Walk Sunday 2 December 2018 Sierra Manar

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This week we went walking in the Sierra Manar, the range of hills behind Dilar.  The walk had been postponed from a few weeks back when it was raining every day, it’s not a walk to do when the ground is wet and muddy. The weather forecast for this Sunday was for sunshine and temperatures of 21 degrees, perfect walking conditions.
 The walk starts from the Ermita Nueva and heads up a gentle slope through Olive trees.  After 1 km the path follows the tree line on what at first looks like a level track. It soon becomes apparent that it’s not level at all, but a series of switchbacks with steep ups and downs.
 There were only 9 in the group, and we all walked together, chatting and enjoying the warm sunshine. Nobody thought to check that we all turned onto a path into the forest. It was only when we emerged on the other side we noticed our group had dropped to 7, Elsa and Martine were missing.  At first, we weren't worried, we thought they would soon rejoin us. After waiting for a suitable length of time Alan suggested mounting a rescue mission. His plan wasn’t well received as it was quite pleasant sitting the sun. Eventually, Alan could not bear the thought any longer, the girls were wondering about in a forest, lost, not knowing where we were and at the mercy of wild animals. Alan set off with Floppy, confident of her tracking skills, meanwhile, Jan was asleep, enjoying the sunshine.
As the responsible adult I thought I should be seen to be doing something towards mounting a search party, so wandered off in the opposite direction to Alan. Soon after, Elsa contacted me by phone, at least the wolves hadn't got them, yet. Have you ever tried giving directions to someone when you are in a forest and they don’t know where they are? Inspiration struck when I saw 3 mountain bikers approaching, I flagged them down and explained I had lost 2 young chicas, OK I may have stretched the truth here a bit but they were only young lads, they needed an incentive. They were soon recruited to the search party and set off to look for them. They returned after 20 minutes unable to find any sight of them.
Desperation was starting to set in, there was only another 7 hours of daylight left. I was on the verge of calling the Guardia Civil when Alan reported they had been sighted heading in our direction. They turned up unconcerned for all the worry they had caused. Floppy proved to be useless and was only interested in sniffing out Rabit holes, she will be undergoing training in search and rescue.
Reunited we resumed our walk on the Sierra Manar. The views were superb, blue sky and deep snow on the Sierra Nevada’s. After stopping for lunch we headed back downhill and on to the cars.
Driving back we stopped in Otura for some much-needed refreshments.
An excellent day out with some stunning views.

We walked 12.6 km and climbed 659 metres

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