We woke early on Sunday morning for a quick breakfast at the hotel and then off for our first walk complete with walking sticks. Shame about the rest of the preparation. I had forgot to bring a rucksack so we were limited to one bottle of water each. Not to worry, the first walk was only 3 hours the girl behind the reception assured us. The map she presented us with was a hand-drawn effort that Sophie would be ashamed of. Again, she assured us that we couldn’t go wrong.
The walk was to the summit of Peñabon. An impressive looking point that didn’t seem that far away. If we were feeling up to it, we could extend the walk to Piedra Ventana, another hour. To get an idea of the scale of the ascent, Trevélez stands just shy of 1500 metres. This is in the shadow of the highest peak in Spain, Mulhacen standing at 3482 metres. Peñabon seemed the easier climb at 2200 metres, with Piedra Ventana higher at 2536 Metres.
The walk starts along the same pathway we took the day before to the river. Then it was heading up the hill looking for an acequia. Luckily, I kept looking back as I couldn’t see any sign of a waterway ahead. We had passed it by 50 metres, it was tucked away, hidden by bushes on our climb. We walked along the acequia heading in the direction of Trevélez on the other side of the valley. The map indicated that the path went further south than the town before starting a zig-zag ascent. However, as is normal with our trips we missed the turning. Another 45 minutes added on to the walk.
The turning was not signposted. The only clue was old footprints in the track. So I became chief trailfinder, closely inspecting the track to pick up the trail. After a good 2 hours walking we came across a gate that had been kicked in. Is this the end of the path? We decided to continue onwards. This took us past two rock slides. A slight risk of vertigo if you looked down. Another turning missed adding more time to the climb.
After a brief pause to catch our breathe and renew our resolve we made the final ascent to the peak. The views from the top were breathtaking. Well worth the struggle climbing up the mountain. In total it had taken nearly 3 hours to reach. Probably an hour of which was wasted on wrong turns. The descent down was a lot quicker. The only casualty being Monica’s walking stick. "Made for the toughest mountain terrain in the world". Yeah right!
On top of the peak.
We rewarded ourselves with a few cañas and tapas in town. Sat on the terrace we had a wonderful view of the peak we had just scaled. It looked quite impressive. So much so we ordered more beers to congratulate ourselves on a job well done.
View of Peñabon from the bar.
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