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  • TravelerSpain 2025 - Malaga province
    Day 64

    Puerto de los Carreros

    May 4 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 64 °F

    After yesterday’s adventure (narrow ledges, steep drop-offs, too precarious to even think about taking a photo), I wanted the exact opposite for today. That is exactly what we got: wide, smooth concrete or dirt tracks, plenty of space between us and the drop-off, and fantastic views all the way from the Mediterranean and the Rock of Gibraltar to our now-familiar Torrecilla.

    Because it was Sunday, lots of other people were out enjoying the same route - walkers, runners, and lots and lots of mountain bikers. They passed by pedaling valiantly on the uphill leg, and roared by at great speed on the downhill leg. Quite impressive.

    The only snag came at the end of the route. We had turned off on a dirt track and were within a half km of joining up with our outward track when we saw a sign saying “ Peligro. Colmenas” (Danger. Beehives). Well, we thought, we’ve passed a lot of beehives on various tracks in Spain and never had a problem, so let’s not worry about this one. But as we got closer, we saw two men working there, all suited up in protective gear. They waved their arms madly at us, shouting that it was dangerous and telling us to go back to the paved road. We did so reluctantly, retracing our steps and plotting a new route back to Ojén. It worked out fine, but when they passed us in their truck a few minutes later, I wondered if we would have gone through just fine had we arrived at that point after they left.

    www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/ojen-puerto-de-lo…    Read more

  • TravelerSpain 2025 - Malaga province
    21
    Day 63

    The Tunnel, Part 2

    May 3 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 68 °F

    Two years ago when we were walking the Camino del Argar, the route passed through a long tunnel that we had to shimmy into through a silted up entrance. The next day, we learned that the ayuntamiento had warned people not to use the tunnel due the danger of possible collapse. So when I read that today’s route had a tunnel under the A route that snakes through the mountains here, I had my doubts. But it all turned out to be easy - short, with a visible exit 0.2 kilometers away, a clear entrance, and signs of many users.

    The bigger problem was the first kilometer of the track out of the village. It looked easy on the map, but I was soon in over my head (literally) because the trail was quite overgrown and right on the edge of a gorge. It then went along an acequia with a tube cemented into its bed, making for some tricky footing, again with the drop to the arroyo directly beside us. I was thrilled when we finally got to a cemented road. That first kilometer took me an entire hour.

    The rest of the walk was pleasant and easy through the Parque Botánico El Cereza (which is more like a forest park than a botanical garden) and back to the village along a nice wide track.

    https://www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/ojen-parq…    Read more

  • TravelerSpain 2025 - Malaga province
    1
    1
    Day 62

    Adventures with the locksmith

    May 2 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 68 °F

    The minute the wind slammed the door shut behind us as we stepped into the street to see if we had cell service in our new village of Ojén, I had a panicky thought. “Do you have the keys in your pocket?” I asked Ned. He didn’t, nor did I. So there we were in a new village where we knew no one, with our backpacks and all our gear on the other side of a locked door.

    Luckily, we had our phones in our hands, so I immediately WhatsApped the owner, asking if he lived in Ojén, and explaining the situation. He answered right away that he was on a three day trip and currently 150 km away!

    A lot of thoughts ran through our heads at once:
    -What is the Spanish word for a locksmith?
    -Is there a locksmith in the village? (Probably not; we haven’t seen one in any of the other villages.)
    -Where might the nearest locksmith be? (Probably in Marbella. Ugh )
    -Would a locksmith be able to get here before nightfall?
    -If not, where would we sleep?

    We tried to be calm problem solvers. Good, we had cell service, so we were able to look up the word for locksmith. It’s “cerrajero”. Google then told us that, incredibly, there was a cerrajería in Ojén. No phone number, so would it be open? Google Maps showed us the way, and 10 minutes later we were in front of a very unprepossessing building, but there was a man working outside, an excellent sign! We ventured in and explained our problem to the first person we saw. He called the boss, and she immediately took down our address, and sent us back to our house. Within five minutes a man appeared on a motorcycle with a piece of plastic that looked like a giant credit card. He patiently wiggled it in the door for 5 to 10 minutes, and, whoosh, the door swung open and we were reunited with all our gear!

    We’ll be thinking very kind thoughts about Cerrajería Ojén as we go walking tomorrow!    Read more

  • TravelerWinter vacation
    8
    Day 48–49

    Still heading south

    April 13 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    The park up as some beautiful views
    We are sat high up a mountain overlooking the sea 1st gear part way up.Stopped at Puerto Banus beautiful
    place you need money to stay here a boat just off the shore is to big for the marina I think a helicopter 🚁 taking people off itRead more

  • TravelerSpain 2025 - Malaga province
    11
    Day 68

    Last walk in the Sierra de las Nieves

    Yesterday in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 68 °F

    Today was our last day in the Sierra de las Nieves. Tomorrow we are taking the bus to La Carihuela on the coast, a few train stops from the Malaga airport. We’ll have a few days to do some sections of the GR 92 that we missed in March due to the storms, and then on Tuesday, we fly to Madrid, and Wednesday to the US.

    The Sierra de las Nieves proved to be a great choice for this trip. We’ve gotten to explore eight villages and have had some spectacular mountain walks, especially the day up La Blanquilla, and our ventures into the Sierra Prieta. The March rains caused some trail damage and flooded fords, but the rain also brought a profusion of wildflowers and birdsong that we have enjoyed immensely.

    For our last walk, we chose an easy route that took us north of the village along the Río Real.
    A bridge at the end of the track connects across the river to the singletrack trail we didn’t take yesterday. It joins up with the dirt track we did walk that runs along the west side of the Sierra Bermeja. (We didn’t take the singletrack today either, having seen the damage farther up yesterday.) We also had a great view of the huge scar, maybe 150 feet long or so, where the cliff over the river collapsed and washed away. Whew!

    Ojén has been a great spot for our last village, a mountain town with a touch of seaside flavor. On the weekends, people flock up here from Marbella and fill the squares with lively conversation at the outdoor cafés. The trails are busy with walkers, runners, and mountain bikers. But the weekdays have been quiet and serene, just the right ending for our mountain days.

    www.wikiloc.com/walking-trails/ojen-rio-real-21…    Read more

  • TravelerSpain 2025 - Malaga province
    Day 67

    Sierra Bermeja

    May 7 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 63 °F

    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.

    www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/ojen-sierra-berme…    Read more

  • TravelerSpain 2025 - Malaga province
    1
    Day 66

    Huertas loop

    May 6 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 63 °F

    Another easy walk today that took us by huertas and olive, orange, and avocado groves south of the village. There was a path down toward the river that we wanted to take all the way to Marbella, but it was badly eroded by the March storms and is currently impassible. Instead, we watched some men playing boules and then visited the Museo del Molino on our way back. We saw the water-driven millstones that crushed the olives and drained off the 30% of the fruit that is oil.

    Ojén is a conundrum in terms of access to trails. It is the southernmost of the villages on the east side of the Sierra de las Nieves, and the last of the villages for us to visit. The other villages have all had steep but doable access, but Ojen has escarpments on all sides but the west that are too difficult for me to negotiate. Tomorrow we’ll try a route to the SW that I’m pretty sure will work.

    www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/2025-05-06-06-38-…    Read more

  • TravelerSpain 2025 - Malaga province
    Day 65

    A walk to the polideportivo

    May 5 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 70 °F

    The sports arena was not our intended destination, but it ended up being one today. We used up much of the morning interacting with the Wi-Fi technician who came to remedy the problems in our rental apartment caused by the nationwide power outage last week. Then we picked what we thought was the shortest way to the GR 249 trailhead, planning to walk south toward the Mediterranean, but to reach it, we had to have a way to cross the busy A-355 north of Ojén. There is an underpass just above the sports center, but the route we took to get there left a gap that was insurmountable for me. Instead, we made our way back to the village, stopping to view a very interesting display about the mining history of this area followed by an even more interesting chat with two men from a pest control company who are going around the village eliminating cockroaches that are living in the town’s drainage system. I’ll spare you the details of that! Suffice to say it’s a big problem.

    www.wikiloc.com/walking-trails/ojen-polideporti…    Read more

  • TravelerSpain 2025 - Malaga province
    3
    1111
    Day 25

    Last Day in Monda

    March 26 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 63 °F

    We’ve been in Monda for seven days now, and amazingly, we’ve been able to walk a different route every single day. This village has a remarkable number of trails leading out from it.

    Ned has been having great fun using the app Merlin to identify the birds we are hearing as we walk along. Today we not only heard a Eurasian blackbird’s song, but he also sat nicely on a branch right in front of us as he sang. (Ned joked that what we need next is an app that identifies dog breeds by their bark so we can have more information about the endless number of vigorous growls, yelps, and yips that come from behind the fences we are passing by.)

    The final steep ascent on the PR-A 277 was covered with loose stones that I estimated I could go up, but probably could not come down safely. So only Ned climbed up to see the wide-ranging view from the top, including an active limestone quarry (which I had mistakenly told him was a marble quarry). Meanwhile, the activity at the bee boxes kept me entertained while I waited.

    Our casa rural here proved to be in a very handy location for all the trailheads, as well as the village food shop. The house has a number of things that remind us of what it would have been like to live here several generations ago: three-foot thick walls; beamed ceilings; an old hand pump; and a collection of artifacts lovingly displayed. It feels good to have this history around us.    Read more

  • TravelerSpain 2025 - Malaga province
    4
    4124
    Day 24

    Dry socks?

    March 25 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 59 °F

    When we were putting things into the day pack for our loop walk this morning, I considered throwing in an extra pair of socks for each of us. Nah, I thought, we won’t need them. If we come to a river that is too deep to cross, we’ll just turn around and come back like we have on other days. Bad decision. Just when we reached the point where it made more sense to go forward rather than turn around, the nice wide track we had been following turned into an overgrown, rocky, narrow path working its way up a steep arroyo.. The first six creek crossings worked out well, but no matter how many rocks Ned threw in at crossing number seven, it was clear I was not going to be able to keep my feet dry, much less make the required leap at the end to head up a muddy, slippery slope. After much agonizing, I did what I should’ve done in the first place. I just rolled up my trousers, walked right through, came out the other side and up the slope fine, and within five minutes didn’t even notice that my feet were wet. Ned’s were too, after all his efforts to help me. But wool socks do a great job of keeping one’s feet comfortable, wet or dry.

    When we weren’t in the ravine, we had great views of the same mountains we saw yesterday in all their snowy glory. But today, we were very surprised that there was no snow on them. It seems it was just a lucky break that we did a trail yesterday that allowed us to see the snow that had fallen during Sunday’s storm two days ago.

    www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/monda-double-loop…    Read more

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