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Thursday, 5 January 2017

Wednesday Walk 11th January, A farewell Wednesday Walk for Ian and Amanda

The next Wednesday Walk we are doing will be around Archidona combining some old favourites with a new part. It will take about 3.5 hours and contains one steepish downhill and one gradual uphill part. Walking poles would be advisable for the downhill part. It is dog-friendly but there is some road walking involved so they must be on leads during that time. Meet at bar El Encuentro in Archidona at 10:30. Please let us know if you will be coming.

Atrekinthesun's Instagram Top 10 Photos of 2016

By atrekinthesun 00:15 1 comment:

We share a lot of our photos from our travels and hikes on Instagram. Here are some notable photos from our adventures during 2016.

Number 10

In April we travelled down to Torre del Mar in our Motorhome and stayed on at a very nice campsite there. It is a great base for some serious walking in the Sierras de Tejeda, Almijara y Alhama. In this photo, we were on our way up to Pico Cielo (1508 metres) and looking down on Nerja. Read more about our adventures on this trip here.

Number 9

We had a belated Valentine's trip to Cabo de Gata (late because the hotel that we stayed in didn't open until just after Valentine's day). The hotel was Cortijo El Paraiso and was very nice if you like being in the middle of nowhere, within walking distance of the mountains and superb beaches. In this shot we were walking on a track high in the mountains and for some reason, someone had built this structure either side of the track and if you look closely you will see what looks like a golf ball waiting to be hit, but in fact, it is an observatory far away in the distance. More adventures here

Number 8

In September the weather where we live in Southern Spain was starting to cool down so we decided to make a trip to the coast to walk up Rio Chillar (you literally do have to walk in the river itself). So our walking group plus two dogs (one who hates water) made the journey and had a great time. In the photo, we are having a cooling dip in one of the pools along the river. More here.

Number 7

In April we took our walking group to the beautiful area of Dehesa de Hondonero just outside the village of Villanueva del Rosario. This is a beautiful area for walking with some fantastic views and high mountains with Pico Chamizo being the highest at 1640 metres. Today we were only walking up the valley to the cave of Toma y Bebe and back. In the photo, we are looking towards Pico Chamizo from the valley floor. More here.

Number 6

At the beginning of April, we went to Malaga and found some great street art very close to the Port of Malaga. This is well worth a visit if you ever make a trip to Malaga. In the photo is one of the many examples of Urban Street Art in Malaga. More photos here.

Number 5

In mid-September, we visited the Caminito del Rey for the second time with friends. This is a fantastic experience where you walk along a spectacular walkway high above the river at the bottom of the gorge. This used to be one of the most dangerous walkways in the world but has been refurbished recently and is now very safe. It is a must to visit if you are holidaying in this part of Southern Spain. In the photo is one of the many spectacular views on the walk. Full story here.

Number 4

In June we made our first trip to Northern Portugal in our Motorhome and had a wonderful time. The campsites were really good and the people so friendly. We did not get to Porto as the weather was not too good. So we will have to go again sometime. More here.

Number 3

October saw our first adventure to Lanzarote. We were not sure what to expect but had a great time exploring the island. The island is not too big and if you hire a car you can take in all the spectacular sites in one week. In the photo is part of the home once owned by Omar Sharif, who lost it in a card game. See our experiences here.

Number 2

In February we finally got it together to visit Madrid. We flew from Malaga to Madrid and spent 4 days touring the city. It is a beautiful city with many things to see and lots of great restaurants to eat. In the photo, this was guarding the entrance to one of the many magnificent buildings in the city. Madrid.

Number 1

The highlight of our year was our trip to Croatia. It nearly didn't happen as the day before we were due to fly out there I had an accident on my bike, but the hospital patched me up (not a pretty sight) and off we went. We flew into Venice and picked up a hire car from where we drove into Croatia via Slovenia. During the two weeks we spent there we had some really great experiences travelling from the North down South almost to Split. The people and accommodation were fantastic. Two weeks was not long enough to see everything so we are planning to return, this time in the motorhome starting in the South and driving North. In the photo, is one of the many lakes we saw on our journey. Croatia by car.

Wednesday Walk 4th January

By atrekinthesun 03:04 No comments:

We are back from our Christmas break, hope you all had a Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year.

This week's walk is one of Pete & Karen's and is from Villanueva de Algaidas up to the windmills and is a circular walk of 14km starting in the layby outside the Dia supermarket near the football pitch. It's dog friendly and has one steep uphill section. Come and join us to get rid of some of those festive calories. Meet at the layby at 10:30.

Please let us know if you will be joining us.

Voyage of discovery

By atrekinthesun 08:57 1 comment:

We decided to do a new walk today. Parking the car at a mystery place and started walking along a track, this soon disappeared and we were left walking through the olive groves.

It is that time of the year again and today was the final of Strictly Come Walking. The two finalists were Scoobie Deeming & Max Peers both seasoned walkers. The judges Cyril 'Revel' Deeming and Chris 'Darcy' Deeming also seasoned walkers. More of Strictly later.

Eventually, we joined a track that we had used before where we met up with three people with dogs, we thought that they were walkers, but they were collecting mushrooms. The dogs were quite big so we had to put Max on the lead, he still snapped at them though. Shortly afterwards we took a track off to the left which eventually ran out so we ended up skirting around the edge of a field upon a marked track, by which time we were in the high mountains.

One man and his friends dog

Spot the white walker

First siting of the Ibex

They were on the move

Still keeping a close eye on us

Looking up at the top of the ridges we soon spotted two Ibex keeping an eye on us and the dogs, so we decided to put Scoobie on the lead as she had seen them too and she likes to chase them. After about two hours of walking, we decided to stop for lunch near a cave with great views.

I suddenly became very popular with the dogs over lunch, I wonder why?

View of La Maroma above the clouds

We then came across some sheep and goats luckily Scoobie was still on the lead or there would have been another chase but Max was really good and when we thought that he was going to chase them we just said no and he didn't, well done Max.

Later we walked through a campsite where some families where picnicking. Then we started the last five kilometres mostly downhill (apart from three hills) back to the car.

It is good to see some water in the streams

The weather was brilliant during the whole of the five hours on the voyage, a perfect day for walking. Unfortunately, although the walk was only about 14 kilometres, it would not be suitable for our walking group to do as it was too hard. When we got back to the car the Strictly judges decided that both dogs scored 9 points each, so it is now down to the public vote as to which one wins 2016 Strictly Come Walking.

Cycling tour of Torre del Mar

By atrekinthesun 05:37 2 comments:

Decided to go to the coast in the motorhome with the bikes. Thought we would go for a nice easy ride as we were at the coast, no such luck, we went inland and almost 3 hours later we had done over 900 metres of ascent. Not going inland tomorrow. Had a nice meal with friends in Almayate.
Walked into Torre del Mar to get some food and have a look round the market. We were going for a bike ride in the afternoon but it was cancelled because it started raining.

The next day the sun came back out to play, so we went for an easier bike ride. From the campsite, we went along the coast towards Torrox about 14 kilometres had a coffee then cycled back. Went out to a new restaurant for us in Torre Del Mar in the evening, Restaurant Mi Mundo which very good.

Opps sorry wrong bike

Ready for the off

Coffee break half way round

One man and his dog

Wednesday walk 7th December and Friday Christmas Dinner walk 16th December

By atrekinthesun 07:28 No comments:

Wednesday afternoon walk 7th December.

This walk will start in the Dehesa Hononero in Villanueva del Rosario up to Cueva de Toma y Bebe and back. It will take just over 3 hours with a height gain of almost 500 metres. A dog-friendly walk with some great views. Meet at Junction 7 on the A92M Paneque at 2pm.

Friday Christmas dinner walk 16th December.

The next Wednesday walk after that will be on Friday 16th December which will start at the bar next to the BP station on the a333 at 11 am for a 3 hour walk to Villanueva de Tapia and back followed by Christmas Dinner at the bar. Some road walking but mostly dog friendly (they cannot have Christmas dinner though). Please let us know if you are interested in this.

Such a shame

By atrekinthesun 08:57 2 comments:

We went for a little walk today on one of our favorite walks. From Archidona down into the Arroyo de Martin valley.This beautiful valley had been the site of a senseless arson attack earlier in the year and it was the first time that we had been back since that day. The start of the walk was not affected but after about an hour of walking reached the area that has been devastated by the fire. Fortunately, the path we were on was still intact but the trees are all scorched. Hopefully, nature will restore it to its former beauty in time.

Still beautiful at the start