An accidental ascent of Veleta, Sierra Navada

Zagan the motorhome is still drinking in the views from the car park above the ski resort of Pradollano in the Sierra Navada, Spain (N37.09363, W3.38664). We’re staying up here for a little while as the temperature is topping out at 22°C here, but 34°C in Granada below us, and a whopping 37°C (almost 100°F!) in Cordoba where we had originally planned to be.

Amazing sunsets from our car park home

Yesterday morning we were woken by much shouting and banging in our car park, the reason was quite clearly top secret. Two huge lorries had pulled up and for the next couple of hours we watched as cars were rolled out, driven around and rolled back in again. Some were totally covered in a film so they looked like those 3D pictures you used to get, others had a little bit of it on them, while some looked like a normal car but with ‘extras’ added and a lot of computer kit. A few cars had English registration plates, but the drivers and lorry folk didn’t look too chuffed when we got the camera out, so we thought it best to not go over and ask what they were up to. The only time we have seen anything like this before was when we spent the night on Vesuvius in Italy, and a convoy of Fiat 500’s were doing testing there. If anyone has any ideas why they only do these things at altitude, I would love to know.

Our morning wake up call – top secret car testing. Even the one parked next to us has strange pipes fitted under the front door.

Once the lorries had packed up and gone we decided to go out for a walk for an hour or so and enjoy the views. Topping up Charlie’s water bowl, we made sure the van would stay cool so he could have his mid-morning nap, grabbed the camera, a chocolate bar each and a small bottle of water and set off.

Luckily there are no snowcats around at the moment, just the summit of Veleta in the background

Looking back down over the ski resort and Granada in the distance

The views were amazing and before long we were high above the resort and following well-trodden paths upwards for an even better view. The walking paths went straight up, crossing the road which wound its way up the hill in a series of bends. Each time we reached the road I was tempted to walk back down it, a longer but flatter route, but Jay suggested we walk along one more section of path and see what we could see from there.

As we climbed higher the views got better, so we carried on.

Cooling down on a patch of snow

Having seen a herd of cows grazing on the patches of grass at the start of the walk, we figured we wouldn’t find much else once we were scrabbling up the rocky part, but we were wrong. Tiny purple flowers peeked out from under rocks, black and white birds flitted around us, and then we spotted this little fella and a couple of his friends!

As you can see, he/she wasn’t too keen to be around us

Driven on by views and wildlife, we were now just a kilometre from the top, so we might as well go for it.

The last bit was the hardest. But what was even harder was discovering that the road went all the way up to the top, so really didn’t need to huff and puff our way up the steep path.

The paved road (the highest in Europe) turns into a dirt track at the top, but super-fit folks were managing to cycle all the way to the top

At the top I greedily devoured my chocolate bar, while more prepared climbers – with rucksacks and walking sticks – dined on fruit and bread.

Happy at the top

It took us two and a half hours to walk to the top. Realising this, we didn’t stay long and quickly started our descent back to the van and Charlie. We started off following the road, but soon reverted back to the paths as they were much quicker.

Back at Zagan we woke Charlie up when we returned. After his lunch he had a quick game of chase the stick – quick because once he has had enough (normally a maximum of two throws these days) he keeps hold of it and brings it back to the van – then it was time for his afternoon nap.

Too tired to cook, we grabbed a bite to eat from one of the snack shacks in the car park, before another amazing sunset, a movie and a much-needed sleep.

Moon rise over the old observatory

Ju x