|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Weather forecast for home was for northerly gales so to brighten my day I checked the forecast for Granada on the Internet - overnight temperature for Saturday -7ºC!
|
|
Early start to join the rest of the group on the 8.15am Monarch Air flight to Malaga.
|
Capileira
First view
|
Spotted a few other people with Ramblers luggage labels and finally found the Ramblers rep to let her know we had arrived, before getting away on time.
After a long wait at the carousel we all finally had our baggage and it was off to the bus for the 2 1/2 journey to Capileira, first driving along the coast through the Costa del Sol before turning north and heading for the hills with the furthest and highest capped with snow.
|
|
The Meson Poqueira, whilst probably the best in Capileira, is a modest hotel serving adequate food. But we were here to walk not to lounge around sampling the local cuisine, so it was off for a short walk to explore the village and get our bearings before returning to the hotel for diner, a briefing and the opportunity to get to know other members of the group. Pleasantly surprised that it was safe to drink the tap water, so no need to bother with bottled water.
|
|
Does everyone from Vancouver like they place so much that they are always away from it? Not only was Arlene from our group from Vancouver but also a couple of ex-mountaineers who were staying at the hotel (on a previous trip we had also met up with John and Lynda from Vancouver).
|
|
An introductory walk around six Alpujarrian village. We left Capileira past houses with mushroom shaped chimneys and headed to Bubion. A small stray dog who we called Scruffy but was also known as Maria joined us at the start of the walk, we were expecting her to turn back when we came to the edge of the village but she just kept on going.
|
Under cloudy skies with occasional patches of sun we left Bubion and headed up over the hills for our next village of Capilerilla, at which point Scruffy abandoned us for a passing group of Germans, and on to Pitres, getting used to the landscape of the Alpujarras including a gate that appeared to be made from an old bedstead. Over the coming weeks this became such a common sight that we now wonder if this is actually a local design for gates rather than the utilisation of old beds!
Stopped at Pitres for lunch in a local café where we were served ham, cheese, chips, sausage and salad; these, in various combinations were, to become the staple foods for the rest of our stay. The meal was washed down with a fruit wine.
|
Scruffy
our walking companion
|
Spring on path
to Busquistar
|
After briefly shopping for fruit and dried fruit in Pitres market, under darkening skies and after donning waterproofs, we continued our journey down hill to Atalbeitar and Ferreirola, with its communal wash house. Then up the valley, passing a spring that was tiled to show the wine making process, and on to Busquistar accompanied by a few spots of rain and thunder and lightening.
Reached Busquistar and our bus in the dry and returned to Capileira.
|
|
As the evening progresses the wind picked up and to our surprise on going down to diner found that a blizzard was in progress!
|
Awoke to a picturesque scene of snow clad hills floating above seas of cloud, decided that a high level walk would be best. To our surprise found that Scruffy (aka Maria) had returned and was ready again for a walk, (as she would be for the rest of our stay in Capileira).
We headed out to the hills to the east of Capileira, walking through snow laden trees we kept to the main tracks rather than venture too far afield.
|
Snow sciene
from rear of hotel
|
|
As the day progressed the clouds started to disperse to reveal the sun and snow clad hills gave us many photo opportunities.
|
Angie looking at
dead wild boar
|
For today's walk we first headed down into the Poqueira gorge to cross the river at the Puento del Molino. Heading up the other side we stopped at a cortijo (small farm, often abandoned) for a breather and came across a wild boar that appeared to have been killed quite recently, we could only suppose that it had been left for later collection.
With the main group heading down the valley at a low level to walk to the Buddhist retreat and then on to Pampaneira for some sight seeing, we joined Harvey and Hilary for a higher walk. First going up the valley we gained height and made for a track running alongside an acequia (manmade irrigation channel taking water down the valley) at 2100m which we then followed, in the snow, down the valley. After a while we headed off on at track to take us around to the west of Alto de Pradillo Seco before we ascended it.
|
|
With time moving on we started to descend, first mainly following the fire break until we came to the Buddhist retreat and then heading east towards Pampaneira picked up tracks as best we could, but made the mistake of dropping down too soon and ended up in a virtual dead end. But as we could clearly see Pampaneira and the map showed the GR7 footpath to be nearby, we decided to press on through disused terraces that had become overgrown with trees.
|
|
With a great deal of effort and the dark closing in we finally made it down to the main road to Pampaneira, without ever coming across any footpaths. Slogged our way up to Pampaneira, thumbing the occasional car without success.
|
|
Enquiring in a local shop about taxis brought no result but we were told that there was a bus to Capileira which would arrive a sometime between 7.15 and 7.45pm, as it was now 6.45 we decided to have a drink in a bar with a view of the bus stop and wait it's arrival which to our delight was earlier rather than later.
|
|
With much joy and relief of other members of the group who were starting to wonder where we had got to, we arrived back at our hotel.
|
|
A rest day, so decided to go for a long walk!
|
|
Along with Hilary and Arlene we followed walk 3 (page 60) from the 'Sunflower Andalucia Guide'.
|
|
The first part of the walk took us down to the Puente Buchite on the Rio Poqueira and then followed the river upstream on the west bank to the power station, passing a couple of mules on the way.
|
Above the power station the river is fed by two streams, the Rio del Toril and the Rio Naute, we continued up stream following the latter passing goats and tumbling waterfalls. We also met up with a Japanese girl called Snowi and German boy Hagan who were off course, so they joined us for the rest of the walk.
As the valley opened out we climbed up the ridge towards Las Tomas (the takings, the area from which water is taken to feed the aqueducts for the irrigation channels further down the valley), stopping just below the Cortijo of Las Tomas to eat our lunch with Mulhacen in the background.
|
Waterfalls
|
|
Continued climbing passed the cortijo as we turned around for our return journey below the ridge on the eastern side of the river. We were delighted to see ahead of us five ibex making off across the snow. Still climbing made for the highest point on the walk to reach a acequia at 2190m. With glorious views from the ridge and in warm sunshine we returned to find the rooftops of Capileira suddenly appear around the corner.
|
|
With the sun shining from the very start we again made our way down into the Poqueira gorge and towards the power station, at one time disputing the right to use the path with a herd of goats, they won. Shedding our fleeces and breaking out the shorts we bore off left before reaching the power station for a stiff climb to an acequia below the ridge and overlooking the Rio del Toril.
|
Mulhacen
|
The effort in making our ascent was rewarded as we could now follow the acequia, which formed the boundary to the National Park, as it gently rose and with the Pico del Cartujo and the ridge of Tojos del Nevero in front of us and magnificent views of Mulhacen against a clear blue sky to the right.
On reaching the head of the valley we stopping for lunch below the Cortijo de las Mergas before returning down the north west side of the valley where we encountered a recent land slip that made the path more difficult.
|
|
At the end of the valley path we reached a large water pipe and a disused funicular railway that had probably been used in it's construction, from here it was a quick decent back into the Poqueira gorge to the power station.
|
|
This time we followed the eastern side of the gorge to return to Capileira.
|
|
A challenging day with the aim to reach Prado Llano a 2578m peak to the east of Capileira. With Capileira at 1432m this meant an climb of 1146m or nearly 3900ft, an ascent greater than Ben Nevis. Apart from the height, the climb is not particularly difficult, just a gruelling ascent without the respite of any level sections.
|
Although we started out in cold sunshine at 9.30am, as we ascended the clouds started to close in with an odd flurry of snow at about 1800m. At this point some of the group decided to turn back but 12 of us decided to press on a little further. Although it was cold with more snow showers it never got so bad that we felt we should turn around, finally reaching the top at 1.15pm.
We didn't stand around for long and quickly descended to find a spot for lunch, finally getting back to Capileira at 3.40pm.
|
Northern view
from Prado Llano
|
|
|
