Spain 2006

I flew in to Málaga on the 23rd of September and spent a night there before travelling on to Granada.

Granada

One of the classic views of the Alhambra, from the Mirador San Nicolas. The main part of the modern city is lower down, to the right.

Sierra Nevada

After a night in Granada I spent three and a half hours on the bus, travelling through what seemed like practically every village in the Alpujarras, going along ever more twisting roads to reach Trevelez, the highest village in Spain.

On the way up from Trevelez to the Cañada de las Siete Lagunas

The way up, about half-way between Trevelez and the Cañada de las Siete Lagunas

On my first full day in the mountains I went up some of the (slightly) smaller hills to the north-east of the big three.

What would be my first summit of the following day was never far out of sight - looking along the ridge to Alcazaba.

Alcazaba with Mulhacen behind - the pair of mountains show their steepest sides.

Running water is hard to find up in the main mountain corries. But some way down in the valley, it can be found.

Clear skies made for good (if cold) star-gazing. Having taken this photograph, however, I can't actually work out which stars are shown...

A view over the lower part of the Cañada de las Siete Lagunas, where I camped for two nights.

In the high Sierra Nevada, there aren't that many places to camp. The normally dry climate means that there isn't that much ground water, and so there isn't a lot of vegetation either. The Cañada de las Siete Lagunas is one of the relatively few sites for wild camping, although even here some of the seven lakes were dry at this time late in the summer.

Alcazaba and Mulhacen

I made my way up Alcazaba first thing in the morning. Here I am on the summit of Alcazaba.

Mulhacen from Alcazaba - my next target was not too far away - however, the route was not that simple.

I descended to the Cañada again, packed up my tent, and made my way up the long scree slope leading up to the summit of Mulhacen.

Plaque on the summit dedicated to the three British who died here six months earlier.

Small patch of snow remaining on top of Mulhacen

One of the very last patches of snow on Mulhacen left from the previous winter, inside one of the old roofless huts

Looking towards Veleta from Mulhacen - my route forward is laid out in front of me.

Veleta and the Cerro del Caballo

The building on the summit of Veleta. You can see the top of one of the ski-lifts a little way below the top, down to the bottom right.

The Sierra Nevada ski resort, far below me - though the ski-lifts reach up practically to the very top of Veleta

I wasn't the only one star-gazing - this is the Sierra Nevada Observatory

View from Cerro del Caballo up the Rio de Lanjarón towards Veleta. You can see the Refugio del Caballo at the bottom of the picture a short distance from the tarn (the Laguna del Caballo)

The Refugio del Caballo, my home for the night, in the evening, looking towards the clouds over the ridge leading to the higher mountains.

The Refugio del Caballo in the morning sun, with the Cerro del Caballo behind.

Valencia

I caught a bus from Lanjarón back to Granada and a night train took me from there to Valencia

Unattractive view down from the hostel window

The view out of my youth hostel window in Valencia, looking on to one of the less respectable areas of the city...

From my hostel window in Valencia, I could see below me what seemed to be a constant assortment of every type of dodgy character you could imagine... at all hours of the day and night, people threw bottles and any other type of rubbish over the wall...