brisca

Hi folks

Well it seems that some people like to see photos from different places that I visit with my walking group....................so here are some pictures from today's outing.

We went to the Valle del Jerte, in the far north of Extremadura (the largest cherry producing area in Spain )
We walked 16km, and the weather was fabulous! I don't know what the actual temperature was, but the sky was bright blue and cloudless - and we wore short sleeves all day, once the initial early morning coolness had passed.
The area is mountainous, so it's always colder there than where we live.
The only drawback is that it's an hour and a half's drive each way; but the scenery more than makes up for that.

Our walk first took us to Los Pilones - water comes down from the mountain and gushes over boulders that have been eroded into very interesting shapes.
In the summer, people "surf" down the length of the Pilones on their behinds, bumping from one rocky pool to the next in icy cold water!
Very refreshing when it's 44 degrees, but obviously not on the cards for today!

Then we continued on the main route, which is called la Garganta de los Infiernos and which crosses a famous route called Carlos V (Carlos Quinto)
(Just mentioning the names, in case anyone is interested in looking them up for future reference?)

We ate our elevenses next to Los Pilones, and lunch next to an ancient bridge (named after Carlos V; the Spanish king who came to Extremadura to end his days at the monastery of Yuste)
The only sound was the water, and the bells from a passing herd of goats!

The return leg of the walk was all through woods, with leaves of varying colours just starting to fall. The best part of all was the huge amount of chestnut trees and all the chestnuts on the ground
There were 16 of us out walking today, and we all collected pockets full of chestnuts - but there were plenty left for the next people passing through.

We made it back to the car park just before it got dark (6.30pm) and fed the remains of our packed lunches to a poor dog that was very timid, and didn't seem to belong to anyone
Thankfully he wasn't dreadfully skinny, otherwise I might have had to bundle him into the car and bring him home with me!

After stopping for a coffee, we set off for home; driving through Monfrague natural park, and hoping we might see some deer - but no luck tonight.
It was a real shock this morning, driving through the park and seeing the very low water levels in the reservoirs We desperately need some rain here!

Anyway, that was my day. Left home at 8am and got back at 9pm!
Am still on a high - hence not able to go to sleep yet!

Hope you like the photos.

brisca

Here I am relaxing after my elevenses!

3 photos of some of the scenery.

Me trying to be artistic, and snapping a friend as she explored an old mill.

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Carlos V bridge, where we ate lunch.

Pictures of the woods and artistic attempts at trees

brisca

Lastly!...............For all you animal lovers:

Rex, a gorgeous 6 month old GSD that we met during the walk

A very large goat!

One of several horses grazing by the path.

The dog that was very keen to take food from us, but was extremely timid and wary

Eve

Good Morning,
The photos are absolutely fantastic, thank you for sharing them. The scenery is unbelievavle, you lucky thing.
What a lovley life you lead, when do you have time to work?
keep them coming,
Luv Eve
xx

SueG

I do so love your threads, xxxx

Rosemary

Hi Sam

Excellent photo's and description as usual. I really do enjoy reading about your experiences in your part of Spain. I noticed that you said that there were only 16 of you walking yesterday, I know that often your numbers are much greater but what is the average number on your walks?

Please keep posting your stories and photo's as I am sure there are many of us who enjoy them.

Rosemary

rugbymatt

Been there!!!!!


God what lovely pics!

I can remember being there, it was just amazing.

rugbymatt

From the look of this set of photos it looks like you took all the animals on the walk too!

MnM

Sorry, couldn't help myself

I had to do something with one of those photographs and that specific poem, well ever since I have met Sam on here, it feels to me that she is one of the few who has achieved all the poem is talking about.

Posting it with love,
Martha

SueG

Martha, that was so lovely. You are clever

brisca

Hello lovely people

I managed to read Eve's reply over breakfast, and was in the middle of composing a reply when we received a phone call that ruined our day!
I won't go into all the ins and outs of it here (boring and annoying!) but it does relate to our prospective house build - and it ended up being a very stressful day.

I managed to read the rest of the lovely comments at lunchtime, but was still trying to sort out problems.
Then I spent the evening helping a troubled friend.
Have not long had my tea, and am completely "talked out" and "Spanished out!"

However, I must tell you Martha that your wonderful poem couldn't have come at a better time
I was REALLY fed up just before I saw it, and you definitely made me smile and calm down. I just want to say a HUGE THANK YOU!!
As Sue said, you really are very clever - and I loved what you did with the photo.
You must have had some kind of sixth sense that I was in dire need of cheering up - and it certainly did the trick

Sending you love and very grateful hugs, Martha.

Now I'm finally sitting down, I can reply to everyone who kindly posted on here.

brisca

Thank you Eve

I am extremely fortunate at the moment, in that I'm not working - hence I am living the life of Riley!
My O/H doesn't enjoy languages as much as I do, so my "job" is to be chief translator, telephonist, secretary and "social networker!"
In the meantime, he's keeping me in the manner to which I'm (rapidly becoming!) accustomed

In the future, I'd love to have a job, but we live in an area where they are hard enough to come by for Spanish people - let alone imposters!
As we are (hopefully) about to start building a house, I can't be at work and talking to the builder at the same time, so here I am at O/H's side for the time being.

Of course, I am secretly fluent!
I just tell the O/H that I'm struggling with verbs, the past tense and the subjunctive....................and so I continue on my merry way

My area of work is with disabled people, so obviously my language skills need to be a lot more proficient than they currently are!
I really miss my job at school That was one of the best jobs I had; I adore children

Hope you've had a good day at school?
Love Sam x

brisca

Thank you Sue!

It's nice to know that there are people who are interested

brisca

Thank you Rosemary

Our club apparently has approximately 150 members, but the most I've ever seen was last weekend in Guadelupe, when there were about 60-70 of us walking.

Our regular Sunday group numbers anything between 10 and 20; and then the club organises a monthly coach trip, when maybe 40-50 people come along for the walk.

I've been a member for almost a year now, and we've got our AGM and the annual meal coming up in the next two months - so it will be interesting to see how many people turn up for the "jollies" rather than the walking

To be honest, I don't much enjoy it when there is a larger group. I am really comfortable with the regular 20 or so, and we also get together for a variety of meals and other social occasions - so they are the people I know best.