8 February 2018 – Almond Blossom

Nineteen of us for this year’s Almond Blossom walk

Once more we did a figure of eight walk Parcent-Murla-Parcent-Alcalali

After a couple of grey Thursday’s we were fortunate to have bright sunshine and blue skies today, which showed the almond blossom at its best

We had done three recce to choose the best route and the best photo opportunities

Our first stop was in a field of almond trees with a fine view of Murla

So we had excellent views to go with our banana stop

This area is not so popular for almond walks, though we feel it is just as attractive as the Jalon valley

We had a short stop as we completed the first half of the figure eight

Which gave us an opportunity to admire the view of Parcent through the almond blossom.

The next part of the walk was through fields of orange and almond trees, with good views of Alcalali

Our next stop was at the mirador outside the village

Where we had our picnic lunch

Again with impressive views, this time back to Parcent 

The river was deeper and faster than when we did our last recce, but everyone crossed safely

Then we had a detour off the main valley roads

We brought apple chunks for this horse we found on our recce, but he was tied to the tree today and we had to throw them to him

This detour was very popular as it covered part of the valley most had not seen before

We also found this family of goats on our recce and today we took time to take a few photos

There was a nice relaxed and friendly feel to today’s walk

A visit to the Pensionista in Parcent was a fitting conclusion to an excellent walk

Nick and Janet are on a cruise, so we did not have our most reliable provider of walk stats.   Three of us recorded the walk, but all came to different findings.   The average was just over 14 km with about 200 metres of ascent and the walk took just over 5 hours.