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Segura de la Sierra

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    • TravelerSpain 2023 - Almeria/Cazorla
      Day 46

      Loma de M-A to Siles

      April 24, 2023 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 75 °F

      We made a snap decision this morning that my foot was good enough to start hiking with a backpack again. So we took a bus to Siles which is a marvelous little village on the northern edge of the park in the Sierra de Segura. Tomorrow we’ll buy 5 days worth of groceries (the next villages are tiny and have no stores), and Wednesday we’ll finally start the 18-day walk from here that has been planned for four years! We’re excited.Read more

    • TravelerSpain 2023 - Almeria/Cazorla
      1
      Day 47

      Siles: Errands

      April 25, 2023 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 77 °F

      Siles deserves more time than what we are spending here. It seems like every time we turn a corner, we see something worth investigating, like the 14th century arch right outside the door of our apartment. But we stayed focused on our errands for the day: mailing home a package of boots and books; buying groceries for the next five days; and restocking items from the pharmacy.

      José María, who owns and loves our apartment, stopped by with a loaf of artisan bread from the bakery where he works. He and his seven brothers grew up here in Siles. He remembers the town having a population of 6000. Now it’s down to 2000 he says, because young people can find better paying jobs in the cities. In earlier days, when a subsistence village life was more common, the attics of the houses ( where our apartment is now) were used to store grain. We wondered if this was the case when we were exploring the abandoned houses at Olivico a few days ago, so it was interesting to get our suspicions confirmed.      Read more

    • TravelerSpain 2023 - Almeria/Cazorla
      2
      Day 67

      Hornos: Arroyo de los Molinos

      May 15, 2023 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 68 °F

      With the tempting name of the arroyo, we expected to see some mills today, and maybe we did get a glimpse of them, but we were so far above the river, there was no way to tell if the roofs we were seeing were atop old mills or modern houses. We did have a great time exploring old fountains and what must be summer swimming holes, though. The biggest marvel of the day was the steep angle of the olive groves. They must have incredible tractors to be able to reach those trees.

      Today we ran into a new component of the shrinking rural population problem: Hornos - which still has enough people to support two tiny grocery shops, a bakery, two restaurants, and several bars - evidently does not have enough people to hang onto its previous bus service. The internet still shows two buses a day to the provincial capital, but both the ayuntamiento and the host of our casa rural have told us there is no bus service anymore. Hmm. That was going to be our connection for our return to Madrid next week as Hornos is the end of our planned waking route. Good thing there is still taxi service here!

      We did our first wash using a washing machine in our ten weeks here and managed to decipher the unfamiliar symbols just fine. The lucky clothes had a great view of the peak of Yelmo as they dried!

      Today’s Wikiloc track:
      https://www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/hornos-ca…      Read more

    • TravelerSpain 2023 - Almeria/Cazorla
      132
      Day 68

      Hornos: GR 247 toward Capellania

      May 16, 2023 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 63 °F

      The GR 247 from Hornos to the aldea of Capellanía starts out winding through terraced olive groves north of town. They are a reminder that the prized local olive oil has its own denomination: Denominación de Origen de Aceite de Oliva Virgen Extra Sierra de Segura. If only the bottles weren’t too big and heavy to carry in backpacks! The trail then narrows and winds deep into the forested area below Yelmo Chico. On the way back, we met a local man out walking his dog who pointed out a soaring eagle, one of a pair that nests on the nearby cliff. He said the buitres that nest closer to Yelmo can be seen about 2 pm after the air has warmed up.

      Back in town, it was market day. Beautiful dark red peppers, cucumbers, and tomatoes made our lunchtime salad, and mushrooms spruced up our chicken and mashed potatoes.

      This afternoon‘s task: search for a way to walk to a village with bus service.

      Today’s Wikiloc track:
      https://www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/above-hor…      Read more

    • TravelerSpain 2023 - Almeria/Cazorla
      11
      Day 69

      Hornos: Salt pans

      May 17, 2023 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 68 °F

      Today we saw salt pans (salinas)!!! We’re 300 kilometers inland and there we were, standing by evaporation ponds where salt was recovered! Not the big, huge, industrial-sized evaporation ponds like we saw at Cabo de Gata, but still, we never expected to see salt pans so far from the ocean. There must be a spring nearby that supplies saline water.

      It’s fantastic when you have an A+ walk near the end of a trip, especially when you didn’t have any particularly high expectations for the day. We started out on a Wikiloc track that would take us down to the level of the reservoir and then loop back up. At about the halfway point, I remembered reading about salt pans in the area. But where were they? No waypoints on our track indicated salinas. I checked the other tracks I had saved for the area. No luck. Giving up on finding them, we just enjoyed the butterflies and the flowers. At one point, I just happened to look backwards into a brushy area…and there they were, almost hidden in the reeds. What a stroke of good luck.

      Today’s Wikiloc track:
      https://www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/hornos-sa…      Read more

    • TravelerSpain 2023 - Almeria/Cazorla
      1
      1
      Day 45

      Loma de M-A: Río Borosa

      April 23, 2023 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 68 °F

      Any amateur geologist would be wearing a smile a mile wide while walking up the path beside the Río Borosa. There are magnificent folds in the earth to be seen alongside rocks the size of houses precariously balanced midstream and waterfalls thundering through delicate arches. No wonder this is the most popular trail in the park. We got an early start to avoid the crowds and had the pasarelas (wooden catwalks suspended over the water) all to ourselves, although it was cold enough in the canyon that I had to make my cycling sun sleeves do double duty as makeshift gloves. Quite a remarkable day!

      Today’s Wikiloc track:
      https://www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/rio-boros…      Read more

    • TravelerSpain 2023 - Almeria/Cazorla
      52
      Day 70

      Hornos: Peña del Águila

      May 18, 2023 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 55 °F

      We managed to sneak a quick walk in before the predicted thunder and lightning started. Quite dramatic- but none of the predicted rain yet.

      Peña del Águila is a ridge that gives good views of the olive groves that surround the embalse, each with its own special colors in the soil - red, blue, green, and grey. The last ten meters to the peña were unfortunately inaccessible due to a locked gate, but since we were already up to within a meter of the maximum elevation, it didn’t really matter. The handy boulders nearby made a comfortable spot for a mandarin orange break.

      We are always speculating about how a person could make a living in these small villages. The walk today gave us some hints. First we passed a man working down in a manhole on the water system. He joins the other five men we see every day using jackhammers to dig up areas of the town streets that we assume are over waterlines. Next we had a good view of the hoppers and conveyor belts that move the olives that are trucked in to the local oil processing plant. The plant isn’t processing right now (wrong season) but we saw some local farmers on a robust tractor headed out to their olive groves. Finally, we passed the imposing sand and gravel quarry. So our conclusion is that if you want to work in Hornos, you should either be in the hospitality business or know how to run machinery.

      Today’s Wikiloc track:
      https://www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/hornos-pe…      Read more

    • TravelerSpain 2023 - Almeria/Cazorla
      1
      115
      Day 66

      Hornos de Segura

      May 14, 2023 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 63 °F

      We are now in the village of Hornos de Segura, where the houses are balanced on overhanging rocks and the night skies are celebrated for their lack of light pollution. In fact, we spent several enjoyable hours at the castle which has been turned into an astronomical center housing a planetarium and offering nighttime telescope tours of the stars.

      We were really looking forward to walking here, but decided it was still beyond the capability my foot and knee have recovered to. So we made use of the local taxi, and over the next few days, we’ll walk whatever parts seem reasonable.      Read more

    • TravelerSpain 2023 - Almeria/Cazorla
      222
      Day 43

      Casa Berrea to Loma de Mariangela

      April 21, 2023 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 73 °F

      It was not only hard to leave the remote setting of Casa Berrea this morning, but we also had to say goodbye to Manuel, the owner, who has become a good friend in just five days. Before we even arrived, he messaged us links to the many Wikiloc tracks in the area. He made the two-hour round trip from Cazorla three times to bring us fresh bread and local treats, and to make sure all was well with us. He told us the history of the area as he learned it from his days at the family cortijo, located just above Casa Berrea. We are so grateful to have met him!

      The highlight of today was passing the very spot where we cycled on our last day on the 2100 km Ruta Transandalus fourteen years ago.      Read more

    • TravelerSpain 2023 - Almeria/Cazorla
      1
      Day 44

      Loma de M-A: Abandoned village

      April 22, 2023 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 59 °F

      Using Wikiloc’s “search by passing area” feature this morning, I stumbled upon a nearby track to an abandoned village. What a gem of a find! After following the GR 7’s red and white blazes through the forest, we climbed a 13% grade up to the old village of Olvicos. Peeking into the ten or so houses there, we could imagine life here in the early 1900’s. There are two beautiful threshing circles (eras), so we’re guessing the subsistence lifestyle here included grains as well as olives. Steps leading up to the second story on the backs of all the houses caught our attention, as did the cross- hatching on some windows. One house still has its rather grand fireplace mantle, as well as interior stairs to the upper floor. Altogether, a fascinating spot to find just by chance. We’ll hang on to the memory of eating our mandarin oranges seated on the rim of the era, looking out at the mountain peaks.

      Today’s Wikiloc track:
      https://www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/abandoned…      Read more

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    Segura de la Sierra

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