Day 3 - Above the snow line

Wednesday 15th May

A walk with Jesús

We crammed into two 4-wheel drive vehicles for a 20-minute drive up the mountain road to the start of the Sierra Nevada National Park. When I teased José-Miguel about his bumpy driving over potholes, he assured me that I had been lucky - the other driver was worse.

The walk started with a steady uphill climb through scented pine-woods. Eventually the woods were left behind and we proceeded on an easy track mostly level, or slightly up. Wheatears were much in evidence, and always interesting to watch. The variety of wild flowers all around us also caused much interest to the amateur botanists among us.

When I asked our friendly guide Jesús whether we had any chance of seeing an eagle, he assured me that he had one prepared and would release it later (it never appeared, though - clearly badly trained).

Soon Jesús was able to point out the red roof of the Poquiera Refuge to which we were heading. At this distance it looked the size of a garden-shed, but we were told it would sleep 80 (who would have to be fairly friendly). In that pure air, it still seemed deceptively close, but so did the summit of the highest peak Mulhacén, which looked like an hour's climb up the ridge. The guide assured us that it would take about 3½ hours from where we had reached to make the summit, and 2½ hours back again, so regretfully we abandoned hope of reaching it on this occasion.

Having reached the Refuge, which was surrounded by a flock of Spanish Ibex, about 2 pm, we chose a spot about a mile further on for our picnic beside a strongly-flowing river, and rested for about 1 hour. Some of us (I am told) snored!

The group then split into 2 - one group went with Jesús on a route that would take a lower path, the remainder staying with Jeremy and José-Miguel to retrace the path of the morning.

Jesús set a rapid route-march pace, plunging down a steep slope so fast that most of us concentrated on watching our feet rather than on the splendid views ahead. Occasionally he stopped to take photos of ruined fincas which he explained had been farmed, at least during the summers, until very recently. Eventually we came to an acequia (a water channel created either by the Romans or the Moors, and still very much in use). We then stayed by the acequia which meant, of course, that the path was virtually level. Since there is inevitably some leakage of water, plants flourish by the side of the water, which increases the interest of the walk.

Eventually we arrived at the dirt-track up which we had driven that morning, and a mobile call was made to make contact with the other half of the party who were just reaching the vehicles - we suspect the 2 Spanish guides were conducting their own private race.

All in all a very satisfying walk, probably the longest of the week, through a different sort of terrain than that we had seen before.

During the evening, Victoria revealed that she had to catch an early flight from Malaga on Saturday morning. The rest of the group, secure in the knowledge that it was not their problem, offered many interesting suggestions including hiring a mule. Clearly Victoria felt we were not taking the issue seriously...

Personal Highlights

"Being shown some of the rare alpine plants native to this region, in particular a dwarf cherry" - John

"Trying to teach a bemused Jesús how to pronounce DWARF" - John

Photos

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This document maintained by JohnB@crownsys.co.uk.
Text Copyright © 2002 John Braga
Photos remain Copyright © The Submitter