A valley walk

Bit of a walking theme this month! Yesterday we explored a new path to us, one that follows the path of a stream (barranca) up a valley between two of the mountains behind us. It is a signposted walk along the “ruta d’agua” (route of the water) so is not too difficult to follow.

We decided to walk about an hour outwards and then back giving us about two hours in total. This is a really pretty walk as it goes deep in the valley amongst the pine trees. The barranca has to be crossed at several points using conveniently placed stepping stones. Occasionally the path climbs steeply away from the water in order to get past a waterfall or two.

Where the path climbs up away from the bottom the going is quite strenuous, picking a way along rocky steps.

Part of the walk goes onto and along the centuries old terracing which provide flat growing areas for olive trees.


With the sun being low at this time of year there was a strong contrast between the shadows in the valley against the strong light on the mountains.

Our camera-phone struggled to cope with this so the photos don’t do justice to this beautiful area – but hopefully you’ll get some idea of just how natural and unspoilt it is around here.

At the one hour point we had reached a crossing of paths just past an old ruin, which we will explore next time, so we came back down the same way. But, the great thing about walks like this is that the views are so different on the way back that you get two walks in one!