Up
and ready by 11am for our “short” walk to the Friar Rock and back. Another
lovely day and we set off with one of our proper lightweight backpacks filled
with new miniature camping stove for coffee/tea and noodles if we need lunch,
and of course plenty of water. Walked into Beas De Granada and out again on the
road to Quentar which we thought would have taken us past the Friar Rock, came
to a picnic area at a crossroads, with a path leading to Quentar or a road
leading to Quentar, sat and took in the sights and decided we hadn’t walked
nowhere near long enough, so carried on
along the path to play it by ear how far we went. Of course going this way
meant we didn’t go past the Friar Rock which we didn’t realise at the time.
Carried on our walk on a good gravel path with some great views of the
mountainous area and of course kept changing our minds on how far to walk, most
of the time we were going downhill and realised we’d have to come back up
later. Stopped at a lookout area and for the first time used our small stove to
boil up for a coffee break and enjoyed the scenery and complete isolation. Set
off again towards some old brick piers that were built by the Napoleon French
to transport water to their metal works back in the day. It didn’t look too far
but wasn’t sure if the path led to them, a bit further and maybe we can tell!!
Of course this was down an even steeper hill and we were now thinking are we
going to manage to walk back up these inclines and back to our campsite before
dark! This was turning out to be a typical David walk! Could now see the
village of Dudar and realised the path led there not to the ruins so made the
decision to walk to the village to get a drink and hopefully a bus to Granada
and then another out to our campsite. Had a drink at the bar and got from the
friendly locals that the bus also went to Quentar so decided to hop on get some
lunch and then walk back from there. So that is what we did found a lovely
little bar with a great terrace and views of the mountains and had lunch and a
few beers while waiting for the day to cool a bit. Asked the barman for
directions for the road back to Beas and although he didn’t speak English we
think we sussed out the correct route. Well not quite we - missed the turning and
ended up walking 3 kms past where we should have turned. Stopped at a bar/hotel
to get directions and realised we would have to go back, Happy Days!!!, Even
though the scenery was great we had got to the point of “are we going to get
back before dark!!” Found the road we needed (how did we miss it the first
time!) and set off in the direction we should have been taking. Next thing a
car went past and Jo put out her thumb for a lift and thankfully a young guy
stopped and gave us a lift all the way back to the campsite. Gladly brought him
a beer and had a couple ourselves, probably saved us an extra 6kms of steep
uphill walking, and even though we would probably have made it before dark we
are so glad he came along when he did. Finished off the night with welcome
showers and making a few campers laugh with our day’s adventures. All in all we walked about 18km! and walked for about 5 hours!
Our campsite
we could see Priscilla through the binoculars
We fired up the kettle and had a cup of coffee - we were on top of a mountain with nothing but the sound of nature
Some of the tracks were really steep
Dudar. Had a beer here then waited for the bus to Quentar - 2kms away.
on the bus to Quentar
A much needed rest in Quentar
It was after this we got lost!
We hitched a ride with a young Spanish boy
When he dropped us off at our campsite we gratefully bought him a beer.
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