The Zafarraya plain is situated in the Granada province just north of the border to Málaga. It is a large flat surface enclosed by mountains. The climate is a bit cooler than just a few miles in any direction from there and that is an excellent prerequisite for large-scale vegetable growing. The plain is one big garden dotted with farms and warehouses.
Coming up over the edge of the bowl surrounding the plain the views begins to be breathtaking. The dramatic mountain and valley formations of the Alpujarras in the south are coming into sight in the distance as does the mighty massifs of the Sierra Nevada in the north with several peaks reaching over 3000 meters, the highest, Mulhacén, is 3480 meters above sea level. In late May there still was a lot of snow left at those altitudes.
I walked into Arenas del Rey late in the afternoon after more than eleven hours on foot and realized that there was no accommodation to be found. There was a camping site some ten kilometers away but that was no option so instead I inquired at a supermarket and was told that there was a hotel in the next village,Jayena, and that there also was a taxi service available in Arenas del Rey.
The shopkeeper gave me the number to the taxi service, I called, and soon I was on my way to Jayena where a bed, a shower, and dinner were waiting for me.
