28 October 2024 – Lliber to Senija

Autumn has arrived and the clocks went back yesterday

The mornings are quite cold and we have had a lot of wet weather over the last week

Quite a lot of the group wore long trousers and a jacket or jumper

Though some brave souls did still wear shorts

 

We started with a lovely blue sky

But there was a lot of mud around and some minor flooding

We were unable to use our planned route out of Lliber because of a flooded road

No alternative track, so we had to cross a very muddy field

By the time we reached our first water stop it was much warmer

And most of the group removed their top layer

Sad to find a dead boar, who had apparently been hit by a car

The rocky track through the woods was much better than I had expected

Though we had to take extra care because of our muddy boots

“The Old Man of Senija” is always a good background for a group photo

And we were sorry to see that the painting is starting to show its age, with some paint flaking

We had 23 on the walk today

So there was not enough seating for everyone in the church square

The lucky ones were in the sun, because it was quite chilly in the shade

However we all warmed up once we got moving again

And we were very fortunate to have the sun throughout the walk

I am still having problems taking photos with Jan’s mobile phone

Stuart is getting me a much better model for Christmas

So I hope there will be a big improvement in the quality of photos in the New Year

We had to walk through the field again on the way back to avoid the quite deep water on one track in particular

And the alternative would have been a long walk along the road back to Lliber

It was quite busy in the sunny square

And we had to spread out over three tables

But, as always, a lovely end to a very enjoyable walk.

Temperature – 11-17c

Time Taken – 4 hours

Distance – 10 km

21 October 2024 – Montgo Iberian Settlement

This was the first “more challenging” walk since the summer break

Every third walk I offer something different from our usual valley walks

They are shorter and easier versions of the hill walks we used to do

They include Bernia Fort and Olta circuit

Today was a shorter version of the Iberian Settlement

This was the original walk we used to do back in 2006

It does not include the more recent extension which added an hour to the walk

It is the first time I have offered this walk to our Monday Ramblers group

I was not sure whether it might be too difficult

I expected it to take about four hours, plus about 200 metres of ascent

I explained this in my email to make it clear that it would be the hardest of our challenge walks yet

Perhaps I did too good a job, our numbers dropped from 22 last week to 16 this week

But I would rather describe it as too difficult, rather than too easy

We wanted to do this walk back in May

But cancelled it due to a poor weather forecast

You need good weather both for the terrain and to make the climb worth while

The forecast for today was sunny and 23c

However it was very overcast as we drove to the start

The summit of Montgo was covered in heavy cloud

Fortunately our end was much clearer

In fact we had ideal weather for hill walking

The pace was moderate, with frequent short water stops to admire the views

No one had any obvious problems, and we moved at the pace of the slowest

I think everyone really enjoyed the walk, even if they did find it harder than usual

Temperature – 17-24c

Time Taken – 4.5 hours

Distance – 8 km