Sierra de Guadarrama

Sierra de La Cabrera.

Mountain stream after a storm a few hours before. La Sierra de La Cabreral.

La Sierra de La Cabrera. Always easier to follow the granite and do a bit of rock-hopping than try and push through the vegetation. You would lose the shirt off your back, as I did once before I learnt the hard way!

Sierra de La Cabrera above the fog. Spot the Griffon vulture. Peñalara, the highest point in the Sierra de Guadarrama(2428m, 7975 feet) is on the horizon, nearly dead centre. I am at approx 5,000 feet, so considerably above Ben Nevis.

Typical of the late spring vegetation among the granite boulders.

The four towers, as in the next photo, can be seen as a slight smudge on the horizon just to the right of the rock window. Sierra de La Cabrera, Las Agujas de Cancho Gordo in granite country.

Valdemanco, Madrid Province. Sierra de La Cabrera and the Bustarviejo Valley.

Sierra de La Cabrera, western end, just below Cancho Gordo and overlooking the Bustarviejo Valley.

Maybe that was the light that day but everything seems very yellow! Granite scrambling country I once knew intimitaly but I have been coming here less and less and this exact spot maybe not since I took this in 2012. It needs a re-visit before I forget the paths and the rock-hopping manoeuvres completely. In the distance, the pretty town of Bustarviejo and behind it the start of the Sierra de Guadarrama proper.

View over the plateau of La Castilla Nueva from Cancho Gordo. In the very basic Google editing tool that I am reduced to using these days, I couldn't reduce the amount of sky. I didn't want a 50% horizon line but anyway here it is!

I came here knowing that if the fog didn't lift, at least I knew the paths back even if almost blind (I knew them so well, even this early in my visits here). But I hoped for more than that and this is what I got!

Sierra de La La Cabrera. A landscape shot this time. The lavender keeps it company in May!

Precarious granite boulders, encina (holm oak) and blue sky - comprise the typicity of La Sierra de La Cabrera. My path goes serenely past the rock on the left and under the overhanging branches! An idyllic stroll!

Please see notes on the previous upload. For Pam. The road you see is the N1 motorway from Madrid to Burgos and then further north (Bilbao, San Sebastian? I'm not sure). When I drove from Madrid here in 1981 the motorway didn't exist and I recall being stuck in La Cabrera while they got their sheep to market. So we stopped the car and went for a walk up the slopes of La Sierra de La Cabrera and enjoyed a good scramble, the spectacular crags as seen from the road being too hard to resist! Little did I know then that this would be my prefered walking area many years later!

The next shot was taken from Cancho Gordo, exactly hidden behind the tallest flower! For Marie-claire.

On the horizon, the Sierra de Guadarrama (central section) and on the right the miniature but perfectly formed Sierra de La Cabrera.

Sierra de La Cabrera, under Cancho Largo. The path I take goes through that obvious gap on the skyline left / centre.