Pitres weekend 24-25 November 2018

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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 they wished, but no, everyone was keen to continue walking amongst the colourful autumn colours of the chestnut trees. As usual we stopped for lunch at the high point of the walk and then followed the path back down into Pitres.
We had booked an evening meal at the hotel which was plentiful and tasty.
 The next morning it was raining, but the forecast was for dry conditions by 10 am. After a leisurely breakfast, it stopped raining bang on time.
Our Sunday’s walk was from Busquister, only 10 minutes down the road. This walk was new to us and it included the option of a death-defying, Brass balls walk along an acequia. Recently I have taken up a new hobby, low altitude skydiving, you don’t need any special equipment to practice this sport, just the willingness to jump off things and then land on your feet. I have no problem with the first part but I need to polish up on the second. So reluctantly, and on Olwyn’s advice, I volunteered to guide the sane Limpers on an alternative safe route.
 The group walked together up a superb valley as far as the acequia. Surprisingly 6 chose to do the brass ball acequia route. We said goodbye to them, not expecting to see them again, in parts it is a sheer drop on to the rocks far below. We regrouped a couple km further along the route. The BBs group described the acequia as one of the best ever paths, well they would wouldn't they?
 After the group had reassembled we found a very nice, grassy spot with views over the deep snow-covered Sierras for lunch.
Our destination was only a short distance away, in a straight line, but getting there involved a steep drop and a climb up into the village.  
 We went in search of a bar in which to celebrate our weekend away, there was nothing, even the tiny bar we knew had disappeared. We had no choice, we had to return to Pitres and the cellar bar in the plaza.
We'd had a superb weekend, the weather had been good to us, the hotel was comfortable and we managed to do 2 distinctly different walks.  
We walked 24.7 km and climbed 1351 metres

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