Walking connections between Yegen and Mecina Bombarón

Last week it was difficult to walk the GR7 from Yegen to Mecina Bombarón. Between Yegen and Montenegro some large rocks had blocked the path, and there was a danger of more rocks coming down. Besides, there was a lot of water running through the Río Mecina near El Golco. An emergency bridge has been made at that point, but certain days the water level was much higher than the bridge itself. As the weather improves, water levels drop rapidly and today we heard that the GR7 between the two villages no longer imposes serious problems for walkers.

Nevertheless, it reminded us of a walking route at the other side of the main road called Sendero de las Encinas. It is still on the brochure of the town hall and on the website of Alpujarra de la Sierra, although it was not newly waymarked like the other small local walks. A few years ago we tried walking this route starting in Mecina Bombarón, but we got a little bit lost as the waymarking wasn´t very good and the path was overgrown at some parts. Now we thought we would give it a try again, walking the route in the opposite direction. From the village of Yegen we followed the Sendero de la Salud, which starts next to the play ground. This route is one of the Senderos Locales that was recently waymarked anew with wooden posts with white arrows. It follows the old Camino Real, a beautiful cobbled path that took people to Granada or Guadix on the other side of the sierra.

Where the Sendero de la Salud starts to go down, you leave this waymarked route by keeping to the left. There is an old yellow-and-white sign on a chestnut tree a few metres further on, but that is about the last one you will see for about an hour. You keep going up on the Camino Real until you see a marker post of the Sulayr route. Here you go left down a dirt track towards a holm oak grove. Here you see a few very old ´encinas´, which have given this route its name. In the distance you already see the path that will take you back to Mecina Bombarón. You get to the main road close to the Fuente de los Remedios.

It is only on the last part, where you no longer need them, that you see yellow-and-white waymarks again. The Sendero de las Encinas would normally take you over the old Roman bridge back to the vilage. Unfortunately the bridge got so badly damaged, that you need to use the main road to cross the Río Mecina.

As the GR7 does not give any problems anymore, combining the two walking connections is possible again. The two make a really varied and attractive circular walk of 14,5 kilometres. In case that you find the circular route too long or strenuous (height difference of almost 700 metres), it is possible to make use of the public transport. Don´t trust the schedule you find on the website of the local bus company ALSA too much though. The first time we tried to get on the bus to Yegen it left Mecina Bombarón at 11.15 hours, half an hour earlier than the time you see on the internet and the timetable in the town hall. After asking a few people, we understood that it mostly leaves at aroud 11.30 hours. There is a bus going from Yegen to Mecina Bombarón at 15.30 hours according to the timetable on the ALSA website, but we do not now how realiable this information is.


Related links:
All GR7 stages in the Alpujarras with maps , from the website Mancomunidad de municipios de la Alpujarra Granadina

related keywords: senderismo, rutas, wandelen, wandelingen, randonnée, promenades, wandern, wanderungen, Berchules, B&B, hotel, trektocht

Some nice days ahead

Without any doubt, this must have been the wettest winter since decades. There is a lot of damage to roads, bridges and tracks, but in general, life in the Alpujarras is pretty much going on as normal. In the west of Andalucía there are still serious floodings. We had no extremely low temperatures and prize ourselves lucky with the minor repairs to be done in spring.
Last week heavy rainfall made place for ´normal´ unstable weather. This week however, the weather promises to give us a nice break. Although the wind is a bit chilly, the sun warms both skin and heart. Let´s hope that the worst has passed.

Related links:
- Bérchules weather forecast AEMET

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

English edition Sendero Sulayr or GR240

At the end of 2009, the Editorial Penibética published an English editition of the GR240, the Long Distance Footpath that circles the Sierra Nevada. Stanford in England and Pied-a-Terra in the Netherlands offer this book on-line.
The Sulayr is a circular LDP, of about 300 kilometres, which is divided into 19 sections. Most trail sections start or end in the middle-of-nowhere. You therefore need to be quite fit to walk the many extra kilometres to find accommodation if you do not want to camp high up. As far as we know, there are two organizations that offer guided or self-guided Sulayr walks; either the whole tour or sections of it. One is the Spanish company Nevadensis in Pampaneira and the other is the English company Spanish Highs based in Lanjarón.
For those who are interested in doing a part of the route on the southern slopes, we give a few ideas. Our suggestion would be to start in Capileira as this town can be reached by public transport. The first walking day you cover the beautiful section to Trevélez, a village with a wide choice of accommodations. We personally like hotel La Fragua as they also offer good food. From Trevélez it is 25 kilometres to the Loma de Lastonar. For those who find this too long, they could split this section up, by walking down to El Paraje from Hoya Herrera. Next morning we could take you up to this point from where you can walk on to the Loma de Lastonar. Our Dutch colleagues Yvonne and Jo of Casa Bombarón in Mecina Bombarón can pick you up at this point and bring you up again the morning after. They can do the same for the next section so that you could consider staying at their B&B for two nights. They like walking themselves and know the area above Mecina Bombarón well enough to give advise on the walks. Then we suggest you contact our English colleagues David and Emma of Las Chimeneas in Mairena to cover the sections that pass through the sierra above their village as they also offer 4x4 transfers. Las Chimeneas in Mairena is a gorgeous accommodation and their restaurant can certainly be recommended. You can contact us if you want to know the mileage that will be charged, or for any other questions you might have on this challenging LDP.


Related links:
- articles on the GR240 on this weblog
- Sulayr information on the website of the Junta de Andalucía.

related keywords: senderismo, rutas, wandelen, wandelingen, randonnée, promenades, wandern, wanderungen, libros, books, boeken, livres, bücher

Escudo Casa Claudio in Bérchules

In Bérchules there is one house with a coat of arms on the facade. It can be found in the Calle Real, close to the Plaza de Abastos. This coat of arms is close to entrance door of house number 1, known as Casa Claudio. It is part of the historic heritage and was included in the list of historic elements of the ADR Alpujarra, for which Agustín Sánchez Hita made an inventory a couple of years ago. The description of the ´escudo de armas´ says that it is engraved in marble and that it is divided in four fields. As we can see on the photograph we see on the upper left a castle, on the upper right a double eagle, on the lower left a goat underneath a tree, and on the lower right five padlocks. On the vertical band that divides the different fields we see lilies and on the horizontal band goblets. In the text of the website of the ADR we can also read that this decorative element is badly conserved. We suppose that it has been cleaned not to long ago as everything is clearly recognizable at the moment. No historic information is given on the website of the ADR Alpujarra, and we are curious to find out if anybody knows more about the background of this ´escudo nobilario´ or ´blasón de la familia´.

Related articles:
- Links on Berchules and Alcutar

Junta de los Riós circular walk damaged

Our walking route to the Junta de los Ríos is a circular route that returns along the Acequia Nueva as we explained in an earlier post. We had heard that the Acequia Nueva of Bérchules suffered a lot during the recent spells of bad weather. Today we took the opportunity to see the damage with our own eyes. At some parts, the path and the irrigation channel have disappeared completely. At one point it is necesarry to cross a steep slope with loose stones. At other parts you need to be a bit agile and creative to find your way. From an easy leisurely walk the part along the acequia has changed into a challenging route only for experienced walkers. We therefor advise walkers to do the official linear walk that follows the old Camino a Lanteira. It runs a bit higher up and does not give any serious problems. It passes the Fábrica de los Moros where the two rivers join and continues up to Cortijo los Pollos. Go as far as you think you can manage, keeping in mind you walk the same way back.
It is vital that the irrigation channel will be repaired for the farmers in Bérchules and Alcútar that depend on the water from the Acequia Nueva. The restoration will be a mayor project, costly and time consuming. We hope for the farmers that money will become available to start with the repairs soon. We also hope that the restoration project will take into account that the Acequia Nueva is part of the protected heritage as we can see on the list of Bienes de Interés Cultural. Although the circular walk is not advisable at the moment, the beauty of the Bérchules river valley can still be enjoyed following the official linear walk.


related keywords: senderismo, rutas, wandelen, wandelingen, randonnée, promenades, wandern, wanderungen, wandelvakantie, wandelroutes, B&B, hotel