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Monday, 15 February 2016

Alpujata Ramble, Monda

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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