Lanjarón: Acequias Aceituno and Cercarta

There are 20 acequias that draw water from the Rio Lanjarón! The town of Lanjarón does an excellent job of maintaining trails along two of these acequias: the Aceituno and the Cercarta.

We had perfect weather to climb up to these two today: clear skies, lots of sunshine, and hardly any wind. But by the time we had climbed for three hours straight up from town, we would have welcomed a rain storm and strong winds. It was very, very beautiful and very, very hot!

The Acequia Aceituno has a sheer drop of about 100 m to the river, so the ayuntamiento has installed metal railings along the most dangerous parts. We were very glad for these – without them we absolutely could not have walked this trail. It didn’t pay to look too closely at the erosion and rust, though! Nevertheless, they gave a much appreciated sense of security.

The Acequia Cercarta, on the other hand, was a beautiful high level walk without the frightening overtones. We had good views of the high mountain country around us. The face opposite was full of hundreds of abandoned bancales. Another area was burned, probably from the bad fire that occurred at Tello a few years ago. We’ve noticed a helicopter flying overhead frequently the last couple of days and are guessing it is looking for forest fires.

Up close, we noticed that the open acequia sections are lined with trees, but when the acequia disappears into an enclosed tube, water can’t leak out into the surrounding ground, so the trees in those areas have all died.

At the end of the acequia, there was a steep, cobbled path back to town where we are now cooled off and happy to have had such a special day in the mountains.Read more