View from Pico de Cielo

Say what you like about the spanish - they know how to do misty mountains.

Up early early this morning to drive to the Nerja caves, for the start of the route to the top of Cielo, the lovely peak that dominates the town.

Too early in fact, as I ended up dozing in the car for forty minutes, waiting for first light at 0730.

The last time I did this walk (at least 6 years and 2 stones ago) you could drive the first few km, but now there's a locked gate, which added an extra 40 mins each way. As it turned out, the route markings where much better than I remembered, so I could have started in the dark anyway.

About 1300m of ascent and 3 hours later I made it onto the summit (just over 1500m, so I'll add that to my Munro tally for the year), out into full sunshine for the first time and with this view to the east. A nice cool
breeze on top, but the lower I got on the descent, the hotter it got and the last stretch back to the car was a sweltering slog indeed.

Definitely not as fit as I used to be, but was very pleased with myself anyway. It used to be that I would set off up any hill fully confident that I would get to the top. Today I doubted myself nearly all the way - it was nice to prove myself wrong.