A holiday in the mountains...

After spending quite a bit of the summer with a terrible cough, it was a joy this month, September, to be able to take a few days holiday and travel into the mountains - some four hours drive northwards to the Sierra de Cazorla.

My friend Sue, visiting from England, went on the trip with me and we took the dog with us, leaving the cat in the care of my neighbour. Thunderstorms and heavy rains had been forecast for the mountain sierras last week, which was potentially a big disappointment for us, as one reason for our trip was to do a famous hiking trail along the gorge of the Borosa river.

But, in the end, the weather was absolutely perfect and we had a wonderful time with warm sunny weather throughout.

We stayed two nights in a little wooden cabin at the Montillana campground, next to El Tranco reservoir, and then we moved to the El Cerrillo cabins, situated among olive groves and closer to the town of Cazorla.

On our first full day in the mountains, we were able to do our planned hike along the River Borosa, where the scenery was absolutely stunning and the sound of the trickling river with its many little waterfalls was so relaxing. We'd decided in advance that we probably couldn't do the full 22 kilometre hike up the canyon to a mountain lake and waterfall, but had been told that it was around 4½ km to the part of the route where wooden walkways took the trail through the narrowest part of the river gorge. It turned out to be somewhat further than that, however, and so our whole walk ended up being 17½ km - the longest walk of Maiki's life so far. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if Maiki ran about 25 km that day, as she constantly ran back and forward along the forest trail, dipping in and out of the river to drink and to cool down.

The next day, after moving to our new cabin, we did another hike through a river canyon, but much shorter this time - just under 3 km. The Cerrada del Utrero was a short walk above the Guadalquivir river, with towering rocky crags where eagles and vultures circled high above us. Sue is an avid birdwatcher, and so she had her binoculars glued to her eyes as we made the short circuit through the canyon and back around the mountain.

During our trip, we visited the little Sierra towns of Cazorla, La Iruela and Arroyo Frío, as well as the small city of Baeza. On Sunday, we drove home again, through lovely mountain scenery in the Sierra Mágina and the Sierra Nevada.

It was a lovely break and we are really thankful to the Lord for the beautiful creation, the perfect weather, and for safety on the roads as I drove almost a thousand kilometres in total.

You can click on the photo below to see a one-minute video of our River Borosa hike, especially the part known as the Cerrada de Elías, where wooden walkways allow you to walk "above" the flowing river for a couple of hundred metres through the narrow river canyon.