On the Granada Capileira road.
Two pieces of good news this week, first we managed to find some lagunas on our walk, unlike last week, and second Kees finally succeeded in gaining his path finder badge (part 1). After many attempts he successfully managed to lead us safely back to the carpark, mind, the path was so well defined that a blind man on a dark night could have found his way.
Our mission this week were the Lagunas of the upper part of the Porgueira gorge. The access point we choose was from Hoya de Moro above Prado Llano, at 2500 metres this is as high as you can drive in the Sierras. From here you follow the old Capileira road up towards Veleta. The road was built in the 1940s to allow a bus to run in the summer from Capileira to Granada, at 3200 metres it was the highest bus route in Europe. The road is now in disrepair and closed to traffic, but it makes a superb path as it traverses across the high ridge line between Veleta and Mulhacen.
Walking up the road we were impressed with how our fitness level had improved since last year when we walked up the same stretch of road to Veleta. We were managing 4km per hour up hill at altitude, not bad for old gits.
The first Laguna we saw was Yeguas which we had visited a few weeks ago and so it did not count, we were heading for virgin territory. Leaving the road to Veleta we started the long traverse towards Mulhacen. We were surprised to find the road still blocked by snow, necessitating a steep drop down a snow gully, rejoining the road again we were directly above Lagunas de Aguas Verde. The laguna is rich in minerals and these give it a distinctly unhealthy look, I had originally said that we ought to have a swim in every Laguna we discovered, but we thought we would give this one a miss. This is nothing new, as we haven't been in any of them yet, we are awaiting the return of Plym who will show us how it’s done. The high level traverse was superb with views down to Capileira, Alcazaba and into the Estrella gorge. We passed the Lagunas of the Rio Seco and looked down onto the Lagunillos del Púlpito. We had hoped that we might make it as far as the Laguna Caldera but, after walking out for 12km and with the cloud starting to build up, we decided to save it for another day. Turning around we retraced our steps, stopping off for lunch at the top of the snow gully. The way back was a little shorter as we took a shorter but steeper way back.
Stopping off in the carpark for a well earned beer we were surround by new cars and trucks on test from all the German manufacturers, what a job, driving new cars in this stunning area.
An excellent day out in some stunning scenery.
On the walk Mike, Kees, Ray, and myself.
Distance covered 21 km, height climbed 897 metres, maximum altitude 3207 metres.
Total distance on Laguna walks 65.7, Total height climbed 2906 metres.
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