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Marvellous Malaga
-Piprey
•
Start of journey One of informal things of being British is travelling to sunny Spain.
Malaga is the
capital of Costa del sol on the coast of the Mediterranean sea.
With British train strikes right on the day of travel, I had to take a day off
to rearrange my travel arrangements.
After watching a pre-booked live
British comedy show, I
tried laughing my way from Swindon (Wiltshire) to Hayes and Harlington by the second
last Great Western Railways (GWR) train of the day to stay overnight at a friend’s place. The comedy continued as in the morning, I
slammed the door shut at my friend’s. My friend was not one to give up. She unscrewed the door latch; I looked up Youtube and we managed to open the door with a knife 😊
Within a couple of hours of this ordeal, I caught
national express coach from London Heathrow central bus station to London Gatwick for 21 GBP (for hardly an hour’s journey) for the evening
Easyjet flight which was
delayed by an hour more which meant I was reaching Malaga close to midnight. (Actually, I missed the scheduled
bus as there were 2 of them and the one to London Gatwick was showing delayed by 10 mins while the other, I was supposed to board was going to Brighton
via Gatwick)
In the plane, there was an adorable little English girl just like a doll with pale skin and pale blue eyes.
She sat by the window in front of me. She got chatty, looking at the sunset over the clouds. I asked her if she liked nail polish bright pink and she pulled her toes up on the seat to show them to me 😊
Reaching Malaga, I took the
train (around 4 Euro) from
Malaga Airport to
Malaga central; guiding another stranger as all the passengers were standing on the other side of the platform. There was not a single person going to the central Malaga (
in the middle of the night) but there was me, the other strangers and a few others joined later (from late
Easyjet flights?). Finally, I walked up to the very basic 1-star Ibis hotel.
Basically it. •
Malaga city After a
hearty breakfast with a lot of soothing plain yogurt, I rushed to take the train from
Maria Zambrano train station to
El Chorro (for El Caminto del Rey hike).
Missed the train by a few
Gorge of El Caminito del Rey
Check out people walking on the steep vertical cliffs minutes. I rebooked a later train which meant I had an unexpected half day to explore Malaga!
The Malaga port is lovely with lots of ships and cruises.
The weather was sunny and pleasant (early 20s degree Celsius). As I got my bearings in the new place, I walked up to the
old Malaga town with the
Alcazaba and the quiet, unpretentious, black sandy beach. The waters were cold like England.
It was dirty greenish blue, not exactly the deepest bright blue of the Mediterranean sea. It was a pleasant, relaxing with my feet in the black sands. There is a Roman theater ruins, cathedral, two forts, Picasso museum, market place for those interested.
I walked down to the old Malaga for some photo shots and took bus to Malaga Maria Zambrano train station. On the way, ate delightful mango and a malaga special ice cream before boarding the train.
•
Guided hike in the local gorge The train left Malaga into pistachio-coloured hills with tufts of greens.
In about an hour, we reached El Chorro. I bought a 2.50 Euro bus ticket to the starting point. Indeed, there was still a long walk through a tunnel to the exact starting point of the trek. They only accept cash. The guided tour cost me 19.50 Euro for
2 hours. We were a bunch of young, old and those in middle. All enthusiastic people!
El Camino del rey or king’s pathway is a fancy little name for the trek on the old maintenance route of the workers. They built and maintained a hydroelectric power plant and fresh water supply from
Guadalhorce river for the inhabitants of Malaga. The gorge itself was formed by the river but the folding mountains formed by the tectonic forces between the Eurasian and the African plates, millions of years ago.
The Earth rose up into these mountains, and threw off the waters (Tethys sea) into the Mediterranean sea. Hence, a lot of
ammonite fossils which are buried in the sea have been discovered here.
Looking at the vertical cliffs and the rock formations reminded me of He-Man and the castle of Gray skull.
Yes, we had to move from one cliff to the other one over the river. There was a bridge. It was
very windy and I was
clasping the helmet while crossing the gorge over
100 ms from river level. You keep walking on the wooden pathway, hugging the 100 ms tall vertical cliff and you could see down below if you dare 😊.
There were some
abandoned railway tracks. The Spanish were ingenious in using sailors who lost their jobs due to decrease in maritime trade to build and maintain these railway tracks to transport coal from around here to Cordoba and
Seville (An unconfirmed trivia is that the final scene from
Von Ryan express was shot here in the abandoned railway station).
We saw the
Eurasian Griffon vultures flying high over the hills. The scenic beauty of the hills was mesmerising. The excellent information by the guide on
poisonous Nerium Oleander (Shrub with pink flowers) and
Carob (a substitute for Cocao) added to the atmosphere.
I drank fresh lemonade and ate some mixed tapas. Then took train back to Malaga Maria Zambrano station. Just 5 mins walk is the bus station for inter-city buses in Spain.
•
Onward journey from Malaga to Granada Booked an ALSA bus at 8pm and happily boarded it with a
chilled coke (2 Euro). A superflexible ALSA bus ticket anywhere cost 13.42 Euro but you can buy a bundle of 3 for around 25 Euro.
While in the bus, the hostel nut called me from Granada and did my check-in so that I could enter the hostel without any hassle.
It was just a perfect end of the day with the vibrant colours of the setting sun lovingly drapping the mountains of ancient Andalusia. From missing trains
and buses, it was certainly
not a missed opportunity.
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Nice shot
A beautiful part of the world.