On a clear day you can see Africa

.....or so we had heard. The Sierra Nevada is Spain's biggest National Park and has 45km of range above 3,000 metres. We got the bus up to a high plain, well above the treeline, 2,700 metres.  Nice views towards the Mediterranean 30KM away and up to Mulhacen. On the way up the guide on the bus had pointed out the, just visible, outline of the Rif mountains in Morocco. The guide by the way was Paco, a local with a wicked sense of humour. He was threatening to throw some Catalans off the bus for contradicting him about the uniqueness of this environment....sub-tropical coastline to high altitude harshness in 30K is fairly unique.

Our plan had been to walk to the Refugio, a hut along the Poquerio valley that hosts our town. However when we saw it started downhill and would be uphill to finish we changed plans and headed up to Mulhacen, Peninsular Spain's highest mountain and Europe's second highest. With Marjan's plantarr fascia playing up, we had no intention of going all the way, more because of the elevation than the distance.

The area is huge and almost treeless. The dark patch at centre left of the photo is a pine plantation to give you and idea of scale.

We got to about the 3,000 metre mark, if my map reading is correct, and stopped for some lunch with views all around.Up and down below. Apparently I am a bad person because I have a high haemoglobin count and did not struggle with breath as Marjan did.  I cannot help being a god in human form.......albeit an old, arthritic god.

On this first photo there are at least 10 people who continued to climb to the top.........helps show the scale.....they are lost, unless I magnify the photo significantly.

The weather, whilst mild was very unforgiving. No shade anywhere, and Marjan decided to wear my pant legs as a fashion accessory. She rocks!

We had lost the butterflies, and blue tinged grasshoppers somewhere on the climb, but we started to see them on the way back. The clouds closest to Marjan are on the Spanish Mediterranean coast, the further ones are on the African coast.....and yes, well below our altitude.

The flora was interesting for it's toughness. We spotted several different species, but all hardy, spiky, ground covers. Six months under snow and three months without water is tough.

We made it down in time to catch the 4PM bus back down the mountain.......the bus is a national parks service so that they can close the high mountain off to cars and motor bikes. By the time it arrived we were glad to get out of the sun......unfortunate for some people who thought they could spend more time up here and had tickets for the 7PM bus....not all could be accommodated....they looked very forlorn as we left them up here.

On the way down, without the interest of the new environment, Marjan noticed how narrow and unmade the road was...and how close to the edge the wheels got......it was a little tense.

An afternoon dip, refreshing, and a nice dinner followed. I have to tell you about dinner. We decided to treat ourselves a little, and eat at a proper restaurant rather than a bar. I ordered a mixed sausage grill as an entree, expecting 3 or four mini sausages. That was the first mistake. They brought out a tray with 12 mid-sized sausages. I forced myself to eat the 6 morcillas, and a couple of others. Marjan and I looked at each other as our pork skewer main came out and we realised that we could have fed 4 people easily on one entree and two mains. Luckily our hotel was downhill, as we rolled back and are currently contemplating never eating again....till tomorrow.