A Walk in Axarquia, Andalucia, Southern Spain

My favourite walk begins in Competa at the turn off to Casa Mina. The white town of Competa, which looks very picturesque huddled against the mountain (La Maroma), is called by locals the "sleeping princess" because of its distinctive shape from this view. We climb gradually up a good track through pine trees and the sad remains of a forest fire and into the Natural Park of the Sierras of Tejeda, Almijara and Alhama. There are fabulous views of the coast, mountains and Competa. After 3.5 kms we arrive at a fabulous viewing point, where we can rest and see Torrox Costa, Frigiliana, the mountains of the Sierra Almijara and of course the Mediterranean. These are really beautiful views and our guests are always stunned. We drag ourselves away and turn left to continue our climb, at times quite steeply until we are directly below a look out station for forest fires (5.2 kms) The track is shingle and stones so can be a bit slippery, but if we are lucky we might see Ibex, the wild goat and eagles. We are very high so the views are amazing particularly of El Lucero (1,700 ms) and La Maroma (2,065 ms). Again it is lovely just to stand still for a while to absorb not only the views but also the total peace, disturbed only by birdsong.

The track levels off and we continue for another couple of kms along gentle ups and downs, enjoying the staggering views, until we start to descend through lovely fragrances of rosemary and sage. The track is steep in parts and quite slippery on loose stones. Shortly after passing some beehives we arrive at a wide good quality track, where we turn left. A very gradual descent takes us to a tarmac road (13.25 kms). The walk becomes flat and easy taking us through cultivated land of olives, almonds, oranges etc. until we arrive at the Ermita at the top of the village of Canillas de Albaida. This is a very pretty steep white village, which so far unlike Frigiliana has not been discovered by many tourists and it makes a delightful place to stop for lunch at a lovely restaurant in the main square. (15.5 kms. After lunch and a short tour round this picturesque village we continue our walk by following a tarmac road which drops steeply to the river Cajula taking us past the chapel of San Anton and an ancient Roman bridge ( 16kms). Next we continue along the tarmac road which now climbs quite steeply until we reach the track of Los Eriales (18.6 kms) and we continue along this good quality track with beautiful views of the Sierra Tejada, Lake Vinuela and the coast. The Sierra Tejada takes its name from the yew tree (tejo in Spanish) which used to be widespread in this area but has largely been destroyed because it is poisonous to sheep and cattle The land here is cultivated, growing almonds, olives and vines, but in Spring there are fields of poppies and lots of other wild flowers such as Bermuda buttercups and wild lupins. We continue until we reach the steep climb down the ridge to Daimalos, where Steve and Sheila are lucky enough to live and guests stay in distinctive village houses, for their walking holiday (24kms).