Sierra Bermeja

Hurray! We finally found another loop out of Ojén that was as good as the one we walked on Sunday. This one went along the side of the Sierra Bermeja range, named for the red color of its rocks.

The Río Real carves out a deep valley as it flows down from the mountains to pass by Ojén, complicating access to the village. We knew if we crossed the river by its one bridge this morning that there would be two possible routes back. One was a singletrack trail cutting down an arroyo to cross the river via a tree-trunk bridge. Our luck with those sorts of trails has not been good, nor was it today - more storm damage. The other was a dirt road that crosses the river via a ford, but does not connect with any tracks to get back into the village. Instead, you have to walk on the A-7103, the only paved route leading north out of Ojén. We were afraid this would have a lot of traffic on it, but it turned out to be perfectly fine in spite of the fact that it didn’t have any shoulder at all. Luckily, only one bus came by while we were on it. We knew from riding the bus from Marbella to Monda at the beginning of this trip that the bus occupies both lanes as it goes around the six hairpin bends that allow it to climb up out of the barranco. It beeps twice as it approaches each hairpin to warn oncoming traffic (and walkers!) to get out of the way.

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