At the beginning of the semester someone told me about a 5 hour hike along the mountain ridge. Finally we got more information about it and did it yesterday! It was one hell of an adventure and so much fun!
Ruth Ann, Tess, Sam and I took a bus from Granada to a small town in the mountains called Beas de Granada. Ruth Ann brought detailed directions that told us where to go (Thanks goodness) and we got started without a hitch! We knew there was a chance of rain but the weather wasn't too bad, there was just a lot of mud since it's been raining a lot. At one point we saw our first wildlife since getting to Spain, some sort of deer on a mountain ridge. After about an hour or so we got to some cross roads and we thought we on the right path but after another hour or so I was sure we were definitely not on the right trail.
We had a lovely lunch, complete with a bottle of wine, and as soon as we kept walking we found a chain across the road.. oops. But we decided to cross it because we were too far passed a crossroads to backtrack. We knew we were heading the general right direction (west) so we weren't too worried. Finally we can to a sign of the park that was on Ruth Ann's directions and we all got very happy. After some more mud we came across a huge land slide! Some of it was old because the tree's that had fallen with the land were very much dead but some of the trees were still alive which means it was fresh which made me kind of nervous. The landslide had washed out the trail we were walking on so while finding a way around we decided to take a detour and explore some abandoned buildings we saw. Those were really interesting. The first was pretty small and right next to an old vineyard but the second on was a huge complex. We couldn't actually get in because it was closed up and had signs saying it was protected with alarms. We did find a dying or dead mountain goat though. It was in an open shelter just lying there.
When we went on our way we came to a spot where we had to cross the river. We knew at some point we were going to have to transverse that thing. Sam went first to scout it out and us girls followed. Then, of course, we had to cross it again about 10 minutes later. we finally spotted Granada in the background and made it back to the Sacromonte. On our way through town we ran into some other people from our program! I got back to my house and passed out.
And now this morning my calves are so tight and sore I hobble when I walk! Definitely should have stretched at some point yesterday!
Here are my pictures of our seriously amazing day.
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| Already muddy after 5 minutes! |
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| First wildlife we've seen in Spain! Little deer.. or goats! |
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| just our path |
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| landslide area |
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| abandoned houses we explored |
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| "we're clearly not on the path anymore" Clearly. |
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| vineyard by the houses |
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| "its obviously abandoned, it has trees growing on the roof" |
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| The house was sealed off... but we still tried to get in |
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| As far as we made it inside |
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| All clean! |
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| Tess stuck in the mud |
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| Ruth Ann's turn |
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| made it back! |
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| We may seem pretty clean but that's only because transversing the river multiple times cleaned us off! |
