A walk of no particular destination

I, and my friend Jane, went on a walk of exploration today to try a new route, and what a fiasco that turned out to be. I had planned the route on Google Earth but of course what you can’t see are any banks, and there was a high bank followed by a ditch followed by a crash barrier to cross. The original route necessitated crossing a busy main road which is not ideal if you have a group of 30 walkers, so we set out to find an alternative, but there just isn't one. As we walked up the track that I thought had a route off it we found that way gated.  We continued up the track and every possible alternative route was blocked so at this point we gave up, and decided just to enjoy the wonderful surrounding country side.

The route that we were on was one that we have done a couple of times before and goes past the Donkey Safari Station on its way through the Avocado orchards to the Rio Pereilas valley. We reached the top of the valley side with its views over the Dolomite Quarry and Cerro Gordo. We took the very rocky path down and met a tarmaced path which we followed well past the usual path that we take for climbing back up the valley side, only to come to a dead end, well actually the gates to someone’s finca. We turned around and took the usual route back up the valley side. We then followed the usual course of the walk until we came to the old Helicopter landing area.

The most notable and worrying feature of the walk so far was the amount of Processionary caterpillars on the march, that we passed. The authorities are saying that they are particularly prevalent this year and that is borne out by what we were seeing. We really had to tread very carefully in places as there were several lines of them and other in heaps burrowing.

At the old helicopter landing area we decided to try the route that was marked but we had not tried before. This was a good choice for the views, even with the mist, were fantastic and given a clear day they would have been exceptional. After a while we decided that we had started on this path too late and turned around to retrace our steps. Again it was a question of keeping our eyes peeled to avoid the worrying amount of caterpillars. I can honestly say that I have never seen as many as we did today.

This really did justify not taking the dogs despite, BarnayWoo knowing that I was going walking and giving me pleading looks. The route down from the helicopter landing area was familiar but there are always things to see that you have missed on previous occasions.

The weather was exceptional for late February with temperatures in the low 20’s but with the persistent mist that has been with us for a couple of days bringing with is the red sand from the Sahara that seems to have covered everything.

The day wasn’t wasted, although we didn't complete the objective that we set out with, we had a fabulous walk through beautiful countryside and the possibility of another route.

I wasn't going to post a blog about this walk as it was just a routine ramble to look for new routes, but I thought the presence of so many of the deadly caterpillars made it worth a mention. I am very passionate about making people aware of these evil things as I lost my best friend to them 7 years ago!

My beautiful Lily who was taken from me by the caterpillar.

Walk – Saturday 20th February 2016

It really is quite amazing how this group that I started for walking has snowballed. I set it up last year because I was no longer allowed to cycle following my accident; I was getting a bit old for the gym, and was fed up with walking on my own. Initially I had a number of people that were interested, mainly people that I already knew, but often I would cancel the planned walk because no one wanted to come. It then somehow grew into a hardcore of about 10 of us walking regularly, but 3 weeks ago I had 15, last week there was 25 and this week an amazing 31 people on the ramble.

It’s almost becoming a full time job to organise and plan the walks and keep everyone informed, but to be honest I’m loving it. Retirement is all well and good but it can get very boring.

The walk today was along the side of the Rio Grande valley in the outside of Coin, we parked just off the road before the bridge over the river, and the first part of the ramble took us through the Eucalyptus wood alongside the river, which did actually have some flowing water in it despite the lack of rainfall.

The route then leaves the river side and takes to a track that passes a number of properties with their Orange orchards and then passes the large Ferrari Horse Stud before rising to the Acequia track. One interesting feature was field of Bulls alongside the track contained only by a single strand of twine.

As we rise out of the valley floor we enter the more rural route with field planted with cereal crops, and as we rise we have views to the route that we walked the previous week. Once we top the incline we are then on the Acequia track These tracks almost always have a reasonable surface and are fairly level as they are used to service the Acequia, which is the ditch or canal that carries the irrigation water for the crops.

We follow this track with its views across the valley and to the Sierra de Mijas. The weather today was again kind to us and it was ideal rambling conditions, there was an almost clear blue sky, plenty of sunshine and a temperature in the high teens.

At about mid-point of the walk the track drops into the valley of the Arroyo de Cazalla and then rises again out of it and at this point the track has changed orientation and the Sierra de los Nieves are now visible.

We continue along this track passing many Olive groves and Orange orchards and maintain the fabulous views across the valley to Pico Mijas, and memories of our trek to la Bola, until we reach the metalled camino that drops back down to the river, again passing many properties and their attendant small holdings. Eventually after almost 9 km we reach the river and the end of the ramble.

I believe and hope that everyone enjoyed themselves, including those for whom it was their first time.

Could I give a thank you to Alan Kenah for being my 'sheepdog' and keeping a look out from the back so that no one gets left behind.

We would like to wish Jackie and Ian Brown a safe trip back to Scotland and hopefully you will both be joining us again when you return in December.

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Alpujata Ramble, Monda

Apart from arranging walks for my own group I am also a member of the U3A Country Walking Group, and today I joined them for a walk around the forest tracks of Alpujata and Cerro Gordo.

The walk starts from the car park in the centre of Monda, so the first part of the route takes us through the village with it’s narrow streets and whitewashed houses, although I suppose these days it’s probably a plastic white paint.

On the outskirts of the village we leave the footpath alongside of the road and head off into the campo along the remains of the Roman road, which eventually takes us to the river which is normally dry as it was today. We then rejoined the main road for a short distance and leave it to go under the main A355 road. The track is reasonable and climbs giving us views across the town and towards Guaro and the Sierra de los Nieves beyond. The track then becomes no more than a narrow path through cook oaks and Olive trees until we join the main track that leads to Cerro Gordo (fat Hill). This is a fairly challenging climb and the group of some 32 get very spread out. I decided to get the heart pumping and strode ahead to reach the top first.

The route then takes the forest tracks around the cerro offering some spectacular views of valley and the mountains. Eventually the route starts it’s descent into the Alpujata valley where apparently there was a hippy commune at one time. We then cross the dry stream and head back towards the town, crossing again under the A355, and then through the narrow streets of Monda, returning to our starting point.

Before getting back to the car a welcome coffee was taken in the sunshine outside on the square next to the monument to the miners of the area.

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A Ramble along the Rio Grande valley

Since we did the sponsored hike to la Bola on Pico Mijas, and the publicity that we got from that, I have been inundated with requests to join the group and be part of the walks. As a result todays ramble had the most walkers since I started the group last year, a total of 26 including me.

Our ramble today started from the BP Filling Station on the A357 and took us past the INFORCA airstrip, where I was pleased to see that the helicopter H7 was parked there again. I have passed this airstrip many times when I was cycling and H7 was always a familiar sight to me. We then walked along the banks of the Rio Grande which despite the lack of rainfall did have water flowing in it, in the summer it was dry.

We cross the river by the bridge that carries the Carril de las Loma which is the old drovers route between Coin to Zalea and Alora. We then  take the one and a half kilometre medium climb to the old electricity building. A quick break, and then onto the tracks across the fields, and down to the river. Despite again the lack of rainfall the track was surprisingly muddy in places and we had to take to the higher verges to pass. This is a particularly unusual area as it is one of the few tracks that runs through standing cane, which towers on both sides.

The route then turns away from the river and passes alongside Orange orchards and a number of small fincas, and brings us back onto the Carril de las Loma at the bridge. Time for the group photograph, and then return along the side of the river to our starting point.

I had been worrying about the possibility of rain on the previous evening and had an alternative route up my sleeve, but I needn’t have worried the weather was glorious with plenty of sunshine and the temperature in the mid twenties.

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The House of Graffiti

I have driven and walked past this particular derelict house many times and had never noticed what had been done to it. Today however I just had to take some photographs of what someone, or maybe more than one person, has done. You may all have differing opinions but I think it's amazing and however did it has an incredible talent.

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Cerro Negro and the Secret Valley.

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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PR-A-274 Puerto Alto, Guaro

The Malaga region of the Costa del Sol is thankfully criss-crossed by numerous marked walking and trekking routes, they are categorised as GR (Grande Ruta) being the long distance hikes some of which are well over 100 kms. The PR (pequeña ruta) small or shorter routes and then there are the more local short routes. We walked today the PR-A-274 which started and ended in Guaro, but the first part of the route was merged with the GR243 route which is over 94 kms in length and ends in Rhonda.

This was our ad-hoc Thursday walk of discovery, a time to explore new routes so that we can consider their suitability for the group and grade them, todays route turned out to be a 4+ out of 5 for difficulty.

The walk starts with a very steep decline, albeit on a well surfaced track, indeed even concrete in places and this decline continued for the first kilometre with very little easing off of the gradient.

We then found ourselves in the valley bottom, walking beside Arroyo Seco with its babbling waterfalls. This part of the track was skirted with Oleaner trees and I could imagine that in the summer the colours would be stunning.

We crossed a well constructed bridge over the Arroyo and shortly after the route split and we took the right turn and started out ascent, following the marked route in an anticlockwise direction.

The track was still in good condition, and the ascent was continuous with some quite steep parts and virtually no levels sections, it was skirted in many places with wild Lavender with its flowers like mini thistles and wonderful aroma when touched. The views, as we ascended, became spectacular, with every turn of the track, a new and equally spectacular vista emerged. This route took us through areas of Almond groves with their delicate pink flowers, ancient Olive groves whose trees had trunks weathered into unbelievable shapes the track was also edged in places with Cork Oaks, but also there were Pine Trees that housed the deadly Caterpillar nests.

As we climbed higher the track started to turn west, the views now across the Rio Grande valley towards Alozaina.

We were now approaching the summit and as we did the wind started to become quite strong and was blowing the blossom from the Almond trees which at this height looked as if it was snowing. We had reached the point where the PR route left the GR route just short of the summit.

Unfortunately our route had deteriorated into a narrowing path, and before too long the rain water had eroded the path into a narrow gully, but as we have had very little rain of late the path was dry. After a short decline along this fairly difficult path we reached a point where the track was being improved and indeed we soon passed the digger doing the work. We were placing footprints into virgin soil in the same way that Neil Armstrong had done on the moon.

The descent was as relentless as the ascent with little level walking until we reached almost the valley floor. We then joined the track on which we had started and over the bridge, along the avenue of Oleaner trees and it was then the steep climb back to the starting point and the welcome sight of our parked cars.

We have been very fortunate and privileged to walk in some of the most stunning countryside in Spain if not even Europe, and this walk comes very near to the top of the list for spectacular views.

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