Following the river

Out of the blue came the invitation to go to Río Alhárabe close to Moratalla, for swimming and a bit of trekking along the river, which I obviously accepted it gladly. I was not expecting so many people to gather, but in the end we were 19 persons, 5 of which children younger than 5 years old. Only 7 persons stayed over night in the camping area but the day we had there was enough for me also.

Moratalla is at the North-Western border of Murcia Region and next to it, there is the Camping La Puerta, our starting point. The River Alhárabe is an affluent of Segura, the river that passes through Murcia. In this area, the river is not so large nor powerful despite coming a long way from close to Calar de la Santa, more South-Western than Moratalla.

We didn’t walk too much along the river and stopped for the first bath. The crystal clear, cold and fresh water was calling on us. I liked that here and there small pools were formed by natural stones. Going a bit upper on the river we found the second place like a plateau with easy access to the water for the children, a bit of shadow, picnic tables and plenty of tranquillity despite the people splashing the water everywhere.

The way along the river allowed us to go for about 20 minutes before we got stuck and return, however along its way small waterfalls would make the landscape better as the emerald alike water was flowing through. Typical for the rivers are the dragonflies which seemed to be plenty of here. I found particularly interesting though a black one of which I haven’t seen before. The narrow, rocky way with ups and downs was not that difficult and in fact made the way more interesting. On the other side, sharp cut-alike very step high mountain walls were guarding the river.

I have to say it’s been a while since I was last time discovering natural parks and sites that I have forgotten the beauty and peace it brings. And of course, lovely places for me to take photos.

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