Apart from arranging walks for my own group I am also a
member of the U3A Country Walking Group, and today I joined them for a walk
around the forest tracks of Alpujata and Cerro Gordo.
The walk starts from the car park in the centre of Monda, so
the first part of the route takes us through the village with it’s narrow
streets and whitewashed houses, although I suppose these days it’s probably a
plastic white paint.
On the outskirts of the village we leave the footpath
alongside of the road and head off into the campo along the remains of the
Roman road, which eventually takes us to the river which is normally dry as it
was today. We then rejoined the main road for a short distance and leave it to
go under the main A355 road. The track is reasonable and climbs giving us views
across the town and towards Guaro and the Sierra de los Nieves beyond. The
track then becomes no more than a narrow path through cook oaks and Olive trees
until we join the main track that leads to Cerro Gordo (fat Hill). This is a
fairly challenging climb and the group of some 32 get very spread out. I
decided to get the heart pumping and strode ahead to reach the top first.
The route then takes the forest tracks around the cerro
offering some spectacular views of valley and the mountains. Eventually the
route starts it’s descent into the Alpujata valley where apparently there was a
hippy commune at one time. We then cross the dry stream and head back towards the
town, crossing again under the A355, and then through the narrow streets of
Monda, returning to our starting point.
Before getting back to the car a welcome coffee was taken in the sunshine outside on the square next to the monument to the miners of the area.
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