Lecrin Valley Limpers

This last Saturday and Sunday was the Limpers weekend away to Pitres. We had booked a small hotel in the village and planned to walk on the Saturday and Sunday. The weather forecast was not promising, especially for Sunday when rain was forecast, again. Mind we can’t complain, we knew when we moved to Spain not to expect good weather. It’s why we moved here in the first place, to escape the long hot summer weather, in Northern Europe. We drove up to Pitres on Saturday morning and checked into the San Roque hotel, Julio the owner wasn’t too happy to hear we were cancelling 3 rooms at the last minute, but I think it will be a rare day when he is happy, he has that hound dog look ( large dog with long ears, always looks sad), an expression popular with bar owners.    After coffee in the hotel, we set off on my favourite autumn walk. The weather was good, sunshine and blue sky. We were walking a figure of 8, giving anyone who wanted the chance to drop off in Pitres if

The walk this Sunday was a local one from Talara. The weather forecast was not promising. It wasn’t a matter of if it rained, it was at what time would it start and how heavy.  We met at the crossroads in Talara and the fallback wet weather option was coffee in Antonio’s where we could reminisce about walking in dry sunny weather. It would only be a short discussion as dry weather was sadly lacking in 2018. It was decided to skip the coffee, it wasn’t raining yet, and we had a walk to do. The route was designed with 12 options to shorten it when the rain started, it also went close by a number of Limper homes where we could seek refuge if necessary.  The walk passed through Chite where we picked up a couple of stragglers and then headed off down to the dam. This is a wonderful path as it winds its way down the hillside in and out of the Agave plants, Fortunately, I had brought my machete with me, as a number needed trimming. I had to be careful this week, my care

With the temperature forecast to reach 20 degrees on Sunday we decided on a walk from Albunúñelas. Last year Jan and Martine had discovered a barranco that we had never explored. I thought it was time for us to take a look. I was astounded by the number of people who turned up at the carpark. I had thought by advertising it as a Jan walk it would have put most people off. Originally the plan was to drive from the carpark up on to the ridge but there were so many people and cars I thought we would have difficulty parking when we returned to the village looking for a bar. A new plan was drawn up, we would walk up to the ridge and afterwards finish the walk in the village, next to the bars. This would add a bit of climbing and distance to the walk, but not a lot. From the ridge we had superb views over to the snow-covered peak of Caballo, bathed in sunshine under a deep blue sky. A far cry from the poor people of Nigúelas who were wandering around in a thick fog.  

This week with snow on the Sierras we decided to go down to Nerja for our walk, at least it would be warm down there. I left home in long trousers, fleece and a jacket. One hour later, at the start of the walk from the caves, I was down to shorts and a T-shirt, don’t worry I had not thrown caution to the wind, they were all in my rucksack along with another 2 coats.  The route was a circular one setting off from the caves and the idea was that we could do an easy and a harder walk, with the easy walkers walking with us for the first half of the route and then making their way back along a 4X4 track, whilst the harder walk went up a hill. Trying to keep track as to who, and how many there were in the group was impossible, even Einstein would have had trouble keeping up with all the comings and goings. For the first 1km, the track follows a 4X4 road to the picnic site, it then drops down into a superb barranco which fortunately, even after all the rain, was still dry. Th