SATURDAY 6TH JUNE saw 7 of us take on the 3 hour walk from Jimera de Libar to Benaojan, then on Sunday Dawn, Celia and myself walked the Gaucin 'loop' and today the same 3 of us spent 3 hours walking down to the Ermita de Santo Nino..............
SATURDAY 6TH JUNE
WALKING TO BENAOJAN WITH JIM, ALICE, MARY, JOHN, DAWN AND CELIA
On Saturday we enjoyed the beautiful walk from Jimera to Benaojan, this 7km track follows the railway track and the Rio Guadiaro as it makes its way towards Ronda, the scenery is simply stunning. We had a high cloud which took the sting out of the sun but reduced the number of butterflies on the wing. Birdlife was fairly quiet too, we saw lots of Grey Wagtails, White Wagtails, Crag Martins and Barn Swallows along the river and plenty of Blackcaps, Common Nightingales and Cetti's Warblers were in song as well as the odd Bonelli's Warbler and Iberian Chiffchaff. We missed out on Dipper sightings but managed to see Golden Oriole and a few Griffon Vultures.
THE GIRLS - MARY, ALICE, CELIA AND DAWN
After our 3 hour ordeal we sat out on the terrace of the Molino del Santo restaurant and ate the most delicious lunch and instead of walking back to Jimera we caught the 4pm train, how nice was that! It took us 8 minutes to get back instead of 3 hours, amazing!
THE GANG AT LUNCH - CELIA IS TAKING THE PICTURE - BINS AT THE READY IN THE FOREGROUND!
SUNDAY 6TH JUNE
DAWN, CELIA AND MYSELF WALKED THE GAUCIN 'LOOP'
From the east side of the village you can take a track that runs below the castle and loops round to west returning to the village via the Camino Gibraltar. It drops quite steeply and continues to drop for about 2km where it levels for a few 100 meters before it starts a 2km climb back up - such fun? We arrived at the bottom of the hill just as the sun broke through the clouds.
The east side was sheltered from a brisk breeze and as a result many butterflies were on the wing, Silver Studded Blue, Brown Argus, Painted Lady, Sage Skipper, Spanish Gate Keeper, Meadow Brown, Wall Brown, Brimstone, Cleopatra and Small White.
BRIMSTONE
SPANISH GATEKEEPER
MONDAY - 8TH JUNE
It was a long walk down to the Ermita but it felt a dam-sight longer coming back up! Luckily it was overcast throughout the walk but it did get hot on the way back up. It was enjoyable as we saw lots of birdies and butterflies. Bee-eaters flew over and above them Common Buzzards, Common Kestrel, Booted Eagles and Griffon Vultures circled. We saw Cirl Bunting, Corn Bunting, Stonechat, Bonelli's Warblers, Blackcap and heard Common Nightingale, Iberian Chiffchaff and Crested Tit.
Butterflies were plentiful, see the photos below: Blue-spot Hairstreak, Brown Argus, Silver Studded Blue, Brimstone, Painted Lady, Wall Brown, Meadow Brown, Spanish Gatekeeper, Small Heath and Swallowtail. A couple of dragonflies turned up too, Common Goldenring (Cordulegaster boltonii)and Small Pincertail ( Onychogomphus forcipatus) and a couple of damselflies.
Small Pincertail ( Onychogomphus forcipatus)
Blue-spot Hairstreak - the blue spot has been broken off?
Brown Argus
Sulver Studded Blue