Albuqueria & Dolomite Cantera – Saturday 02nd July 2016

We are getting to the end of the season as the temperature is getting just too hot, there was a much diminished Saturday group due to the time of year, however those who were in the walk did enjoy it very much. We started from the car park outside of the old Eldorado studios, which is now a paintballing venue, and their participants were also turning up to play, we thought that there was a military excersise taking place as the paintballers arrived in full combat gear, including helmets and side arms, it was Cowboys & Indians in our day.
I had planned this route be in as much shade as possible as the temperature was already in the 30s at 09:30 and predicted to reach the mid 30s before we finished. The route started on the tarmac roads that give access to the old studios and to the quarry and then we turned off this into the woods and along a rough track that took us through old olive groves and gave us views over the tops of the trees in the Los Llanos woods.

This track emerges at the service road which runs alongside and above the A355 and then meets the road to the main quarry entrance, as one walks along this road everything is covered in a white dust of which clouds of the stuff are being generated by the quarry activities, surely this can't be good for the environment. The rock being quarried that produces the dust is Dolomite.

After passing the quarry entrance we follow the valley of the Rio Pereailas, which is currently totally dry, until we turn onto an ascending track that leads us out of the valley floor and into the old disused part of the quarry. This is one of the most difficult parts of the route as there is no shade and the track that we are walking on is white as are all the rocks around us, so the sun and heat is being reflected onto us, it was like walking in an oven, the only compensation being the views. It reminded me of a scene from Dr No.

We eventually emerge out of this old quarry and onto the track that leads us to our final stage and was the last section of the 20km hike that we did earlier in the year. Thankfully we are now back into reasonable shade as we tackle the very rocky path which then becomes even more so where the rain has washed out most of the soil and exposed the bedrock. A short stretch of this path required a bit of clambering over rocks, but the goal of the service track to the finish is in sight.

The final section of the walk involves a reasonably surfaced track that is used for vehicular access to the antennae, so good progress is made and again mainly in the shade as the track is lined with trees. This is an easy walk back the the car park which is at the start of this service track.

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