Anita Beijer & Walter Michels http://elparajeblog.elparaje.com/ Sun, 05 Feb 2012 11:47:52 +0100 Active Blog by Active 24 www.active24.com Thu, 19 Feb 2009 17:49:00 +0100 http://elparajeblog.elparaje.com/26865/ Click here to go to our new blog.       info@elparaje.com Mon, 11 Oct 2010 15:07:00 +0100 http://elparajeblog.elparaje.com/22062/ Yesterday guests got lost while walking the GR142 from Cádiar to Lobras. As we don´t like the idea that more people need to retrace their steps in the future, we decided to check out whether there are any changes. We found out that a few wooden wayposts have fallen on this stretch, probably as a result of the bad weather we had this winter. Unfortunately this has happened at a point which already caused difficulties in the past. Halfway on the ridge of the Loma Callón - 2,13 kilometres from Alquería de Morayma -, you need to bear right for about sixteen metres, to immediately climb up a field of almonds and figs to continue in the same south-west direction following the ridge. A red-and-white cross on a stone gives the impression that you should not enter this orchard, but what it indicates is that you need to ignore the track to the right towards a ochre-coloured new house. You also need to ignore the track to the left, although there is no red-and-white cross here. After having entered the field you see a red-and-white paint mark on a fig tree about ten trees further as counted from the edge. One of the attractive aspects of walking the GR142 is walking through orchards and vineyards. But unfortunately this has also proved to be a little bit confusing as there are sometimes no clear paths, especially after fields have been ploughed. info@elparaje.com Sun, 08 Mar 2009 21:40:00 +0100 http://elparajeblog.elparaje.com/22014/ In the Alpujarras there is a network of Senderos Locales. You can find these yellow-and-white waymarked walks on maps and described in brochures of the different villages. A few years ago, they started to renew existing routes and also add new walks to the selection. The new signposting with green-and-white stripes and white arrows on wooden marker posts was finished some time ago. At the beginning of each route, there is a big information panel with a map and a short description of the route. Now the documentation is ready in the form of a guide and with information on the website of Alpujarra Turística. The website is only in Spanish and not all the information is correct. In each route description it says that the length of the walk is 2,5 kilometres and takes 45 minutes, but of course they all differ. The guide is bilingual and ´Walking routes in the Alpujarra region´ is its subtitle. Unfortunately there are many mistakes in the English texts. An ´era´ is translated as period instead of threshing circle and an ´acequia´ as an aqueduct instead of a water channel for example. The guide has been distributed over the different town halls and tourist information points in the region, where they give them out for free. Only in the tourist office in Orgive they charge five euros for a copy. In previous posts we already mentioned the changes of two routes of Bérchules, the ´Junta de los Ríos´ and the ´Acequias´ and of the change of direction of the walk of Gerald Brenan walk in Yegen. Some routes like the ´Vereica Misa´ of Bérchules have been dropped of the list completely. We will try to comment on all the different routes in the course of time. info@elparaje.com Wed, 18 Feb 2009 20:55:00 +0100 http://elparajeblog.elparaje.com/22005/ The last couple of days this song thrush – ´zorzal común´ in Spanish and ´zanglijster´ in Dutch - has been flying and tapping against the windows of the sitting room, the dining room and the entrance door. This migratory passerine is not shy and perservering in its play with the reflection of the panes of glass. info@elparaje.com Wed, 04 Mar 2009 12:55:00 +0100 http://elparajeblog.elparaje.com/21963/ This year there is a lot more water to be seen and heard everywhere compared to previous years. Walking through the Taha valley with guests today, we enjoyed the sight and the sound of the torrent below. In the past, the water of the Trevélez river powered numerous mills of which the ruins can still be seen. According to Turgranada, this old Arab mill below Fondales was considered in its time one of one of the most representative works of the medieval architecture of the Alpujarra. But unlike the mill next to the Panjuila bridge which is on the list of  ´Bienes de Interés Cultural´, this former ´molino de harina´ is not officially part of the local heritage.      info@elparaje.com Sun, 01 Mar 2009 17:27:00 +0100 http://elparajeblog.elparaje.com/21924/ Tertulia Andaluza "The definite guide to events in Andalusia." Read what´s happening in southern Spain in English or in Spanish. An online magazine with an agenda of cultural events, articles on Andalusian art, music, literature, gastronomy, architecture, the environment and society. Interesting book reviews and travel notes of the different Andalusian cities or of small hidden gems.     GPS Visualizer An online profile drawer we use with all the functionality you can think of and good help texts. The best we could find on the internet. It also has a GPS data format translator called ´GPS babel´ which we use to convert files from and to OziExplorer format.     Butterfly slideshow of An de Wilde  A selection of beautiful butterfly photographs. The photographer An de Wilde is Flemish, which explains why the captions are in Dutch. We suggest to put the delay factor up to at least five. There are other interesting galleries on mushrooms, trees and insects as well, which you can choose from the root of her website.       Wild Wonders of Europe  "Revealing Europe´s amazing natural treasures to the world" . A beautiful and profesional website on nature photography in various parts of Europe, inaugurated in May 2008. All photographers of the week have their own gallery showing their personal way of capturing the beauties of nature. Amazing website.      info@elparaje.com Wed, 30 Jul 2008 22:24:00 +0100 http://elparajeblog.elparaje.com/21886/ This morning at about 07.45 hours there was a most spectacular sunrise above a blanket of clouds down in the valley. During the morning they disappeared, but at the moment -  at 14.00 hours - some clouds are formed again in the Sierra. info@elparaje.com Wed, 25 Feb 2009 17:44:00 +0100 http://elparajeblog.elparaje.com/21885/ The ´Bike route planner for Europe´ or  Fietsroute planner voor Europa´  is a Dutch initiative, helping long distance cyclists planning their bike holidays in Europe. When planning a trip through Andalusia, circling the Sierra Nevada is an obvious challenge. Raul Gonzalez suggests a route leading from Granada along the north side of the Sierra Nevada, passing Guadix and climbing up the Puerto de la Ragua (2000m) to arrive at the southern slopes of the Sierra Nevada. The scenic route goes then westwards, calling in on the whitewashed villages of the Alpujarras. About two kilometres passed Bérchules, on the A-4130 at 23 km, the route passes the entrance of ´El Paraje´. From here it is fifteen kilometres to reach Trevélez,  probably through one of the  most beautiful parts of the Alpujarras.   info@elparaje.com Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:09:00 +0100 http://elparajeblog.elparaje.com/21840/ The ´Calendario de la Naturaleza´ in the El País of Saturday the 21st of February suggests going out to enjoy the almond blossoms. Javier Rico writes that areas with height differences are best to admire the beauty of the blossoming flowers. He gives three suggestions of destinations in Spain to enjoy this natural spectacle, of which Sierra Nevada as seen from the Alpujarras is one. Living in the Alpujarras, we can be more specific. This weekend and the coming week the almond blossom in the Sierra de Contraviesa, between Torvizcón and Jorairátar, is at its peak. Walking the Sendero Local, the PR-A 32 or Ruta de la Contraviesa, or following a dirt track from Cádiar towards Jorairátar and back on the GR-142, would be two of our suggestions. These two routes give you marvellous views towards the steep sided slopes of the Contraviesa with endless fields of almond trees, all bursting with delicate pink and white flowers. Note: The two Senderos Locales of Cádiar are not included in the recently pusblished guide with nineteen walks that have beem newly waymarked. The waymarking of this PR-32 is not to be relied upon. info@elparaje.com Sun, 22 Feb 2009 18:12:00 +0100 http://elparajeblog.elparaje.com/21814/ Today we did the second walk in the guidebook of the Senderos Locales de la Alpujarra, called ´La Atalaya´, a route that starts and finishes in Pampaneira. We downloaded the GPS waypoints from the website of Alpujarra Turística. On this website they mention that this route is 2,5 kilometres, but this is the length mentioned for all the walks, which is clearly not correct. In the written guide it says that the length is 8,2 kilometres which seems plausible. We set off from Pampaneira towards the power station, which is situated in a sharp bend before entering this village from Orgiva. This is not explained in the description. After having crossed the river Poqueira a wooden sign leads you to the right, but apparently the path has disappeared with the recent precipitations. When you have the track on a GPS you can find your way up the hill. At a crossing with a wooden signpost, the arrow points in the direction you come from, whereas it should point to the left. After a few hundred metres you come to an area where a small landslide took place. Again with the GPS track you can try to scramble your way up the hill. Higher up you can pick up the path again which leads you to a ruined farm building. There are no signposts but the GPS track clearly crosses through a fenced off  field. There´s no possibility to enter the terrain, so we decided to retrace our steps at this point. Because of the problems mentioned above, the poor waymarking and the insufficient description, this is not a walk that we recommend.  info@elparaje.com Thu, 19 Feb 2009 17:49:00 +0100