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The Grazalema Sierra
The amazing landscapes and fresh mountain air of the Grazalema Natural Park make for wonderful, rewarding walking in Spain’s deep south. Africa is close in every sense, from the scent of orange trees to the Moorish influence on the whitewashed buildings. If the scenery is magnificent, equally outstanding is the wildlife – the craggy limestone peaks shelter surprisingly green valleys and gullies, which in turn are home to an astonishing array of flowers and birds. Of the region’s famed pueblos blancos (‘white towns’), Grazalema is one of the prettiest, framed by mountains and with sloping cobbled streets, and makes a perfect base for a week of walking and discovery. This is an area we know very well – Inntravel has offered holidays here for many years – and we offer an exceptionally wide range of detailed and informative walking routes. Fantastic at any time of year, they are particularly special in April and May, when flowers line the paths. Nights: 7 La Mejorana, GrazalemaYour hotel for the week is La Mejorana, a delightfully renovated and beautifully furnished town house with just five bedrooms. Run with great attention to detail by the charming Andres and Ana, it boasts enviable views over the village and the sierra beyond, and is renowned for its home-made breakfasts. It is no more than a few minutes’ walk to the wide variety of local bars and restaurants in the village, and two evening meals are included. The focal point of the hotel is the large ground-floor sitting room with its beamed ceiling, reading corner, board games, fireplace and mountain views. Even better vistas are enjoyed by the three terraces and the garden, which is planted with numerous indigenous flowers and shrubs. Suggested walksKnowing this area as we do, we are able to provide you with a wide selection of walking routes in the Grazalema Natural Park. Some lead direct from Grazalema (sometimes requiring a bus back – pay locally), while others are accessed using your hire car. If you are taking the standard holiday, our documentation will include route notes for all 15 walks; if you choose the special Flower Breaks in April and May, we will provide you with particularly detailed notes for the nine walks marked with a *, which should, hopefully, reward you with sightings of the flowers listed. Ridges & Views* (10km): leave your car in Benaocaz and head uphill, enjoying views over the valley. You continue to rise through a rocky valley to a ruined farmhouse then walk along the top of the ridge, with more good views, before descending through fields and across streams to Benaocaz, which you enter via its old Moorish quarter. Flowers: naked man orchid, Atlantic orchid, champagne orchid, saxifrage, gladiolus. Cork Oaks & Olives* (16km): starting in Montejaque, the route leads through a lunar landscape then descends through natural ‘rock gardens’ connecting grassy plains. After passing an old farm with a threshing floor, you enter woodland and then a beautiful green valley. The walk finishes by crossing the olive-clad ridge hiding Montejaque. Flowers: white helliborine, sawfly orchid, woodcock orchid, ronda cranesbill (mallow-flowered geanium), crambe. Green Gorge* (8km): to reach this walk, you drive over Dove Pass (1,300 metres), and from here zigzag downhill on foot with fantastic views of the nearby lake. You continue to descend through a dramatic gorge lined with Mediterranean bushes that is home to 200 pairs of griffon vultures. It is well worth detouring to the vulture-viewing platform, from where you may also see choughs, crag martins and alpine swifts. Continue to the bottom of the gorge, where there is a cave overhung with wild fig trees, and retrace your steps back to your car. Flowers: marigold, sombre bee orchid, mirror orchid, lizard orchid, aphyllanthes monspeliensis, tragapogon hybridum, yellow toadflax (linaria platycalix). Llanos de Ravel (Valley of the Lute)* (10km): an easy descent on a panoramic wide track through the mountains brings you to bowl-shaped valley which makes a delightful picnic spot. Loop through woodland, passing several pinsapos (an ancient species of fir found only here and in Morocco), before returning to the valley and heading back along the track to your car. Flowers: yellow bee orchids, honeywort (cerinthe major), cistus albidus, cistus salvifolius, anthyllis cistoides, ronda cranesbill, red helliborine, white helliborine, tree germander. Two Valley Circuit* (15km): from Grazalema, paths lead down through a pretty green valley dotted with farms and 14 mills, some of which were used to grind corn, others to produce olive oil and a few to run carpet-weaving looms. Crossing over the ridge, you enter a second valley, from where a track – part of which is an ancient cobbled Roman road – returns to Grazalema. Flowers: bee orchid, woodcock orchid, three-cornered leek, yellow bartsia, bellardia, adonis, Andalucian storksbill, alium nigrum, agave americana. Goatherd’s Leap* (12km): you exit Grazalema on a track overlooking a picturesque open valley then wind through oak woods on a goat path before rising through the lunar landscape of a rocky plain. It is worth making a brief detour to Goatherd’s Leap (a large gap in the rock caused by a geological fault) before you zigzag downhill on a mule trail lined with flowers in spring to Benaocaz, from where you catch a bus back to Grazalema. Flowers: stars of Bethlehem, yellow bee orchids, asphodels, red-berried mistletoe, peonies, flag iris, Peruvian scillas, loose-flowered orchids and tongue orchids. Blackthorn Mountain* (12km): a variation of the Ridges & Views walk starts in Grazalema and ascends to the top of the ridge of Blackthorn Mountain. Your path then crosses a lunar landscape and skirts a bowl-shaped valley to arrive at a large, ruined farmhouse with sweeping views, from where you descend to Benaocaz to catch the bus back to Grazalema. Flowers: cerastium, dense-flowered orchid, field gladiolus, tri-coloured convulvulus, blue hedgehog broom. Goatherd’s Leap/Blackthorn Mountain Long Circuit* (18km): combining the previous two walks, this circuit begins at the pretty pass of Puerto del Boyar, from where you walk to Benaocaz via the ruined farmhouse of Dornajo and return via Goatherd’s Leap. Flowers: as above. Pinsapo Forest * (14km): ascend to the ridge above Grazalema for far-reaching views north across overlapping ranges. Your route skirts the side of ridge and descends into the Pinsapar, a mysterious forest of rare Spanish firs (Abies pinsapo). You descend some 800 metres, passing through changing vegetation of mastic and mixed oaks to arrive at the pretty village of Benamahoma (Son of Mohamed). Flowers: Daphne laureola, wild peonies, blue hedgehog broom, shrubby gromwell (lithodora), naked man orchid. Limestone Landscapes (15km): an extremely varied walk starting and ending in the village of Zuraque and taking you through dramatic limestone scenery, broad fertile valleys, woodland and natural ‘rock gardens’. The Secret Valley (14km): this circular walk from Grazalema follows a beautiful route over the ridge of the Sierra del Endrina (‘ Blackthorn Mountains’) to an old ruined farmhouse standing in a secret valley amid poplars and tiny streams, and encircled by a high wall of sheer rock. Valley of La Manga (16km): from Grazalema you walk through cork woods to a long, flat valleymainly given over to pasture. The walk finishes with an ascent to Villaluenga, the smallest and highest village of the province. Catch the bus back to Grazalema. The Puerto del Boyar Pass (15km): you ascend from Grazalema to the Puerto del Boyar Pass, where you are rewarded with sweeping mountains views, and then walk through a beautiful enclosed valley with a ruined farmstead. The route then rises once more, frequently affording 360-degree views over seeming endless, overlapping ridges. A steady descent leads you through secret pastures and down a stone ‘stairway’ to Villaluenga, from where you return by bus. El Reloj (12 or 15km): this third route between Grazalema and Villaluenga starts with a steep ascent on a rocky mule path to cross the eastern flanks of Reloj,one of the area’s highest peaks. You then descend through pine woods and along a rocky ‘stairway’ to Villaluenga for the bus back to Grazalema. Villaluenga to Ubrique (14km): parking your car in Villaluenga, you head along an easy cobbled lane to a beautiful green valley. This leads to Ubrique, the centre of the local leather industry, from where you can catch a bus back to your car. SightseeingThe walking may be excellent, but don’t neglect the many fascinating towns and villages. The magnificent and astonishingly sited white town of Ronda is unmissable, as is the smaller but equally dramatic Arcos de la Frontera set in splendid isolation on a sandstone cliff. There are many other atmospheric white towns within easy driving distance, including Zahara de la Sierra with its hill-top castle, and Setenil, whose houses shelter beneath an overhanging rock ledge. Jerez de la Frontera, an elegant town famed for its sherry, is another worthwhile excursion, while fantastic, flamboyant Seville is also less than a 90-minute drive away. Flowers in April and MaySome 5,000 different species – a quarter of Europe’s flowering plants – grow in Spain. Andalucia, especially, is a flower-lover’s dream. Within the dramatic limestone landscapes of the region’s Grazalema Natural Park can be found over a thousand species, with the additional bonus of a bird population that includes griffon vultures, short-toed eagles, hoopoes, bee-eaters, rock buntings and blue rock thrushes. A week spent exploring the park in April or May should (conditions permitting) reward you with sightings of almost 300 different species of flower, which you can identify using our detailed route notes, suggested bibliography and specially compiled CD. The flowers range from the tiny blue pimpernels, love-in-a-mist, tri-coloured convolvulus and marigolds in the meadows, through the shy saxifrages and toadflaxes hidden in cracks in the rocks, to the wild magenta peonies as large as saucers and the huge bushes of aromatic white gum cistus. Wonderful oddities include the hoop petticoat daffodil, all trumpet and no collar, the Peruvian scilla, a tight pyramid of violet flowers, and the Aphyllanthes monspeliensis, a bright blue star on the end of a single long stem. Of the dozen or so orchids you may see are bee, yellow bee, sawfly, woodcock, sombre bee, mirror, pyramid, loose-flowered and naked man! As a backdrop to these flowers stand many fascinating trees and shrubs: the carob, whose beans the Moors used to weigh gold; the mastic, whose resin is used to produce both glue and chewing gum; myrtle, with its medicinal and aromatic properties; and Mediterranean Daphne, which the region’s shepherds use to make anti-leech collars for their sheep dogs. Prices & travel 2007/08:
*Included travel: 7 days' category A car hire Extra night prices
> Any queries? Let us call you back > Booking form (if you want to book the flower option, select this on the drop-down)  |
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Ronda
