Having a bit of fun

We are back to Guisando for about ten days to say good-bye to our beloved house, mountains, family and friends before heading off to Valencia and, gradually leaving Spain. Time to move on to a new country: Italy.

It has not been a relaxing week so far. I have been trying to catch up with friends, who I am not going to see for a good ten months. Before we come back here, we first need to finish our year off travelling, go back to the UK and find a job!

In addition to our busy social week, we are also doing some works in the kitchen. The worktop needs a bit of caring. We have done nothing with it since we bought the kitchen ten years ago. The water has got inside the cracks of the timber. Some areas look like they are starting to rot, very ugly. We have wanted to undertake this (what I consider) massive and boring piece of work for years. Never had the time. Now we have the chance.

The process involves sanding the timber, with one of us sanding the surface with the electrical sander, and the other sanding the edges by hand. I went for the latter. I do not have enough strength to sand with the machine.

So, we have piled up all the food, crockery, cutlery and kitchen furniture next door. We have covered all doors and windows with sheets, and we have been covered in dust for three days, the time which has taken us to sand off all the varnish previously painted by the builder.

Sanding is the hardest bit. Thereafter, the boring job of deep cleaning the whole kitchen and upstairs. No matter how much you protect the doors with sheets, the dust goes everywhere. Everything you touch feels dusty.

Then, the quickest and more entertaining bit, re-oiling it.

That’s gratitude for you. I like DIY, but I also like things just so. The house has suffered a bit of wear and tear over the ten years we have had it. Not that Susana appears to notice the stains coming through the paintwork, inevitable in old buildings with no damp proof course, the cracked tile, the defective light bulbs. All these things get miraculously repaired by the magic DIY pixie. The only thing Susana does appreciate is the fact that over time I have changed all the light bulbs over to low energy ones, not that the environment is a concern, it is the bottom line that counts. It still really surprises me when I see peoples homes with the old light bulbs. It is like flushing money down the toilet. A fluorescent it usually about a sixth of the cost to run compared to the traditional lamp, an LED might be 20 times cheaper, and they should last much longer. GDR

Now that it is all over, we deserve some time for us. We have not been to the mountains yet. “Let’s go up there and play” we decide. This means, let’s go up there and explore. We have done this a few times before. Pick up a marked route and go off piste, scramble, climbing up through bushes… anything to discover new routes, new landscapes, new paths. Becoming more and more familiar with these mountains make us feel more at home.

We have a new toy we also want to play with, a head mounted video camera, the Go Pro.

While we were in Portugal we ordered a few accessories; some extra batteries and a head strap, today we can take the camera with us for a walk and test the time lapse mode, it could be quite interesting. The way to test it? I tie the camera around my head, as if it was a torch and let it run. It should be a pretty big movie, imagine, taping a seven hours walk… But don’t worry, we will not publish a video of that length. The fun will come when editing it.

It is 9.50, the start is the same for climbing La Mira. After 20 minutes we turn off to the right, towards ‘El Nogal del Barranco’. We know this trail goes all the way to Mingo Fernando, but we have also tried to get to a ridge from Mingo Fernando a few winters ago. We want to see whether this is possible from teh Guisando side. Although we are not sure, our map is not showing it, so we are just going to see how we get on. We have seven hours of daylight to play with, four up and three down.

The mountains are covered with fresh snow which might have fallen the night before. It feels refreshing but not chilly, beautiful.

We leave Dora on her own. Normally, we bump into an early trekker, but not today, too chilly.

Yeap, it is likely we will come across snow up on the ridge. We haven’t got ice axes, don’t think it will necessary, we can manage with our poles. We have got crampons, though. These we can’t do without.

After going through the pine forest, the landscape opens up and… we have come across the first ‘cabra’ de gredos (gredos goat), a female and a male. They look inquisitive, we get closer but they quickly run away, agile, jumping over the rocks, impossible to follow them, so no photo. It is amazing, we have never seen them so low! It must be freezing up there, in the mountains.

20 minutes and we cross over the first stream which cascades down from right to left, still on La Mira path.

It is 10.45 we have reached the crossroads, the route PRAV20 going off to the right, with the direction of Collado del Yelmo and el Nogal del Barranco. The PRAV23, with the direction off to La Mira, appears off to the left.

We turn right.

A narrow path climbs gently on a series of zigzags, leaving La Mira to our left and getting us closer to ‘Los Galayos’, a series of bulky rocks, popular among free climbers.

La Mira looks incredibly beautiful today, the clouds move fast south east, it should be interesting to see how the camera records this movement under time lapse.

And whether or not it actually picks it up at all. The time lapse in Dora is quite successful, but it is such a consistent view point. On your head you are looking around all the time. I fear it will be really fragmented and jerky. GDR

On the way up, we meet another herd of Gredos goats. Still too low, even at this time in the morning when the sun has already set up high in the sky.

We get closer to them again to try to get a photo, but they are too shy, they run away before we take the camera out of our pockets. At least we have been able to take a shot of the slowest one. The male, too stubborn to move, protecting his harem.

First bits of snow appears, not enough for crampons!

As we are climbing higher now, the sun pokes his nose around the mountain, blinding us.

After one hour and ten minutes, we reach the top of the first ridge with a sign post. We continue straight, continue to follow the PRAV20, towards the Colado de la Perdiz, traversing to the other side of the mountain, hoping the path will take us off left towards the ridge.

We can hardly spot the ridge in the far distance. The path flattens out, crispy and heavy frost underneath our feet.

A village appears in the far distance, which we believe it to be El Hornillo, very beautiful view.

The path seems to go off to the right, descending, down to a stream. Ideally, we want to go off to the left and start to climb. Maybe this route doesn’t take us to the ridge after all.

After two hours, the footpath soon turns out into a 4×4 track. We don’t like this, we seem to be in one of those Algarve walks described by our friend Julie.

We are now heading too far down the mountain to be able to walk up to the ridge. We soon see a sign board. We get closer to find out how far we are and how we can get back to Guisando without retracing our steps. We hate going back the same way we’ve come.

Right, it looks like the PRAV20 (the red route) does not go on to the ridge, it goes all the way to El Arenal, which is not what we have planned.

There is a route up to the ridge and then along to La Mira, but it would take a good six to seven hours from the car park and then maybe two hours down. This is a walk that will have to wait to the longer days of spring or autumn. GDR

The track seems to go off to the right, towards Guisando. We are going to explore it and see whether we can scramble up to the first ridge where we were before and go back down through El Nogal del Barranco.

We haven’t got a map with us, but we know the direction we should be going. This is us exploring our backyard. Fun now commences. It is 12.00, we have seven hours of day-light, which should be plenty of time, as we are not far from home.

After 15 minutes of gently walking up the 4×4 track, a path appears off to the right. We are not sure if it is a tree clearance or a proper path. There is only one way to find out.

As we steeply climb up, the path disappears, although we can still find our way. The stream we have previously crossed appears to our right. This is a very good point of reference to orientate ourselves by.

A slab completely covered in ice to our left. It is incredibly beautiful. Threads of water runs through the ice, they look like worms. I get closer with the video camera to film it. Observe this wonder of nature.

Here is the photo.

Right, the path has disappeared. We must continue to walk north west, through the pine forest.

As we gradually make our own route back to the ridge, we reach a plateau, with a couple of laid tree trunks where we can comfortably sit to have some lunch. Half an hour stop, as it is quite chilly.

Now the worst bit, scrambling through the bushes, this is completely off piste. The climb is quite tiring, not only do you have to face the steepness but you also have to fight with the shrubs. Shame, we haven’t brought our machete with us today!

14.30, we have finally reached the top of Nogal del Barranco and we still have four hours of day light.

La Cabeza del Covacho, a rocky summit stands up on our left. It looks interesting. We haven’t had the chance to do any scrambling today. Let’s go and play.

Incredibly climb. It is now 15.15, it has taken us 45 minutes to get here.

We should head back. We still have over an hour to walk back down to Dora, have a shower and dress up. Gary is going to treat me for a meal tonight! I am looking forward to it. Getting quite hungry already after a tiring but satisfying, home-made walk!

And now, my first video with Go Pro. What do you think?

SM