Granada

Distance: 17km
Ascent: 300m
Weather: scorchio

We arrived in Granada late morning and, leaving our stuff at the hotel, headed off into the town. We made for the old moorish quarter first, with its little streets and shops with weirdy clothes, leather goods,  tat and a rather overpowering smell of patchouli oil.

We stopped in a tiny market and bought bread, salami and cheese for lunch, which we ate sitting under the shade of a tree in St Nicholas's square listening to great music. Unfortunately the great musicians took a break after not very long, and a chap with a flute and not much talent started up next to us. We moved on - finding a quieter shady spot further down the hill.

We wandered generally around town, visiting the cathedral, the river and a nice little bar before heading off to the Alhambra Palace.

Sierra Nevada -Day 5 Berchules

Distance: 17km
Ascent: 800m
Weather: hot and sunny, cooler in the morning than other days
Ibis bum, angry bee, orange butterflies.

Today's walk was from the hotel, up through the village passing the fountain where we collected our water for the whole day, about 3 litres each.

We headed down out of town and along to a bridge over the river. Along the way, Sammy got very excited about something that turned out to be an ibex, possibly an infirm ibex, but an ibex nonetheless.

From the small bridge over the gorge, we took a zig zag path up the other side of the valley and up on to a flatter area, which had scrubby bushes and smelled of thyme. We passed some bee hives, and met some bees, one of whom was very angry and stung me on the face, which was totally uncalled for.

The way headed uphill, with massive pinecones underfoot. We reached a track and followed that, contouring around the edge of woodland. The track was shady and easy going,  then we turned off down a rocky path through the trees, which wound its way prettily up and down the hillside, stopping for lunch on a rocky outcrop.

The path became hotter and dustier as we descended, the riverbed was stony and wide,  but there wasn't much water in it. The path undulated along the opposite side of the valley, from where we had stunning views and saw some goats up on the rocks.

Sierra Nevada - Day 4 Trevelez

Distance: 13.5km

Ascent: 600m

Weather: Sunny

We walked through Trevelez and up valley, passing a high farm with local character cowboy. Lunch was had up on a grassy plateau under cherry trees, complete with a how many wasps can you get on a piece of salami experiment. We managed six. There were views of the highest mountain in the Sierra Nevada mountains and the charmingly named Dogs Arse river.

The way down was via dusty path to the valley bottom, back along stream, where the paths were quite wet, with lots of butterflies. I saw a small blue butterfly, which definitely wasn't a cricket, and a bright orange copper.

Sierra Nevada - Day 3

Distance: 14.5km
Ascent: 575m
Weather: hot and sunny

We had a half hour transfer and were dropped off at the top of a hill, very impressive road, and walked along a pleasant shady track, slightly downhill, until we came to a track which headed down into the valley.  There was a slight detour up to the head of the pass, where we saw an olde worlde water trough, with roof, and views of the Malaga mountains.

We headed back to the junction and down, the path becoming more and more rocky and steep as we got lower. There was a very impressive goat villa, but no sign of the goats.

Down in the gorge there was a stream and a disused mill, one of many in this valley apparently.

It was quite muddy and the path was quite narrow in places. We had a brief stop (with some sock faffing) and then set off up to the first village.

After a couple of villages we stopped at a very nice bar for a very good meal (houmous, bread, meats and cheeses, then salad, loads of meat and grilled veg, followed by coffee and shots) eventually dragging ourselves way to walk to the end of the valley,  before heading down and then back up a rocky zig zag path up the mountainside to the track.

We had been told that there was a nice shady spot to wait, but some confusion about what poplar trees look like meant we just carried on and ended up back at the car park.

Sierra Nevada - Day 2 Berchules

Distance: 17km
Ascent: 700m
Weather: hot, sunny

Little frogs, snake, Rob saw flying lizard, smallest dog in the world, amusing graffiti of Omar, cacti, interesting geology.

The walk began out of Berchules down the road, following the GR7 international trail. The next village down had a nice fountain so we filled our bottles and met some dogs, one of whom took a liking to Sammy and followed us for a while, till she got tired of it and chased it off.

We misplaced the path out of the village and had to retrace our steps, passing the two local women who had given an earlier warning that the path was closed, our guide not saying a word, no eye contact.

We headed down to the valley all morning,  to a small town where we stopped for a break in a café,  and then followed the river bed along the valley,  the was very little water and what there was, didn't smell too good.

The path became narrower and then just a footpath around some farms, before we started uphill around the valleyside, with expanding views of fields and mountains. There was wild rosemary and thyme, lavender and some small flowers.

Less breeze than yesterday, it felt harder work going up and we took a few stops to rest. Lunch was had by the side of an acequia,  along a path named old chestnut walk, but sadly the chestnut trees are no more. We saw frogs, lots of bees and a snake, Rob saw a flying lizard too, but I was too busy having tummy ache. Probably shouldn't have eaten that black fig, although it was nice.

Walking up became more and more dramatic,  with a great rocky path overlooking steep drops, to a col where we stood in the wind to cool off.

A short detour to view an old fort (remains of,  well some stone water troughs up a hill) with amazing views (worth the effort) and then we came down and follow a windy lane into the village and Fernando's bar where we had a drink and waited for our lift.

Sierra Nevada - Day 1 Berchules

Distance: 7.5 miles
Ascent: 650m
Weather: hot, sunny, pleasantly breezy

We set off at 10am towards Berchules village, stopping at the fountain for water.
The path out of the village became dusty and quite rocky, with scrubby plants that were mostly familiar,  broom, brambles,  thyme, thistles.

We passed bean and tomato plantations, and old threshing areas, which are now disused, would make nice seating areas if they were tidied up a little.

The birds that we'd seen yesterday were identified as bee-eaters and seemed to be quite common. We saw a couple of birds of prey that were too far away to see properly and some swallows.

Going higher up the hillside, there were  acequias, water ditches, by the sides of the path, some with water but most were dry, thanks to the plastic pipes that the farmers use to get their water nowadays. Probably a more efficient use of water, but not so good for the wild plants and trees.

We stopped for lunch in the shade of some poplar trees and then walked up onto the edge of a drainage system around the hillside,  looking towards the sea, with views of masses of plastic polytunnels way off in the distance,  and even farther away, over the sea, North Africa.

The path down to the was quite steep and dusty,  we passed a big old chestnut tree, and then back into the village,  calling in at a bar "The Cowboy" for a beer.