The Untravelled World: Walking across La Maroma from Alcaucin to Canillas de Albaida

La Maroma: Alcaucin to Canillas de Albaida

I had made three or four previous visits to the Axarquia, starting in 2012 (see La Axarquia, Nerja and Frigiliana and Competa and Canillas de Albaida). On each trip, my attention was drawn to shapely La Maroma, easily the highest mountain in the Natural Park at 2070 m. I doubt that anyone taking the bus along the motorway between Malaga and, say, Nerja could fail to notice its frequently (in winter) snow-capped peak. I very much wanted to climb it! But how? There are three obvious access points: (i) from Alcaucin or (better) the nearby El Alcazar recreation area, (ii) from the El Robledal recreation area to the north of the Park, or (iii) from the village of Canillas de Aceituno. But all of these present problems to the committed non-motorist. I would also prefer to descend by a different route to the ascent. So I came up with an ambitious plan: I would get the bus to Alcaucin, walk to El Alcazar, camp overnight, walk up La Maroma the next day, and then head east along the main ridge. After that there would be two options. The crazy one would be to camp out a second night near either the Puerto Blanquillo or the Puerto Competa, ascend El Lucero, 1779 m, the next day, and then descend to a hotel in Competa. The saner one would simply be to descend to a hotel in Canillas de Albaida (note that I can find no evidence on the web of suitable accommodation in the villages between Alcaucin and Canillas de Albaida). By camp, I mean a sleeping bag, a mat, and a waterproof “bivvy” – no tent, because of the weight. Read on to see how things turned out!

Costs. Flight £40. Car parking £35. Canillas de Albaida hotel (B&B) €45. Competa hotel (B&B) €43. Torre del Mar studio €45. Malaga–Alcaucin bus €5.56. Competa–Torre del Mar bus €1.73. Torre del Mar–Malaga bus €2.66. Evening meal with drinks €8–€18. Total cost of trip £275.

Places I stayed and was happy with. Posada La Plaza, Canillas de Albaida (Day 2, Read my review); Hotel Balcon, Competa (Day 3, Read my review); Apartamentos Las Yucas, Torre del Mar (Day 4, Read my review).

Books. The Rough Guide to Andalucía (Rough Guides, 9th edition).

Maps. Costa del Sol (Axarquia) Tour & Trail, 1:40,000, Discovery Walking Guides.

Day 1: Travel to Alcaucin; walk to El Alcazar campsite. I left home at 4.55 am and arrived at the airport at 5.45 am. My flight left at 7 am and arrived in Malaga at 10.40 am local time. I was luckily enough to get some good views of La Maroma from the plane as it came into land. I caught the cercanias into Malaga and then the 12.30 pm bus to Alcaucin, arriving 1.45 pm. I had some food and drink in the village and then started walking at 3.40 pm up the road towards the El Alcazar recreation area. I arrived at 4.55 pm (so 1 h 15 min walking), having gained perhaps 400 m altitude. It is unclear to me whether El Alcazar is an official campsite but there were people camping and motor-homing there and it has (very cold) showers and a loo block. I found a sheltered spot to set up my bivouac, read a book, and then settled down to sleep at 8.45 pm shortly after the sun had set.

Day 2: Summit La Maroma; walk to Canillas de Albaida. The night was rather cooler and windier than forecast. And the morning was darker than I had expected as I was to the west of the high mountain range. I finally persuaded myself to leave my sleeping bag at 7.45 am and started walking at 8.45 am, rather later than I had originally hoped. I followed the standard tourist path towards La Maroma, ignoring several shortcut options up firebreaks, which would be steeper. The gradient was gentle and the path well constructed and, generally, well marked. I reached the summit at 1.15 pm (so 4 h 30 min walking). The views were glorious, especially of the Sierra Nevada and of the Atlas mountains. I then headed east, along the ridge. Initially, this was well marked, until the El Robledal path turned off to the north. After that, things got a bit trickier, especially as there seemed to be two options: sticking near the crest of the ridge (as I did) or taking a more obvious path lying to the north of the ridge – the Tacita de Plata path (not shown on the Axarquia Tour & Trail map). In fine weather my route presented no problems but, if the visibility had been poorer, I would have wanted to locate and follow the better Tacita de Plata path. After about two hours of descending from the summit, I reached a 4WD track running across a flat grassy area. Shortly after this point, a path descends on the right heading for the village of Sedella. However, I continued another 500 m along the ridge into a wood and took the next right, a forestry track (MA-127) descending towards Salares. After a long weary descent in a southerly direction, I emerged out of the pine forest between the villages of Salares and Canillas de Albaida and made my way to the latter, arriving there – indescribably weary – at 7.15 pm (so 10 h 30 min walking). I found a place to stay and had dinner.

Days 3-5: Walk to Competa; travel to Torre del Mar; travel home. That was the end of the serious walking! Obviously, my original plan had been to camp a second night in the mountains and to, perhaps, tackle El Lucero on Day 3 before descending to Competa. I would then have used Day 4 simply as a rest day. But my revised plan left me with two whole days to fill. However, here ill fortune took a hand! I had begun to develop a rather alarming allergic reaction to “something” during the latter stages of my descent from La Maroma. Hence, I spent the morning of Day 3 seeking medical attention in Canillas de Albaida before walking the delightful path to Competa (about 50 min), where I found my nice and friendly hotel (pre-booked) for the night. I spent the afternoon of Day 3 and the morning of Day 4 relaxing in Competa before I caught the bus down to Torre del Mar and found my studio apartment (pre-booked) – because it was Easter I had been unable to find any suitable accommodation in Malaga. On the morning of Day 5, I caught the 9.05 am bus to Malaga, the cercanias out to the airport, my plane, and then drove home, arriving at about 3.45 pm.

Kit notes. For the overnight bivouac at El Alcazar, I took my best sleeping bag, a 3/4-length self-inflating mat, and a cheap waterproof “bivvy bag”. For food, I took protein/energy bars and a fruit-and-nut mix. I cut everything else down to a minimum and my pack weight came out as 9 kg, prior to the addition of two 1.5-litre water bottles (up to 3 kg).