Portuguese Majors

23-05-2013 – 24-05-2013 

The whole of Portugal was enjoying bright sunshine – except for the Serra de Estrala – as I toured the various serras (hill ranges) looking for Majors. Glad I did it as I saw a side of the depopulated rural side of the country that I would not have seen otherwise.  It looks like much of the country has been abandoned to agricultural ‘set-aside’ with uncared groves of olive trees and vast areas of uncultivated land, resulting in an astonishing and abundant display and range of wild flowers.

I thoroughly enjoyed the journey – and the relatively trivial task of bagging the hills from high start points.

Serra de Montemuro/Talegre   

The most northerly of the Portuguese Majors that I visited is on the Serra de Montemuro, a nature reserve, which would be quite attractive with its wealth of wild flowers and the many scattered boulders that reminded me of Kinder Scout, except that the whole thing is a giant wind power station. Because of the power station it is possible to drive to very near the summit by turning off the N321 at Portas Bar petrol station (1208m) N40.96623 W8.00812. 

I parked at N40.96959 W7.99168 (1336m), although it is possible to park at N40.97262 W7.98828 (1340m), just to give my legs a stretch. The top which is named Talegre or Talefre is a Major 1382m P833 at N40.97398 W7.98778 is like a Dartmoor tor with a large obelisk and a trig point. As I explored and clambered over the rocks I could hear church bells which reminded me of hearing something similar in the mist on Slieve League, County Donegal.

Lovely flowers. Horrible windmills.

1.76km, 104m ascent

Malhao da Estrala/La Torre 

It seems that wherever you are in mid Portugal there is a view of the Serra de Estrala and signs pointing towards it, until you get up close. Whereas the rest of Portugal was enjoying sunshine the Estrala, like Cross Fell, had its own weather system – and today there was a large cloud just above the summit.

After a bit of confusion where two exits from the same roundabout were signed to the Serra de Estrala I managed to find the road that winds its way from north to south over the top. I pulled up in the carpark near the summit by a group of nuns who appeared to be performing a scene from Father Ted – one of them was flapping her arms and making loud bird noises. 

The  summit has a number of buildings, markers and communication globes on its summit these include a torre/tower, three trig points (one of which on a tall plinth) and a couple of shops that smell very much of a strong cheese on sale. The summit, Malhao da Estrala/La Torre happens to be Portugal’s highest point, a Major 1991m P1202 N40.32190 W7.61291 still bore traces of snow. Not much of a view from the actual summit, but more extensive ones from lower down.

Serra da Gardunha 

I spent a while driving up tracks – afterwards, despite the windows being closed, the interior of my motorhome was covered in a layer of  dust – to arrive at a point where I feared for the chassis of my motorhome to continue any further after N40.09885 W7.50851 (1101m). From there  it was simply a matter of following a dirt track to a summit with an obelisk, in amongst the detritus of summit masts and the wild flowers.

 Its name? Serra da Gardunha Major 1227m P770 N40.08076 W7.52572. Wide, if hazy, views all round

Overnight in a designated area for motorhomes by a large artificial lake, found by chance in the town of Vila Velha de Radao just as I was beginning to wonder where on earth I could stop.

Pico Sao Mamede 

The next morning I set off to Portalegre and then up on to the flower covered Serra Mamede. There is a road all the way up to the top of Pico Sao Mamede Major 1025m P659 N39.31346 W7.36060 . I parked by the masts at 39.31327 7.35979. The summit is marked by an elevated trig on top of some rocks. There were extensive views across Portugal and into Spain.

 

Then it was off to meet Patrick in Lisbon/Lisboa, which was enjoying a heat wave. And to find where all the people had moved to when they left the rest of Portugal.

Overnight in the Holiday Inn, Lisboa.

Canchal de la Ceja

22-05-2013

Canchal de la Ceya

En route to El Calvitero

Canchal de la Ceya -Sierra de Bejar

Started from 1863m high carpark  Plataforma del Travieso (1850m) N40.33503 W5.73245. As I was getting ready to go three young men turned up and headed off up the hill. I deliberately let them go off ahead of me in the hope that if they were going my way that they could do the hard work of navigating and pioneering through the fresh snow and I could literally follow in their footsteps. There first bit was a bit odd and hard going, however, they soon picked up a path that starts from the near end of the car park from the main road from Bejar. Despite my best efforts to keep behind them I still overtook them before we reached the summit of El Calvitero and then they turned back anyway. Aren’t some people odd, fancy going for a walk on the hill without being a bagger?

El Calvitero

I continued to pioneer to El Calvitero (2399m) N40.31731 W5.72399, marked by a metal tube, and then dropped down to the snowfree col (2326m) N40.30935 W5.73041 before, heading back into the drifting snow on the final uphill stretch to the summit of Canchal de la Ceya, Major 2430m P1153 N40.30457 W5.72899. The summit near the edge of a steep corrie wall is marked by a cairn and a silver space rocket. As I was still a bit tired from the previous day’s exertions on Almanzor and I had a long drive ahead of me, I decided to forgo exploring the El Torreon crags and head back.

Going back I foolishly left for a while the route I had pioneered and ending up flogging through more fresh snow. However, it meant that the route was a bit shorter and going down is easier than up, although not when the snow is hiding dwarf pine trees.

5.5hrs, 11.45km, 1036m ascent

I then drove into Portugal for the first time in my life, crossing the border at Fuentes de Onoro (E) and Vilar Formosa (P) to spend the night in a service area near Guarda on the edge of the Sierra de Estrala.

Circo de Gredos

21-05-2013.

An easy start

The day started in bright sunshine, I was making a nice early start from La Plataforma (1748m) N40.27557 W5.23211 on an obvious, well maintained and clearly waymarked trail PR AV-17 alongside the Rio de Prado before winding up the hillside. 

Circo de Gredos - Pico de Almanzor is on the left

After a while the maintenance is less obvious and the deepening snowcover was hiding all but the most obvious waymarks. Way up on the side of Los Barreones there is a small seating area and the Fuente de Cavedros (2136m) N40.27106 W5.25857. The ‘fuente’ turned out to be nothing more than a small pipe sticking out of the wall, with running water. The path goes up over the ridge and drops again to a noticeboard (2157m) N40.26783 W5.26784 where there is a good first proper view of the Circo de Gredos, including the Pico de Almanzor. Then there is a steady height loss as the path traverses down to a stream crossing (2028m) N40.26160 W5.26859 and a view of the Laguna Grande. 

Laguna Grande

The path continues to drop down to the laguna, which is frozen but not sufficiently to be trusted to walk across. So I had to pick my way through the untrodden snow at the water’s edge initially to a footbridge and then to the Refugio Elola 1942m N40.25050 W5.27976. The refugio was cerrado, although there is an unlocked winter room with bunks and blankets.

Refugio Elola

Almanzor from below - earlier

Unfortunately the bright sunshine of the morning start was not holding on. Clouds were beginning to form behind the Circo. Furthermore, there was no real sign of any paths towards the summit. So I made my own way up to Portilla Bermeja (2422m) N40.24346 W5.29583 a mere 450m away from the summit. However, what a 450m this turned out to be. The cloud had by now reduced visibility to a few metres, the updraft winds blew strongly and picked up a certain amount of stinging spindrift, the terrain is already difficult never mind icy old snow covered in new snow and I could tell that I was at a height where the drop in barometric pressure begins to take effect. I had to backtrack several times as I met obstacles and find an ‘easier’ way and even then there several occasions when I was outside my comfort zone. Mercifully, the rock climb at the very top was actually made marginally easier by the presence of snow. Nevertheless, it was touch and go – and that is exactly what I did, I touched the summit of Pico de Almanzor (Ultra 2592m P1690) with my hand and went – and I had to do it all again back to the Portilla Bermeja. On the way I slipped on a steep slope and for the first time ever had to do an ice-brake in earnest – and, was I pleased that it worked?

Almanzor from below - later

The drop down to the refugio was relatively easy, although it was the ‘wrong kind of snow’ for glissading and sliding. I debated with myself about stopping overnight and decided that I had enough daylight hours to get back. There were moments as I slogged my way back up towards Los Barreones that I wished I had made the alternative decision.

22.36km, 2214m ascent.

Overnight at La Plataforma.

Swiveleyesation

18-05-2013 - 20-05-2013

Over the next two days of sunny periods and sudden heavy rainstorms, that dried out quite quickly I managed to cycle around the centre of Madrid and visit the Museo Nacional de Prado and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, where there was a special Dali exhibition as well as the normal paintings such as Picasso’s Guernica. Other than the Bosch and Brueghel paintings at the Prado my favourite was Carlos de Haes La canal de Mancorbo en los Picos de Europa (1876).

Madrid was OK as cities go, however it did not seem anything special to me. Interesting(?) to note that most of Madrid is over 610m high – i.e. would count as a mountain in UK.

 

Carlos de Haes  - La canal de Mancorbo en los Picos de Europa (1876)

Two nights at the Arco Iris campsite near Vilaviciosa de Odon.

I then drove to Arenas de San Pedro in the Sierra de Gredos and after a couple of hours moved on to a rather basic campsite at Hoyos del Espino. I was the only person staying on the site and communication with the rather drunk man in the reception was limited.

Rain in Spain falls as snow on the non-plain

17-05-2013

Segovia Alcazar

After a brief visit to Segovia to look at the Alcazar (fortress) and the impressive Roman aqueduct in heavy rain I set off to the Sierra de Guadamarrama where the rain was falling as heavy snow.

Vigilare

The woman in the ‘Vigililare’ hut at the start of the climb looked at me as if I was crazy, as I told her that I wasn’t going to the Lagunda Grande de Penalara. Because I was headed for Pico de Penalara – Major 2429m P1114 at N40.85000 W3.95600 (honestly, that was my GPS reading, I haven’t rounded up the figures).

So I started from the large car park at Los Cotos (1821m) N40.82326 W3.96041 up the wooden steps to the Vigilare hut and then on to route RP1. Although a clearly marked route it was made a little more difficult to follow because of the deep snow and the practice of putting the markers at the junctions in the middle making it unclear as to which branch was the correct one. At the junction (1972m) at N40.82918 W3.95663 I took the right turn and after a few hundred metres I was heading in the wrong direction. The correct branch is the one on the left. The next junction at N40.83170 W3.95983 has a clear sign for the Pico de Penalara. However, from there the track was quite obscured by snow. I went over the summits of Hermana Menor (2269m) N40.83446 W3.96609 and Hermana Mayor (2284m) N40.84000 W3.96298. 

Although there was deep snow along this ridge, it forms a border between the provinces of Segovia and Madrid and there is a line of border markers that aid navigation, even though the visibility was less than the distance between them. At times I I ended up in thigh-deep snow drifts. The last section of the route is cairned in the excessive English Lake District style. The summit is marked by a trig point and a name board. 

There was no view – indeed it was a white out. 

JHM has a return route that continues along the ridge and a traverse back to the start. Because of the white-out I decided it was another ‘better the devil you know’ situation. Even so my ascent footprints had already been filled by fresh snow so I still had to navigate rather than just follow my trail.

As ever, sod’s law kicked in and as I reached the bottom the skies cleared and the sun shone for a short while.

Five hours, 12.92km, 1065m ascent.

I stayed overnight in the car park at Los Cotos – and when I woke in the morning I was parked in fresh snow that had fallen overnight. Time to escape to swivel-eyesation and pay a visit to a couple of Madrid’s art galleries. As I headed into town I could see that people were looking at my motorhome not just because it has the exotic steering wheel on the right, but also because there was still snow on the roof.

Tell no lies here

16-05-2013

El Teleno/Pico Teleno is a Major 2185m P1086 in the Sierra del Teleno at N42.34593 W6.39377. To get there involved driving up a high road that at one point has a sign saying the height is 1957m (for the benefit of my non-bagger readers: Ben Nevis is 1343m high; 1957-1343=614; in the UK anything over 610m high is considered to be a mountain). 

My starting point was at 1682m from a bend in the road from San Cristobal de Valduez to Corporales at N42.35017 W6.43172. There is an obvious path – that looks like a shallow ditch – that runs straight up the hillside through deep heather. At the top it meets a broad ridge, where there was a host of golden Narcissus asturiensis at 1872m N42.35438 W6.42360. From here the track becomes less obvious and there are several stretches of boulder hopping, made more ‘interesting’ by having a skim of fresh snow on the smooth rocks. The ridge drops to a bealach at N42.35006 W6.40264 and then rises with more boulder hopping. Thankfully higher up the boulders were covered with deep snow. The summit is marked by a cylindrical trig point and a collection of nonsense religious trinkets.

As usual there was no view from the summit. My descent route was the same as the ascent one and was against the wind and almost continual hail.

Four hours, 8.9km, 760m ascent.

On my long drive to mid Spain I passed through a strange deserted village Cubo de Benavente.

Overnight at a service area on the A6 near Arevalo, Avila.