Undiscovered Routes

One of the great things about walking in this area is that not many other people do it. Routes are not massive erosion scars as in the popular areas of the UK and you can walk without crowds of people. It also means that routes are still out there to be found and whilst it might not be the first time they are walked often it is clear that they are little used. This happened to me recently when I ‘’discovered ‘’ a new route following the line of an acequia in the Rio Trevelez valley. I first spotted the line of what I though at the time might make a great walk during last summer. I was a passenger in a coach full of clients returning from a days walking near Trevelez. Returning back down the valley I saw a clear straight line running across the cliff face on the mountain side which creates the south side of this rugged valley. Later in the year when I was this time driving down the road I managed to stop and inspect the line using a pair of binoculars , even from a distance it looked like a dramatic line but it was still not clear that is would ‘’go’’ . I finally got around to going out to actually having a look last week and finally discovered that the line I had seen threading its way through steep cliffs and scrub was in fact an acequia and that it could indeed be walked. I set off along what was at first a fairly wide concrete channel crossing open hillside. On turning the first corner it became clear that the line was going to be more than a normal acequias walk. The channel has been cut through steep cliffs, passes below overhangs, is in places pinned to vertical rock sections and includes a couple of natural rock archways. The second of these is so tight that it required removing my rucksack and a squirming along the bottom of the acequias in order to continue the route. For some , my wife included it sounds like the worst possible sort of walk but if you have a head for heights the km or so of channel makes a wonderful walk. The dramatic section of what turns out to be the Acequia Almegijar comes to an end on a waymarked path running through the area called the ‘’Ruta Medieval’’. This trail links the white villages through the Taha area of the Alpujarra valley and is worth seeking out in its own right.