Hiking Las Alpujarras, day 1

I arrived in the village of Capileira around 1 PM. In southern Spain, this is not a great time to start hiking, but I had little choice.
The village of Capileira.

Where we're headed.


I headed up the valley towards the higher terrain. This is basically a very long ravine, with what they fancifully called a river running down it. It had decent flow, but in the White Mountains of New Hampshire it wouldn't be much more than a brook.


I stuck to a trail that was at the bottom of the valley, where there were trees (proximity to the water...) and thus shade. I saw figs ripening. I saw some sort of deer-like critter.


I saw a small hydro power station about 1/2 way up. But there still wasn't always enough shade.



View of Mulhacén.


I had hoped to make it all the way to a mountain hut at the top of the ravine, but I was totally beat from carrying 30lbs of pack in the heat, and stopped early to make camp. I found a nice secluded place away from the trail, but not too far from the water, and settled down.

At one point, somewhere around 9:30 or so, I heard what sounded like a child screaming.

It turned out to be a shepherd making his way down the trail, accompanied by a donkey, which was the source of this unexpected noise. I mostly ignored this, and enjoyed the sunset.



I had an otherwise uneventful night, except I kept sliding down the hill, since the tent was pitched on a noticeable slope.