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.

Monday, February 28, 2011

February 27th 2011 Estrella


View of Alcazaba and Mulhacen

We had an opportunity on Sunday to combine two walks in one, primarily our walk on Sunday was a Lecrin Valley Limper walk, and we were doing the Vererda de Estrella path. This is a long walk of some 21.5 km with 900 meters of ascent. The path follows a steep sided valley deep into the Sierra Nevada with spectacular views of Mulhacen, Veleta, Alcazaba and a number of other 3000 metre mountains. Part of the route is also a section of the Sulayr path so we can include it as part of our big adventure.
The section that we did starts about 1.5 km from the the San Juan tram terminus, the trams are long gone, but in their hey day they were used to transport copper, lead and silver that had been mined in the Genil valley.
After about 1 hours walking the Sulayr path branches and heads down to a bridge across the Genil, for the next hour the track heads up hill on the Cuesta de los Presidiarios named after the prisoners who were marched this way from Granada to Almeria for onward shipment to the colonies. The path continues as far as the refugio El Cucaracha where it branches off again on its way to Peña Partida, an area we will return to on another day.
We continued on our Estrella walk for a great days walking, including having to take our boots off to cross the freezing cold, fast flowing Rio Genil, well everyone else crossed  that way, I waded across with plastic bags over my boots, perfect dry feet.
Kees was on sick leave with his ankle so our Sulayr sub section of the Lecrin Limpers was reduced to 4. Mike, Ray, Rene and myself.  


Distance walked on the route today 7.4 km
Total distance walked today 21.5 km
Height climbed today 584 metres
Total distance on Sulayr path 15.4 km
Distance left to do 284.6 km
Total height climbed 1403 metres
Total distance walked 



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