Jon Clarke (Publisher & Editor)THIS year’s walk – the twelfth – started, as ever, at the hermitage of Padre Eterno, between Orgiva and Pampaneira. The day was a classic high Alpujarran autumn day with clear blue skies and not even a hint of wind.
Walkers – who turned up in record numbers this year – set out on a medium difficulty trek along the southern side of the Poqueiera Gorge, passing numerous goats, sheep and horses en route, before reconnoitring at a rock plateau just above the Buddhist retreat at O Sel Ling for a picnic lunch. The first snowfall of the year on Mulhacen delighted all along the route.
After the picnic lunch fundraisers made their way down to the Buddhist centre where cups of sweet Indian tea were served up with biscuits. Afterwards, in a threshing era, resident nun Gloria enthralled all with a reminiscence about the Dalai Lama’s fabled 1980s trip to Bubión and her recent visit to the cinema to see Al Gores’s documentary ‘An Inconvenient Truth’. A short meditation session ensued interrupted only by a certain three year old girl wondering out load why ‘all the grown ups had gone quiet’.
Walk organiser Maria van Houlstine said afterwards “This has been the most successful year to date. Thanks partially to The Olive Press we have raised nearly 500 euros so far.”
The money will be sent to Comunidad Humana in Madrid and used to help needy children living in Tibet.
