Lecrin Valley Limpers

This week we had a walk to the Laguna Yeguas, with the option for those who wanted something harder to go on to the refugio Elorrieta. The temperature was a cool 10.5 degrees when we all met up at the Hoya de Moya carpark on Veleta for the start of our walk.  I could understand Jim being in a T-shirt, after all he is English and it probably felt like a balmy summer's day to him but I could not understand Antonio. The rest of us had our fleeces on, even if some of us were wearing shorts.  We set off at a steady pace, following the road up past the Virgin of the snows, I had promised Mike an easy walk. The path to the Laguna eventually leaves the road and heads off across country towards  the radio telescope. From here you could see the path the more determined amongst us were going to take up to the refugio. Things did not look promising,there was still a lot of snow about.  We stopped at the Laguna for a snack and to sort out who wanted to go on to Elor...

This week we had a big walk to Caballo. We had 24 booked to go  on the walk, so many in fact that we had hired Antonio’s  8 seater 4X4 taxi, plus 4 of our own off roaders to get everyone up to the Rinconada de Nigúelas, the starting point for the walk.  Now normally the little carpark at the Rinconada is empty but on Sunday it was full, our route to the summit is proving very popular. Setting off on our climb we soon discovered why. There was a big group in front of us from Motril.  We had a leisurely climb to the summit and arrived at the same time as the Motril group, and we were surprised to learn that they had heard of us and they suggested that we join them sometime for a walk. They were a very friendly group, they even joined in whilst we were trying to do our group photo. The photo had so many people in it was impossible to recognise anybody.    After lunch on the summit three of our group decided to return to the cars whilst t...

This week we did not have a walk, just a BBQ in Dilar. My personal assistant, Antonia and myself have spent weeks organising this BBQ, we thought we had nailed it down to the finest detail but it still ended in chaos. This is the first time we have had a BBQ in a restaurant, the idea was a good one as we had visited this bar February whilst walking in the area and the tapas was amazing. What we had not taken into account was that the chaotic service we received on our first visit was just a sample of what they could achieve when we went for a meal.  The venue was superb with loads of shade from the trees and a garden like setting. It is close enough to the river to keep the temperature down, it must have been the most refreshing place in Granada. The atmosphere was good, with a lot of families there.  With no one in overall control, and most of the staff appearing to be on work experience, it was a recipe for disaster.   In spite of everything w...

This week we had a spectacular day out on the Caminito del Rey. 20 fearless people had signed up for the walk, which was once described as the most dangerous in the world.   Nowadays, after a major update, it’s just scary.  We had arranged to travel in style, we had hired a luxury VIP  mini coach. It was waiting for us when we arrived at El Zahor, our meeting point. We were all there except Billy who had misread the email. After a telephone call we were able to redirect him and then we were off to Ardales. We asked the driver  to stop for coffee along the way. This was a great way to travel, no one had any worries about driving, we were all together with no one getting lost along the way. No problems with parking at the start of the walk, we just got off the bus and told him to come back for us at 5pm. I was so impressed I am thinking of getting a chauffeur for the Dacia.  The only indication as to the start of the walk is a little sign a...

This week we had 2 walks organised a tough one and an easy one. The tough group met in Durcal and had a short drive to the start of the walk above the Hydro electric station. Since we last did this walk 3 years ago the route has been upgraded to a PR local path, with yellow and white waymarking signs. An excellent choice as the views are superb and it’s good to see the medio ambiente putting some effort into promoting these paths. It’s not a difficult climb, just steady away, for 2 hours as you slowly zig zag back and forth following the line of the water tube for the hydro. I have to appologise to Jim at this point as I had promised him we would see the tubo, but it was not to be. Someone has been working very hard covering it in. Talk about breaking rocks, I don’t know what the poor sods had done to get that job. After two hours and with most of the climbing done you arrive at the casita del agua a little house where someone used to live and controlled the water going d...

Check out the details for the BBQ Sunday 5 June Check out the details for the walk to Cerro del Caballo 12 June. After last week's wet walk in Huescar, this week we had an easy walk from Orgiva in glorious sunshine.  The walk started from the outskirts of the town and headed down to the river. After all the rain we have had it was wonderful to get out, stretch our legs and enjoy the superb views of the snow covered Sierras.  The path continued alongside the river passing the Hippy encampment, fortunately they were at the other side of the river. After about 4 km and having left the great unwashed behind us we stopped to enjoy the peace and solitude in this unknown and for me the best part of Orgiva.  Resuming our walk we had an easy climb up to the acequia that we were going to follow back into the town. This is a great track to walk along as it is shaded by trees most of the way. There was a multitude of wildflowers and the birds were singing with...

The 7 and 8 May was our annual weekend away and this year we went to Husecar. We have gone away the same weekend for the past 3 years and the weather has been perfect, this year the forecast was not promising. We had planned for a walk on the Saturday and to explore some of the  archaeological  sites in the area on the Sunday. By Friday morning the forecast was for heavy rain on the Saturday with an improvement for Sunday. So I decided to swop things around and do the archaeological tour on the Saturday as we could alway seek shelter in the museums and bars we planned to visit. Driving up on Saturday morning in our 8 car convoy the conditions were miserable with rain and fog, I felt smug that we had made the right choice. We had a guided visit booked at 10.45 at the Centro de Interpretación del Megalitismo in Gorafe. But first we had a breakfast stop planned at a little bar on the autovia, it was closed. My smugness took a dip and I could see what everyone was th...

This week we had a local circular walk from Melegis. I thought it would be impossible to lose anyone, after all we all live here. The walk started with an important presentation ceremony. Mike had commissioned a  plaque to be made by Marcel for Conchi, the winner of the 2015 Brownie points competition.  The walk started from the Puerta del Valle bar and headed off through the orange groves towards the castle. I know there are some bad feelings about this castle from the folks that live in Melegis, one citizen of the pueblo even tried to impose an entrance fee, but the fact remains it is officially recognised as Murchas castle which means it belongs to us, the good people  of  Lecrin. We had not been there long when we were invaded by a horde of marauding Cristianos, we surrendered without a fight, not wanting to put the women and children into slavery. The walk continued to Muchas then along to Chite. There are not many streets in the village and it is...

This week we had two walks planned, our big end of the month walk and a shorter walk with Hilary. Both walks started off together and offered spectacular views of the snow covered Sierra Nevada mountains. We met in Cozvijar and then drove to Gúejar Sierra where we met up with the Granada contingent. We continued the drive up the valley to the San Juan car park.  I had reservations about our newest member of the group, Antonio aged 10, but his mum said he could do the hard walk without drawing a breath.  We took the group photo at the start of the walk as we were all together,We split up after the photo, the hard group had a full day ahead of them and needed to make good time on the first section of the path. Hilary’s group had time to enjoy the wildflowers and the views in this spectacular valley.     I designated the hard walk as a 4 lunch break walk. You should have seen Conchi’s face brighten up at this news, then darken when she realized...

Something went wrong on this week's walk, we got wet!!. Yes that wet stuff that comes from the sky. It has never occurred before that we have actually set off in the rain. Whether it was the Gods trying to punish Grahame for coming with us I don’t know, but when he returned to his car it stopped raining.  Our walk this week was another new one for the Sunday group, and followed the barranco de la Arco just off the Carretera de Cabra.  We met in Cozvijar and as we were driving towards Padul it started to rain and the mist came down, by the time we arrived at our starting point it was obvious we were going to get wet, fortunately we all had our wet weather gear. Even though it has been in the bottom of my rucksack for 13 years I knew I would use it one day.  The walk starts on a nature reserve for the Alondra Rizoti, a rare un-crested Lark, only found in a few areas of Spain. Not that we stood any chance of seeing it, the visibility was down to about 20 met...

This week we went to Colomera, a small Pueblo north of Granada.We discovered this walk 12 months ago on our Tuesday outings but it was the first time we have done a Sunday walk from here. By the time we arrived in Colomera there were 21 of us in a convoy of 6 cars and I was worried there would not be sufficient space in the village for all our cars, and that we would spend half the morning rounding everyone up. Amazingly we all managed to park close together and we were soon ready for the off. I had spent the whole week polishing my crystal balls and was confident that we would not have any rain before 8pm, but one or two in the group took a bit of persuading to leave their umbrellas and waterproofs in the car.  For the last five years I have been relying on my GPS to guide us on our walks. This week I thought it would be a good idea to go back to basics and walk unencumbered by electronic devices, and try using the Cerebral Cortex for navigation, that the GPS was ...

After last week's disaster of predicting a cold and wet weather walk, and ending up walking in temperatures of 25 degrees dressed in our winter woolies, I have spent the whole week polishing my crystal balls, and this week the predictions were spot on. A valuable lesson has being learned, keep your balls clean and well polished. Now I will admit when we met at Cozvijar it was spitting a bit but, as our walk this week was starting from the Cañadas urbanization 10kms away, I was confident that the sun would be shining by the time we arrived. Antonia obviously did not have any confidence in my predictions because, when we met up with her, she was sat under an umbrella putting her boots on and her poor husband Fernando had to carry it with him the whole day.  The walk starts by following a pleasant, undulating path along the side of Sierra Manar with views up to Veleta. Dave and Martine were setting the pace, unfortunately for them they did not know the route.  We ...

This week my crystal ball was completely wrong, it had predicted typical Easter weather, wet, cold and windy so I had planned a walk down on the coast to escape the worst of it. Instead we got the hottest day of the year and we all had our winter woolies on.  We set off in 3 cars for Almuñécar but by the time we arrived we were down to 2 cars and we were short of 4 walkers,  Rafa dos had decided to take the scenic route via Salobrena, instead of the easier motorway option. We were just pondering the merits of going for a coffee when they arrived. For some unknown reason he had decided to follow a different white car. Rafa, the one you were following had a blue light on the top and it said Guardia Civil on the back.    With only 12 in the group we set off at a good pace through the Cherimoya plantations, and to our first crossing of the mighty Rio Verde. The last time we did this walk some of us got our feet wet trying to cross the river. Some kept ...