Europe 2012 - England/Spain Part 14 - de-I Sandia Outfitters en Espagne

 Yes the assassins of de-I Sandia Outfitters have become international!

Another reason I chose this region of Spain is because it is mountainous with numerous national parks and areas for hiking.  Andrew, Cabinet Lady, Dr. Deb and Lady Di are all avid hikers and came prepared to go out even thought they have all had previous experience with the notorious de-I Sandia Outfitters.  

 I researched a place around 45 minutes from us where we could get in a good hike.  We didn’t account for the hair-raising ride to the trailhead. I had some basic instructions but not really anything very specific.  So we wandered around a bit.  Fortunately Dr. Deb is one of our three Spanish speakers and by two or three sets of inquiries we ere able to locate the road to the trailhead.  Then the fun really began because it was a steep dirt road with a series of about 8 tight switchbacks.  Cabinet Lady was our driver and her rental car is a small, underpowered Opel.  But she did a great job of powering her way up the switchbacks.  I think maximum heart rate was achieved during that drive.  This of course had been the de-I plan and I fully expected to get the insurance from at least one of them dying of heart attack.  But Noooooo.  They all made it.

Then we actually started the hike going about 7 miles round trip.  It was a good climb but I’d be hard pressed to guess the actual gain.  I had been concerned about heat because it has been in the 90’s.  But we started much higher and because of the altitude all through the hike we pretty much weren’t heat oppressed.  After about halfway into the climb we were above the tree line and from that point we had great views.  We didn’t seem many people until we reached the point where we decided to turn back where we ran into two sets of hikers.  Then looking down into a high valley we saw a shepherd and a flock of goats. Pretty cool.

Hard to believe that this innocuous trail sign is at the end of the road of death!

Our Trailhead

On we go

Andrew, Cabinet Lady, and Dr. Deb making sure de-I Sandia Outfitter Guide is well away from them

Lady Di's survival technique is to ensure that she puts plenty of space between her and the de-I guide.

"Back off guide.  My insurance is pledged to charity and I'm not carrying any valuables."

At our destination, The Pain of Lovers

Dr. Deb consoles Cabinet Lady for having turned down the marriage proposal from the Moroccan parking attendant in Cordoba. 

de-I may not have gotten any gains but he did have a good hike :)

The ride down was nowhere near as stressful as the one up.  It was about 2 PM by the time we finished which is around the time people eat lunch here.  We had lunch at a café on a square we had passed at the nearest town to the trail.  We ordered a bunch of tapas:

Cheese

Hot and cold sausage

Baccalao-salt cod-in tomato sauce

Tortilla-potato and eggs

Potato salad with aioli – garlic mayonnaise

Then we went back to the rental, showered and rested in contentment where we found that SRM had made one beautiful bread pudding.