Thanks Joe. (Nigel goes walking)

I am sure those of you who know Joe could think of many different reasons for thanking her. I certainly have lots to thank her for, but this time I want to thank her specifically for letting me do some very good walks over the last 3 weeks. With Mari Carmen still off work with her fractured leg, we have all been doing extra hours to cover for her. So when I have gone walking it’s very often meant Joe has had even more on her plate than normal! Thanks also to Lidia (Sebastian’s girlfriend), who has covered for me a couple of mornings when I have set of at the crack of dawn.

So what started this spurt of walking? There is one emblematic mountain “Tiatordus” in the Ponga region I have a wanted to climb for many years. It’s a long ascent with tricky navigating in parts, so I have always shied away from doing it and particularly on my own. Hugh (who helps on the farm) showed an interest to climb it, so that was the excuse I needed to attempt climbing it this year. As it is a 1,400 m ascent I needed to check my fitness first, so I decided to do a couple of walks before hand. However I found the mountains are like a drug and once you start you can’t stop. So after Tiatordus there were more mountains and Joe let me carry on walking. Thanks once again Joe.

I also did a couple of shorter walks with Joe during this period, so beneath is a brief resume of the walks I’ve done over the last 3 weeks. I am sure that in the coming months I will give a more detailed blog entrance on the walks and the area.

The bigger walks

28/8 This was the start a simple 500m ascent to Pico Pierzo

4/9 Pileñes 900m ascent. The weather wasn’t meant to be so good, so we thought we would test our navigational skills and our water proofs, but the day turned out to be brilliant

9/9 Tiatordus. The excuse for all the walking. This involved an accumulative ascent of 1,600m over 10 hours walking and some tricky navigating, but it was worth it look at the views. However after this walk a 1000m ascent now seems like a doddlel!

This is Hugh and myself on the summit of Tiatordus to show we realy did get there!

And the walking carried on.

13/9 Canto Cabranero 1000m ascent and back at the hotel by 15.00h

20/9 Jou Santo; A 1,100 m ascent to the characteristic “jou” landscapes just beneath the highest peak on the western massif; Peña Santa. Home in time to pick the veg and serve on guests

The “softer” walks

31/8 La Jocica Walking up to the dam above the Angon valley

7/8 Mota Cetin with our friends José and Paloma

14/8 A coastal walk near Playa la Huelga, Joe likes these best.



Wow that’s 8 walks in 24 days! Thanks Joe
(By the way I’ve discovered there are still many more mountains waiting to be climbed!)