Another Saturday Hike

Last Saturday I went on another hiking trip with the group. My friends David and Brett came along too. We headed south of Sevilla to the same area we have been hiking the past few times. This week we hiked part of the "GR7"trail. The GR 7 is a long hiking trail which cuts through Europe. There are a variety of trails, this one being #7. One of the hikers told me that this particular trail goes all the way to Greece. The GR is short for Grand Randonnee which means a big walking tour. 

lacing up before the hike

Start of the hike

About 6 car loads of people all met at the head of the hiking trail. A few people were just waking up from camping overnight. They had a fire going and I imagine they were in the middle of hiking a large portion of the trail. We took a shortcut through a small rocky forest to get to the valley which would lead us to the mountains we planned on hiking.

View from starting point where we parked our cars

We made our way across a large valley cutting over a few small streams and passing herds of cattle and sheep. When we finally made it to the base of the mountains we broke off into two groups; Everyone went together in one group except for me and my two friends who followed Jose Luis towards a cave he wanted to show us. I think the group was really impressed that we climbed that steep mountain only a few weeks before and thought we would be up for a more challenging hike. We split from the rest of the group and made our way to a cave at the base of the mountains.

Making our way to the mountains

about a second after I took this photo it stood up very quickly - I was a bit scared, ha

Base of the mountains

We made our way down to the point of the cave. It was pretty small but we couldn't really see how big it was because you needed climbing gear to get down into the base of it. We hung out for a few minutes and decided we better start hiking because we had a long way to go before we met up with the other group.

Heading down to the cave

The day was perfect; There was no clouds in the sky, a light cool breeze and a nice mildly warm temperature. I had no idea where we were hiking too, but with such good conditions I didn't really care. We made our way out of the cave and started heading up the first mountain trail.

you follow the stream back to the road and into the trees to get to the cars

We made our way up the first small incline and came across a few old farm houses. There was no one living in them, but I am pretty sure they were still being used to maintain the herds of animals. We walked through some flat areas for a while and then we started to descend down the other side of the mountain. I was a bit confused on where we were going, but we kept moving along to meet up with the other group.

We started to make our way down the mountain and our guide was finally able to show us roughly where we were going. I wasn't too excited. We had to make our way down a pretty steep hill across another valley and then up another mountain where we were meeting the rest of the group for lunch. Instead of making our way down to the flats between the two ridges and then walking around a small rocky hill our guide decided we should go directly over it. It was hot and we had been hiking for a few hours but we continued on.

Down the mountain - then back up the next one

The thing I find funny about some of these Spaniards we go hiking with is they have no regard for the trails. They make their own trails. The picture above is proof. We were making our way down a steep ridge with large boulders and vegetation grown in between. We made it to the bottom and cut across the valley to find the point at which we would start to climb the next mountain trail.

pretty colors 

We made it to the base of the next ridge and started making our way up the hill. It was gradual at first but then it became a lot steeper. I felt like we were stopping every 10 minutes to catch our breaths. As usual we didn't take a trail and took the quickest way up - going straight up. The side of the mountain was littered with loose rocks and boulders. It felt like hiking in sand. We finally made it to the top of the ridge when our guide points at the next hill behind it and says "That's where the group is." I thought I was going to die. Luckily it was only a short rise in elevation and took only a few minutes to reach. 

We started from the other side of that mountain ridge

Going up - straight up

The view from the top was beautiful. Once again we could see the tops of the peaks in Africa and also the town of Ronda which seemed to be about 10 away. We made our way up to where the rest of the group was. Most of them were all sprawled out and taking a siesta. They were probably there a hour or so before us because they took a shorter more direct route. The weather was so nice. My 2 friends and I decided to take advantage of the sun while we ate and took off our shirts. I forgot what kind of group we were with. Middle aged women were shouting and hollering like they had never seen men without their shirts on. A few ran over and wanted to take photos with us. It was pretty funny to see their reaction.

From the top

Me - Brett - David

Siesta Time

Fiesta Time

After hanging out on top for a while we started to make our way back to the cars. We were all pretty tired but the nice break and food gave us some energy we definitely needed. Heading back down the mountain we came back up was long and tedious. With every step we took the rocks and soil below us moved as if we were hiking through snow. We took our time getting down the first part. On the way back we took the shorter route through the valley instead of hiking up another ridge. 

Heading back

We made it back to the cars at sunset. We hiked over 12 miles over to ridges. I was so tired. We all went to the same restaurant as usual and had some dinner. Even though it was a tough hike I had a lot of fun. I'm excited to go on the next trip!

Warming up by the fire at the restaurant with a few of the hikers