26 February 2013 Portugos to Trevelez

Above Portugos

We have missed a couple of weeks on the GR7 due to poor weather at higher altitudes, choosing to walk down on the coast instead. With reasonable temperatures and clear skies forecast it was good to get back to our latest project.
The route should have taken us from Portugos up to Trevélez, but as it was only 13 km and the bus back would not be until 4 pm a new plan was called for. We have also done the last 3 km before, when it joins up with the Sulayr path. It was a section no one enjoyed because the path had been diverted due to a land slip. The diversion involved dropping down into a steep barranco, crossing the river on a bridge made from two sticks and climbing out again, but last year Plym reported you could now get through. Not doubting Plym’s word, well maybe a little bit, we thought it might involve a death defying scramble, so the plan was, we would go and investigate what had happened to the path.
For the last few years Mike has taken to carrying a thermometer, he has had various ones over the years, all from the Chinese shop and costing €1. The problem is they always read the same, 21 in the summer and 12 in the winter, we never knew whether to wear a woolly hat or a sun hat. Well, now he is armed with a state of the art portable weather station and it was reading 7 degrees when we started our walk from Portugos, so definitely a woolly hat and gloves walk.
We set off on a short path through fields before it comes out at the famous mineral water spring of Agua Agria de Pórtugos. People travel for miles to sample this natural health drink, known throughout Spain as an elixir of life. Julie, who is suffering from a Tennis elbow was keen to take the water, I suggested she try the middle tap on the basis that the elbow was in the middle of the arm and each tap has specific properties. This advice was freely given and based on sound scientific thinking, how was I to know it was the emetic one, but of course the stomach is in the middle of the body. I don’t think it helped her that we were all wetting ourselves laughing. We then crossed the road to look at a fantastic rust coloured waterfall, well worth a visit and now you know what the water tastes of.
Resuming our walk, the path starts a long 8km climb through a holm oak forest on a superb undulating path, eventually coming out on a forest road which we followed as far as the land slip. I am pleased to confirm Plym’s findings, there is now no problem using this route to Trevelez. This was our turnaround point and lunch spot before heading back on a different route to Portugos. The path down was not well used but it was way marked, and it will make a good Sunday walk later in the year. The weather remained cold but fine all day with Mike constantly telling us the temperature every time it went up or down .1 of a degree, the 7 degrees at the start was a high point.
Back in the village we stopped for beer and tapas, we could have stayed longer in the bar but we wanted to get outside to warm up a bit.  

On the walk Kees, Mike, Rene, Julie, Dave, Stuart.

Distance walked on the route today 10.3 km    Total distance on route 164.1 km
Distance walked today 19.3 km          Total distance walked 203.1 km
Height climbed today 712 metres Total height climbed 6308 metres
Distance driven today 80 km             Total distance driven 673 km

5 th February 2013 Pampaneira to Portugos

The highest spot on the level track

The next section from Pampaneira to Trevelez looked like it was going to be too much to do in one day, 25 km and 1400 metres of climbing. This sort of distance and climb is no problem for us, after all we are the A team, this would be just a stroll in the park. No, the problem would be getting to Trevelez in time to catch the 4 pm bus back. We had the same problem when we did the Sulayr walk, we arrived in Trevelez with one minute to spare, you can’t push your luck too far.
A new plan was drawn up, we would do a circular walk going out as far as Portugos and then returning on a higher level forest track. A quick estimate of the distance and height gain came out at 20 km and 600 metres. Perfect, and easy to sell to the team. Perhaps a little more time preparing the estimate would have come up with different figures.
We drove up to Pampaneira and by the time we got there Martine was looking a bit grey and feeling a bit off, it´s not the best road to travel on. To aid her recovery we opted to go to a bar for coffee.
The first part of the walk goes straight up through the village and on to Bubion. We had planned to do it last week but could not face the climb after walking from Lanjaron. It was not exactly easy doing it first thing in the morning either. After Bubion the path continues to climb, but at a more acceptable angle. This was a great hillside to wander about on, and we will have to come back and explore it some more. We then dropped down into Capilerilla, not to be confused with its bigger brother just a few kilometers away. Continuing with the downward theme we arrived in Pitres. Last week Mike would not let us stop for a beer, this week with the sun beating down and with a very pleasant plaza to sit in, he kept stum, so we stopped.
Worryingly the path continued downhill before crossing the rusty coloured Rio Charrera. You then have to regain your height back up into Portugus. We stopped here for a little lunch, it was our turn around point of the day but we still had 350 metres of climbing to do to get to a high level track that would take us back to the Porqueira gorge.
Mike has bought a new toy, it’s a pulse monitor, it was only reading 109 as we started the climb. The instruction book says it is safe for a man of his age to go up to 145. In an effort to check it out  three of them set off like a ¨Bat outta Hell,¨ I kept expecting to hear the monitor saying “he’s gonna blow, Captain”, they were doing 6 km/h uphill. They left Mark and Jan trailing in the distance, which they only managed to recover by cheating, by cutting corners in an effort to get to the front, no moral fibre the pair of them.
Once at the top we stopped for another lunch and Mike, happy to be alive after his sprint, was wondering around when he came across a broken sign post. It was just like having his own GPS, he could take it with him, he could point it in any direction he wanted to go.
A little bit of confusion now crept in as to how level the route back would be, I had described it as a high level route but I think some of the group misunderstood this to mean it would be a level, high route. It’s quite extraordinary how confusing English can be sometimes. Which might explain why Mark has to keep stopping when he is talking to our Spanish friends. He is just making sure they fully understand what he is saying. I think it is a load of bollocks, he just can’t walk and talk at the same time.  
When we got to the end of the levellish track, it only climbed 169 meters in 4 km we were high above Capileira. The map shows a track going straight back to Bubion but we could not find any sign of it, even asking a local did not elicit any useful information. Not wanting to risk exploring the hillside in the late afternoon  we stuck to the road through Capileira and Bubion before the steep downhill path into Pampaneira and the bar.
Oh that beer tasted good and it was getting dark as we headed off back in the cars. A beautiful walk, most of it in unexplored country and perhaps, or  maybe, a little longer than advertised.      

On the walk Kees, Mike, Martine, Jan, Mark, Stuart.

Distance walked on the route today 9.3 km    Total distance on route 153.8 km
Distance walked today 26.3 km          Total distance walked 183.8 km
Height climbed today 1220 metres Total height climbed 5596 metres
Distance driven today 74 km             Total distance driven 593 km