Lecrin Valley Limpers

With the weather showing some improvement this week we headed for Cerro águila a local peak with superb views over the Lecrin Valley. In the past we have seen Eagles up here on the rocks surveying the countryside, the twitchers among us had high hopes of a close up view. With 22 in the group we had a long procession of cars for the short drive to the start of the walk near Venta del Fraile. The walk starts by following a campo road for a couple of kms, this is just a nice easy warm up section before you get to the steep bit. The first part of the climb really does warm you up, it is only 70 metres of ascent but with a slope of 36% it sure gets the pulse going. After a short breather we continued uphill on what appears to be a path but in actual fact is a wild boar track, but it gives a good indication of the direction of travel before it finally ends at a muddy pool where they go for a mud bath. From here it is an easy climb up to the summit of Cerro águila. Everyone was ...

We are having some very unsettled weather at the moment,and we had to change our advertised walk on the Vereda de Estrella after I received an avalanche warning for the area we were intending walking in. A new plan was formalised, we would go to Capileira on the southern,snow free slopes of the Sierra Nevada. On Saturday it snowed, and settled around the 1500 metre line. I feel sure my calendar say’s it is May, but it is more like February, more head scratching for suitable routes. In the end I came up with 3 routes, all in the Porqueira gorge, all at different altitudes, hopefully one of them would be suitable for us. We set off from Beznar on Sunday morning to look at the conditions and decide on our choice of walk. Stopping in Pampaneira it was obvious that the highest route was a no goer, it was snow bound. The lowest route was clear of snow but no one was keen to do it. The consensus was for the middle route and if we hit the snow we could always turn around. The pa...

The group at the BBQ site This week was our picnic weekend, we had a short walk and a big BBQ.   We went to the Prado Negro recreation area, this is a great place to have a party, there are plenty of BBQs, tables and shade and, of course, stunning countryside.   The area is always popular and it is necessary to arrive early to secure a place, well in our case with the expected turnout we needed two BBQ pits and 3 tables. The walkers arrived around 10 am, along with Caroline who had volunteered to guard our camp. Mark and Rafa provided backup in case of trouble but they were not a lot of good, with one having a pot leg and the other a walking stick. 17 walkers set off on along a delightful track down to a big stream which we had to cross, fortunately someone had made a bridge, well they had put 3 logs across it. Some photographers stood poised waiting for that killer photograph, fortunately we all got safely across. We were heading for a waterfall, the la...

This week we had the first ever Limper away weekend. We had organised  a trip to Cazorla National park, Spains largest protected area. Originally planned as a walking weekend it soon became apparent that the walkers were not the only ones wanting a weekend away. So with this in mind we booked a hotel in Burunchel, a small village about 8 km north of Cazorla. I organised the walks and the non walkers did their own thing. The walkers set off at 7 am in the morning, some people were barely awake when we picked them up, for the 2.30 hour drive to La Irulea, the starting point for our first walk. The walk started from the village and a local hotel provided the perfect meeting point. I know we usually frequent the lower quality establishments when we are out walking, but for once I thought we could push the boat out and mix with a better class of clientele. This 4 star hotel was perfect, plush surroundings with sofas in the bar.  Saturday was billed as the hard walk bu...