Lecrin Valley Limpers

This week we went to pico Corzo in the sierra Huétor natural park. This is one of my favorite areas in which to walk. If the truth be told it would be difficult to choose a favorite as there are so many. We had arranged to meet the Granada contingent at the start of the walk near to the Prado Negro exit on the A92. I was a bit surprised when we were coming off the autovia to find that our convoy of 4 cars had been reduced to 2, somewhere along the way we had lost 2 cars. Not a good start, I know that we do occasionally lose people on the walk but as long as the numbers are low the losses can be classed as acceptable but to lose 9 before we have even got boots on the ground is a bit much, questions would be asked. Eventually both cars turned up, the problem was Alan had gone into ‘limp mode’. Let's make this clear it was his car not Alan that was in ‘limp mode’. With everyone present and accounted for our walk proceeded through forest and pasture to the summit of Pico ...

Last weekend I was in the UK again so the guide for the walk  was Dave. I was leading this week’s walk with Stuart away. Starting in Melegis with the plan to skirt around the three villages of Melegis, Saleres and Restabal. 26 of us met outside the bar Puerte del Valle (The Blue Bar). I think the owner thought there was going to be a rush but he would have to wait until we returned before I would allow the group to take their well-earned refreshments. We walked out on a track from Melegis before cutting down across the Rio Torrente and then through the orange groves and over the rio Durcal where we had a steep climb up, but only for a few meters. Making our way across the hillside with fine views back towards ‘El embalse de Béznar’, even with its lack water looked shimmery in the distance. As we walked further before our descent there were nice aerial views over to Restábal. Making our way down and crossing the rio de Barranco de Luna  and into the village ...

This week we had a walk from the Reloj de Sol, mistakenly renamed by me as the Puerta del Sol, so apologies to anyone who could not find it. The Reloj is a big Sundial on top of the hill above the Alhambra. There were 23 of us this week for the walk when we met up at the clock. I had just finished counting everyone when I saw another 50 heading our way, I thought it was time to leave rapidly and in the haste to hide out of the way we took a wrong turning. I don’t think anyone noticed though as there were no complaints when we had to go back up the hillside.  The walk starts by heading down into Jesús del Valle, it’s a wonderful path down in lush vegetation, whilst we were heading down I decided it would be nice to investigate a new side path that we came across. In the end it was not worth the effort as we had to climb back up to our original path, but hey, this is how we discover all our routes.  The path continues alongside the Rio Darro to an old cortijo...