A nice walk I have done recently

Tue 11 Sep
Salobreña

Yesterday afternoon in fact.

Encouraged by the generally overcast sky, I leafed through my Rutas y Senderos desde Salobreña book (who does Rutas play for, by the way?), and picked one I'd tried twice before without getting further than the thistles & brambles up the cliff 500m from the start. I set off at 4.30 - instead of a siesta, how about that? - & at the 3rd time of asking realised that the trick is, when the book says take the path to the left of the old olive tree, you have to take the path to the right, thus avoiding thistles, brambles, scrapes & scratches - well, most of them. I proceeded to apply this principle throughout the walk, & found paths where none seemed to exist - usually after a 20 min delay, typically walking down & up past a barking mad German Hund at least 5 times - he must have ended up with a sore throat!

Wonderful views of coast & mountains, & Salobreña from all sides, below & above, near & far. Lots of wild vegetation on cliffs & hillsides, lots of fruit trees with strange growths you couldn't put a name to, swallows still and a blackbird-sized black bird with a white bum - ?? Also a lot of trudge through very expensive urbanizaciones - you're obviously not supposed to be on foot in these places.

After 4 hours, just about to get back into Salobreña, and the narrow path indicated to the industrial estate on the edge of town just refused to materialise - a further half an hour wasted as a result - for the only time on this walk I had to accept defeat & retrace my steps to the previous junction. Eventually I flopped down in La Bodega for a tubo & the last 10 mins of Spain U21 4 Georgia 0 - no Gooners though - Mérida had played in the U17 World Cup final the night before, & Cesc plays with the big boys tomorrow night v. Latvia.

Legs nicely tired, feet too. I'll probably have my siesta tomorrow morning, end-on to my night's sleep . . .

[Pic: Playa del Caletón]