July 13 2011 Section 4 from Tello

After the heat of last weeks walk we decided that we were putting on hold our Sulayr walks until the temperature had fallen back a bit. We aren’t going soft or anything, we were going to introduce our summer walking program, visiting as many Lagunas as we could find in the cooler, higher parts of the Sierra Nevada. We had already visited the  Laguna de Caballo a few weeks back, and on a Sunday walk the group went up to Laguna Yeguas on Veleta, it was so windy we could hardly stand up.
This week we had planned to visit Laguna Cura, but at 7.30 am in the carpark in Nigúelas the wind was already bending the trees and the lake is 2000 metres higher. After a quick consultation with the team it was decided to do another section of the Sulayr path above Lanjaron. Lanjaron has a unique weather system because when it is windy in the valley you can drive the 15 km into the Alpujarras and there will not be a breath of wind.
We had done a very short bit of section 4, well in actual fact we had done 1.7 km of it on our first day out in February. The start of section 4 is at a place called Tello which is a semi abandoned building by the side of the Rio Lanjaron, I say semi abandoned because there are signs that it is used sometimes, as there are kitchens, bathrooms and bunk beds.
We drove up to the Sulayr path and walked down the 3 km to the very picturesque bridge spanning the Rio Lanjaron and then up to Tello. Then, retracing our steps we climbed out of the valley back up to the car. Kees was on point duty as once again he was eager to attain his path finder badge (part 1), after only 50 metres he had taken a wrong turning. He was sent to the back again for further training.
We then continued on a level track towards Puente Palo. The last time we were up here in February the path was deep in snow and we had struggled to walk 5km uphill to get to this point. This time snow was not a problem, this time we were looking for shade.
Arriving at our destination Mike was a little disappointed when I suggested we stop here, have lunch and then return to the car, it was only 11.30 and he was expecting a full days walking but, I had a cunning plan. We were directly above Cáñar and we are coming here with the group on Sunday and, as I had promised them we would end up in a pub, we needed to find the best bar in the village. Mike soon cottoned on to the idea that testing the beer and tapas in various bars might be a pleasant way of spending the afternoon. So after lunch we walked back to the car  and then drove to Cáñar. I nearly wrote the Suzuki off when I hit a hidden tree stump and the car bounced into the air, fortunately no damage was sustained.
We only found two bars open, so after a drink and tapas in both of them we decided to go back to Nigúelas and Miguels bar on the carpark.
One walk and three bars, what an excellent day out!

The walkers Mike, Kees, Ray, and myself.

Distance walked on route today, 7.1 km. Total distance today 14.2 km. Height climbed today 460 metres. Total distance walked on the Sulayr path 132 km. Distance left to do 169 km. Total height climbed 9384 metres. Total distance walked 287.4 km.