Lecrin Valley Limpers

This week some of us decided to take things easy and go on a picnic. Others in the group, who wanted a bit of exercise,  went for a swim.  Dave and Julie had entered into an open water swimming competition on the pantano at Bermejales. It looked an easy level course and at only 1.5 km, I feel sure we could all have done it, if it had been spread out, over a few days. We were there as support and cheerleaders for team GB.    All our hard work paid off with Julie romping home to gold and Dave coming first in the old gits class.  Not only did Julie win a superb gold cup, which I feel sure will have pride of place in her display cabinet, she won a selection box of fruit and wine.  After all the excitement we nearly forgot what we had gone for, so, finding a nice shady spot under the trees we held our annual picnic.  Well done to Julie and Dave,  you made a great picnic into a brilliant day out.   We walked 0.2 km...

This week, in an effort to cool down, we went for a walk to pico de Veleta, at 3394 metres it is the second highest peak in the Sierra Nevada. After taking a detour through Pradollano, because the road was closed due to a road race, we arrived at Hoya de la Mora and a reserved car parking space, thank you Fernando.  There are a number of options available for tackling the summit.  The easiest way is to catch the bus or the telecabina, both of which are far too easy.  A track up the San Juan valley, discounted due to excess snow.  Following the road, the easiest way but it can get a bit monotonous.  A direct path which intersects with the road a number of times, preferred option, but I     was planning on coming back this way anyway.  In the end we took a mixture of the last 2, On the easier cross country bits we took to the footpath, the rest we did on the road until we got over 3000 metres, where, due to a ...

Some of our group were very excited about a major sporting event due to take place on Sunday. So, following advice from my friends who know about these things, I planned a short local walk from Murchas.To try and avoid the worst of  the summer heat we had an early 08.30 start. The walk started from the bridge in Murchas and followed the rio Torrent up to Nigúelas, normally at this time of the year the river is dry, but this year it is still flowing.  Things started to go wrong just before we arrived in Nigúelas, we had made good time and it was still cool so we decided to extend the walk a little bit. I know, I can hear you all groaning,  “There he goes again, advertising a short walk and we end up doing 20 km”. But this was just an extra 1km and brought us into the village along the upper sendero. Ellen and John decided not to go on the extension and we arranged to meet them in a bar up by the church. When we arrived in Nigúelas we looked everywhere f...

The destination for this week's walk was Caballo, the little hill behind Nigúelas. At 3015 metres it is the lowest of the 3000 metre peaks in the Sierra Nevada but for those of us living in the valley it is our hill and must be climbed. Access is not easy as it entails a 15 km drive on a rough 4X4 track. This year we only had available 2 vehicles capable of making the journey so our numbers were limited to 10 people. In the end, only 8 people wanted to go which made the drive a lot pleasanter for those sitting in the back. They were shaken not stirred. It’s a great way up as from the start the summit is in view, and it remains so for most of the climb. There was surprisingly little snow on the way up, after last weeks lower altitude walk in the snow I had been looking forward to sledging all the way back. The views from the top were superb in all directions, most of the remaining snow was down in the valley of the Rio Lanjaron, obviously, this was our intend...

We had a cooling experience on our walk this week. Our destination was the Laguna Yeguas on the side of Veleta. We had arranged to meet at the Hoya de la Mora which, fortunately this time,  was clear of snow. The last time we were there the carpark was under 4 metres of snow and just the cabin roofs were poking through it.  The temperature, at 12 degrees wasn’t bad but it was windy which brought it down into the chilly range and I was glad I had some warm clothing with me, unlike Brenda who looked liked she was heading for the beach. The higher we climbed the cooler and windier it became, fortunately we managed to find a bit of shelter out of the wind up by the observatory. After a short break we headed off across the snowfields towards the Laguna. I was starting to get excited, the last time we had seen so much snow was a number of years ago and there were icebergs floating on the Laguna, would we be fortunate enough to see them again? Yippee, there they we...

This week we had a short walk from Padul, It was short for 2 reasons. The first was that it was the Chite fiesta and we had to get back in time for the Paella, the second reason was I did not expect to get much sleep on the Saturday night and the thought of getting up for a longer walk, when I wanted to stay in bed, was not appealing.   There were 16 of us eager for a walk,  this week it’s Rene’s turn to be the missing mystery person who did not get on the photo. The walk started on the outskirts of Padul, and it was cold, with low cloud swelling around the summit by the cross and it looked like it could rain at anytime. The route starts with a short climb up to a forest which you walk through for a couple of kms. The path then slowly makes its way up the hillside, I know some will say it was quite steep in places but it wouldn't be a proper walk without a bit of climbing. Normally, in June, after 10 am we look  for some shade when we stop for a break...

This week Stuart had left me in charge of leading the walk whilst he took Olwyn out for a well deserved birthday lunch. I had decided on a trek around Venta Fraile which is relatively moderate walk suitable for all. With Stuart away, I was expecting a low turn out with not many entrusting the stand in group leader. Well the hoards kept turning up, so it was left to me to organise the car sharing, I’m sure Stuart must have had long flowing locks of hair before he was faced with this weekly task. Eventually, with everyone in a vehicle, we set off to meet more friends at the second pick up point where we met another two to make the group 26.  Having a large number is always handy as you can afford to lose one or two. The walk starts out with the first stretch along the road which is a lovely gentle way to start out a Sunday morning walk. After a while we climbed up a short steep scree slope to take in our first small diversion to a high point for nice views over Pad...

There wasn’t a walk organised this Sunday because a group of us had just got back from our Benidorm walking holiday. I know Benidorm and walking holiday are words that are not normally associated together but we had a superb time.  We had hired a big house about 20 km outside the resort. Situated in the mountains it was in an ideal position for exploring the area. Most of us were new to the Costa Blanca mountains and were unsure what to expect. We were not disappointed, expectations were exceeded on every front. The walks were always stunning and different. Our chefs produced some amazing meals, we had everything from Thai curry to BBQ salmon and there was always a vegetarian option. The SAT NAV’s took us down some unbelievable roads, many of which we had to reverse out of. We had no wash days when the water supply to the house failed, I have never seen a bar empty so quickly when we walked in. We met Elisa’s mum, dad, and Catalina the Donkey...

To celebrate the start of summer, well at least a day when we didn’t get wet, we went to the Reloj del Sol, the big Sundial above the Alhambra Palace. The drive up to the carpark is a bit rough in places but with care it is passable.  By the time we all arrived for the start of the walk there were 25 of us, all eager to enjoy the day out.  The carpark is the highest point of the walk, so if you want to go anywhere you have to lose some height. This means you have to go up at the end of the walk. For good measure we went as low as you can, down to the rio Darro. One of the advantages of all the rain is that now everything is green, even hills where normally nothing grows are now full of colour. Another advantage is that the rivers are full. When it came to crossing the river we had two choices, we could take a short cut and cross the river on a bridge, or stick with our original route and hope we could wade across the Darro. A democratic vote was taken and o...

This week we had 2 walks arranged, a shorter walk with Hilary from Beznar to Melegis and a longer one with me around Moclin. Stuart’s Moclin walk. This months big end of the month walk started from Olivares, a small pueblo at the bottom of the hill below Moclin. As is usual with our walks I had no intention in staying in the moderately level surroundings of Olivares. Instead our first port of call was the village at the top of the hill, Moclin. To describe this as an easy climb, would be wrong. Whilst the track is a 4X4 route I think most off road  drivers would refuse to go up, especially if they had a nice, new, shiney SUV. A battered old Land Rover might be able to chug it’s way to the top. We arrived in Moclin without one word of dissent, but in need of caffeine. After a democratic vote, and with the motion carried, we went to the bar for coffee.    There was talk about going to the castle but this was not scheduled into the itinerary, and b...

This week we did a local walk from Marchenna to Siletta. The original plan was to get a steep climb over and done with at the start of the walk, but we changed our minds and decided to do it in the opposite direction as this would give us some extensive views of the snow covered tops of the Sierra Nevada. It was a bit misty as we set off  but I remained confident that this would soon burn off as the sun got out. By the time we got to the Ventana the expected extensive views had not materialised, the mist was still obscuring everything. I was starting to think that once again we had been cursed with the red Sahara sand, which seems to appear when we are doing this walk. We stopped for little lunch on the top of Siletta, in an area protected from the blustery southerly wind, another indication that it was dust in the air not just slow to clear mist. I had hoped the the hillside of Siletta would be covered in wild Orchids, in fact I had offered a money back guarant...

The weather forecast for Sunday was good, but, as we were driving along the carretera de cabra road towards the rio Verde I had the feeling that something had gone badly wrong. We were driving in fog and every time we went around a corner it got worse. By the time we reached the bar Meson los Prados visibility was down to about 50 metres. So much for advertising a walk with stunning views. I would have been happy to stop at the bar, have a coffee and go home but the others seemed keen for a walk. We continued the drive and as soon as the road started the descent towards Otiva we entered a different world. The sun was shining and there wasn’t a cloud in the clear blue sky.  With our spirits lifted we followed the path down to the petrified waterfall, after all the rain I was expecting it to be pretty spectacular. It was OK but I have seen more water in the middle of a drought. The cave was a lot better.    We followed the path down to to the next waterfall ...

The weather forecast for Sunday was for rain in the afternoon and temperatures a bit on the low side for April, these days anything above 12 degrees is classed as a hot day. Even so it came as a shock when we came off the motorway at prado Negro to see snow ploughs full of grit lined up at the side of the road, engines running and drivers waiting. It made me wonder if they had seen a different weather forecast to me. My original idea for the walk was to do it clockwise, leaving the visit to the waterfall to the end  But the weather in Prado Negro wasn’t promising, it wasn’t actually raining but you knew it soon would be. So I thought it was better to get in the visit to the falls before the rain came.  The waterfall was spectacular, I have never seen so much water in it, I can’t imagine where it’s all come from.  The weather was starting to deteriorate when we stopped for a mid-morning snack, with the temperature dropping and the rain heading towards us w...

Our Easter Sunday walk was to Pico Lopera, it was only a short walk but we had a tapas at Jan and Martine’s to go to and their grandchildren were joining us on the walk. It was quite cool at the BP garage in Cozvijar at 09.00, somehow you expect it to be a bit higher than 3 degrees in April but we were promised a good day weather wise. To be honest any day when it’s not raining is a good day. By to the time we got to the start of the walk at Maison Los Prados the temperature had risen to the giddy heights of 6 degrees. It was interesting looking around at the choice of clothing people were wearing. It went from full mountain cold weather gear down to shorts and strappy tops. By the time all the cars had arrived there was 24 in the group, it was going to be interesting trying to keep them all together. I think it is about time Floppy is promoted to senior people herder.  The start of the walk passes through farmland and normally there are horses and Jaballi about ...