Benarraba

The forecasters were predicting good weather today and they were not quite right, it was better but still cold and cloudy with a few showers. On the mend though!

We had planned a new walk today and had looked at another walkingworld one, however when we looked at the photographs we think we saw some pine trees so we decided against it and chose one from Guy Hunter-Watts book near Benerraba - BIG MISTAKE. His directions are so bad.


We drove over to Benerraba, this picture is Genalguicil taken from the road into town, Benerraba's a pretty little town but very quiet when you get there. We parked near the start of the town and followed the directions to the hotel which represents the start of the walk. Once there we followed the guide book, basically this was a walk that can be a long one or a short one, the long one involves river crossings which after the heavy rain would be crazy so we decided on the short one.

We headed downhill sharply into the campo, always aware that when you go down you have to come back up again. The directions are Wooly to say the least. We stopped and helped ourselves to a couple of oranges from these trees, they were pretty sour still.

The dogs enjoyed getting off the lead, by now the sun had come out and the temperature was rising, this is what it should be like in Spain!

We spotted the odd pine tree on the way so this did cause us a little concern but we pressed on with the dogs on the leads. However when we had almost reached the bottom of the valley we noticed even more pine trees on the side of the hill we were heading to. An executive decision was made to make a tactical retreat so we turned and headed straight back up the hill.

This flower has us confused so if anyone knows what it is please say - by the way Jutwallah posted the other day and suggested the last flower was a type of garlic. We found more today and they do smell of garlic - thanks Jutwallah.

The climb back up was long and tiring, we had walked down over 2.5 km so it was the same straight up but at least the dogs got a good run, even if it was shorter than it was supposed to be. This is the Genal valley, a very picturesque area. We arrived back in Benerraba and had our packed lunch on one of the benches near the hotel. There was a few odd people hanging about, one of them was quite scary, he walked in circles round and round his motorbike for about 30 minutes. After a while he came over and said something that we didn't understand so we said we only spoke English, hoping that he'd bugger off - surprise he spoke pretty good English. He was asking about the dogs, knew they were Collies but asked if Dan was not a pedigree - what a cheek.

This is the town square in Benerraba, it's almost always deserted and the Orange trees are not ready yet.
This little dog gave Dan a nip on his nose, he was not in the mood to play.
We decided to find the track down to the valley floor because we had heard that there is a nice river area there which is good for a picnic and often frequented by Spanish families. We didn't expect any today but we thought that the dogs might like a swim and it would be good to find out where it is. Thank goodness for the 4x4, no way would a normal car get there. It was good and we will definately go back when the sun really is out.

This is the river at the bottom. It was fast flowing but when the rains have gone it will be really nice, we'll be back.
We wanted to go to Genalguicil but there seems to only be a dirt track up the other side of the mountain, feeling risky we decided to give it a try. We drove past the signs that said walkers only and no cars, it was a muddy landrover track but we pressed on. Stopped on the path to take this pic looking back to the hill we had walked down then back up again. It was a hary drive and we'll not do it again!

When we eventually reached the top the road was blocked by the cops, quickly saying to Susan "pretend we're lost if they stop us" they didnt bother, just moved the car and smiled and waved to us.

We stopped in the supermarket at Algatocin for bread, the garage for logs then home. Later we went out to the bank for our weekly allowance then Dia for some dinner.

Tomorrow is down the coast to the hairdresser for Susan.