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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Walk from Cerralba to Rio Grande - 23 April 2016

An easy route today after last weeks trek and with the 20 km hike coming up next week.
The route started from the top end of the village of Cerralba and we took to the acequia tracks along the ridge of the Guadlhorce valley. This affords great views over the valley on one side and the Sierra de las Nieves on the other as well as the Sierra de Mijas ahead of us.

The course then drops down into the valley of the Rio Grande and we pass through the Goat farm with is young kids and then to the river banks. here we were fortunate to be there at the same time as a couple of horsemen were moving a group of horses and the fowls and a Bull driven cart was using the track on the opposite side of the river.




We took our break on the bridge that carries the drover track that we were about to use. It was then a one and a half kilometre steady climb, well known to me from my cycling days. The track then levels
out and we have now splendid views ahead to the mountains around El Chorro and las Aquas. We then leave this track the Carril de las Loma and head back to the village. The sides of the track were awash with wild flowers of all colours and hues, brought alive by the recent rain.
The weather was again good if a little muggy and the sky gave us some amazing cloud formations.
A total of 28 people were on this weeks walk and from the comments another success.


Follow this link for more pictures from this walk.

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