Summer walking in Andalucia, Spain

I have managed to fit in a lovely walk despite the heat! Rona, a friend of ours, came to visit us to exchange some Reiki sessions with me and we went for a walk the following morning in the Genal Valley. Rona is a reflexology and Reiki practitionner and a hang glider instructor and she also runs Suroma holidays, offering activity holidays, law of attraction courses and yoga and 5 rhythm dancing workshops. We meet up once in a while to exchange Reiki sessions, which is always great! We should do it more often really!

We set off for our walk at about 9am and it was already quite hot! But, thankfully, the path we followed meandered through Sweet Chestnut woodland, enabling us to walk mainly in the welcome, cool shade of these majestuous trees. They are actually in bloom at the moment, turning the whole valley yellow. Their yellow blossom is very pungent and I would imagine that the pollen count would be quite high at present in the upper Genal Valley!

The bottom of the valley was also very cool and shady, where we crossed a cristal clear river, which eventually joins the Genal River.

We don't normally advertise walking holidays in the Summer because of the heat, but on the rare occasions we have had walking guests, we normally set off walking at 8am. This way, most of the walking is done when it is still cool. If you are walking independently in Andalucia, try setting off about 8am and aim to finish your walk by 10:30 / 11am.

We then reached Parauta, a Pueblo blanco or white village and enjoyed a welcome andalucian breakfast (toast with olive oil and a coffee) in the lovely courtyard of the restaurant El Anafe, which is covered with flowers. What a lovely way to start the day!