Jubrique - Genalguacil - Venta De San Juan (Nov. 2018 - riverside path eroded)

We took 2 cars and left one in San Juan and all drove up to Jubrique to start our walk. This is a beautiful walk if you choose your timing to coincide with the yellowing of the autumn leaves of the abundant walnut and chestnut trees that cover this part of the Genal valley. This is normally late October or early November but be aware because the window of opportunity is just a couple of week before those red and gold leaves become brown and drop. This is also the season for mushrooms in the area. The hike starts off with a descent where you may have to get your boots off to cross a small stream. After that the path climbs for 4-5 km along well demarcated and a clearly visible sendero. Before reaching Genalguacil the land levels. Genalguacil is a quaint artistic village in which the town hall encourages and helps artists to create sculptures, wall art, paintings, carvings for display at every corner of this unique white village. Spend some time here and explore this village and be surprised by the wonderful artworks, well worth the wander and climb up and down the many short hills and steps. On exiting the village about 70 mtrs and just before you get on the path down into the Genal river, there is a venta where you can grab a coffee or decent lunch. The descent into the Genal river can be slippery and in places, well eroded by the heavy rains but nothing too difficult and certainly fine for walkers of all ages from 5 to 75 years of age!
OK, here is the WARNING! When we reached the river valley the planned easy and level riverside walk along the marked path to the Venta de San Juan ( well known to me) was, on this occasion (November 2018), cut off completely by the recent flash floods - a section of the path immediately at the start of this level stretch has disappeared with a wooden section of bridge all but gone. We tried in vain to get over this by skirting the land uphill but we were bordered by a private fenced off estate. Sadly we couldn't get thru onto the path and we chose to take a long winded mountain road all the way to Venta San Juan instead. The truth is, we could have taken our shoes and pants off and waded the river to get to the metal “passarela” bridge , then continue along the path but the impression we had was the recent floods had severely damaged and deposited huge amount of silt and dead wood, sufficient to have probably destroyed more sections of the path further upriver toward San Juan. All in all, this is a wonderful scenic trek but if you cannot walk along the final parts along the river,(I,e if it is not repaired yet) you should really choose another route.