Grumpy old mountain man living in Spain
Since Dec 2022 we have been running our own Mastodon & GoToSocial servers. What a breath of fresh air the Fediverse has been. We have made many hundreds of new friends from around the world, mostly related to our mountain, tech and nature interests.
Connect with me/us on the Fediverse at:
I started reading "Privacy is Power" by Carissa Véliz last night. Although I have been onboard with the concept for quite a few years now, the scale of the deception is still incredible. Looks to be a very well written and readable book for anyone interested and concerned about surveillance capitalism.
Wasps appear to be a lot more aggressive than normal at the moment. Went 20+ years living in Spain and not getting stung and then this year I've had about 15 stings in the past few months just wandering around our "campo" as normal.
Last weekend the BBC showed an all-day replay of the Live Aid concerts from London and Philadelphia. After 40 years it certainly made me feel old. But weren't we so lucky to have been born into a generation with so much innovative musical talent?
Highlights for me Queen, The Who, U2, Bowie etc. But many others. Some of these of course are sadly no longer with us.
It's also strange that I can't remember what I did last week but knew most of the words to songs from 40+ years ago! 🤣
8 years ago this pack of ours was a bit of a handful 🤣. Where did we sit? Two are still with us fortunately. Great memories of these fluff balls
Weekend not started great. No town water in our tanks so no house water until Monday when hopefully we can restore pressure. Until then it's visits to the spring to get drinking water and buckets of "campo" water to run everything else. Such is life sometimes in rural Spain. You just have to adapt and run with whatever life throws at you.
Traversing Spain's Sierra Nevada in under 4 minutes - short video of 2 day N to S crossing of the range from Pradollano to Lanjarón in July 2025.
During this hike we also visited the source of the Río Lanjarón which lies about 200 meters east of the Laguna de Lanjarón. The second day's descent of 1300 meters and 13 kilometers to the finish was tough as we descended pathless terrain into the heat of the day.
@hikingdude this is the stuff you should get Franz.
This week was the first hike I've done which really proved the usefulness and worth of the Six Moon Designs Sun Umbrella.
The sun was beating down as we reached the lake and bivvy site mid-afternoon. There was very little natural shade around but the umbrella really helped. The reflective outer and dark coated inner created a welcome cool space. Will be a regular item in my summer pack from now on.
https://www.sixmoondesigns.com/collections/hiking-umbrellas
This short video shows you what its like to disconnect. There's no fancy music nor AI gimmicks. We didn't see anybody for a couple of days, just wild flowers, running waters, birds, animals, high mountains and the sounds of nature. You get the drift.
Filmed in June 2025, above Acequia los Hechos on the western flanks of the Sierra Nevada range, Andalucia, Spain. Camp at Laguna Cabrero 2710m altitude.
Its Saturday morning and the veggie curry is already slow cooking. Have a great weekend everyone
Spending a night in a bivouac close to a mountain lake certainly allows you to see it's many changing faces. Here's some images of lake reflections from last 24 hours at Laguna Cabrero, Sierra Nevada
Hiking at first light is such a wonderful time to be alive. Here in , waking up at 2700m is amazing. The air is cool and the light is sharp. The mountains stand out, not the normal summer heat haze blanket. From our perch we saw in great outline the mountains of the Alayos del Dilar range, the Cumbres Verdes and the Sierra de Elvira north of Granada.A pleasure to walk the hills at this time of day.
Last nights sunset bivouac at Laguna Cabrero 2710m, nacimentos del Río Durcal, Sierra Nevada
As it's here are a few spectacular falls seen on my recent trip to the Hautes Pyrenees on the Spanish/French border.
We have a trip planned to Marrakesh, Morocco this week. 20+ years living here within an hours flying time and I have never had the good fortune nor opportunity to visit before. But, with the world on a knife edge and escalation the likely outcome we are giving serious thought to postponing.
Field of olive trees in the morning sun. Quesada area, Sierra de Cazorla
I wrote a blog post about our recent backpacking adventures in the Spanish and French Pyrenees.
Not many english speakers have heard of the 3000 Ibónes. Ibon is the Aragon word for mountain lake. It was this that first attracted me to the area which lies west of the Ordessa/Vignamale range. The idea of camping by lakes and rivers and skipping over the border passes between Spain and France held an appeal.
https://elperronegro.com/posts/2025-06-08-backpacking-pyrenees/
We had some river crossings to deal with during our recent trip to the Pyrenees mountains. This is where we found another use for our Zpacks Ultralight Camp Shoes.
Yes, apart from being a lightweight camp shoe (only 59g) they are also quite proficient crossing stony river beds with fast flowing water.
Approaching the Spanish/French border at the Puerto de Marcadeau 2541m in the Pyrenees mountain range. No passports needed to be stamped here though. In fact nobody within miles!
There is something that stirs the blood when you cross a mountain range between countries. As we reached the pass, saw the mountains and green valleys of France I spontaneously burst into an extremely bad rendition of "La Marseillaise".
#Outdoors
I do love my adopted homeland, but rural Spain still can't seem to get it's head around those strange beings called "Vegetarians". A conversation that I had this week when there was nothing on a menu that didn't include meat or fish
Me: My wife is a vegetarian can she have just egg and chips?
Waiter: Oh no, does she have an allergy to meat?
Me: Er yes, sort of
Waiter: OK, certainly we could do that. Would she like some chorizo with the egg and chips?