El Berro, Sierra Espuña

We left Torrox in glorious sunshine knowing that we were heading into possibly a week of rain, but to be honest, everywhere was due to get this weather, whilst back home you were basking in the sun. Anyhow we decided to come back to El Berro as we love it here and we just thought we would grab the chance to get out and walk when we could. However, we didn't quite expect the deluge of rain when we got here  it was torrential. So we decided to hire a bungalow. Such a wise move. We've had days of non stop rain. But we have managed to get out and have now had a couple of days with no rain. 

Our first walk was on Thursday when we actually did a quick walk in the morning. It was pretty grim, as you can see. However, we did in the afternoon manage to get out again as it had brightened up quite a bit. We did the barranco walk via the sanitarium.  It was still quite misty, we had very low cloud for some of the walk, although not as bad as this morning and it did brighten up as the day went on. We also saw some local wildlife, a sort of cross between a deer and goat called Barbary sheep. They were great to see, in fact we saw two herds, which must have numbered 20 in total.

Our next walk took us up high again on the Col ridge walk. This turned out to be a lovely day and for once, we didn't get lost. We actually managed to navigate along the path on the top of this mountain and back down again, picking up the road back to El Berro. Considering it was the weekend, it was so very quiet, you really couldn't hear anyone or anything other than the bird chirping away quite happily. 

    

0ur next walk was a circular walk from El Berro to Gebas which took us along through the mountain path affording a great view of the village Gebas and then back along the old railway line, which was in parts flooded although we did manage to get around these floods. Also there were a number of mini landslides which we were also able to deviate around. The tunnel was interesting. You can see to the other end but it was completely flooded and we had to walk hugging the walls, which on occasion crumbled and the ground was so wet that you could loose your foot up to your ankles in sludge. Oh what fun! We then followed the levadas which bought us back virtually into El Berro, just in time as it was starting to rain again.

Today, Monday, we did a new walk, The Aguilas path. This was a real adventure. As you can probably see from this photo, there were a number of obstacles along the way, some trees had blown over and again some mini landslides. It was lovely though, a real enjoyable walk, and yet again we saw the Barbary sheep. Again not a person to be seen just the birds and the sheep.

So today, Tuesday, we did yet another walk that we've not valley where the cliffs were golden and where eagles nest! We were warned of landslides and overhanging cliffs. It was spectacular reminding us somewhat of The Grand Canyon. Again it was dead quiet, not a person to be seen, just the birds and some soaring high above us, don't think they were  eagles though. We thought at one stage we were lost, well we were sort of but had an idea where we were. It was a real uphill scramble to the top but it was most enjoyable and hey the sun actually came out. An nice end to our stay here. 

We are moving elsewhere on Friday. We were hoping to go to Albarracin but as the weather isn't great for the next couple of days and it's up high, the temperatures at night are dropping to the minus's. Oh no, not in the van thank you very much. So we will look to find somewhere a little warmer and try and get a bit of sun.