Mulhacén

Bleary eyed, I smash my alarm until it ceases making a racket at such an early hour! Even a shower does nothing to rouse me from the state of semi-consciousness in which I find myself. I devour my dry prepackaged breakfast and begin to pack my bike. The air at this hour and this altitude (1500 metres) has a crisp bite to it. I hop on my motorbike and ride to the end of the loose and bumpy road.

Mulhacén rises to 3482 metres and is the highest peak in Europe outside of the Alps and the Caucasus Mountains. I approach from the South and am informed that the ascent is roughly nine hours of walking from Hoya del Portilla (2145 metres). Most people do the ascent over two day. I am not most people though :)

After returning to collect my sunglasses, I begin, for a second time, to hike up the huge southern slope that has the shape of a half pipe rising to the summit. My breathing is heavy and my heart is trying to jump out of its ribcage, as I do not have nine hours to complete the route.

Whilst the south flank of the mountain presents no technical challenge, the mid-morning sunshine is already enough to put sweat on my brow. I take few breaks as I continue to push up the mountain. I reach the summit at shortly before 1pm and peer down the steep North face. This is an impressive piece of rock and I wish I had climbed a route on this instead. Still, now there is something to come back to ;-)

On a clear day one can see as far as Morocco and half of Andalusia. Today is not a clear day though. I descend the steep scree slope of the west flank and retrace my route to Hoya del Portilla. Seven hours and thirty minutes after leaving, I arrive back at my motorbike. I am shattered. This is one ride that I am not looking forward to!

I slide my way down the track and ride zombified to Granada, where the hunt for accommodation begins. The overwhelming heat over Granada compared to the freshness of the mountains is almost unbearable. Next on the agenda is food...

Granada is the first place I have come to in Spain that offer free tapas with every drink. What a fantastic idea! As I am sampling the menu of a local eatery, I discover the most entertaining drunk in Spain. Tears of laughter roll down my face as this Basil Fawlty character chats up the most beautiful women around by revealing his secret: he is Che Guevara. He is so surprised when this revelation fails to have the desired effect, that Che begins to hurl abuse at them in German! ...Maybe you have to be here ;-)