In 2010 a group of people arrived in Olvera who brought me many enjoyable days walking in the surrounding country. They are a walking group from England who call themselves Tapas Tours. They are led by Eric and Eira. They had just expanded their walking group to Spain.
We have done quite a few walks together, The Pruna walk, which is on this blog was the first one I did with them. The walk shown here was from Montecorto to El Gastor and then back to our starting point. It was a well known route in the guide books.
The walk went well until we encountered a fence which had not been there the year before. A hostile security man advised us to detour around the now fenced off track.
We were forced to skirt the fence down a steep hillside where we finally re-grouped and continued the walk.
We completed the walk and true to the name of the group we had a brilliant tapas break with welcome ice cold beer and excellent food.
(A tapas is a Spanish snack. Tapas was originally a saucer, or cover on the top of your drink to stop the flies drinking your beer. The custom was to put a little snack on the saucer to encourage the clients to eat. It has developed into a really good way to have a meal. For 2€ you can have a first class snack with a big selection on the menu. You can order two or three different tapas each and pick and choose with your friends. Even if you are just drinking in a local bar you will often be given a little plate of something to eat, Paella, churizo, nuts......You won't go away hungry!)
As we passed El Gastor we walked through a geological feature that is quite common around Olvera, but most pronounced here. In this photo the road and soil around it is purple. There is a seam of ochre, a kind of hardened clay, which runs from Montecorto to El Gastor. The different colors range from a grey yellow through brown to dark brown and purple. These ochres, along with soot and chalk mixed with animal fat, were used by early man when they painted in their caves. This area is well known for it’s cave paintings, though many have lost their original colors over the intervening 20,000 years.
The seam of ochre dates from the Triassic period 190 million years ago when the dinosaurs were beginning their 170 million year reign, but the surrounding yellow sandy soil is from the Quarternary, about 2 million years ago, a million years before our ancestors learned to make fire.
Setting off again
Rest time
The lake and La Vericilla
Since then Tapas tours have done many walks and tours over the years, but from time to time we have proving walks with just two or three people so that when the big group arrives there is always someone there who has already done the walk recently. They work from books in the library in Olvera or bought from the tourist centres. A lot of the walks in the guide books are sometimes an hours drive away. Most of the walks in my blog are close to Olvera, though the best walks are undoubtedly in the sierras of Grazalema, El Chorro and Sierra de Nieves near Ronda.
We have done quite a few walks together, The Pruna walk, which is on this blog was the first one I did with them. The walk shown here was from Montecorto to El Gastor and then back to our starting point. It was a well known route in the guide books.
The walk went well until we encountered a fence which had not been there the year before. A hostile security man advised us to detour around the now fenced off track.
We were forced to skirt the fence down a steep hillside where we finally re-grouped and continued the walk.
We completed the walk and true to the name of the group we had a brilliant tapas break with welcome ice cold beer and excellent food.
(A tapas is a Spanish snack. Tapas was originally a saucer, or cover on the top of your drink to stop the flies drinking your beer. The custom was to put a little snack on the saucer to encourage the clients to eat. It has developed into a really good way to have a meal. For 2€ you can have a first class snack with a big selection on the menu. You can order two or three different tapas each and pick and choose with your friends. Even if you are just drinking in a local bar you will often be given a little plate of something to eat, Paella, churizo, nuts......You won't go away hungry!)
The seam of ochre dates from the Triassic period 190 million years ago when the dinosaurs were beginning their 170 million year reign, but the surrounding yellow sandy soil is from the Quarternary, about 2 million years ago, a million years before our ancestors learned to make fire.
Since then Tapas tours have done many walks and tours over the years, but from time to time we have proving walks with just two or three people so that when the big group arrives there is always someone there who has already done the walk recently. They work from books in the library in Olvera or bought from the tourist centres. A lot of the walks in the guide books are sometimes an hours drive away. Most of the walks in my blog are close to Olvera, though the best walks are undoubtedly in the sierras of Grazalema, El Chorro and Sierra de Nieves near Ronda.
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