Hill Walking

Puerto de los Martinez (700m). The initial walk to the start of the wild section drops the height to 600m. Leaving a 700m ascent over 1.5km, in 3 steep sections. The ascent along the first spur had no defined track and with the excessive rainfall over the last few months had led to a wealth of vegetation, especially thistles and thorns. The cries and yelps of being stabbed by these plants could be heard all along the spur to the base of the rock scrambles, by this time all were happy to start clambering up rocks. Some showed the eagerness of mountain goats needing restraining, but everyone enjoyed the adventure and the view though apprehension arose when they looked up at the peak they would reach. There was the odd comment query about the terminology of ‘hill walking’ and throughout the day there was more reference to climbing than walking. The last 400m to the peak take a couple of hours of hard graft to complete, with a variety of terrain, one group choose a short path of a scree and learnt how to tackle this safely. There is a path which traverses around the peak leading up to the trig point, whereby we were greeted by hundreds of small birds circling the peak. It was agreed the views were worth it. The final descent was along a well defined track to the south sweeping around the spur and through the forest.

Sierra Pieta The vegetation here had become equally as abundant as route 2. Long trousers and long sleeved tops are needed for this terrain under the present conditions. The weather for this area on the first day of walking was cool and extremely windy with mist on the peaks, the winds ran up the western side of the ridge. In comparison, the second day of walking had very high temperatures with the lee of the ridgeline causing greater consumption of water rather than the welcome shelter the previous day had experienced. The route has superb views throughout which can distract from previous days fatigue. The final ascent is hard on the knees though again gives impressive views out to the coast across Andalucia.

Biking:

30 minutes of basic education of the bike, covering: stops, changing gears, safety on the road, bike position and all other points required. 3 hours where then spent on the tracks around the local area with great hill work and 11km cycled. Once complete we stayed in the local area and took in a lot of the high ground, some steep streets to the Abby of Alora and the reminder off road. A very hard day but then you have 2 stops with restaurants close by.

A 40 minute drive takes you into the mountains and to blazing saddles base where we picked up the bikes and spent a full day climbing great hills and again seeing great scenery. You pass through two villages that seemed to have been kept in the 1960s.

Climbing

El Chorrno. Two areas here are great climbing and could handle what we required.