Cortijo Almachar

This was to be one of our longest walks yet. A 14Km hike up and around the hills of Maro, namely going around Tajo de los Buyes. We started from our usual place, just outside Maro near the Nerja caves roundabout. It turned out that the start of the walk was on the other side of town but it didn't matter as the return brought us past here. Nearly 5 hours later.

The beginning of the route was in the bed of a dry barranco. This climbed steadily up the hill. We were to stay in the barranco for at least an hour. The guide stated that we needed to exit when we came to a "Mauve" marker. Needless to say, an hour later we had not found said marker but stumbled upon a red arrow that appeared to point the opposite way as to the guide. We decided to trust the guide and was rewarded with another red marker a little further on, along with a view of our target Cortijo. It looked miles away.

On the trail up the hill.

The pathway was now getting steeper. The cortijo was meant to be the half-way marker but we had already gone through half of our water and it still looked a good distance away. At this point we could see two distant figures at the cortijo. 10 minutes later they were bounding past us, obviously doing the walk in the opposite direction. Can't be too far now.

Finally, the cortijo.

We arrived at the cortijo a good two and a half hours into the walk. The guide stated it should take less than 2 hours. But at least we had got the climb out of the way. Just as well as Monica declared that she was not climbing anymore. The views from the top were stunning. Well worth the effort.

Nerja from the Cortijo.

Sure enough the walk was all downhill from here. We added a good 15 minutes by missing the first of the three shortcuts that the guide highlighted. Monica would have killed me if it was an uphill section.

The last stage took us back along the path that we had been on before on our one and only horse ride last year. If only we could finish the journey by horse now. We were both knackered. So it didn't improve our mood any when we turned left instead of right at the tunnel that goes under the motorway. We had put the guide away thinking we knew best. Maro was left, but there was no way through. 20 minutes later, we soon realised we had been beat and had to back track to the old sugar mill. Back to the car and off to the beach for a well-deserved jug of sangria.

The old sugar mill.