Ventas de Zafarraya to Pulgarín Bajo

Ventas de Zafarraya to Pulgarín Bajo, 15 km - Cortijo Pulgarín Bajo, Casa Mirador

We are warm and snug in front of the fireplace in Pulgarín Bajo awaiting the storm with hurricane force winds that is headed this way. Gusts of up to 87 km per hour are predicted for Christmas day. The only source of heat in our 150-year-old house is the fireplace in our central room, so we have all our clothes and jackets on, as well as blankets wrapped around us. Thank goodness we are carrying our down sleeping bags with us!

Today's walk was marvelous, first along the line of the old cog railway that once carried potatoes and vegetables from the cortijos of the Axarqia to Málaga, and then on an old drovers' path that led from Málaga to Granada. We had Christmas "dinner" ( ham and cheese sandwiches) a day early at the same restaurant in the little hamlet of Guaro where Ned and I revived ourselves with ice cream on our 2009 bike trip. It was the week after I broke my shoulder, and today I marveled at the fact that we had cycled such steep ascents under those conditions.

The owner of the cortijo where we are staying is very kind. He reminds me of my dad. He and his wife drove up from Malaga to check us in! He gave us a tour of all the buildings here. The cortijo has been in his family for generations. 60 men used to work here. He has preserved the old olive mill where the millstones to press out the oil were turned by donkeys. It was like having a personal tour of a museum.Read more