The four Lijar walks

The Four Lijar walks

Lijar 1 Starts at Area Recreativo Nacieminto on the West end of Lijar. 4.2 km.

Lijar 2 Starts by the paragliders road. 3.75km.

Lijar 3 Starts in the village of Algodonales. 5.3km.

Lijar 4 Is a track walk along a rough road which runs around the top of Lijar. 5km.

All the Lijar walks can be combined as a walk up one side and down the other, if you have two cars.

If not, you must walk up one path and return the same way.

There were originally six walks over Lijar. One is now in such a bad state of repair that it is unusable. Two years ago I walked it with a friend and we ended up sliding down a so-called footpath on our backsides. Steps washed away, loose gravel, dry stream beds in place of paths. We have had a bad winter since then so it will be worse now.

The sixth walk I can see from my roof terrace and it's and enigma! I can't find either end of the footpath, but there it is in plain sight, zigzagging up the side of Lijar.

Lijar Walk 1
If you are driving from Olvera the Area Recreativo Nacieminto is on the right of the A382 about two km. before the tunnel to Algodonales. It will be signed as Pistas, which means the take off areas. It is only a track and is easily missed. If you pass the Venta Castillo you have missed it! Drive along the track and you will see a gateway with the name of the picnic area on one pillar of the entrance.
(Nacieminto means the birth, or the beginning, because the tiny stream that comes down from Lijar joins others and becomes a brook that joins the Rio Guadalporcún) Go up to the gate at the back off the Nacieminto picnic area and follow the path up the arroyo (ravine), You will zigzag a little, but eventually end up in a dried up stream bed, which in spring, is full of garlic plants. Their blue flowers very similar to our Bluebells. (Spanish Bluebells are much smaller than ours in England, but just as pretty. Crocuses in Spain have two seasons: Spring and Autumn. I think they must like the sunshine too, but not the hot summers.)

A hundred meters up this dried up stream bed you will come to a signpost.

The path straight on is the disused path. Trust me; Its impassable. The path to the right is the one you follow. Walk up the RH hand side of the arroyo and you will climb up to a flat stone circle on a promontory, which I first assumed was a view point or picnic area that was not finished. After asking the locals I was told that the circles were called Eras and a small trolley with barbed wheels called a Trillo would be pulled around the circle by two or three horses or mules. The barbed wheels were for crushing and separating the chaff from the wheat.

When I first saw the Era I was perplexed! Why were the circles so high above the fields. It would. have been so easy to thresh the wheat at a lower altitude and not bring it all the way up here. I had this explained to me too. If you put the Era on a hillside you have the wind to blow away the chaff. Down in the valley, especially in the wind shadow of Lijar, there would be little or no breeze. To aid in this process a second worker would use his pitchfork (Horzquilla.) to throw the mix into the air where the wind would carry away the chaff and the heavier seeds would fall to the ground to be gathered up and be bagged.

The path continues higher up the north flank of Lijar and the views over the valley below are beautiful. I did this walk with a friend in the early morning to avoid the heat of the day. We had a dog each that day and half way up the track both dogs froze with their ears up and breathing suspended. My friend and I halted our conversation and did the same as the dogs.

There was a commotion in the dense undergrowth and a male deer and his mate, with their two bucks, made a break away from the side of the path, where they had been sleeping. To their great credit, (Or shame.) both dogs stayed at our sides whilst the deer made their escape.

At a point around here, just before you climb up to the ridge above you will come to a fork in the path. There is a sign showing the RH path going down to La Muela. This is where the second walk from La Muela joins the first walk from Naciamento.
The path continues higher until you are looking over the valley 660m (2000 feet) below. In the photo is the small pueblo of La Muela (The back tooth.) La Muela is a strange name for a village, until you understand the Andalucian way of thinking. The mill wheels that grind the wheat into flour are called muelas. (Grinding teeth: Molars!) At the side of the road that passes through La Muela is an old grindstone from the mill that used to be there for making flour. Hence La Muela.

                                        The muelas or grinding wheels

Lijar Walk 2
Coming from Olvera you take the La Muela road off of the A 382. The turnoff is about three km. along the 382 going towards Algodonales.

Follow this road and just before La Muela there will be a sign for the Pistas and the La Muela recreation area on the left. Take this road and follow it until you come to the recreation area on a bend. Go on a further 2km form here and you will come to a sign and a little covered eating area. It´s on a hairpin bend in the paragliders road. Boots are a must and you must be reasonably fit. It is a scramble in places.

This is the start point for the La Muela to Naciamento walk.The path climbs beneath the cliffs the rock climbers use. It is wooded and to my mind gives the best views from Lijar. This is the side of Lijar that gave it its name. Lijar literally means rough. The path crosses several rockslides and is very uneven in places. There is another track which joins this  track from above and goes off to the right as you are looking up a Lijar. This leads to the paragliders road on the top of Lijar, but it is overgrown and may not be usable. If anybody wants to try it you would be able to rerturn to the car using the paragliders road.

You start to descend after a couple of kilometres and you will have the feeling that you are going down again., but you must carry on because the junction with the track going up to the top of Lijar is just after a big rocky outcrop on the Right.

I did this walk in mid October and the Madroño berries were out in force. This side of Lijar is covered in these trees. The berries are edible and quite sweet. They are bright red at first then over a week or so turn yellow. The berries conain a natural alcohol and if you eat enough you will become tipsy. I ate a handfull on the walk, but did not feel any different.




Lijar Walk 3

The third walk is from Algodonales to the paragliders road. The best way to start this walk is from the plaza in the centre of Algodonales. If you stand facing the church and look to your left there is a road leading uphill to the rear of the village. Go up this road. About half way up it changes levels and there is a space to park cars. If you can park here then you are on the right side of the pueblo when you come back down. Carry on up this street and eventually you will leave the pueblo and see a signpost for the walk up Lijar.

At the top you will come out on the pragliders road . Walk to the right and you will come to the south takeoff area. Go left and you will go to the west or poniente take off area. (Poniente is the name for the winds. An east wind is Levante.) If you have climbed all the way up Lijar and they are flying then it would be a shame not to go have a look.

Lijar 4

This is a track walk along a rough road which runs right around the top of Lijar. All the other 3 walks from the base of Lijar join to this track. It is a walk which can be added onto any of the other three.

If you come up the Algodonales route you can go right at the top to the South take off area where there is a gate and track going off the East. (facing across the valley East is to the left.) this leads to a small farm where the disused path leads back down to Naciamento. Keep going along the track and bear left and you will be going towards the point where the La Muela walk and the Nacimento walk join this road. They are off on a short spur track to the North.

On the Google Earth picture this designated as is the central point. If you keep straight on you will come to a gate which lets you back to the paraglider’s road where if you turn right it will lead you to the walk back down to Algodonales.

Two the three walks that lead up to the top of Lijar start in Area recreativeos. All the picnic areas have stone built barbecues. The fuel, chopped olive branches, known as leña, is sometimes available, sometimes not.

If you arrive on a weekend, expect a crowd, but don´t be shy of the people.

This is their weekend entertainment. Join in, but don´t be too pushy and you will be welcome.

If you are like me, a romantic, take leña with you in the car. Do one of the walks then come back down the same route, arrange your walk so you arrive early evening at the picnic area. Light the barbeque, throw on some steaks and listen to your favourite music on the car radio whilst looking at the stars through the trees.

Or you could drive around to the South side of Lijar and go to the Chip Shop. as the English call the Venta Castillo on the A382. It’s called the Chip Shop because the owner does not buy frozen chips. He cuts chips from potatoes and fries them. For an ex-pat real chips are a treat. His food is all Spanish and very good.

Olvera to Torre Alháquime and back.

Olvera to Torre Alháquime and back.

9.8km. 136m (421ft.) descent to lowest point. Dirt tracks, narrow paths and 4x4 roads.

Boots would be a good idea if wet, but trainers will do. Part of the final stretch of the walk is up a steep ravine, where there is no real path except the ones the goats made.

This walk starts on Calle Vereda Ancha (The wide path.) on the south side of Olvera

Just before the the Bocanegra Bar is a cutting to allow farm traffic onto the land below. The dirt road starting here goes down the hillside and joins another at a T junction. (See photograph taken from Vereda Ancha.) Take the road to the left and pass under the A382 which is just over the top of the hill in the photograph.

The road turns left just before the bridge, but you go straight on, taking a path which descends into the valley below. The path gets quite narrow and the grass is usually deep, but it is still easy to find. You should end up crossing the El Gastor road, where the path continues on the other side a little lower down as a farm track. Shortly after you leave the road you are faced with a fork in the track. Take the RH fork. The LH one goes to a farm.

Follow the track into the valley where you will come to the river. You will be walking alongside the river, but not close to it. After passing several farms all with big noisy dogs you will come to a to a T junction. To finish the walk you must take the RH track.



(If you are a little more curious, there is an interesting geological feature a short way up the LH track. I think there was a quarry here on the RH side of the track at some time. The rock has been cut away and the topsoil has been eroded, leaving the near vertical strata exposed.

The most interesting thing to me are the colours of the layers. The soil all around is a rich red ochre, but this little outcrop is like a rainbow. This tiny slice into our worlds history takes you back to the Triassic period, when the huge island of Pangea , which straddled the equator 250 million years ago, was beginning to split up into the continents we now know. This is a time when the very first mammals were begining to emerge in a landscape predominated by reptiles.The strata exposed shows an ancient riverbed of clays, sands and mud.

In the layers are deposits of copper, giving the green cast as the copper oxidizes. Other colours are the result of chemical changes in the deposits over the millions of years since they were at the bottom of a river.)

To continue with the walk. The RH track will take you across the river where it will be on your LH side until you reach a second T junction. Go left this time and follow the road down into Torre. By this time Torre will be dominating the skyline above you like the watchtower it once was.

I have included two photographs showing this part of the walk by the river. One is now (2012) and the other is from 2010 just after the floods. The river at the foot of Torre changed its course in one night after torrential rain and a mini tornado. The picnic tables are now a hundred metres from the new river.

                                         2012

                                          After the floods 2010


If you need refreshment at this point you must climb up to the top of Torre where there is a bar in the plaza. If not, walk around the south side of Torre, past the football ground, and climb the steep hill to the point where you are about to leave Torre on the Olvera road. Here there is a track running parallel to the road on the left hand side. This is the path you want. It leads to a farm, then up a rough ravine, or arroyo, which is used only by the goats. This is the most difficult part of the walk.

                                         The footpath out of Torre

                                                     The arroyo up to Los Rmedios




When you get to the top you will be at the Los Remedios Area recreativo. If you are not too tired, and provided it is open, have a look in the chapel. Without going too much into the story of the refuge I think it is worth explaining its history. It is a centre for the villagers to pray. On the walls in the upper room you will see clothes, hats, photos, and belongings left by loved ones, along with prayers for their well-being.

The prayers are the most touching messages you will ever see. Ordinary people asking for ordinary things. That their son will come home from military service safe, that their child will recover from illness, a wife asking that her husband will stop drinking. A smashed crash helmet with a letter of thanks that the owner survived. These people don't always ask their God for somehing they want. They thank Him for giving them what they already have.

The Chapel's real claim to fame was in the form of a near miracle in 1715 when the whole area was suffering from a drought and all the villagers met to there to prey for rain. They got their rain and every year since they have celebrated in style with the Lunes De Quasimodo on the hills around the Hermitage. This is a fiesta of open air picnics and barbeques with a copious supply of goodwill, wine and beer.

Back to the walk!

From the Chapel you can go across the road to the bar and take refreshment there. If not, look for the paved walkway to the left of the road. This was made for the pilgrims who come in their hundreds to pray, and is the shortest way into town from here. You will arrive at the Industrial Estate and the road ahead leads you past several good bars and restraunts before bringing you back to the starting point.

　

Olvera to Peñon de Pruna round walk.

Olvera to Peñon de Pruna round walk. This is a10 km. walk on 4x4 roads and farm tracks. Boots are recommended, especially if it is wet.

The Pruna walk begins at the roundabout in the centre of Olvera. Take the road to the Via Verde and go straight on across it and down into the valley below crossing the river Salado (Salty water.) in the bottom. You will descend 170m. (530ft.) to the river. Take the right turning at the T junction and follow the track up the hill until it joins the main road just below the Peñon de Pruna.

If you are feeling up to it you could add in the climb up the Peñon it' s a 139m. climb (400ft.) and the castle is newly restored. The views are spectacular.

There is a spring at the foot of the footpath to the Peñon de Pruna, which gives excellent if slightly salty water. For the last ten thousand years people have been drinking this water. Bronze age farmers, Romans, Berbers and lately Spaniards, have all used this fuente.

Depending on how you feel you could walk the kilometre and half into Pruna and have a tapas and beer then return to the turnoff point and continue with the walk.   

If you don't want to climb the peñon, then cross over the main road to Pruna and walk up the RH side of the road on a dirt track until you see a turn off to the right. You are still a hundred metres from the petrol station when you turn into the valley below. You will have climbed 145m (450ft.) from first crossing the river

You will cross the river Salado for the second time in the bottom then start to climb up the hillside through the farms on the long climb to the top. About half way up you will cross the track for the old railway. This was the continuation of the Via Verde, but was never commercialised as a tourist attraction. The tunnels are still there and the LH tunnel is still used from time to time by the farmers who use it to move their goats from one pasture to another rather than climb the hill between. The RH tunnel is filled in at the far end and is impassable.

Carry on up to the top of the hill passing farms and a huge variety of watchdogs and eventually you will come to the main road (A382) near to the Hotel Meson......and eventually back to Olvera.

The four hills walk

The four hills walkAll on dirt tracks. Boots or trainers if dry. Approx 5.5km. with 4 steep hills.

The first walk I ever did was the four hills walk because its right in front of my house here in Olvera. I called it the four hills walk because first you have to walk down a steep hill a kilometre long, which crosses the Rio Guadalporcún in the bottom. Then you climb another steep hill and go around the sides of a domed hill which brings you back to a long downhill stretch back to another bridge over the Rio Guadalporcún , leading you back up the first hill you came down at the start.

Tough going, but great training for the bigger walks. It's not that interesting a walk really, but I always wondered if the two roads I could see from my roof terrace could be linked into a circular walk.
Don't do this walk in the summer. It has too many hills. Save it for the winter.

If you do decide do this walk it starts at the bottom of Calle Vieja. where there is a crossroads. Take the road that descends into the valley crossing over the A382. When you are nearly in the bottom look out for a track on the right which leads you past a farm on a LH bend. The owner used to have chickens and pigs in the little pens at the side of the road.You will have descended 177m. at this point. (548ft.)

After you cross the river you start to climb the first hill. At the top is a RH bend which you follow for a hundred metres or so. You will have climbed 120m. (372ft.) from the river. There is a track which leads off to the right, but you take the LH fork. Shortly after there is another LH fork.

If you want to shorten the walk take this LH track. If you choose to do the whole walk follow the RH path to the bottom of the hill and turn left along another track. After about a kilometre there is a farm on the left and a crossroads.

Turn left and climb to the top of a slight incline. When you look over the top you will see the steep hill you must descend to the river again and climb the hill you first came down to start the walk.

In all you will descend nearly 200m.(600ft.) and climb the same distance back.

A panorama of walks around Olvera

This is the South view and is practically the same view as from my house roof terrace. In the far distance is the Grazalema National Park. In the foreground is one of the local walks, the four hills walk. Grazalema National Park has some of the most beautiful walks in the area.

 

 This is the West view with the huge bulk of Lijar filling the horizon. Lijar has six walks over its summit, though only three are accesable now.

The third panorama is of Pruna, the peñon and Peñon Al Gamitas on the horizon. In the valley there is a walk which turns to the right at the foot of the Peñon de Pruna and climbs up the valley side to the high ground to the East. Peñon Al Gamitas is not a part of the massif you can see filling the horizon, but a hill three kilometres further away with a valley in between.

These are some of the walks local to Olvera which I walked during the five years I have lived here.
I will be showing them all in nearly the same order as I walked them.  

 

The Walks

The walks

When I first started walking in the countryside around Olvera I discovered

that there were no formal walks laid out as would be in England. You went out into the campo and found your own trails. You could follow your nose, but you soon

found a fence or a gate. Olvera is a farming community and wandering about on

somebody else's land is frowned upon. Unless they know you. Then it's OK.

When I walked in the North England if we strayed from the footpath we

would be met by an irate farmer, who would ask where you were going and did you know that you were trespassing on his land. Take a picnic into the countryside and you will soon have a farmer in wellies and a flat cap wanting to know what the hell you were doing on his land.

Olvera is slightly different. If you bring a picnic you will still be met by a

farmer in a flat cap and boots. (Exactly the same as a Yorkshire flat cap, but Spain is a lot dryer than England so wellies are not needed.....unless you farm pigs.)

He will introduce himself, shake hands with you, ask you where you are from, kiss your wife on both cheeks and introduce himself to your children. He may invite you to meet his family too, and at some point will tactfully explain that you would be welcome again on his land, but next time, you must ask his permission first.

I have been followed by farmers on quad bikes who never got close until they had made sure I did not have a gun. (Hunting is a very carefully controlled sport in Andalucia. I will explain why later.) They had seen my little Jack Russell, who was a dead ringer for a Podenko hunting dog in profile, but gave the game away by having a white body. Once they realized I was a tourist I was left alone. I should explain that Podenkos are small to medium sized dogs that are trained for hunting rabbits as gun dogs.

They are nearly always a uniform ginger brown colour.

The Spanish Classes

Spanish Classes

       The first thing I found out was that the Spanish classes were a social event more than a just a way to learn Spanish. They would plan a day out, rent a coach, take a gas bottle and a big gas ring with a metre diameter stainless steel dish. We would go to a local picnic site, set up the tables and the old hands would start to cook Paella in the big dish. Sometimes we would be joined by a class who were learning catering. Then we had a feast. The three chefs in the photograph were, in fact, teachers of catering. 

 

       The picnic tables would be filled with all kinds of food, wine, beer and soft drinks

everybody joins in. After the food the tables were cleared of crumbs and the cards would come out. If you have never seen the Spanish playing cards you are in for a revelation. 

       They are very different from the normal 52 card pack. There are 48 cards in four Palos, or suits. The most common game is Brisca and it is played with two, four or six players in teams. The play is rapid and noisy. Cheating is normal and team members can show each other the cards they have in their hands. They even have arranged signals to to tell their other team members what cards they have in their hands. 

      The Spanish are known for being noisy and around the picnic table the howling, laughing and genreal hulabaloo is infectious. 

 

      On one trip they played for money. Something I have never seen before here. They were playing a game called Subista (In English: Auction.) There were perhaps ten old ladies playing together, but not all had money. Each time you deal, ten centimos (About 6p) goes in the pot. The cards are played and one player is eliminated. 

     Some of the old ladies had no money so they picked pebbles from the ground and put them in the pot. At the end of the game one little old lady had the winning cards and collected the pot. She was being helped by everybody else because she had never played before and did not know the rules too well. She picked put the coins and swept the pebbles to the floor. Everybody cheered and one of the younger ladies climbed on the table and danced whilst we all clapped.

      These were our Spanish classes. We all learned a lot more than speaking Spanish.