The Mountains

I was presented with the opportunity to head out this weekend with Maria and her friends..... read account below



This was the view from about one third of the way up the mountain throught the trees etc and down the valley, very lush and green, a stark contrast to the top!






View from the top of the first mountain....!!






















These were the views again from the top of the first mountain (picture on the left) and on the right the view from the next ridge up!!!

I was presented with the opportunity to head out this weekend with Maria and her friends.

My Saturday didn’t get off to the best of starts as I had some nightmares with my bank – unable to withdraw money with my card from a cashpoint (in spite of organising it all before I left…) needless to say by the time Maria picked me up at 10:15 I was pretty stressed (I wont bore you with the full story but 4 phone calls back to my bank in UK later I have finally got some money although it probably cost me a fortune to sort it out..!).

We headed to San Pedro to meet with her friends. All I knew at this point was that we were going to the mountains for the day and I needed water and to wear my trainers (bear these facts in mind as you continue to read as it is a good example of the continued communication (or lack of) that happens here…!!)…

The tale of our morning does not stop at the issues with my bank, as her friends got lost and 3 phone calls and sets of directions later (and an hour later in time than planned) they showed up… So, it was off to the mountains we headed along the road to Ronda (a well known town in the mountains).

The road was very windy with stunning views back to the coast for the first part. We climbed higher and higher passing through some cloud emerging to clear blue skies and yet more twisty roads. About an hour later we drive into a mountainous national park called Los Quejigalos which is part of the Sierra Neives.

We head out of the car, with bongo the dog, rucksacks on backs to go up the mountain, now as you will see from the photos there was a mountain straight in front of us. So we set off for the mountain…… At the pace that might be expected of nimble mountain goats (not short fat janners like me!!) needless to say in a VERY short space of time (about 30 mins) it was fairly evident I was not keeping up particularly well lets just say heavy breathing is perhaps a tame description. Perhaps I should also add that all I had had for breakfast was a piece of toast not realising the day that lay ahead of me and at this time it was 5 hours ago (by now it is 13:00 our lunchtime but not lunchtime in Spain!)…. It was then explained to me as we were about two thirds up the mountain that it takes about 3 hours to get to the mountain (eeekkkk is the polite version of what was now going through my mind) Maria suggests that her friends should go without us and she should stay with me particularly as it was the 2nd time that one friend had been to the mountain and didn’t look like they would make it to the top otherwise…(you can imagine how that made me feel, however it truly was the only option). So off they headed… for the mountain we rested for a short while then headed UP again…!

We walked (rather than ran!!) for a total of about 2.5 hours, reached the top of what I thought was the mountain, continues for a plateau for a little then across another mountain, until we were in sight of THE mountain.. in between where we were and THE mountain was another…..!!!! It turns out the mountain we were supposed to be climbing was 3 mountains away, I managed 2 of them the one we were heading for that I didn’t get to was at a height of 1918 metres above sea level and the highest in Malaga….!!! Thankfully (for me) we stopped for some lunch. This also had me worried as nothing had been said to me about bringing lunch…. There was about 15 minutes of worry from mentioning stopping for lunch, then finding a place to sit, then actually Maria saying she had prepared sandwiches for us both for lunch….!!!! We had a relaxed lunch, watched a small lizard near to us, and very big ants on the rock I was sitting on…!!

We, then headed back… coming down was almost as hard as going up not on the breathing but on the legs and slight fear of falling due to loose stones….although it was quicker – but no that wasn’t because I tumbled down the mountain…!!

We momentarily paused at the bottom by the car, then headed off for Ronda for a coffee……