Elev Gain: 500m
You'll see from the photos that there is a haze in the sky. Well, I was told this resulted from a storm in the Sahara Desert that blew all this dust across the Mediterranean. The cars were literally covered in a coat of dust. I didn't seem to have any ill effects from the hike. Other than that, it was a great day and the scenery was still magnificent.
The hike took us up to the ruins of an old tavern, Venta Panaderos, the Baker's Tavern. In fact, there were lots of taverns on this old mule route to Granada. This one was in the best condition of those we saw. According to locals, there were so many people following this route that you would encounter someone new every five minutes.
This first one was also a "factory" used to make whitewash, a paint used on the walls and exteriors of these villages in Spain. Whitewash was made of limestone baked for 72 hours in outdoor kilns until it can be pulverized. When water is added, it is used like a stucco finish to keep walls from growing mold or mildew.
When I got back from the hike, I was hot, tired and ready for a shower. I put the key in the lock to my apartment and it wouldn't unlock. After several attempts, I finally contacted the landlord, who was in Malaga and wouldn't return for another hour. I couldn't imagine what had happened and thought, the landlord would get here and open it up and how embarrassed I was going to feel. Well, he couldn't get the lock open either. He tried WD-40 and it still wouldn't budge. By this time is was 19:30 and getting dark, so he was able to get to the balcony from the neighbor's terrace and had to break the glass in the guest room door. The only remedy was to remove the thin weather-stripping on the door to make the seal less tight. Seems to do the trick!
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whitewash Kiln
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| Venta Panaderos |
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Breaking In
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Looks like Castle Crags.
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