The multicoloured iridescent Bea eaters have indeed come back from Africa since beginning of April! The cherry trees, which are another products people here grow to sell, have bloomed and are now in leaf. And the sweet chestnut trees are now starting to don their fresh green delicate leaves. The weather is still lovely interspersed with a few rainy days.Last Tuesday, I went for a gorgeous walk with 2 of our guests, Niamh and Connie, in the National Park of la Sierra de las Nieves. It was a very dramatic day, windy and cloudy, but by the time we reached the top of the Puerto de los Pilones, the clouds had burnt off, leaving a few cumuli here and there in the distance and leaving us dramatic views over the Costa del Sol, Ronda, the Alto and Bajo Genal valleys and Gilbraltar shrouded in dark clouds in the distance. Unfortunately, we couldn’t see Morocco this time. The walk up on the single path through wind shaped Pinsapo Pines glistening in the sun with cloud moisture, was nice and cool and we saw quite a few deep pink Orchids (Dactylorhiza incarnate) and lavender in bloom. On the way down, following a wide dirt road, making it easy to enjoy the scenery, eagles soaring and lovely views, we saw pockets of miniature daffodils. A rare sights too: a young wild mountain goat on its own, on the track, which seemed to be poorly. It kept walking ahead of us keeping itself at a safe distance from us. It managed to find a little opening off the track on the left and tried to hide from us there. We walked past it and reported its sighting as soon as we saw a park ranger who confirmed that it must either be poorly and abandoned or its mother must have died and it is starved. They were going to try and find it and help it back to health.
After a little picnic back at the recreational area where we had left our truck (the northerly wind was too cold to eat higher up), we went to see the Pinsapo de la Escalatera, a 26 meters high Pinsapo pine with a 5 meters diameter. On the way, we saw a pale pink Pyramid Orchid.
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