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.