Cerro Negro, the Black Hill, overlooks the Secret Valley or also
known as the German Valley. Secret, because the valley is not visible from any
of the roads around, it is also known as the German Valley. It is reported that
during WW2 a secret meeting was held there between Franco, Mussolini and Hitler
and that it was used by the German SS as their holiday retreat. Indeed most of
the properties in the valley were once owned by Germans and the villas had
German names.
Our walk today started in the parking area almost in the
valley floor and after little more than 100 metres we crossed the Rio Alaminos
via a bridge which is situated above one of the many waterfalls on this Rio. In
fact it is said that the Timotei Shampoo advert in the mid 80’s was shot at one
of the waterfalls upstream.
The track then starts its ascent towards Cerro Negro leaving
the many villas of Barranco Blanco (White Ravine) and towards what is now a
somewhat barren landscape after the devastating fire which started on the last
day of August 2012. The route continues a climb of varying steepness, with
views across the valley and to the Alhaurin Golf resort and Sierra Mijas, which
today was topped with cloud, so no sight of La Bola that we hiked to two weeks
ago. This part of our route is part of one of the marked trekking routes that
abound in Malaga Province, but the marked route turns to the right and we
continue to the left along one of the tracks used for fire access. The whole
landscape is still littered with the burnt trunks of the Pine and Olive trees
that grew herein abundance before the fire.
The weather today was not great with a lot of low cloud and
mist and virtually no sun, so unfortunately the views were somewhat muted to
what they normally are.
We reached the turning point of our planned route as the track
curved around the mountain, opening up the view to the coast and the Mediterranean
beyond, just visible.
Our descent was the worst part of the route as the path was
little more than a Goat track whose surface had been eroded by many years of
rainfall, and had to be tackled with care.
The fire had burned many bushes in this area and left a most alien looking terrain. When we left the rough path we came onto the well used and better maintained tracks of the valley floor. We crossed the Rio Alminos again but this time by way of a ford.
Our route back passed the properties of the valley and took
a worrying turn when heaps and lines of the Processionary Caterpillars’ that
had started their journeys and been run over by cars, but some were still
moving. Luckily we were able to get Rufus, the only dog on the walk today, on
the lead quickly and away from the deadly creatures.
We all had a sneaky look over the surrounding wall of the
villas around the lake and then battled the steepest incline of the whole
route, which took us back onto the track returning to the parking area.
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