Tíjola: Down to the river at last!

Every day since we arrived, we’ve been wanting to find a way to get down to the Río Guadalfeo. On the map, it looks wild and powerful, coming down from the Sierra Nevada in the north, joining up with the Río Trevélez and the Río Poqueria before it makes a 90° turn to the west and journeys through more mountains to finally flow into the Mediterranean. The flood plain is extensive, so we’ve had the feeling that we could walk along it and see the river if only we could find a way to get to it. We’ve tried several different lanes that look like they should take us to the water, but we’ve always been blocked by fences and gates.

This morning we hit the jackpot, and the second lane we picked led us to a forest area with a nice path heading in the right direction. Soon we were picking our way through reeds and scrubby bushes that were clearly part of the flood plain. We came over a little rise, and there was the river, much wider and wilder than we had expected. We were able to walk up it until we reached the canyon wall that forces the river to turn 90° in direction. There were beautiful colors in the rock walls and no one else in sight - not even any buildings. It was easy to imagine what this must have looked like to the first settlers in this area.Read more