Photo-journey Wim van der Velden

Here are some winter photographs taken by Wim van der Velden, one of our friends that came over for the Christmas holiday season. We made a selection from his web page ´mijnalbum.nl´.
Use the arrow at the bottom right to go to the next photograph!!

Sendero Local ´Gerald Brenan´, Yegen

Yegen is one of our neighbouring Alpujarras villages. It has become known by the hispanist Gerald Brenan who gave an affectionate portrait of his life in this village in his book ´South from Granada´. Gerald Brenan was twenty-five when he first arrived in Yegen in 1919. He described vivedly all aspects of village life and gave a rich account of Spain´s vanished past. Don Geraldo loved to wander around in the countryside around Yegen with its views across to the Contraviesa and the sea. One of his favourite afternoon strolls was put into a waymarked circular walk of 3,5 kilometres a few years ago. This ´Sendero Local de Gerald Brenan´ passes wash houses, fountains, ruined mills and a large flat-topped outcrop, called Peñon del Fuerte or Piedra Fuerte. Since they renewed the green-and-white waymarking in 2006, they changed the direction of the walk to anticlockwise. To start the walk you therefor now need to ignore the old small wooden arrows on the walls that read ´Ruta Gerald Brenan´. Instead you go down to the bottom of the village where you find the Fuente Camellona and the first wooden marker post with a white arrow and green-and-white stripes with the name of the walk. At the end of this walk you pass the house he lived in. It can be recognized by a plaque dedicated to this hispanist that “universalized the name of the village, and the customs and the traditions”. When you continue up to the main road, you will see opposite the bus stop a house with number 16. This used to be a ´posada´ or village inn, where ´El Inglés´ stayed before he moved into his house. The town hall is in the process of buying this place with the idea to convert it into a Casa Museo in honour of Don Geraldo.

Related keywords: Alpujarras, Sierra Nevada, wandelen, wandelingen, trektocht, hiking, trekking, Berchules, B&B, hotel, wanderungen

Sendero Local ´Acequias de Bérchules´

The early snowfall is rapidly forgotten when the sun comes out and makes winter as good as any season for keen walkers. Today we went out to check one of the local circular walks (Sendero Local) ´Las Acequias de Bérchules´ which follows the ´acequia real´. Apart from gathering the GPS data to draw an accurate map, it allows us to update the walking descriptions we offer our guests. This relatively easy walk (3 hours) alllows you to enjoy the impressive Sierra Nevada hinterland and the stunning views over the Alpujarras valley. This surely is one of the aspects that makes Bérchules so interesting for walkers. Note that the waymarking to leave the village is scarce. Later on you will find a mixture of old yellow-white marker posts as well as new green-white marker posts, indicating the same walk.

Bird watching Sierra Nevada check list

Although autumn is coming to its end, it is still an interesting season for bird watching. Around ´El Paraje´ green woodpeckers, serins, tits and robins are around, but also a good number of jays, magpies and spotless starlings for example. Golden eagles overfly with some frequency, as well as the short-toed and bonelli´s eagles. Common buzzards, common kestres, peregrine falcons, eagle and little owls can be seen as well, just to name a few. For those people interested in ornithology, we have made a checklist with the birds of the Sierra Nevada and Alpujarras region. The latin names are in alphabetical order and behind these the Spanish, English and Dutch names are given. We have also given more information on whether they are residents or live here part of the year, whether they breed here and in what sort of biotopes they have their home etc. This is as far as we have found this information in different books and articles on the subject. We will continue to improve this list when we obtain the necesarry data to do this, so comments are very welcome. We hope that this list proves to be useful for those people interested in keeping track of their bird observations during their stay in the area. ...

Related links:
- Organized tours with BirdwatchAlpujarras.

related keywords: birds, aves, vogels, oiseaux, Vögel, check list, controle lijst, liste de vérification, checkliste

Cross-country skiing Puerto de la Ragua 08-09

The Granada downhill ski station opened this year the 15th of November. Pradollano is still quite a long way from our Casa Rural (about 140 kilometres), but those who like cross-country skiing don´t need to drive so far. Puerto de la Ragua opened its circuits as well and this is about a 45 kilometres drive from ´El Paraje´. Prices can be found on the website of the Estación Recreativa de la Puerta de la Ragua and more information on the ski runs and circuits can be found on the website of Turgranada.