Reloj del Sol, Granada

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To celebrate the start of summer, well at least a day when we didn’t get wet, we went to the Reloj del Sol, the big Sundial above the Alhambra Palace. The drive up to the carpark is a bit rough in places but with care it is passable.
 By the time we all arrived for the start of the walk there were 25 of us, all eager to enjoy the day out.
 The carpark is the highest point of the walk, so if you want to go anywhere you have to lose some height. This means you have to go up at the end of the walk. For good measure we went as low as you can, down to the rio Darro. One of the advantages of all the rain is that now everything is green, even hills where normally nothing grows are now full of colour. Another advantage is that the rivers are full.
When it came to crossing the river we had two choices, we could take a short cut and cross the river on a bridge, or stick with our original route and hope we could wade across the Darro. A democratic vote was taken and of the 3 people who voted a clear majority were in favor of the wet crossing. Normally a hop, skip and a jump will see you across the river, this week that would land you in the deepest bit. There was no choice but to take the boots off and wade across. Well, unless your name was Antonia. I don’t know what she had promised Fernando but he carried her across on his back, I will be having words with him. This is a equality group, everyone should have got their feet wet.  
After stopping for lunch in a delightful spot we headed off on our return path along the acequia Real. Once you have climbed up the old acequia path you have a great level track for the next two kms. The only problem is the carpark is 125 metres above you and the path is steep and rough in places. If any encouragement was needed for a rapid final ascent it started to thunder and  was looking very dark. Fortunately it passed over us and we did not get wet, which makes a change.
Now there is only one official way down from the carpark, the road which we had driven up . For some unknown reason Mark thought it would be easier driving down the footpath, unfortunately Cherry, not knowing any better, decided to follow him. I have put her straight on this matter, don’t ever follow Mark, his onboard GPS doesn't work.

A great walk with fabulous views.

We walked 14.6 km and climbed 404 metres

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