The start of it

For a long time, whilst out walking in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, we have come across footpath signs to Sulayr but we were never able to connect the signs to any known path, they always seemed to point to somewhere high in the Sierra Nevada. Then in August 2009 whilst on the Mulhacen mountain bus Paco, the guide, explained that it was a 300 km circular path running around the Sierra Nevada National park.
Slowly my interest in this walk was aroused, but it always looked like it would be a ambition never undertaken. The path runs around the Sierras at about 2000 meters, and the thought of taking our poor little Renault Kangoo up all those access tracks to the start of a new section of the walk filled me with dread, it was our only car.
In 2011 the chance came to buy another car, and the thought of walking the Sulayr path gained momentum. What was needed were some good buddies to share the experience. My wife has always classed the “The A Team” of the Lecrin Valley Limpers as something out of “The Last of the Summer Wine”. A group of old men who go out in to the mountains for the day and come home raggy arsed, tired and dirty. After careful consultation with fellow team members who jumped at the chance of expeditions into the high Sierras I decided to buy a small 4X4.
This is the story as it unfolds.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

April 12th 2011 Section 13 La Rosa - Piedra Negra

For our challenge this week we wanted to try a new area but, after inspecting the northern aspect of the Sierra Nevada, from afar, it looked like the 2000 metre line was still covered in snow. Now I like the look of snow but it does make walking difficult.
A careful look at our guide book revealed a section at the far end of the Sierra Nevada in Almeria Provence that was below 2000 metres and only 11.2km long. The only problem was that it is 149 kms away, but, we have to do them and everyone was up for it. The section sounded interesting with forests and abundant wild life.
With an 8am start we were up and away, and then stuck in a traffic jam in Granada, this delayed us by 10 minutes but then we had a clear run to our access point through a village called Abrucena. None of us had been to this end of the Sierras before so we did not know what to expect.
The terrain is very rugged, with near vertical 2500 metre mountains rising up from the valley. Access to the start of the walk was excellent, a good road that the Tom tom knew about and without any delay we were kitted up and off.
From past experience of walking this route I did not hold out much of a chance of us reaching our goal of Piedra Negra 11.2km away.
For the first 6.7 km the track is along forest road that rises some 235 metres, we made rapid progress along this road and soon arrived at a point where the path headed into the forest, it was looking good that we could complete the full section. The forest was huge and for the next 1.5 hours we zig zagged back and forth, and crossed a few mountain streams as we continued to climb up to Piedra Negro. We arrived at our destination after 3 hours, a magnificent achievement, but the high peaks we had glimpsed through the forest were bathed in cloud and there was a cool wind blowing. So a quick lunch break and photo stop and we were off again.
We chose a slightly different route back, sticking to the forest road with more open views.
We had been promised an array of wild life in the guide book but all we found was one dead mouse by the side of the road.
A great days walking covering a distance 22.7 km and we finished off with a cool beer at a bar in Abrucena, where they appear to speak a different language from the one taught in our valley.
All that was left was the 149km drive back, but that soon passed and our trip to the end of the Sierras could be classed as a great success.
The walkers Mike, Kees, Rene and myself.
Distance walked on route 11.2, total Sulayr 38.2 km, height climbed 652 metres,                              total height 3029 metres
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)