Travel

One other excellent map I've come across... the 1:40,000 La Palma Hiking Map... covers the whole island and makes a pretty good stab at showing the lines of over 1000km of waymarked and signposted trails. Even if the occasional route line is drawn wrong, you simply can't go wrong if you're following the markers.

Meanwhile... nearby...

There's a trail map covering El Hierro that contains a lot of mistakes. A pity, because their signposting and waymarking is first class. I was on the island when the box of trail maps was delivered from the printers, and as the tourist info staff opened the box in my presence, I got the very first copy. It took me a while to realise that some of the routes were wrong, but again, the markings are fine.

On La Gomera, the island council clearly spent a huge amount of money greating a wonderful map of all their new trails, and mounted it on boards all over the island. Try getting hold of a printed copy, however, and you get a point-blank refusal, which is nothing short of tragic. There are lots of useless maps of La Gomera, but you need the patience of a saint to transcribe all the routes from map-boards onto an el cheapo map.

As for Tenerife... the paint was still wet on some of the newly-marked trails when I was exploring there... so anyone using my latest guidebook (subject of the free draw that closed today) will learn about a whole lot of new trails on the island. There's a splendid 1:25,000 map of the national park in the middle of the island, but nothing particularly good for the rest of the place.

Cheers Kev, most useful.  The last thing you want is to be taken for a ride by a dodgy outfit whilst out abroad...

I found spanishwalking.com last year they had an ad in the country walking mag, I then found them on google try getting one of your kids to show you how to use a search engine then maybe life will become clearer to you.  Try www.spanishwalking.com

Not sure what you mean by about snowshoeing!

Robert and Wendy have been running Spanishwalking since 2002 far from being a dodgy out fit, I can highly recommend them and I looked at seven other companies before I made a decision, most did not walk in the area the few that did wanted almost twice the price for what I did. 

Here Anthony, you might have forgotten about also registering on LFTO and posting this:

Linkie

Your second post do mention snowshoe trails, doesn't it?

Hmmm... writing Spanish Walking Dot Com does seem rather odd... or at least that's what I think... double ewe double ewe double ewe paddydillon dot co dot you kay!

However...

I had a look at the site when I finally tracked it down, and I have to agree that £550 for all the arrangements (except flights) for a week's holiday in a lovely part of Spain is actually very good. Whether I'd actually sign up is another matter entirely. One of the things I really dislike about 'walking holidays' is the notion of a 'rest day'. I'll walk ten weeks at a stretch without even a thought of a 'rest day'. I'm not super-human... and regard myself as a pretty average plodder... but once I'm in a place where I want to explore, there's just no reason to spend a day festering! Apart from that... I'd always be looking for opportunities to extend whatever was on the walking programme, and I'm sure I'd be told thatjust wasn't possible. Anyhow... don't let me put anyone off signing up for the deal!

On the subject of guided walk leaders in general...

I get an uncomfortable feeling whenever I come across a group that I feel is being led by an incompetent leader. Just a few weeks ago in Iceland, I came across a coach-load of walkers who'd pulled in at a viewpoint, and their leader couldn't help noticing I had a backpack and was obviously trekking through the area. He sidled over to see if I could tell him anything about walks from that particular road, since he had absolutely no idea of what was available. No idea how much his clients were paying, but they were all German, and they tend to pay handsomely.

On La Gomera a couple of years back, despite the island having been comprehensively covered in signposts and waymarks, I came across a guide who was spitting blood because he didn't understand what the signposts or markers meant, and he was supposed to be leading a group for a week, starting the very next day. The fact that he was having a damn good moan while standing next to a mapboard showing the full scope and extent of the trail system just made the whole thing seem bizarre.

Came across a woman leading a big-name British walking holiday group in the West of Ireland. She'd never set foot in the country before, and rather than using a decent map or guidebook, was trying to navigate through pathless bog while clutching a set of handwritten notes from a previous clueless guide. I had a look at the notes, and despite knowing every nook and cranny of that area, couldn't make head or tail of what was written.

Even on Jersey, where you'd think nothing could go wrong, I came across a man leading a group along the northern cliff path. "And here's the Devil's Hole" he claimed... some two miles short of one of the most distinctive features on the island. I bit my tongue and kept walking.

I could go on... but enough of dodgy walk leaders... just watch who you hire!

The penibetica map for the Sierra Nevada is very good but there are a couple of paths around Mulhacen which aren't marked on the map which are on the editorial alpina map and likewise paths on the Penibetica map which aren't on the alpina map. With Spanish maps this is often the case so i sometimes use 2 or 3. Penebetica has a website but I often order spanish maps and guides prior to going from this company who supply virtually every map available in spain.

www.tiendaverde.es

Hi Paddy

Robert pointed out a few locations along the way and thinking about it tobacco shops were probably top of the list, there were also tourist gift shops but yes I didn't actually see a book shop, there was also a map for sale at the Refugio if you can get there with out one.

Well... I got all the way to the top of Mulhacen from Capiliera, and back again, in mist and howling gales, with snow and ice on the ground in the middle of winter, going purely on what I could remember from scrutinising a map on the wall of a bar the previous evening. I'm sure I could manage to get to the refugio in summer without a map! It was a few days later that I tracked down the map in Granada, and used it to climb Veleta.