The Guardia Civil mountain-rescue service was called out to the Bodíjar area in the Valle Río Verde to rescue a family.

Bodíjar, for those of you who have never gone on the yearly romeria to this rural chapel, is situated between Jete and Otívar, accessible from both.

It was in the early hours of the 16th of this month that the rescue team finally found the adult and three children (aged between three and five) in the Ítrabo area of Sierra de Bodíjar.

The family had set out on an excursion to find the source of Rió Ítrabo but the day quickly advanced and they found themselves lost in the dark not far from the Peñón de Bodíjar (which you can see from the Jete-Ítrabo road).

It was the mother who alerted the Guardia Civil, telling them the father had set out at 19.30h. The Guardia Civil sent out patrols based in Otívar and Motril, aided by an Ítrabo Town-Hall worker who knows the area well.

The officers used a thermal-imaging device to find them and by 01.30h using the camera they located human figures and headed towards them, cutting across the hillside. However, because of the difficult terrain, they took two hours to reach them.

So it was around 03.30h that they came across the family. The officers first checked the family to make sure that they were OK, before setting off back to their vehicles, carrying the children on their backs. Once back at the vehicles, the family were driven home to where the mother was waiting.

(News: Itrabo, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)