Spain Trip May 2025 - Part 11 Sierra Nevada and Las Alpujarras, Andalucia

Our next destination was Granada and the Alhambra Palace, somewhere that we missed seeing last time we were in Spain due to the pouring rain which we drove north to avoid. It's best to book in advance for the Alhambra, although if you are lucky you can buy a ticket at the entrance on the day. However, there is a specific palace which you have to book separately for (and get given an actual time slot for), and this turns out to be booked weeks beforehand! We could only get a ticket for the very last day before we had to start heading home, and even so, we got the very last time slot of the day which was I think 8pm (the Palace closes at 9pm). So I rejigged our itinerary and we spent the next two days visiting the Sierra Nevada mountains and the Alpujarras range, before heading to Granada.

The Sierra Nevada is the tallest mountain range in Spain and some of its peaks are higher than those in the Pyrenees. The highest peak is Mulhacén at 3,479m. All around the Granada area you get a stunning view of the mountains, which are still snow capped in May.

We drove up to a dull looking ski town called Pradallano and parked up, with a view of Veleta peak (3,396m, on the left in the photo below). I had read that there was a shuttle bus which takes you up to a scenic viewpoint and a place that serious hikers go off up to Pico de Veleta from. We ate lunch in the van with a view of the road but quelle surprise, no buses went past. It was clouding over anyway and pretty chilly up there at 2,100m altitude, so it wasn't that much of a big deal.

A little way further down we stopped where the first flowers were blooming as I wanted to see what they were (yes I know these are sheep!😀).

The white flower is a Helianthemum - a Rock Rose but I don't know which one as there are many white ones like this, and PlantNet wasn't sure. The blue flower is Erinacea anthyllis, commonly called Blue Broom. I have never seen a blue flowered broom before - it looked gorgeous in the blue clumps interspersed with the white rock roses. In the bottom picture there is a white broom growing next to the blue one - the only only I saw this colour.

The next day we explored the Alpujarras ranges. This is on the southern, coastal side of the Sierra Nevada and is an area of rolling hills and gorges, a green and fertile area due to being watered by the snow melt. Further east the area becomes more arid. There are a number of 'white villages' here which are popular with second home owners and foreign buyers. The villages that we visited were very pleasant and not at all overly touristy. 

The village of Pampaneira has a textile industry making 'jarapas', thick, colourful fabrics that are used as blankets, rugs and bedspreads made on hand looms, some of which are several hundred years old.

I was quite tempted by the rugs but they would have taken up too much space in our Moho garage, but we did buy a woven fly screen, one of those old fashioned ones which have long cords hanging that you put in a doorway.

The church, Inglesia de la Santa Cruz, which was built in the C18th was very surprisingly plain on the outside. However the rest of the village made up for it, with plants galore and gorgeous architecture.

These chimney pots are unusual and most houses have flat or almost flat roofs, with chimneys like this. I loved the way this flat roof had been decorated.

We didn't notice it when we were walking around but there is an old public laundry area inside the brick arched building where the town ladies would have brought their clothes to wash by hand.

A lady working at a hand loom.

We then drove higher up the valley to the last village, Capileira, where, believe it or not, there is an Indian restaurant! El Jardín de los Sabores has in fact two chefs, one who cooks the Indian food and the other who cooks local cuisine. You can guess which we opted for! 

The setting in this lush and verdant garden was just divine, with views to die for and very good food. Whilst waiting, I was kept amused by this lovely dog who took a shine to me and wanted me to throw his stick to him (constantly!). He belonged to one of the waiters.

Back near our campsite this cactus was blooming. This is Austrocylindropuntia subulata, native to the Peruvian Andes, but an introduced invasive species in the Spanish coastal provinces. Can't say that I noticed this plant anywhere else though.

I didn't know what this was at the time of taking the photo, but it turns out to be a Pomegranate (Punica granatum)! Pomegranates are another introduced species in Spain, which I have seen both growing wild and also in cultivation.

I've now got to go through several hundred photos from Granada and the Alhambra and whittle them down to a couple of blog posts!! Expect lots of collages. 😁

Spain Trip May 2025 - Part 10 El Torcal, Andalucia

El Torcal is a nature reserve in a small mountain range near Antequera with amazing karst limestone rock formations.

We were not able to drive all the way up to the visitor centre but there was a shuttle bus which took us from the main car park further down the road, and we didn't have to wait very long. In the park there are several loop walks you can take of different lengths.

The map below shows the last few places that we visited up to El Torcal, with Gibraltar showing on the map bottom left.

Wherever you are the scenery is just amazing.

I saw a number of these huge plants on the way up in the bus and I have found out that it is called the Villous Deadly Carrot (Thapsia villosa). Villous means shaggy apparently.

A Rock Bunting (Emberiza cia). If you remember, we saw our first ever one earlier in the trip in the Monfrague National Park. So this bird and the Booted Eagle were the two lifers that we saw this trip.

Faces in Things time! Can you see any? In the middle, I see a man sideways on wearing a long horsehair wig (think Georgian times) and in front of him (on the left) is a dog's face, also sideways on. Maybe you will see something completely different!

Snapdragons and other plants growing out of the rock high overhead.

A relatively short post this time as I couldn't add it to the following destination or the post would have been too long. 

I will try to post more frequently now as I have the rest of this trip plus our Italian trip still to post about - and only three and a half months before we set off on our travels again!

Guess what, we just watched Travel Man with Joe Lycett last night which was filmed in Malaga. And where did they go? To that raised walkway in the gorge that I mentioned in my last post! Still glad we didn't do it, and K has said that having seen the photo I linked to, he wouldn't have gone on it either! 😀

Spain Trip May 2025 - Part 9 El Chorro, Andalucia

This is an area of reservoirs and lovely scenery which first caught my eye as there is a raised boardwalk through a gorge, very like that walkway that we took in Spain in 2024. The more I looked into it though, the more I was put off - not only is it a long walk, but the walkway itself is extremely high up, up to 330ft above the river! I don't want to embed the photo here for those with vertigo, but take a look at this photo on Wikipedia if you dare! So we just spent the day stooging around enjoying ourselves with our feet firmly on the ground instead.

This was the first time I had an opportunity to take a photo of this broom so that I could ID it.  It's growing all through Extremadura and lots of Andalucia, but is very different from the more regular Spanish Broom which was growing when we were in the north near Portugal. This is Retama sphaerocarpa, though I can't find a common name for it in English.

On our way to a scenic viewpoint we visited the interesting ruins of Bobastro, part of a complex including a fortress, cave dwellings and a C9th Christian Mozarabic church. The church was carved into the sandstone rock on the site of the old fortress and the settlement was the refuge of Omar Ben Hafsún, a Muslim who converted to Christianity. He sought refuge here during his rebellion against the Emirate of Cordoba and their unfair taxation and mistreatment of the citizens.

At its peak there were about 1,500 people living in this area and there were cisterns to hold water (Keith is peering into one) which were carved out of the rock. People would have to climb down to the river to bring water back which was a feat in itself.

Originally this church would have had a roof but the site fell into disrepair in the C13th.

Despite the rock I found a number of wildflowers growing, some right out of what seemed like solid rock!

Top: Echium angustifolium, Narrow-leaved Bugloss
Below left: Jasione montana
Below right: Antirrhinum (possibly conversum)

The yellow flower has nothing to do with the plant that it is growing out of - talk about confusing! The whitish plant is Paronychia sp. but I've no idea what the yellow flower is. Paronchia is tiny and the flowers are held within these white bracts, so small that I couldn't photograph closer into it (with this camera).

Remains of walls which could have been part of the fortress or could be rooms relating to the church. There wasn't a lot of information there on site, so I have learned more about this place whilst writing this post.

This is a Spoonwing (Nenoptera bipennis) - Keith's photo on left and mine on right.  As you can see they don't always perch in places which make for nice clean photos! Open the collage and look at their 'tails' - actually hindwings - they are amazing!

At the top of the hill where Bobastro is situated is a scenic viewpoint overlooking a dam.

I spied this interesting jumping spider which I think is Philaeus chrysops, and this is the male. The female is just browny colours as usual!

We then moved on and headed to the area of reservoirs. We passed where the entrance to the raised walkway path was and there were a lot of people headed there - you have to wear a hard hat so you can tell who is going on the walk. It would be impossible to turn around once you get on the walkway as there is little room to pass people on it, so I am very pleased we gave it a miss. 

Just walking up to the mirador was tough enough for me as it involved a lot of steps, and even with my alpine stick I really struggled. K gave me his stick for coming back down which really helped take the weight off my knees and hips. I met a man coming up who was also going slowly and struggling with sticks. He asked how much further it was to the mirador. We got talking, and he told me he was recovering from Lyme Disease, and six months earlier he couldn't even walk. That's really scary as I didn't know the disease could affect you that badly. I hope he managed to get to the top as it was such a lovely view.

The water was such a lovely rich colour.

As you might have noticed, my brother is always in my photos, whether I like it or not!! 😂

Red-veined Darter (Sympetrum fonscolombii).

Finally a cropped image of a Booted Eagle (Hieraaetus pennatus) - it was high overhead and K identified it thanks to the Merlin app. It's the first one of these eagles that we have seen, so one of the few lifers that we saw this trip!

So all in a great day full of history, amazing scenery and wonderful wildlife!