Sierra Nevada: Beas de Granada Ridge Walk

This is the second of the two walks we did when we visited Granada in summer 2019. As with the first one, we got the route details from Trek Sierra Nevada, which is an excellent resource for anyone visiting the national park and its environs. We chose to take a taxi out of the city again so we could start the walk as early as possible: the temperature was forecast to be higher than on the previous walk and, as you can see from the photo above, the exposed ridge offers nothing in the way of shelter.

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Sierra Nevada: Los Cahorros de Monachil

This was the first of two hikes we did when we visited Granada in the summer of 2019. For both walks, we relied upon the excellent website Trek Sierra Nevada. It provides detailed hiking routes that you can search by length, by location or by season, as well as several pages of invaluable supporting information for anyone visiting the region. We didn't hire a car while we were in the city and picked the routes we did because they were accessible by public transport. In the event, we were in Andalucía just after the European heatwave of 2019 so we took taxis out of the city early in the morning to ensure we'd either be finished or near the end of our walks by the time the day was at its hottest in the mid-afternoon.

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The Other Side of Shining Tor: Jenkin Chapel, Todd Brook Valley and Lamaload Reservoir

The Goyt Valley is understandably popular with dedicated walkers and casual visitors alike: it has woodland and rivers, hills and moors, even a picturesque ruined hall - and if you time it right you might come across the welcome sight of an ice cream van in one of the car parks by Errwood Reservoir. Shining Tor, the official highest point of modern Cheshire stands over the Goyt Valley at 1834 feet above sea level. There are expansive views from here across the Cheshire Plain into Wales, over towards Manchester and the Western Pennines, and - more immediately - down into the large, natural basin of heath and farmland that forms the Todd Brook Valley on its western side.

Cats Tor (right)

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