Day in Orbaneja

Yesterday afternoon, I took a trail up and out of town. For a while, the views were spectacular, but then things turned to dry scrub. I only continued about 5 km. I passed three graves, men who were either 16 or 20, victims of the Spanish Civil War. The little monument, erected in 2010, said “we’ve learned to fly like birds, we’ve learned to swim like fish, but we haven’t learned the simple art of living together like brothers and sisters.”

In the late afternoon, I took a walk around town, which consists of three or four streets. Hidden in a corner was a little bar with a terrace looking out on the so-called “camels kiss“ formation. Turns out that the two guys behind the bar are the owners of the enterprise, and today was their first day. I hope that they succeed!

So here is what I did today. Kind of a rest day, not much elevation, not much distance, no pack!

https://www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/orbaneja-…

This morning I woke up to another beautiful day. Breakfast at 8:30, a real luxury, and by 9:30 I was starting my day’s walk. I combined two different trails, to make a 16 km loop. The first went up so that I was right under the Beso del Camelo (Kiss of the Camel) rock formation. At one point, I saw 13 Raptors on a ridge, looking down at me. Not surprisingly, when I got close, they all took off in very graceful flight. Awesome. When I got to the other side of the formation, looking down over the town, I just sat and watched as the sun rose slowly over this magical place. Just me and the raptors!

Back down at river level, instead of returning to town, I stayed along the river. This is the route I will follow tomorrow, but I decided to go out about 6 km to some off-route waterfalls and another rock hermitage .

Well, it was a lovely walk, but the waterfalls were dry and the path up to the hermitage was totally overgrown and filled with prickly bushes. I saw more people today than any other day so far – three couples and one single guy walking, and one cyclist.

On the way back to town, it seemed like every time I looked up to the cliffs, there were circles of raptors. I’m not sure what they were, but it was really kind of mesmerizing to watch these black dots circling around and around and around. Sometimes they got close enough to me that I could see their white heads and the jagged outlines of their wings.

All in all, I am very glad I decided to spend a day here!Read more