Órgiva: Molino de Benizalte

What a great day! We had no particular expectations for today other than to get in a short walk to one of the items in the Inventario de Patrimonio in order to see if we could combine the step of making the Wikiloc track with the subsequent step of adding the element description.

It worked! There were more than a few hiccups along the way, but we now know more about what needs to be done while we are on the trail in order to make the editing easier when we get back to the casa rural.

In particular, as I found out the hard way, we need to be very careful that all the relevant waypoints are recorded properly as we walk. Another lesson learned multiple times this afternoon is that it’s a little too easy to think you are deleting a photo when you are actually deleting an entire waypoint on the gpx track.

The sunshine helped make it a good day as we started out along the Rio Chico. The Molino de Benizalte itself is only about a kilometer from town. It’s in ruins now, but what an elegant mill it must have been during its working years. The tall tower that you see in the middle of the building was raised above the adjoining roof lines in order to accommodate the long counterweight beam of the oil press. There has been a mill at this site for more than a thousand years. Benizalte was a Muslim village of about 200 people on the Rio Chico. Although the mill was near the river, it was powered by animals, not water. The current building dates from the 18th century and shows how much attention was paid to creating elaborate industrial buildings during that time.

The rest of our walk was devoted to admiring the centenary olive trees that are in abundance in this area. There were 20 to 30 dogs who were also in abundance. A few of the loudest ones were behind fences, but most of them were just wandering along the dirt tracks as if they were out for a morning walk. To our surprise,, none of them were threatening. They just gave us a nod and passed on by without even barking.

Today’s Wikiloc track (below) needs more work when we get home and have a computer to use for editing instead of just a phone, but I am really pleased at how it turned out. As far as I know, it is the only place on the web where the location of the mill is available along with detailed information in English.
https://www.wikiloc.com/walking-trails/molino-d…Læs mere