El Perro Negro

Grumpy old mountain man living in Spain

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El Perro Negro (@elperronegro) on Khumbu

Thought all you lightweight fanatics out there might like this tool, especially as we are all getting older and the knees creakier 🤣

"#Ultralight Gear Research - Browse and compare by weight. Search for a gear category or browse below to find the lightest options with detailed specs."

https://www.packstack.io/tools/ultralight-research

13 years ago to the day ... caught in a blizzard in deepest, darkest Kamchatka. Fortunately the relative safety of base camp wasn't far away

A person in green (me) leaning heavily into the wind whilst snow spindrift rushes past. Next to me is a person in red and blue jacket

@khusky in yellow trying to walk into a very strong wind alongside Berghaus athlete, Julia Pickering. Some dark rocks appear out of the gloom

Difficult conditions of driving wind and snow. A person with green jacket tries to make headway into the wind. Some rocks appear

Shout out to https://gpx.studio who I use to plan and trips into the mountains. Been using this site for over 12 months now. Free to use, but do consider contributing what you can afford to developers of software that you find really useful.

Out hiking today with a Solos group from the UK who were enjoying the warm sun and stunning scenery of the Taha del Pitres. Hiked from Fondales to Ferrierola and onwards to Busquistar, and Portugos. A cold beer at Pitres to finish.

Group stood on an old threshing circle (era) with the deep valley of the Rio Trevelez behind

Framed between two trees is the Rio Trevelez valley and hills rising on the far side

Hikers in the town of Busquistar pass up a narrow covered street. A white wall on the left and stone wall on the right

Some colourful hikers pass along a street. The left hand side is in the sun and the house walls are sandy coloured with the Sahara dust storms. The right hand side is shaded

Street scenes from the "Pueblos Blancos" of Capileira and Bubión in the Alpujarras a few days ago.

A row of red clay pots filled with withered flowers stands in front of a white house wall. Above are the traditional chimney pots seen in this part of Spain

A narrow street, walls sunlit on the right hand side and in shadow on the left.

A view up a narrow covered rising, street. The street is covered by a roof built traditionally out of locally found building materials

A narrow street with stone wall to the right and a white building at the end of the street

The stunning waterfall of the Tajo de Cortés, Rio Bermejo above the town of Pitres in the Alpujarras

Water cascades down a narrow rift in the cliffs bouncing off both sides of the rock walls. At the bottom is a quiet pool with boulders. Lots of green trees and scrubs to the right.

Just had my kids over for a few days from the UK. Hahaha I say "kids" but they are both in their 40s! You always see them as your "kids" don't you? Anyway, great to see them both and to chat about what ridiculous things we are each getting up to next 😂

Really enjoyed watching the movie "I Swear". Great acting performances all round but especially from Robert Aramayo as John Davidson, who was diagnosed with Tourette's syndrome at a young age. This alienated him from his friends and family. A stark and eye opening account of Johns life, his struggles, his wins, and the joy and grief in between.

Now reading the book.

Images from our Tabernas desert hike last Friday. I never fail to be inspired by this landscape and can see why it is used so much by the movie industry, set only some 25km inland from Almeria city.

3 people stand at the entrance to an arid valley with broken rock and loose boulders

Arid mountain scenery in shadow with a sunlit vertical rock face to the right

3 people hike down a wide "rambla" (valley) with sandy rock walls above and to the left and straight ahead

Cerro Alfaro peak is on the far right of the image. Closer, to the left in the foreground is a broken overhanging rock wall which was used for the tank scene in the movie "Raiders of the Lost Ark"

Sometimes driving in Spain is so relaxing. Today at 9am we headed south from Guadix to Tabernas on the A-92 motorway. 80 kilometres of motorway on an Easter bank holiday. I kept to the speed limit but only passed 2 vans and was overtaken by 2 cars the whole way. I could have fallen asleep if it hadn't been for the marvellous scenery at every turn of the road 😀

This morning I rushed half naked out of bed. Must have been a funny sight! Why? For just a few minutes pre dawn we had this amazing lenticular cloud sat above town in the Alpujarra.

A lenticular shaped orange cloud lies above a shadowed landscape of hills and villages

Yesterdays fine hike in the quiet and underrated Sierra de Huetor just north of Granada. Lots of interesting mountains, hillsides and forested areas.

A small group of hikers with dogs stand in the shade in front of a rocky mountain called Majalijar in Spains Sierra de Huetor

The Peñon del Jorobado and Majalijar mountains with forests and hillsides leading to an open grassland area

Three people hike through are illuminated by the sun as they pass through a shadowed forest area

Hikers pass along a narrow path on the right and enter a wooded area

It's a beautiful morning here in the Straight and for the first time this week we have light winds and a calm sea

Green fields drop down to a calm sea. The sun shines on the sea in the top right. Some distant hills show in Morocco across the other side

After a hard week watching the bird migration it's an afternoon off from watching our feathered friends. Beer, sun lounger and distant view of Africa it is then

A pair of legs with red and black trainers is jutting out from a blue sunbed. There is green grass and palm trees and view to a swimming pool

Well that was a day and a half. Woke up for an early start and found tyre of our car slashed. Took 3 hours to get fixed. Think we inadvertently got involved in a local parking dispute between the owner of the place we were staying at and a neighbour. Anyway all sorted now. Travel is such fun. You never quite know what is around the corner 🤣

You might remember the conversation in the old Monty Python movie "The Life of Brian" that posed the question "What did the Romans ever do for us?".

Well, I have the definitive answer... they built the city of Baelo Claudia. What! ... Like me a few days ago, I'd never heard of it neither. It's a city built by the Romans in SW Spain (1st Century AD) The visit to the remains of the city yesterday honestly blew me away.

Full blog post https://elperronegro.com/2026/baelo-claudia-roman-city-spain/

The Basilica and statue of Emperor Trajan

The square forum and Basilica

The western half of the theatre

The tuna and salting industry remains

Had a superb day at a little known place called Bolonia on the Atlantic coast south of Cadiz. Superb sandy beach, very quiet, apart from the howling wind. Also an incredible natural sand dune (Duna de Bolonia) and a town of Roman ruins dating back to the 1st Century AD (Baelo Claudia). History is so fascinating. Images and report coming in a few days when we have full internet.

I am losing it. Who'd come on a holiday which involved hiking up hills and forget their .... hiking shoes? Especially when I have checklists to remind me to do a checklist, so why oh why do I then forget the one essential bit of kit 🤣? Doh! Must be getting old. Fortunately found a HH shop on the beach which has some suitable footwear. Bad news is cost me 149€. But back in business