Cerralba to Rio Grande - Saturday 19th November 2016

Another good walk was reported, as I am still unable to undertake the sort of distances the group likes to do. The weather has been very kind to us so far this year.

Photo's courtesy of Mr John Campbell and Mr John Milborrow.

Lakes & Trees - Saturday 12th November 2016

This is a route that the Thursday group had explored few months ago and, in my opinion, was one of our best walks,and was suggested originally by John Milborrow.




The walk starts in the Olive plantations and offers a totally different perspective on the views that tourists get of this popular area. The area is know to many as 'The Lakes' and is in fact a series of reservoirs that supply water to the hungry irrigation systems of the Guadalhorce valley.
The views extend to the town of Ardales and the mountains behind.

After a short but sharp climb the edge of the plantations are reached and the Pine forests start, and the views from the track is now of a totally different lake and completely different vistas beyond. The walk continues through the wooded area, still offering glimpses of the wonderfully blue coloured water, util it reaches the area of great interest. A slight detour from the main track leads to the Necropolis and a section of trench that was used by civil war combatants to defend the high ground.
After a while of exploring this very interesting area it was back onto the forest track to the start.


Photos courtesy of John Campbell, John Milborrow and Paula Shrimpton

 

Gibrigalio - Thursday 10th November 2016

Unfortunately I am still unable to join the walks and am still in a period of convalescence, although I am still administering the group and sending out the routes, which makes it all the more difficult when I get the reports from the walk telling me how good it was.
This was indeed the case with this particular route, It was an area that I had wanted to explore for a while and it seems that those who did the walk were not disappointed.
Apparently some of the inclines were quite steep but the views from the top were quite stunning and I am told that they were possibly some of the best so far experienced.
The route down caused a little consternation and John Milborrow had to do some improvising to find a way down but succeeded with his usual ingenuity.

Photos courtesy of Mr John Campbell and Mr John Milborrow

The Show goes on without me.

There we things to organise and things to do, there was the Sponsored Fun Walk for S.O.S Animals to organise and lead, there was the trip to the Caminito del Rey to finalise, and here I was in a hospital bed being told to stay calm.

It was then that I realised what a fantastic group of walkers and friend I had. They were not going to let things stop just because I wasn't there and several of the group got together and carried on where I had unfortunately been forced to leave off.

The sponsored walk was a great success and raised almost €1200 for the charity, which included €105 raised by John Staton's cake raffle.

The trip to the Caminito was another success with Paula organising the meet up and convoy to the attraction and John Milborrow sorting out the lunch at El Kiosko.

There was no question that anything was going to stop, apart from a couple of walks that got missed before we could set up a working party to run things in my absence, and a change to the schedule, the walking group will continue. I am hoping to be back at the helm at the start of the New Year.

A huge thanks to all who stepped into the breach.
A huge thanks for all the good wishes and to those who have been so helpful and selfless.

The Day my World Changed Forever – Monday 10th October 2016

This entry into the blog is somewhat later than in the usual case, but there is a reason;

The day started like any other and I was really looking forward to exploring a route that had been suggested by one of our members, Meg. This was the third hill walk that I had done in 5 days and was feeling rather good about it, if a little tired. There was just the three of us talking this route, Meg, Paula and myself. We met in the carpark at Monda and then followed Meg to her beautiful South African Log Cabin, nestling in the hills.

From her we trekked on little used tracks that undulated through the hills with some quite steep climbs in places. We eventually arrived at about the halfway point which was the tarmac of the road to Istan. This proved to be a relentless c limb, but offering great views to Malaga in the far distance.

Our route then left the tarmac and took a well maintained track that led past one of the larger houses in the area. We then took the zig-zag path down the side of the hill into the valley and crossed a stream that would have looked beautiful had there been water flowing.

It was then up a long incline and onto the drive back to Meg’s casa as we approached there newly laid coloured concrete terrace that led to the house my life changed. I felt a little whoozy and consequently feinted, everyone thought that I had just overdone things a bit, and despite resting I wasn’t getting any better. I was taken home and from there to Hospital in Malaga where I was diagnosed with arrhythmia.

I spent the next 15 days in hospital and now have a implanted defibrillator. My life was saved but my hill walking days are over I’m sad to say. Hopefully I will be back to an almost normal life in a few weeks.