Quentar to Granada

 A few weeks ago, an American who has lived in Granada for several years arranged for a gathering at a local coffee shop for new and “old” expats to come together and meet one another.  They do this every year to welcome new families to the city.  

One woman, who has been living here for eight years, told me that families come in like waves on the beach.  Every fall a wave of new expats comes crashing in.  A year later it pulls back and while a few stay, most return to the lives they left behind.

At this coffee meeting, I met a man who likes to mountain bike in Granada.  He gave me some tips about the local trails.   I explained that I had run to the end of the Camino del Sacromonte, where the pavement stops and the road becomes gravel.  

I have been intrigued by this path and asked him if he had ever gone further than I had.  I’d thought about venturing on alone, but I wasn’t sure if it was a public or private road.

He enthusiastically convinced me that I needed to continue on, then cross the river, where I would find even more amazing trails.

One day I set off by myself with the determination to find these “amazing trails”.  I always have a slight fear that I’m on a private road and that someone will get mad at me for trespassing.  While I was told that I should be fine here, you never know what will happen when you leave the main trail. 

As I stepped on to the gravel, climbed a small hill, and floated back down to cross a river, I couldn’t believe what I saw.  Wide trails that snake along a lazy river.  Wide and flat(!) trails. It was like Christmas had come early for me.

 

While cruising down the trails, I came across a sign that said “Camino Mozarabe de Santiago”.  Curiosity got the best of me, so I snapped a picture and kept running.  The trail made some twists and turns and led me to the middle of the same picturesque olive tree grove that I had spied a week earlier from a hike at the top of the mountain ridge.  Happy to find this little slice of running heaven, I turned around and headed back.

For the past couple months, I’ve had an amazing running partner in my daughter Olivia.  However, with school starting up again, I knew I’d have to find someone else to share my morning runs with.  Fortunately, I was able to connect with a fellow American who arrived in Granada this summer as well.

During one of our runs together, I told her about the trail and the Camino. She was excited about the idea of running part of the route with me and we made plans to run from the small town of Quentar to Granada. 

On Tuesday morning we set out for the bus station, about one and half miles from my house.  The first bus was scheduled for 8:30 am and we didn’t want to miss it since the next one wasn’t until 10:30.  The bus ride was uneventful and short, only 20 to 25 minutes.  I saw a part of Granada I hadn’t been in before and watched the hills go by, knowing that I would be traversing them shortly.

The map indicated that there were two bus stops in Quentar.  The town was tiny, with a population of just over 900 residents.  The instructions on the Camino website were vague: “from the Square of Quentar we will go down the river to take the track which will lead us to the road we will follow until Dudar”.  Googling “square of Quentar” did not give any definitive results, so when the bus rolled into town, we got off at the first stop.  It turns out the town was so tiny, that you could see the second bus stop from the first.  

The next challenge was to find the public restroom and the yellow arrows indicating the trail.  We cheered aloud when we found our first yellow arrow and followed it to the river.

Running alongside the river was wonderful.  The trees kept the air cool, there were lush green plants and a very small waterfall.  The river was clear and moving.  Somewhere between Quentar and Dudar, an even smaller town, there was a fig tree and we stopped to taste the fruit.   The route also got narrower and the bushes were spilling over the trail, slowing us down slightly.  

At the two and a half mile marker, we passed by Dudar.  I was expecting it to be a little bit further down the Camino, as we felt like we were just at the beginning of our adventure. After crossing through Dudar, we started an ascent up a hill.  We quickly realized that we didn’t pay too much attention to the elevation gains in our preparation.

The hill was quite steep and seemed endless, so we decided to walk the uphills and run everything else.  Even though the climb was intense, the views made up for it.  They were breathtaking.  Everytime we made a turn, the scenery forced us to stop, admire and appreciate where we were.  My favorite part was looking over the valley and seeing the roads and trails zig zag through the hillside.  

The miles passed by easily and quickly.  We chatted, avoided being hit by the few bikes that came through to surprise us around corners, and kept moving forward towards Granada.  

Around a bend near six miles in, I was surprised to come upon the ruined Hacienda de Jesus del Valle.  I had found this intriguing building coming from the other side, so I knew that we were nearing the city.  I hope to tell more of the story of his fascinating 17th century ranch in a future blog.

Quicker than we had expected, we were running through the previously mentioned olive grove and towards the Camino del Sacromonte and the Alhambra.  After nearly ten miles of trail running, we made it home.