Walking in the Spanish Sierras

Lobo park (we were pleased we had remembered hats and coats cos 3000 feet up in the mountains was not a particularly warm place to be) was one of our first stops. Lobo is Spanish for Wolf.  The park is a bit of a refuge centre for local wolves and dog/wolf hybrids and some other cute little animals like Vietnamese and Thai pigs.  We found out  a few things (like foxes eat anything including fruit and vegetables which probably explains why there are so many around in England), and wolves are shy, don’t attack humans, have brown eyes (so if you ever see a film with a wolf with blue eyes it is really a husky), have one breeding couple in a pack (it was with this revelation that Harry walked down some steps and tore his trousers!!).

On the other side of the mountain was El Torcal - where we nearly touched the sky.  It is a rather spectacular geological place to walk around. It was a bit cloudy up top, the sun played ‘peek a boo’, and the wind took regular bites (think of those torn trousers) but it was refreshing to be out in the fresh air.  On the way back we continued to drive down the windy and steep road (good condition) only to find that there had been a landslide about 16kms from the start (no road signs to tell us - or any that we understood).  So, we back tracked and took a very long trip back to Malaga. 

Another day we visited Garganta Del Chorro - the weather wasn't brilliant that day for scenic viewing but not knowing how long rain lasted during the 'rainy season' we decided to give it a go.  It was a fairly tortuous route but the scenery around the reservoir quite spectacular.  We spent a while taking photos and driving up narrow streets before heading further up to the Gorge. It is said that King Alfonso XVIII back in the 1920's opened the railway by walking up the Gorge.  I can only assume it was then a safe track.  The path starts off somewhere and ends in the middle of the cliff, and every book we have read has at least been consistent in the message: "Muy Peligroso – Very Dangerous" So we looked across the Gorge from the side of the road,  drove along to the reservoir at the top of the mountain – rather an unexpected sight – a perfect place for catching the water and funnelling it down below through a brick tunnel.  At the top was a cafe – closed for winter –  obviously a summer resort for travellers escaping the 40 degree heat.

It was a bit more of a drive to Ardales – described as a picnic spot near a great reservoir – here we questioned whether the author of the guide book had visited the place.  No reservoir in sight (though we did pass a small lake while navigating through some sheep and admired the cutest sheep dog).

The Dolmens are not far away from this area. The term means 'stone table' and these caves were built by the Neoliths before Stonehenge about 2500 years ago.  We saw a video of the making of the caves, large slabs of rock cut using bone and hot water were rolled over tree trunks for 1 km by the whole community pulling with ropes.  It was quite awe inspring inside.  One of the caves had a rather deep well all the way down to the water table (built they reckon a few hundreds of centuries later).

One thing we’ve always been impressed with in Spain is the roads.  Along the coast road one day we drove over no less than 18 viaducts and through 10 tunnels - this took us about 80 kms along the coast.  The road sits high above the concrete jungle that runs along the coastline and so means a good trip with some pretty good scenery.  Even as we got further into the Sierra Nevada and the roads became more mountainous they were still well sealed and protected in the main from landslides.  One of the trips along this road took us to Pampaneira, a little village not far below the snowline in the Sierra Nevada.  This was one of those little villages that cascade down the hillside with lots of narrow streets.  It was built during the time of the Moors and so instead of the orange concrete tiles the roofs are grey, flattish and squarish.  The town is well known for its ceramics and weaving (rather good) and chocolate (say no more).  We went for a walk up the hill for a few kms to Bubion, and looked over the gorge to the hydro power station, the steep winding roads and in the other direction to Capileira the closest village to the snow.  At Bubion, we saw kids playing on a field with a rugby ball and lots of little dogs.  Back we walked to Pampaneira and down some more streets where we stumbled into a well restored communal laundry and lots of water collection points still in use today.  Electricity only came to the town in the 1970’s (perhaps at the same time as the power station built in the gorge).  It was a glorious day, sunny, windless and a great day for walking in the mountains.

Christmas Day and we visited the Refugo de Juanar above Ojen.  It was about 4kms round trip to a couple of Miradors through a recently planted pine forest and olive plantation and a bit of gorse and bracken. So, we spent our Christmas Day with a number of Spanish families enjoying the scenery about 3000 feet above Marbella.  The day had a few blue spots in the sky but generally cloudy so no hope of seeing Morrocco from our vantage site.  Christmas dinner beckoned and so we headed off to Marbella far below - this is where 'stars frequent' and enjoyed wandering the narrow streets of the old city, visiting the Church of Santa Maria de la Encarnacion which was an impressive local church with some wonderful statues and a nativity scene.  The baroque doorway out front was decorated with Christmas trees etc.  We had dinner at a local restaurant near the beach (restaurants do seem to over charge for paella) and returned to the hotel to watch some flamenco dancers.

We have seen a number of flamenco dancers.  One afternoon we found a marquis set up for a flamenco dancer competition.  We sat in White Warehouse Chairs eating our crumbly french bread and cheese and enjoyed the dancing and music for a while.  After the third group we realised that each one had to compete with the same set music and dance pieces and so we switched our concentration to the crowd - we were in a real local community and like in most crowds people came and went frequently, trying to find a route past all those seated to the free chairs in the middle of the large marquis.  I loved the hats the men wear.