January weather

Sometimes people ask us what the weather is generally like in January. This is a not an easy question to answer, because it varies a lot. We had a strong cold wind yesterday for example, and this morning it was peacefully quiet. The sea in the distance reflected the sunlight. When we took this picture, it felt comfortably warm on the terrace. We placed a thermometer in de sun and we saw it quickly rise to thirty-five degrees, in the shade it read not more than ten degrees centigrade though. This shows a little bit how the weather can differ enormously, depending on whether the sun is out or not. A couple of warm days like today, and we will see the first almond trees blossoming.

related keywords: el tiempo, het weer, le temps, das wetter

GR142 Senda de la Alpujarra

There are three long-distance footpaths that cross the area. One of these Gran Recorridos is the E4/GR7, an European route that calls in at Bérchules. The GR240 or Ruta Sulayr is a newly developed LDP that circles the Sierra Nevada and passes just above our Casa Rural. The third LDP, is the GR142 or Senda de la Alpujarra. It runs from Lanjarón to Fiñana, and has a total length of 144 kilometres. It passes through Cádiar, the village we can see from our terrace. Several of our own routes, coincide partly with this Gran Recorrido. Up to today, our routes cover the GR142 from Fondales up to Cádiar. We were curious to continue on this path a bit further westwards, and found a description in Walk! the Alpujarras with Charles Davis that looked interesting. His walk 26 ´Sierra Mecina´ would give us the possibility to get to know another part. Charles Davis promises spectacular views, and after having done this walk, we can defenitely agree on this. Besides, the ´carihuela de Fondales´ that zigzags up after crossing a Roman bridge over the river Trevélez, we consider as one of the most beautiful paths of the GR142 that we are familiar with so far. The gorge is truly spectacular, and walking on both sides of the valley of the river Trevélez we enjoyed immensely on this sunny January day. Nevertheless instead of the nine kilometres mentioned by Charles Davis, the walk turned out to be over twelve kilometres, and you should therefore count on four hours to do this walk. We incorporated this route with a detailed map and a description into our ´walks file´.

Sendero de La Taha

The Consejería de Medio Ambiente gives out a quarterly brochure called ´Acércate a Sierra Nevada´. It has, amongst other things, an agenda with the different festivities in the villages of the Parque Nacional y Parque Natural de Sierra Nevada and a recommendation for a walk in the area. In the last publication ´Invierno 2009´, the recommendation is a walk in the Taha valley, ´Sendero de la Taha´. It starts in Busquístar and has a total length of 9,5 kilometres. It passes through five pictoresque villages, namely Ferreirola, Fondales, Mecinilla, Mecina and Atalbéitar. We checked out this route today, and came to the conclusion that it was a perfect suggestion for a sunny winter day. While there was still a lot of snow to be found around the neighbouring village of Trevélez, in the Taha valley we experienced an early spring day. People were harvesting there olives, oranges were ripe on the trees, the first flowers and trees had opened up, a lot of birds were to be spotted and even a butterfly. It is nice to hear the water of the river Trevélez down below and to pass numerous fountains like the Fuente de Fondales or ´Fuente de la Ermita´ as it is called according the ADR. We enjoyed this walk so much, that we included it into our file, offering our guests a more detailed map and description. While working up the route, we found out that it is one of the official waymarked local walks called ´La Taha de Pitres´, and described briefly in the hiking guide that goes along with a map of Editorial Alpina (walk 9). It is therefore waymarked with wooden posts, but with the time the colours yellow and white of this Pequeño Recorrido, have almost disappeared completely.
 

Re-routing of GR7 between Bérchules and Mecina Bombarón

The GR7 between Mecina Bombarón and Bérchules has been re-routed to what was originally the plan. We don´t know why, but for many years the waymarks kept you on a dirt track, while missing out on walking along a beautiful acequia in a wooded gulley and a small path through almond groves. We´re glad they changed back to the original idea and with the current waymarking you can´t miss it. On our map you can see where you leave the track (A) and where you get back onto it (B) when you are walking from Mecina Bombarón.

Information on GR142 from our website elparaje.com

Here we have extracted the module GR142 from our website http://www.elparaje.com/.
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