Villanueva del Trabuco climbing wall walk

Villanueva del Trabuco climbing wall walk

By atrekinthesun   09:43   No comments:

We did one of our harder walks today, which is not suitable for the normal Wednesday walks that we do as it is too steep and mainly following goat tracks. As we were walking with a Spanish friend we  had two cars available so we were able to park a car at either end and make it an hour and a quarter shorter only taking 3 hours. The start is very steep from a track up to a climbing wall, hence the name of the walk, it is less than a kilometre but definitely gets the heart pumping.

Gibalto from climbing wall

Once you have got over that the walk is easier but mostly following goat tracks so the going is a little difficult at times and not easy to follow up into a hidden valley, this place is really peaceful and we stopped for a little break and the only sounds were made by us. There are no marked tracks out of this valley only a few more goat tracks which we followed, we did see the occasional cairn or mojon in Spanish (thanks Javier for that information) but these did not lead us anywhere and eventually stopped altogether.

I was looking back to see!

We managed to find our way back to the car at the place we had left it but not before we heard shooting close by, very close actually good job that we had Scoobie on the lead. When we got back to the car we discovered that it was people shooting at a target and not hunting as we had first thought. So we arrived back safely after a lovely 3 hour walk.

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Wednesday walk 1st April

Wednesday walk 1st April

By atrekinthesun   08:14   No comments:

This weeks walk will be 50k  in Sierra Nevada. April fool. Really it is a new walk of about 2 hour 30 minutes on good tracks at the back of Hacho in Loja. Fairly flat apart from initial climb up to the tracks. Meet at Lidl in Loja at 9:30 to drive to the start.

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Annual walking trip

Annual walking trip

By atrekinthesun   08:59   No comments:

For this years trip we decided to go to Nerja for 2 days walking. We traveled to Nerja on Friday morning and did a walk up onto Cerro Molinero in the Sierra Almijara range.

Sierra Almijara

It was 12:30 before we started the walk and the weather was hotter than normal for this time of year so it a was very hot walk but we managed to complete it, after plenty of water stops, in about 2 hours 45 minutes. We then drove to our hotel in the center of Nerja. It was a very nice hotel and we relaxed and showered before going out for a meal in the evening. When it had cooled down a little we went to an English bar for a couple of pints and then went to a very nice vegetarian bar that was run by a Cuban guy (Valerie) and his English wife (Julie). Valerie was front of house and very entertaining even playing guitar and singing. We had Mojita's a bottle of wine and some veggie tapas which were all very nice. The night was completed with more beer and ice cream.
The next day after breakfast we walked from Maro along the cliff tops to a tower and then descended to the beach. The sea was calm and very blue with not a cloud in the sky.

Beach walk

If anything it was hotter than Friday but fortunately we started the walk at about 10:30 and it only took about 2 hours.

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Escape from reality

Escape from reality

By atrekinthesun   12:28   No comments:

We decided to treat ourselves after the harsh winter months here in Villanueva del Trabuco, so we booked into the 5 star hotel in Antequera called La Convento Magdalena for a night.

Room with a view

We arrived at midday after going for a medical in Antequera first in preparation for applying for a Spanish driving licence which we got through without any problem even though we did not drive very well on the machine. Having checked into our room, doing a little tour of the hotel we had some lunch, then went to the Spa for an hour of relaxation in the jacuzzi, pool & sauna and a cup of tea. Then back to the room for a game of scrabble before getting dressed up to go for a meal in the restaurant. Had a lovely meal with a nice bottle of wine before retiring to the very quiet room for a good nights sleep. The next morning we had a great breakfast before shopping and returning home
back to reality.

Nice room

Inner courtyard

The old church

Hacienda La Magdalena

View of hotel

Old waterwheel

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Wednesday walk

Wednesday walk

By atrekinthesun   06:47   No comments:

Wednesday walk 25th March 2015
This weeks walk will be on tracks around Archidona. There is a lot of rain forecast between now and then but these track should still be Ok to walk on. Meet at Las Rejas at 10 am, the walk will take about 3 hours and is mostly flat. We will be making a stop in Archidona for refreshments on the way back. Mostly track but some road walking so dogs must be on leads during that time.

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Wednesday Walk 18th March CANCELLED

Wednesday Walk 18th March CANCELLED

By atrekinthesun   07:50   No comments:

The walk for this wednesday is cancelled because it is forecast to be raining all day. Hope to see you next week.

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Change of plan

Change of plan

By atrekinthesun   12:22   No comments:

We had decided to stay at home and do jobs today having walked over the weekend. But seeing the weather today and the forecast for the rest of the week (which is for rain from Wednesday) we made a quick decision to do a walk today instead. Starting from home we walked through the village onto tracks around Villanueva del Trabuco taking in the wonderful scenery. After walking for about three hours we arrived at Antigua Venta Cortijuelo Hermanos Romero in Cortijuelo just outside the village. During the walk we had decided to have Menu del Dia which is a three course meal and a bottle of wine for €8. We walked the meal off by walking back home which took about an hour.   

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Lagunas de Salinas

Lagunas de Salinas

By atrekinthesun   10:57   No comments:

15th March 2015
We decided to do some exploring at the Lagunas de Salinas. Started well walking past the two lagunas.

Laguna Chica

We then tried to follow the tracks shown on the map to make our way to Fuente Camacho. Even after taking some bearings using a map and compass (do you remember these) we still managed to follow a track that just ended in an olive grove. We had managed to do this once before but it was a long time ago, we found a quarry which was not on our map and some nice tracks but they didn't go anywhere near where we wanted to go. After a while we decided to follow the tracks to a hamlet called Cortijos las Montoras and along a track to the car. A very pleasant 3 hour walk even though it was not the planned route.

every cloud has a silver lining

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Wednesday walk 18th March

Wednesday walk 18th March

By atrekinthesun   00:52   No comments:

This weeks walk is an easy one. We are doing the Balerma triangle. Meeting at Pepe's bar in Ventorros de la Laguna to start the walk at 10 am. The walk will take about 2 hours and is on good flat tracks with a bit of road walking. The weather forecast is not looking good for Wednesday at the moment. If the weather is still looking bad on Tuesday we will cancel the walk.

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Charco del Negro and Cueva Hora

Charco del Negro and Cueva Hora

By atrekinthesun   01:05   No comments:

11/03/2015 Charco del Negro & Cueva Hora

We met up at 10 am at Abadas services on the A92 motorway, it took us about 30 minutes to drive up to the start of the walk. It was a nice walk with beautiful views and weather, amongst the wind turbines of Sierra de Loja.

Start of walk

There were 5 people and four dogs which were all let off (the dogs that is) at the start as there were no animals around. Scoobie soon disappeared but the other three dogs either stayed with us or kept coming back to us. 

Emerging from the top of the cave

On the loopback from the cave a land rover with a warden in stopped to ask if we had lost one of our dogs (we had put the other three on their leads as we saw some sheep about) as a white dog had been reported by a shepherd as chasing his sheep. We said that we had lost one of our dogs and he drove off. When we were approaching our cars we saw the warden and some other people near our cars and then we spotted Scoobie walking towards us. She was quite calm and let us put the lead on and I said that I was sorry to the warden who said that was OK but the other people with him were the shepherds who were not very happy and said that 

View from top of Cueva Hora

Scoobie was a dangerous dog and loco. This is it now we are never going to let her run free off the lead again as she gets into too much trouble.

Dangerous dog

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First trip of 2015 to San Jose, Cabo de Gata

First trip of 2015 to San Jose, Cabo de Gata

By atrekinthesun   03:22   No comments:

 27/2/15 first trip of the year to San Jose in cabo de gata. 

San Jose

We were in for a shock when we arrived at our normal accommodation as it was full this is the first time ever that we have not been able to stay there.  We soon found another car park with other motorhomes on although there was a big sign saying ‘NO OVERNIGHT PARKING’ after talking to an English couple with a huge motorhome they assured us that it would be OK to stay there overnight as the normal place was full. It was Friday so we decided to treat ourselves and go to our favourite pizza restaurant for dinner we were not disappointed and we had a nice salad followed by a pizza and a bottle of wine. We didn't get a ticket for parking that night although we had a worrying night expecting the police to arrive at any time. We had breakfast and planned our walk for the day. The walk we decided on was what we call the walk of the playas (beaches), where we walk from San Jose beach across part of the village to a track that takes you around a hill past some grand houses to playa de los Genovese which is approximately 3 kilometers.

Playa Genovese

Surprisingly there were a lot of people on this beach probably because it was Spanish school’s half term and Semana Blanca, normally we are the only ones there. From this beach you can choose to walk along the track inland straight to Monsul beach which is about 6 kilometers from San Jose or take in three more beaches before Monsul but these can only be reached by foot walking over the volcanic crags along the coast, they are Cala Amarilla, Cala Chica and Playa del Barronal.

Soon we were on our own to enjoy the beautiful beaches and rock formations and it was well worth the effort of walking over the rocky outcrops between the beaches.

Playa del Barronal

Eventually we arrived at Playa Monsul after about two and a half hours where we had lunch (which you have to take yourselves as there are no bars after leaving San Jose). After which we walked back to San Jose along the inland track back to the motorhome to relax after a great day’s walking of just over four hours. After a coffee we

decided to move from the car park to a nearby campsite called Camping Los Escullos which we had been to before and we liked. Having settled into a nice pitch we showered and made a nice meal with a bottle of wine before starting our usual evening entertainment of scrabble followed by a couple of card games.

Next day we did a walk from the campsite inland to the village of Los Albaricoques via the small village of Presillas Bajas along a good track that we had to share with runners and walkers coming towards us, they were taking part in a 29 kilometer race from Rodalquilar to San Jose the VII Trail Cabo de Gata. We didn’t go quite that far about two hours 30 minutes to Los Albaricoques where we had coffee and a bite to eat and twohours back along a slightly different route. Spent another night on the campsite then after breakfast we left the campsite and drove to a nearby beach El Embarcadero for an hour. 

El Embarcadero

After which time we were bored so we walked to the next little village along the coast La Isleta for a coffee. When we arrived there we met our English neighbours from the campsite so we walked back with them and arranged to meet up sometime in the future to do some walks together. Drove back to San Jose where we managed to get on our usual parking space but it was still quite full and we got the last available space. Had a quiet night and travelled home the next day.

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