The Chocolate Trail

The ramble today was unfortunately the last one of the season, the temperatures are just getting too unbearable to walk in, and it was fitting that we ended the season on one of my favourite trails.

Because of the high temperatures and blazing sun our routes for the past few weeks have been in wooded areas that offer good shade and today we started on the Camino Forestal outside of Alhaurin el Grande. The early part of the walk is on well surfaced and maintained tracks, as these are necessary to provide access for Fire Fighting vehicle in the event of a forest fire, but have quite steep inclines as we head for the Fuente de Acebuche. After a short break under the shade of a large Carob tree we head again upwards towards the Casa Forestal, and this particular path was originally constructed as steps without the aid of machinery and all the materials would have been found in the vicinity. We have now made several visits to this Casa and one can never tire of the views.

From the Casa Forestal we again head upwards and again on a path that appears to have originally been stepped, it is thought that many years ago this was possibly a major route between Mijas on the south side of the Sierra and Alhaurin on the north side. After a reasonably challenging climb along some very rocky stretches we reach the trail that, had we turned left, eventually leads to the Picas
Mijas or summit, but that is not our goal today and we take the route down. After a quite rocky descent we reach the upper reaches of the stream bed that we will eventually take, but now we climb out of this and onto some softer and easier surfaces. This path now takes us past the ´hidden mine´ and down to the old Helicopter landing area.

Our route now takes us along a well surfaced track and reasonably level and offers magnificent views to our left over the Guadalhorce Valley and to Malaga. This is the easiest stretch so far and leads us to the start of what is known as the Chocolate Trail. It´s a bit of a scramble over a few rocks as we leave the main track and head into what is a stream bed, now very dry, who’s official name is Cañada de las Paloma or ‘Glen of the Dove’. This particular trail is exceptionally beautiful and at times dramatic, and also some sections are a little challenging as we have to climb down what would have been (and no doubt will be again) waterfalls.

This trail brings us out onto the Camino Forestal and we then have an easy walk back to the start.

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