At the beginning of the month I got to help out on the 2nd day of a very important job. I got to go and help the hu’parents & others restore the Caballo refuge. We left Lanjaron at 5am after having met Pepe and Jesús, drove for an hour up to the trailhead where we met Toni, Jonni, Pepito (the mule) and two pupsters. They had spent the night there ready to bring more supplys up to the hut.
The walk to the hut was a slow one because Pepito had to have regular stops for resting after carrying heavy weight all up hill. It was great for me as I had more time to look more for mountain goats.
So whilst we were having breakfast, a big group of Ibex ran past and the two little pupsters decided they were going after them, much to the amusement of myself and the humans. You see the pupsters had tiny little legs and were never ever ever going to get anywhere near the Ibex.
And so after breakfast we continued on our way up the mountain to the hut. Oh and by the way me and pupster 2 did become friends.
And then we were off again
Wow I made it to the lovely lake near the hut. Hu’mum took me straight down to the lake for a cool off. It had taken us 5 hours walking just to get to the hut and we hadnt even started work yet!
Whilst the humans worked, I supervised the goings on. Pepito had his goods taken off his back and was led down to the lake for a cool drink and rest before he, the muleteers and pupsters headed back down the mountain again. I sat in the shade, looked in through the window whilst hu’mum, hu’dad and Jesús set about painting and Pepe put the door to the hut on!
Whilst we were outside having finished painting we started to get flybys from Griffon Vultures. We all know how much hu’mum loves these birds and she gets very excited when they appear in the Sierra Nevada. Im afraid this was the best photo she could produce from this camera.
And after the rest we had to head back down the mountain to the car. We reached the car in 2 hours. We would have been quicker but I got rather hot, as you saw from the pics there is very little shade up there, it was hotter than we had all expected. When we did reach any kind of shade I made a run for it. Hu’mum began to worry about me, she stopped with me under some trees lower down for a good 20 mins allowing me to recover before the final 10 mins back to the car. Boy was I hot. The best part about being a hot dog is that I got to ride in the back of the pickup rather than boot. Me and hu’mum shared the back seat all the way down to Lanjaron.
You can read hu’dads report its more informative about what we were upto and shows pictures of the hut and also read how you can help with more restoration work of other mountain huts in the Sierra Nevada.