Thursday, 13 March 2014

Sierra de Aracena – The Walk of the Forgotten Hamlet

This walk is described by Guy as ‘one of the loveliest walks in the Sierra’ therefore we chose this as our second and last hike in the Sierra de Aracena. It connects two lovely villages, Linares and Alájar. We drove up to the latter.



We really enjoyed this walk. The route lead us amongst many oak farms and we were desperate to find some black pigs. The view over the valley was lovely.




Suddenly, three small pig-like things came running over the low stone fence toward us! Here they are, the famous black pigs! We quickly got out our cameras and phones and started to take photos of them. We even made funny noises to catch their attention! Then anxiously looked around to make sure that there was nobody else around as this was a highly embarrassing moment.




It was a relief that finally we spotted them but unfortunately I could only see euro signs on them. One pig has four legs (according to my last count) and it means that four of those black feet bring in a tidy sum of about 1200 euro each!

After the forgotten hamlet we spotted a lovely field on the side of the walk and sat down to enjoy the view. At first it was all idyllic and peaceful but as we looked and listened the field came to life, birds were tweeting, insects were buzzing, cow bells were ringing, huge birds of prey were circling above us, flowers were swaying gently in the breeze. Spring has arrived to Andalusia!





After a few minutes we continued our walk and saw that a donkey was walking towards us! It walked right up to me and stopped. I couldn’t help myself and stroked its clean and still soft fur. It seemed to enjoy the attention. I really wanted to keep it but Paul didn’t let me. As usual. I had already been refused a baby elephant and a sea turtle a few years ago. Where is my freedom of action in this relationship?!





We got to the village of Linares all tired and thirsty. We found a lovely bar that was called the ‘Balcón de Linares’ and managed to score the prime spot on its small balcony.




The way back to Alájar was shorter but steeper and it felt good pushing ourselves before arriving to the main square in the sunshine.  

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