Cerca Teba and the Rio de la Venta Gorge

Todays walk was planned and led by one of our stalwart members John Milborrow, as this was his home territory. The walk started from the outskirts of the town, and we walked along a tarmac road towards what should have been an extreme end of the Embalse de  Guadalteba, but because of an extremely dry few winters the waters were nowhere to be seen. We then took to the old road that was the original way into Teba from the main road, but has long been unused and has reverted to no more than a track, this led us what should have been the side of the reservoir and into the fertile valley of the Rio de la Venta, and the small barriada of Torrox. Our guide, John, then showed us the pool which is formed by the spring water which is channelled into the paddling pool for the enjoyment of picnickers during the hot summer months.

From here we passed under the high bridge supporting the road into the town from the A357 and entered the gorge. This was an experience as it meant walking over the rocks as there was no defined path. Our path ahead at one point was blocked by the flowing water and this necessitated us crossing to the other side and a leap of faith onto a shaky rock in the middle of the stream and onto a large rock on the opposite bank. Fortunately all executed without falling in. The next challenge was to pass the remains of the old Anis Mill and to cross the stream again, and this appeared to be no mean feat.

Our guide is an experienced climber and caver but the experience in these field stopped with him and included our adventurous female member, Jane, who really does not do narrow ledges and sheer drops. However John being ever chivalrous guided her and made sure that she was safe during the traverse.  John C and Alan K found and alternative route y climbing up some large rocks and leaping large crevices. My bandaged knee wouldn't allow me the flexibility of taking this route and had already spotted what appeared to be an alternative.

I opted to go back a little way and climb the earth banks to what turned out to be a well used goat path that took me effortlessly past the ruins and along the river bank until I found a bridge across made by an old railway sleeper. I then sat on a rock and waited for the others. Those leadership courses in a previous existence seemed to have paid off! Apparently Jane did a victory dance after completing the ordeal. Despite all of this it was an experience that none of us would have wanted to have missed.

The terrain then became completely different and we were onto what felt like an open plain with high cliff to one side and open vistas to the far mountains on the other. We were still alongside the small river and walked to the sound of croaking frogs and the plopping of water voles. Our route then took us away from the valley floor and up a track into the hills above the gorge and were met by a magnificent view over the town of Teba and its castle and the many wind farms on the mountain ridges. The route back to the start was now all downhill through a mix of Almond and Olive plantations.

The weather was perfect with the temperature in the mid 20’s c but with a gentle cool breeze from the north west and a perfect blue sky and clear air.

One coincidence is that whilst we were doing the walk the Sur in English was being prepared and the story on the back page was all about the flooding of the village of Peñrrubia during the construction of the reservoirs, and we were walking at the end of that particular embalse.

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PR-A-274 Puerto Alto, Guaro

Todays hike was in the hills behind Guaro and in an area famous for its plantations of Almond Trees, indeed the local Town Hall organises walks when the trees are in blossom in the early part of the year, something that I plan to do next year.

I had advertised the route as a grade of 4.5 (out of 5) and in fact the U3A Hill Walking Group have this graded as a Medium to Heavy and it lived up to the billing. The route starts at the top end of the village and immediately starts its steep decline towards the valley of the Arroyo Seco, and immediately giving us magnificent views over the valley and to the Sierra de las Nieves in the distance. This stretch is the first test on the knees as we descend, eventually reaching the relief of a reasonably flat walk alongside the Arroyo which despite its name of the ‘Dry Stream’ has in fact a good flow of water.

The other feature of the valley is that it is lined with Oleanders currently in bloom. After we cross the stream via the bridge the rout takes a turn to the right and we start the relentless climb to the top, which is in effect a ridge between to valleys. As we climb the view become even wider and eventually we are even able to see the port at Malaga some 40 kms distant.

Throughout the climb we Almond groves on both sides which are now in fruit but when in blossom the whole area is covered in pink. We eventually reach the top of the ridge, if not the top of the climb and are now rewarded with views of about 270 degs. Not only do we have the views, but we are treated to carpets of wild flowers on the adjacent verges and in the fields.

During this part of the walk we have been on a marked track of two routes, ours being circular and the Guaro to Tolox route and we now come to the parting of the two, with our route taking a left and the start of our descent back into the valley. Also so far the tracks had been reasonably surfaced and generally in good condition, this being vehicular access to the Almond Trees.

This is where we leave the tracks and take to the path, and back in February when I did this walk for the first time this section had been badly eroded by the rains and the path was quite narrow and deeply gouged.

However in the past few days the path had been treated to the attention of a digger and the ruts filled and the surface smoothed. The descent is as arduous as the climbs because different muscles come into play and the knees take a lot of pressure, but again, as with the start we are rewarded with the relief of the level valley floor. Unfortunately this is short lived and the start of the climb back to the cars is soon upon us, and it is a very tough slog up this steep concrete track to the top. There was one unfortunate incident where one of our group was taken a little unwell due to the exertion, heat and lack of fluids but fortunately our plan worked and our tail man called and we got a vehicle to the scene very quickly. The good news was that a quick recovery was made and no harm was done, so we were all able to take to the nearest bar for well earned refreshment.

With regards to exertion this route probably rates alongside the hike to La Bola, and in fact in parts is steeper.

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Caminito del Rey - 19 May 2016

Back in march I did this walk for the first time and was in awe of it, and so many people said that they wanted to do it that I decided to organise for my walking group to do it. A few weeks back I booked 30 tickets (the maximum allowed in every half an hour), and whilst to start with the take up was somewhat slow the whole lot were soon allocated.

Today was the hottest day of the year so far, but fortunately there is a lot of shade on this walk and there was also a pleasant cooling breeze.

So here are the photos that I took on todays walk.................



Here are more photos, this time taken by Lesley Taylor...............

Rio Pereilas Valley and the old Donkey Safari Station

It was good to get out again after the really bad weather of the past week and everyone must have felt the same as we had almost 30 on the walk today, including 5 newcomers and welcome to you all.
This is a route that some of us have done a couple of tomes before but one that you can never tire of.
We started in the poligono behind the BP Petrol Station and set off up a gentle incline that passed between Avocado plantations. Despite the recent heavy rainfall the tracks were surprisingly dry. After a while we reach the most unusual sight of the Donkey Safari Station,unfortunately I can't find out anything about it, but can only assume that in thr 70'and 80's coaches filled with Thomson tourists arrived from the coast at the venta on the old A355 to be met by donkeys and were then ridden to the Safari station for a lunch of Paella, those were the days!

Our route then takes us to the valley side with views of the Dolamite Quarry in the foreground and the Guadalhorce valley and Malaga mountains beyond. We then descended into the valley and returned via the same route back to the Donkey Station. We then take the track with the Avocado plantations on one side and the forest on the other until we reach the old Helicopter landing area. It is then mainly downhill through the pine woods back to the start.

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A thank you from S.O.S Animals

SOS Animals have just collected us from a lovely lady in Alora. We were dumped at her house and SOS has taken us to the refuge and will now prepare us for new homes. We have to be vaccinated, microchipped, neutered and passported and this costs a lot of money.  So thank you to Al's Ramblers for raising money to help SOS do this work!

Ruta de Canca, Alora - 07th May 2016

The weather in southern Spain is most inclement for this time of the year, and we had heavy rain yesterday and have yellow alerts for heavy rain tomorrow, but today was a calm between two storms.

We have done this route before and a description is on another post along with photos, but that was a small Thursday group just checking out the route. Our group was a little smaller than normal but hopefully only due to the unsettled weather.

Click on the picture to open the viewer.

Not far to the bar, lads!

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Santa Rosalia Ramble

So often in the past the local weather forecast has proved unreliable and I have cancelled the walk only to find that the sun came out half an hour afterwards, so today I ignored the slight drizzle that was falling and left the walk to go ahead.

We duly met at the prescribed place while the drizzle was falling a little heavier, but the consensus was to ‘go for it’, and this we did.

We left for the start of the walk still in light rain, but we donned our waterproofs and started the walk, and within the first kilometre we had discarded the outer layers as the rain had stopped and as the walk went on so the sun came out. I am so please that I didn't cancel.

The first part of the route took us along the perimeter of the Caterpillar Testing and Training Center a huge area of all terrain where they test equipment and train drivers on the

Caterpillar Earth Moving Vehicles. We then turned and walked on the road between the testing ground and the Electricity Generating Plant and Natural Gas Terminal.

A very industrial landscape but also very interesting.

Our route then turns away from this industry and we climb into the campo and arrive alongside the lake that supplies the water to cool the Generating Plant.

We continue around the edge of the lake and then into an area of a surprising number of properties most with many barking dogs.

The terrain we are now walking is becoming very varied, from quite steep inclines now to declines into valleys and the inclines out again, with a mass of flora and fauna all around us. We the rise out of the valley and arrive at a large Finca with some rather beautiful horses.

We pass this and are met with some magnificent views of the Guadlhorce valley, from its mouth at Malaga and stretching to well past Cartama.

Our route then descends through a small pine wood and brings us out onto the main track that will take is pack to the start.

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Sponsored Hike in aid of S.O.S. Animal Refuge

We have been dreading and looking forward to this day for some time now. It has been talked about so much over the past few weeks, since I first muted the idea, and then all of a sudden that day is here.

The weather forecast for the day had been somewhat unsettled and indeed as I left home for the start it did start to rain, but fortunately it was only light and didn’t last for long. In fact the weather turned out to be almost perfect hiking weather not too much sun and a cooling breeze for most of the hike.

We had 15 people willing to do the hike, but a further three that accompanied us for the first few kilometres to give us some moral support. There were also a number of partners and friends at the start to send us off, including a couple of volunteers from S.O.S. Animal Refuge (the charity that we were raising money for) along with 4 of the dogs looking for a forever home who were there to wag us off.

At just before 10 am we fired up our walking apps. And off we went.

The first 5 kms or so were fairly easy walking on reasonably level tracks, and indeed on tarmac, as we descended into the German or Secret Valley, which is actually the area known as Barranco Blanco. We took a short stop at the bridge over the Rio Alaminos with its waterfall below us.

In a short distance a decision needed to me made, do we take the less steep route but add nearly 2 kms to the route or take the steeper climb up the concrete road. We decided to take the shorter but steeper route, which indeed proved to be very steep, and although we had to take a couple of rests on the way up everyone made it.

Because some of the group were unsure of their own capabilities I had a ‘rescue’ vehicle on stand-by just in case, but it was not needed and once we reached to top of this climb with the whole group intact the vehicle was stood down.  A big thanks to Alan for standing by for us.

The Halfway Break

The route then rejoins the PR-A-388 and we trek along the reasonably surfaced and fairly level fire access track, which twists and changes direction affording fabulous views all around. The authorities have now constructed Miradors (viewing points) with fences and seating which were placed strategically ideal for us all to take short breaks.

After about 10 km on this track we reached the junction of several other tracks and here we left the marked route and took a little used track that follows above the Rio Perelais valley for a while, offering views in a different direction. Here the going started to get a bit tougher, muscles were starting to ache and the surface was littered with loose small rocks. We then started the ascent to join the main track, and this is where the going got even tougher as the weather over the years has virtually washed away the track and we were walking on the under rock and fallen rocks. However this was only for a short distance and was tackled with determination and humour by everyone.

We then joined the main service track that rises to the Antennae, and took this down to its start opposite the entrance to the old Eldorado Studios, it’s then a 1.4 km ‘march’ along the final stretch on the wide and reasonable access track to the studios and stadium.

The first surprise was when Henri arrived in his car and scattered plastic roses across the track, apparently a Dutch tradition. As we approached the finish we were greeted by cheering and waving partners and supporters and a ‘finish’ tape across the track.

Supporters at the Finish Tape

It was then some cool down and stretching exercises led by Bokwa Becca along with a celebratory glass of Cava provided by the Bokwa Class and plenty of cold Beers and soft drinks provided by Bernie and Alan.

I was hoping that we would raise more than we did on our last Sponsored Hike to La Bola, which was €260, I was rather hoping for €500 or more, in the end we have raised over €2200, what a fantastic achievement by all concerned.

The final total raised was €2351

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