Gran Senda de Malaga – Page 2

It’s all Maslows’ fault

I wasn’t able think of something philosophical today because someone put my blistered feet into burning boots and I was only able to walk because of severe “everything is alright“ meditation.

Could you please make a photo which doesn’t look like a postcard?
Perfect light, perfect landscape. I feel like Heidi in Heidiland. If I could only jump around! Again, there is buzzing everywhere. At the end of the stage, between Alfarnetejo and Alfarnate passing along a small river I heard four or five big plopping sounds like if a crocodile slips into the water. I the beginning I just saw some shadows under water. I stood there for a while in silence and was very surprised to see some small turtles playing in the intransparent and muddy brew.

Doggies, dogs and doggos

I love dogs but what I saw today made me really angry. Frequently the dogs are left on a property to sentinel it. Mostly they are unleashed and you never know if they are well educated or not. I had a lot of adrenaline coming up because of them. I wear a very loud pipe around me neck. That helps , I‘m knocking on wood, if nothing else does.

The hike

It starts out on a road with little but dangerous traffic but changes soon into a dirt road without any traffic. Most of the trail is dirt road again and again there is very little shadow which led to a mild sunstroke in the evening despite of wearing a headscarf, 50 sunscreen and a big thin scarf over all my body. Call me the hiking ghost.

The trail highlights were a very overgrown piece of trail where I literally walked on flowers (ca. km 5), a small beautiful river (ca. km 9), a forest (ca. km 11, Shade! Finally!), a catholic procession for holy Isidro in Alfarnetejo, the turtles just before Alfarnate and a flock of goats being brought to their stable in Alfarnate.

Base of Maslow:

There is water in the small river ca. at km 9 and km 11. I would chose to take it downstream at km 9, it looks better, it‘s far away from a city and there are small fish in it. Of course there is water in Alfarnetejo and Alfarnate. But there is beer too.
There are no possibilities to sleep in a hotel or something similar in Alfarnate.
Beware of dogs!

Fear Is A Man-made Prison

I had this strange feelings in the last days. Not being prepared was one of them. And not being prepared could mean a lot. When I’m thinking of my tantalized feet and of all the things I did to avoid this kind of pain I can not speak of not being prepared. It was nearly impossible to do more. And maybe I still took the wrong shoe decision. Or maybe my feet are just like that.
Where is the border between just being careful and not doing it?
I have to accept that not being prepared is a part of life and above all I have to set the border like I did it to do this journey and other things in my life in which I jumped in lion-heartedly, and which turned out to be some of my best achievements.

The hike

I started to take the bus to Nerja Cuevas. It would have been a 5km walk along the road and I don’t wanted to start my journey between stinking busses and trucks.

At Nerja Cuevas I took a starting picture in the flowers and hit the trail. After only some hundred meters everything became calm and peaceful.

The trail starts with a 5 km ascent on a dirt road (some cars and bikes) to an “area recreativo” which is something like a picnic point. You’ll find drinking water from a fountain there.

After that it turns into a single trail and descents to beautiful Rio Chillar, a small river. On my map (MapOut, based on openstreetmap) there are two more small rivers but I didn’t see them.

I crossed Rio Chillar without problems with my bathing shoes. The water was just underneath my knees, month of May, with some rain yesterday.

The big problem was finding the trail again on the opposite shore. There were even some scattered red and white trail signs but there was no direction indicated and every trail I took ended in a total desaster. Once I even started climbing (!) but luckily I pulled myself together and turned around. I learned something from last year. Later on I saw the end of the “only” 200m climbing section and was very very happy again.

The right thing to do is to follow a crossed (no-go) trail sign which you see from the shore and just on the right side of the forbidden trail is the normal trail. As I saw the cross from the shore I didn’t even think of this direction.

I’m using a downloaded trail from gpsies.com and the guy obviously took the climbing route.

More than one hour lost and looking like a cactus because of the undergrowth I continued on the right trail.

On my map it looked like I would have only one third of my hike left but this last piece of trail took me much longer than the first two thirds. A lot of ascents and descents mixed with crushed rocks and numerous spots where I had to use my hands led to myself being very happy when I finally saw Frigiliana.

With burning feet and knees I entered the village and took a room in the Hospederia el Caravansar. I took a shower and laid on the bed for one necessary hour. Than hunger kicked in and I had to get up.

During my wonderful meal I decided to skip the next three arduous segments.

Tomorrow morning there will be a Taxi coming to my hotel. Thank God I’m not a student anymore.