We decided to complete the Puente Palo to Capileira section as we only had 4.1 km left to do on it. With an 8.30 start from Lecrin we were in Capileira before the morning sun had touched the village. Kees was eager for a coffee to start the day, but he was out voted by the simple action of walking past all the bars.
We had not travelled far before we came across the first delight of the day. A local farmer was turning over a narrow strip of land using a pair of Mules and a plough. The path follows a track down the steep sided Poqueira gorge and across the river on a bridge that has seen better days. The problem with dropping down into the gorge is that you need to climb up the opposite bank but we were all fighting fit after our months lay off. The path follows an old mule track and is well waymarked and Kees seemed eager to earn his path finder badge (grade 1), so he was promoted to lead man, I myself taking up the position of back marker. We had not travelled more than 50 metres before we were following a cow path across open pasture, Cees was sent to the back of the group for further training and we returned to the waymarked mule track. Our progress up the hillside became slower and slower the higher we climbed and it was a relief to finally reached a level section.
15 minutes of walking along the road took us back to where we had finished off last time, wow, it had only taken us 2 hours to do a 4.5 km section. Being the boys from the A team it was never the intention to do just this little section of the walk, we were going to make it into a full days expedition. The map showed a little track continuing up the hillside back along the road where we had joined it, so keeping a close eye out for any sign of a path along the way we retraced our steps. True to form there was no sign of a path so we decided to continue along the road in the hope a route up the hillside would become obvious. After a little while we came across a farmer working in a field who kindly informed us that there was no way up from this road but, if we returned back along the road we could go into one of his fields and make our way up to the acequia we wanted. With the acequia about another 100 meters higher this meant some more climbing, now normally this would not be a problem but for some reason the boys were suffering. The GPS was showing that progress had slowed to a shameful 1km per hour, Rene was the only one not working up a sweat, remaining cool and stress free throughout the tortuous ascent. Finally arriving at the acequia Nueva we were rewarded for our efforts with a delightful babbling brook that we followed as it slowly gained height. Along the way we encounted numerous frogs making frog spawn, as frogs do at this time of the year. What was a little unusual was the spawn appeared to be in tubes, not something I have ever seen before.
After a few kms of walking on this wonderful track we came across a problem, the hillside had slipped away taking our path with it, this left a precipitous section to cross and a couple of years back would have been the turn around point for Mike and Kees but with gritted teeth and nerves of steel they successfully navigated their way across. Our intention was to walk the acequia until we came across a track heading down hill toward the hydro station at La Cebadilla and then following the path back to Capileira on the other side of the gorge. Coming across a marked path that appeared to heading in the right direction we set off to follow it downhill. It soon became apparent that we would not end up at the hydro but on the path this side of the gorge which was no problem because it also ended up after crossing the river in Capileira. The only downside was the last time we had walked this path the bridge was in danger of falling into the river, but, what the heck, we have forded mountain rivers before. I am pleased to say the National parks have restored the bridge to its former glory and all that was left now was the walk back up into the village. I was completely knackered when we got back and fell into the nearest bar for some much needed resuscitation. A great days walking in some fine countryside.
On the walk today Mike, Kees, Rene and myself
Km today total 14.1, the Sulayr section 4.3 km, Total Sulayr 27km, left to do 273 km, ascent today 772 metres, total ascent 2377 metres
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