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Some Trips from La
Paz, please feel free to e-mail us with any you may have taken
yourself....!
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Rio
Verde - During our stay
at La Paz this October we went on a shopping trip that "sort
of expanded". (click on white word to view our review in pdf
format):
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| Birds
and Wildlife
spotted at La Paz: (click words
in white as links) |
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Sierra de Parapanda
Sunday 23rd October 2005 was beautifully
sunny, so we decided to go exploring. We drove through La Fábrica
and up the Arroyo de Vilano to the Algarinejo-Montefrio road.
Turning towards the latter, after 3km we followed the sign off
left to the Roman Bridge and found this after about 500m, obviously
still very much in use by local farm traffic which uses it to
cross the small stream [4093 41317]. The bridge's claim to fame
is that it is the smallest Roman bridge in Spain! It is almost
hidden by reeds at this time of year but, from photos we've seen,
must be more visible in the winter. It is a very simple arch construction,
without any parapet, and not unlike some of the packhorse bridges
in the north of England.
Back on the main road we went on towards Montefrio, and turned
right just before the town [4099 41313] up an impressive gorge
below the castle crag, before driving up through the town and
out onto the Illora road. Next stop was to check out the starting
point for the Arroyo de los Molinos walk and we found this after
a couple of km at [4134 41322], signposted. There is space to
park here and the walk is described in some of the literature
at La Paz. Shortly after this on the left, by a bus shelter [4135
41322], is the turning for the archaeological remains at Peña
del Castillo: there is a leaflet about this at La Paz which we
got from the Montefrio Information centre. A little further on
is the track which leads to the more famous Peña de los Gitanos
[4142 41321]. This has a chain across it and instructions to ring
a certain phone number for permission so we agreed to check this
out another time! Apparently there is some sort of discussion
going on between the landowner and the local government about
access.
Carrying on towards Illora we climbed steadily around the NW side
of the Sierra de Parapanda (the hills with the TV mast on which
you can see from La Paz kitchen window) and found a place to park,
signposted "Repetidor TV Parapanda" where we could walk up a track.
Well… we could have driven, but felt like stretching our legs!
It was a lovely walk, with extensive views across to the Sierra
Nevada and the Sierra de Tejeda to the south, and we spent a while
checking out the piles of stones by the road in case there were
any fossils - but no luck!
There were quite a number of autumn crocuses out, also some dry
thistles and field eryngo which we have added to the vases at
our house. The path continues to make a circular walk but as time
was getting on we only went a couple of km before turning back
to the car. The drive home through Illora, Alomartes, Tocón and
Villanueva de Mesía was pleasant and we rounded it off by finding
a "quick way" back home along a track that by-passed north of
Huétor Tájar - leaving the road at 4079 41190, over the railway
line, across a cross roads, and coming back onto the road by the
venta at 4 Caminos opposite the road up to La Paz. |
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