Why isn’t there more info? Where does each stage start, etc? Maybe a link

More information regarding the sulayr (has anyone learnt to pronounce that yet) can be found on

http://tinyurl.com/29kfsb

This web page lists the stages and give a description of each.

The aim of the footpath is said to be to provide a backbone linking all the municipalities to the Sierra Nevada and making the sierra more accessible to tourists. From my limited experience of the path so far my feelings are mixed.

1) perhaps all that money might have been better spent maintaining existing crumbling drove routes.
2) yes some stretches look very usefull as alternative routes between villages.
3)In achieving its aim of fomenting tourism I doubt its usefullness since us average walkers will find the route far too demanding. Stages are upto 25km. in length: “not too bad you say” but in many cases stages end in the middle of nowhere and the walker is left with finding a way to a village for accomodation or of carrying camping equipement. Your average walker taking one of the signed access routes from a village will initially have an hour or two of walking uphill before he even joins the path. A prospect too daunting except for very strong devoted walkers the numbers of whom are probably too few to swell the coffers of the local tourism industry.

Hi Walk Alpujarra,

Thanks for the extra link to the medio ambiente website.

I tend to agree with you that the money spent on this could have been put to better use repairing and maintaining existing footpaths and ways.

It does seem that the emphasis is always on creating something brand new rather than maintaining what is already there…

This new route also seems not created for the feint hearted and I doubt if many weekend strollers will be using it. It also seems the norm that routes are always linear or village to village which rules out anyone who wants to walk a circular route from a village…

Clive