Alpujata Ramble, Monda – Part II

Although I, and a few others on this walk, had done this same route a couple of weeks back with the U3A group, the route is so good no-one minded doing it again so soon.

The weather angels smiled on me today and the various weather forecasters actually got their predictions virtually spot on. It was forecast to rain yesterday evening and be finished by about 21:00, it did exactly that and this morning brought almost clear skies, some good sunny intervals but very strong winds and dramatically dropped temperatures compared to those that we have been experiencing of late.

Everyone found the meeting place, which was new to most of the group, but it was me that was more nervous as I had done this route a couple of times but always as part of a group, and you tend not to take a great deal of notice of turns and forks when someone else is leading. Fortunately my memory of studying the route on Google Earth and a couple of quick questions to Janet, that went unnoticed by the rest of the group, kept us on the correct trajectory.

The start of the walk is through the village of Monda which is a typical ‘pueblo blanco’ or White village, with its narrow streets, however our route was out of town on the main through road. This leads us to the Roman Road and its very slippery stone surface but, with care,

was negotiated without incident. We then cross the Arroyo de Casarin
which fortunately was still dry. I have to admit that after the rain of the evening before I was somewhat relieved that it was still dry! Following this the route is along well made tracks between fenced Olive groves leading to the main road into Monda, which we have to follow for about 100 mtrs before we cross it and take to the countryside.

We follow reasonably surfaced tracks that were only very slightly affected by the previous evening’s rain. The track then turns into a single file path which was in surprisingly good condition with only one short stretch that was muddy, but it was like that 2 weeks ago without any rain. This path takes us past the Kitchen factory and a small industrial estate, and again Olive groves, and then we emerge onto the hardest part of the walk.

This is a quite steep incline of almost a kilometre but it has a good concrete surface and is easily achieved at one’s own pace. I did lie to Bernie and tell him that there was a Bar at the top so he strode ahead and we found a very disappointed Bernie waiting for us at all the top.

We then enter the main wooded area and after I had given a short talk on the dangers of the Processionary Caterpillars, it was fortunate that we actually never saw any at all; probably the rain had kept them at bay. The track that we are now on winds around the terrain and affording excellent views of the snow capped Sierra de los Nieves (Mountains of Snow) and in places the village of Monda and it’s Castle. The valley of Arroyo de Alpujata now comes into view and we have a fairly steep but steady decline into it, with the rock cliffs to our left getting higher with each bend on our descent.

Apparently this valley was occupied by a Hippy Commune in the late 60’s and early 70’s but unfortunately there is very little evidence left, except a certain calm about the place.

Our walk has almost finished and we walk a steady incline and decline to the underpass under the main A355. We are then back into civilization with the villages beautiful narrow streets and Geranium festooned balconies.

It is then a well deserved beverage at the bar in the square with the monument to the local miners, and then back to the car Park.

Create Routes or Search for a route from millions at MapMyWalk