AUTUMN RAMBLE

Yesterday we repeated the long walk which I recorded on this blog on the 30th April. This time, our fiends Mike and Trudy came up from Salobreña, on the coast, to join us. It was another beautiful morning and very warm for late October.

The first part of the walk is a long climb up a track through almond groves and pine woods until the top of the ridge of Entresierras, at an altitude of 1,000 metres, is reached. Here, there is a crossroads where we encountered another group of walkers, the first we have ever met on our rambles. Although the group comprised only 8 people, there were Spanish, English, French and Germans in the company. They had driven up from Almuñecar on the coast and parked in the village of Lentegi below. The steep climb to the summit was as far as they were going. Meanwhile, we took a right turn and followed the ridge. To our east we could see the mountains of the Sierra Nevada with almond groves in the foreground. Unlike the end of April, there was no snow - very unusual for this time of year - on the peaks. To the west was the jagged outline of the mountains of Malaga, while to the south a thin veil of sea mist obscured the coast.

We continued along the track behind El Fuerte, the mountain that dominates Guájar Alto, and stopped for a picnic lunch. The late autumn sunshine provided beautiful light for photography, casting long shadows that accentuated the relief of the mountains and illuminated the dried grasses in the foreground. We then began the long winding descent down to the Rio Toba. Just before we reached the country road that follows the river, we stopped to look at the old oven which was once used for extracting the essence from juniper berries.

Our mountain track joins the river track about 7km from Guájar Alto and we made our way along it back to the village and a well earned beer at Carmen’s Bar. We had set out shortly after 10am and arrived at the village at 5pm. It was a very enjoyable day but the walk is quite demanding and both humans and dogs slept well last night.