Thanks to Wikiloc…

We were lucky with conversations this morning. A man who was out early cleaning the streets saw our hiking gear and chatted with us for several minutes about the state of the trails, how much water there was in the rivers, how many days a week he worked, and all the other questions we could think of to ask him. Next we noticed a gathering just outside the village with women cooking refreshments and setting up tables. One of them turned and called out to us. We were surprised that anybody would notice us, and then all of a sudden, we realized it was the friendly woman from the museum yesterday who had given us so much background about the village. She told us they were getting ready for a celebration that included a 20 km horseback ride with all the horses decked out in their best finery.

They certainly had a great day for the fiesta. A few clouds in the sky gave welcome shade, but yesterday‘s rain was gone. We made our way up the GR 243 between Tolox and Guaro following the plentiful GR markings. When we were up high enough to see both Yunquera and Alozaina, we stopped for a snack break and then took a rough dirt track back to Tolox.

Every day that we have a successful walk like this, we marvel that we can come to a village that we knew nothing about a year ago, and thanks to the Wikiloc app, we can find interesting tracks to walk in a different direction every day. By using the filters in Wikiloc’s search function, we can find local tracks of a certain length or a certain elevation gain, and we can even sort tracks by how recently they were uploaded They all have copious notes from local walkers, pointing out things to see and spots that might be tricky. It really is amazing to be able to find such obscure trails and follow them so easily.

www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/tolox-gr-243-loop…Read more