Tijola: El Valero

Today was the fulfillment of a twenty-year dream: seeing the location of the cortijo that the author Chris Stewart wrote about in his three books titled Driving Over Lemons, The Almond Blossom Appreciation Society, and the Last Days of the Bus Club. Ned and I read these before our first trip to Spain in 2009. In fact, they were the inspiration for riding our mountain bikes through this part of Andalucía. The route we rode, however, is located about 1300 m (4000 ft) higher up in the Sierra Nevada, so we never actually had the chance to see El Valero. We did try! I remember standing near O Sel Ling, the Buddhist retreat center and peering down into the vast barranco trying to spot any sign of El Valero. The entire area just looked deep and dark and forbidding.

Then on our next bike trip, we actually got to meet Chris Stewart. He was conducting a writing workshop in a small village that we were cycling through, and we ended up eating dinner in the same place. He was kind and generous with his time and chatted with us about the books. He had a good laugh when we told him our daughter‘s favorite chapter was the one about the industriousness of the dung beetles near his sheep shed. (And in fact, even now we often stop during our hikes just to watch a dung beetle rolling along a burden that always seems larger than the beetle itself. )

On this trip, we have gained a whole new point of view about this area, feeling like the geography is magical rather than dark and forbidding, an attitude that extended to our walk today. We strolled along the vega carved out by the Rio Guadalfeo for the first half, admiring all the olive plantations and the acequia-fed fields of vegetables. Then the climb up the barranco started. Just when I thought I couldn’t climb any higher, we came around a corner and reached a high point. We could see the dams on the river that are described in Stewart’s books. Following the canyon upwards with our eyes, his house and barn appeared. What a thrill to see the setting. It was bathed in sunshine and clearly was the little piece of heaven he describes in his writing. He and his wife and daughter have had many an adventure in the 30+ years since he bought this run-down old place on a whim, unable to access a village in either direction when the rivers were running high (like today). From our vantage point, we sent him a silent message of thanks for sharing his stories with us.

Today’s Wikiloc track is from Ned’s WalkingNW account. No photos. I am saving my track as a draft so I can add the ADR ficha information when we get home and I can use my computer. It takes too long to do it on the phone, especially when I want to use my time for walking, not for making tracks.
https://loc.wiki/t/254749581?h=bpbjbjwqzx&w…Læs mere