Trekking the Alpujarras

Trekking the Alpujarras was probably the highlight of our trip so far. Over the 12 days and 150km we spent trekking we encountered many different landscapes and some truley beautiful views. The Alpujarras form the southern part of the Sierra Nevada park, which includes the two highest mountains in Spain (Mulhacen and Veleta), both standing at about 3400m. The name Alpujarras comes from Arabic origin and is thought to mean "Sierra of Pastures". It stretches from a village called Ugijar in the east to Lanjaron in the west, a distance of about 80km as the crow flies.

Map of the Alpujarras

 If you read our previous post on workingaway in the Alpujarras you would know that we already did the route from Ugijar to the little village of Yegen where we were based. Therefore we decided not to go back and do it again but carry on from where we left off. We set out from Yegen and headed towards the main village for the section of the Alpujarras we were in, called Mecina Bombaron, which has a huge population of 1200 people! This was in comparison with little Yegen, which was only 300 people.

To get there we headed along a local sendero. Sendero in Spanish means path. There are many of these 'paths' throughout the Alpujarras, the main one that we followed for most of the way was the GR-7. The routes are fairly well signposted although along the way we did get a little lost a few times as occasionally the signs weren't as clear as we would have liked. That first day taking us a fair bit longer than we initially anticipated. We eventually arrived after covering 15km (possibly more) and got some accommodation in an apartment. Accommodation in the Alpujarras is quite convenient if you are going to be trekking as in nearly every village you come across they have some form of accommodation whether it be apartments, pensions or camping. Prices are all very similar as well ranging from 30-50 Euros for a room or apartment, or 10-15 Euros for camping.

Incredible views

 From Mecina Bombaron we headed to Berchules where we stayed for an extra day and did a local sendero; Junta de los Rios (roughly translated as joining or meeting of the rivers). This was a 20km walk that had some lovely views over the river, although again we did end up losing the end of the trail having to turn back without getting to the end of the trail.

The weather throughout our trek through the Alpujarras was great with the exception of one day, the day we went to Juviles. Luckily for us this was just a small 6km stretch of road. It was thoroughly unenjoyable so we were pleased it was only the one day.

Enjoying the nice wind and rain on the way to Juviles

 After that day though things started to brighten up and over the next 3 days we had some of our best walking, covering 27km, passing through Trevelez, Busquitsar and ending up in Portugos. Although one of those days we didn't do any trails. Whilst in Trevelez (the highest village in Spain) we tried some of the famous Trevelez ham. Trevelez ham (Serrano ham) is famous due to it being the best place in the country to air-cure ham due to its altitude giving an ideal cold climate. This is a particular speciality in the Alpujarras.

The famous Trevelez air-cured ham (Delicious I might add)

 From Portugos we then had a 10km hike to a village called Capileira, along the way going through 4 other villages; Atalbeitar, Pitres, Capilerilla and Bubion. We came across a few other trekkers along this route, which we previously had not, highlighting the fact that we were now entering a much more touristy part of the Alpujarras. Capileira was the only other village that we stayed an additional night in to do a local route. This one called La Cebidella (an abandoned village above Capileira). This one had some incredible views down the valley over the villages below it!

Beautiful view over the valley

After leaving Capileira we followed a different trail (GR-240) taking us through Puente Palo (10.5km) then on to Soportujor (a further 10-15km). Arriving very late in the evening we were shown to a lovely apartment where we stayed for the night, our favourite so far and we thought it would be lovely to stay there for a few days but unfortunately this wasn't really an option for us.

Our final two days in the Alpujarras were fairly easy days in comparison to the previous days, going through the villages of Carataunas, Orgiva and then Lanjaron, our finish point! Whilst in Orgiva we camped for the night in what appeared to us an abandoned campsite, only to find in the morning that it was in fact owned and was an expensive 15 Euros for no facilities. After having a bit of an argument with the ower we ended up only paying 10 Euros before going off on our way.

Carmen happy on reaching the end!

On reaching Lanjaron we were both happy and sad, it was good to finally reach the end, but it was also sad that it was the end of seeing all the lovely mountains that we enjoyed walking through so much. We promised ourselves we would try and do some more of this later in Spain (maybe the Camino de Santiago!)

Stay tuned for our next post where we returned to Granada and had our first taste of Semana Santa in Spain (Easter)!