A magnificent easy signed circular walk taking well under 2 hours visiting many of the most exciting formations. El Torcal is very popular at weekends and religious holidays so best avoided then.

El Torcal can be reached direct from Malaga but the road is badly signed and hard to find and is best used for the return. It’s easily found from the Antequera ring road and I’ve usually spent the morning there (magnificent dolmens) then the afternoon in El Torcal. The quickest way there is probably the road to Antequera turning off to Villanueva de la Concepcion then turning right north. It’s well signposted from this road (C3310).

When I first went three walks were mentioned but a recent booklet indicated visitors were only allowed on the easiest. However in 2005 it seemed that you could go anywhere and the signage for at least two of the walks was vastly improved. So far as I’m aware no map is available.

From the Visitor Centre (demolished in 2005 but being rebuilt?) Car Park a board indicates red and yellow routes. Red is short and comparatively boring. Yellow is magnificent taking you through some incredible scenery. Five years or so ago when it was unmarked on the ground and only the odd paint splash was visible, map and compassless, it felt quite an undertaking but the new signs have led to vastly increased use and no worries about getting back.

Worth the 90 or so minutes trip each way on its own. Next visit I’ll try some wider exploration. A few pics are on walking world wide

The Sierra Mijas

A pleasant walk for good views taking about 3 hours - or longer if you go to the summit. Perhaps 8k and 3/400m of ascent (13k and 700m to the summit?). So far as I know there is no map.

From Mijas go up on the main (or any) street to reach the Coin/Alhaurin road. There is parking for about 10 cars on this at the appropriate place just below a Sanctuary and you can always try there first if you are going solely for the walk. A large new car park has been built in Mijas and most of the former free parking has gone which certainly makes the town a nicer place, if more expensive!

Signs lead you to the sanctuary but where it turns left follow the signs right (Ruta Litoral) and up to where it joins another crossing path – left is the return. Go right up to a large dirt track and a couple of metres right on it to find a path going up on the left. High up above the road another signed junction is reached.

Right will take you to one (or more) of the Sierra’s highest peaks from which a way back down to the dirt track will be found (so one of my companions assured me!).

Left takes you to the Pico Mijas but at the ridge a just visible cairned track left goes to an obviously popular viewpoint - not many people go furher. The summit path goes on slightly down hill and where it bends right there is a signpost and track back down to the large dirt track (an alternative way to return). The track to the summit is a couple of metres further on and stays level gradually rising to the now visible Pico. The start is concealed by fallen trees and is slightly blocked in several places but nothing to deter a keen walker - its about an hour to the summit and the same back making the trip 5 to 6 hours.

Leave the dirt track at the same point as you came up (it goes on for ever in both directions!) and then continue on the path passing the left turn where you came up to continue down to the Sanctuary. There are signs at junctions but both the paths will lead you to it or the road anyway. (You can of course go up by either the unsigned path just before the Sanctuary, or by the Ruta Puerto Malaga just past it and as the Ruta Litoral is steeper this might be better a better way round if you are starting fairly late in the day).

Tolox

Best described as an interesting exploration my sole visit here was disappointing in that we’d hoped to get into the high hills (the highest point (Torrecilla – 1919m) is here but we couldn’t find the start point! That’s for another time and is partly the reason why I’ve written this guide. For visitors without local knowledge finding where to walk in southern Spain is a nightmare in itself. Our walk took us 5 hours, perhaps 12k or so and 300m. Its got a very high prickle factor! Don’t go before March as this is a ski area. I’m afraid I can give no names for the hills because although I’ve now got a map I can’t locate them on it!

The obvious road through Tolox, rather than the incredibly narrow roads into its centre, lead to signs up into the Natural Park and, eventually, the football pitch and Hotel (parking). Cars could go further up the good, well graded, dirt track but I’m not sure this would be to much advantage.

From the hotel go up the dirt track and where it bends take the path straight on to an obviously popular viewpoint on the right. Reaching the top of this and looking back you can see a track up the hillside opposite. You just know those gorse bushes will scratch you to death but that’s the way to go!?!

Just follow the biggest track keeping on the crest and, eventually, you will reach the top to find it is a huge rounded ski run. Take this right. Our intention was to try to get to the highest of the three rounded hills ahead on the right offering the (presumably) even better views of Torrecilla, and the way is fairly obvious. Follow the ski run to a right turn through woods and eventually several junctions.

We took the largest track (straight on) and this proved to be wrong. Possibly the slightly smaller one going left would lead upwards in due course. Clearly the top can be reached from anywhere by going through gorse but that’s for another day!

Return the way you came (a sign just beyond where you turned right is misleading and doesn’t help!). At a cairn on the right a stony track avoids the last two humps and goes more or less directly back to the main dirt track which you can see below you on the right – there are cairns at crucial places, and eventually you can see the hotel below left. Reaching the dirt track follow it left to your car.

Montes de Malaga

Armed with road map, guide book and walking map I tried to explore these. Unfortunately this is far from easy and I don’t recommend them for holidaymakers with only two weeks – there are better things already described and the Montes are best left to those living there.

There are three reasons for this. Possibly the main one is that they are heavily wooded and (I think) all the paths are on forestry tracks so that there is far less interest than elsewhere – we found a very nice camp site though and clearly some parts are popular. The worst point however is finding them. From the road map the (wrongly numbered) road to them leaves the Malaga motorway by-pass the stop after the main Granada turn off (going east). It doesn’t – in fact it is not connected to the Motorway at all. From Malaga centre there are absolutely no signs to it (or any town on its route) so, in the end, we took the motorway towards Granada and turned off to Colmenar and tried to find the walks heading back south.

Which provides the third reason. i.e. they are hard to find, although if you see a parking place anywhere with a gated track leading off from nearby then that will provide a walk of some sort. By this method we found walk 7 (Caril de Marujan) and a little further south the very obvious Fuente de la Reina from near which three walks start. With more time (and better Spanish) we could probably have found others but, to be honest, I prefer to do other things rather than walk on big tracks through woods.