Micro Blog

El Perro Negro's Day to Day Ramblings

Notes – 2023 (342)

I love getting up in the mountains before the sun rises. Yes, it's usually cold but the scenes as the light changes make it more than worthwhile. Here's a few from the other morning as the sun hits the mountain faces and lines of ridges fade back into the distance. The upper world has light and the lower world shadow.

Also can you spot the bivouac? Believe me it's there below the NE face of Mulhacen 3482m.

Lines of ridges heading east towards Almeria and the Sierra de Alhamilla

The morning sun arrives over the Peñon del Globo

Puntal de la Caldera, Loma Pelada, Cerro los Machos, Veleta and Loma Pua standing out above the shadows

Morning sun on the NE face of Mulhacen. Spot the bivvy site?

The Vasar de Mulhacen is my favourite mountain track in the Sierra Nevada. It crosses the spectacular north face of Mulhacen at half height. Seemingly sensationally exposed but the reality is that it is much easier than it looks, although you do need a head for heights. Only in one place are hands necessary.

Half way along the Vasar you get to meet the "Fuente del Viejo Lobo" where the finest water on the planet is to be found.

Some hikers walk along a narrow ledge across a mountain face

The north face of Mulhacen with the line of the hiking trail crossing at half height

Some hikers walk along a narrow ledge across a mountain face. There is a blue lake far below

Some hikers walk along a narrow ledge across a mountain face

After a couple of mountain bivouacs I am sold on using Sleeping Quilts rather than Sleeping Bags.

  1. Generally lighter weight (no zip)
  2. You can micro manage temperatures much better than enclosed in a bag
  3. You can turn & move much easier
  4. Zips! There aren't any. How frustrated have I got in the past when zips get snagged whilst trying to extract oneself quickly in the middle of the night?

Photos ... me & my better half tucked in for the night at our last location.

Two hikers wrapped in a sleeping quilt at a mountain bivouac site

The location for our last mountain bivouac. Evening sunshine illuminating the mountain tops

Came across a site yesterday that created a website for me within 30 seconds. Yes, that's right, 30 seconds. All I had to do was enter a website title, the main selling point and location. 30 seconds later I had a beautiful website with photos, text, testimonials, contact form, features sections, footer etc. All AI generated of course and customizable. I have no doubt it could have been hosted and online for €10 a month, for another mere 30 seconds of my time. Amazing!

1/2

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Tomorrow we have an overnight trip into the Sierra Nevada visiting the spectacular "Vasar de Mulhacen" path across it's north face. An open bivouac at night on the Collado de Siete Lagunas (3230m), with a knee burning 1600 metre descent to the village of Trevelez the following morning. Should be some really good photographic opportunities. Looking forward to this immensely.

Some hikers stand on a narrow ledge illuminated in the sunlight. Steep cliffs are above them and below them.

Cancelled my Spotify membership a month ago and have been searching for a self hosted music alternative. Now set up a Navidrome instance on a Pikapod server. Very easy to set up (a few mins and clicks of buttons). Uploaded 2k+ songs from my archives. Cheap to run (approx $3 a month). Accessible on all my devices. So far, so good.

https://www.pikapods.com/ https://www.navidrome.org/

Exciting news that Framework products are now available to order in three more countries including my own: Italy, Spain, and Belgium! That includes the Framework Laptop 13, Framework Laptop 16 pre-orders. Better get my planning head on!

@frameworkcomputer

32 degrees centigrade at midnight last night! Difficult to sleep. Looking forward to autumn.

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There was a beautiful setting moon this morning so whilst my wife was out walking the dogs I borrowed her "good" camera and got this photo.

A setting moon dominates the scene just beginning to drop behind a forest of trees

A tough day yesterday on mainly pathless, steep terrain, but into a wonderfully quiet area full of natural beauty. I'm knackered!

Loma Pua 3226m - Pico Sabinar 2961m - Rio Veleta - Lagunillos del Pulpito - Paso de los Guias - Col de Carihuela

Hikers toil in the hot sun up a barren semi desert like landscape. Blue sky above

Hikers gathered below the summit slopes of Veleta

Pico Sabinar mountain is in the background. In the foreground can be seen some hikers climbing trail less hillsides

The "Paso de los Guias" ... a group of hikers crossing a steep rock wall holding onto a fixed chain for safety

Just backed Cory Doctorow's Kickstarter project "The Internet Con - How to Seize the means of Computation". A DRM-free audiobook to halt the internet's enshittification and throw it into reverse (Amazon won't sell it!). Looking forward to this.

@pluralistic

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