Down the Rio Guadiaro to Jimena

The Fates seemed to be against this trip. It certainly did not go according to plan! For a start, five days before I was due to fly, I tore the medial meniscus in my left knee while getting to my feet after kneeling to clean the kitchen freezer. My flight and all the accommodation were booked, of course, and I decided to go ahead with this trip, reasoning that, if necessary, I could use the bus or train instead of walking. By the time I came to travel I could walk, albeit still with a slight limp even on a hard level surface. Each day I wore a knee support and took close to the maximum recommended dose of both ibuprofen and paracetamol. But that was only one of the problems I encountered, as you will read below. I had been thinking about doing this walking trip for a few years, following the Rio Guadiaro south from Ronda, and in the Reflections section I will give my thoughts on the trip as I originally planned it, rather than on how it turned out!

Costs. Flight £93. Car parking £23. Malaga hotel €42. Jimera hotel (B&B) €41. El Colmenar hostel (B&B) €18. Jimena hostal (B&B) €42. Ubrique hotel €44. Ronda hotel €24.30. Malaga–Ronda bus €10.71. Jimena–Ronda train €7.35. Ronda–Ubrique bus €5.25. Typical evening meal with drinks €20–€31. Total cost of trip £435.

Places I stayed and was happy with. Hotel Goartin, Malaga (Day 1, Read my review); Hotel Rural Inz-Almaraz, Jimera de Libar (Day 2, Read my review); Hotel Hospedaría Las Buitreras, El Colmenar (Day 3, Read my review); Hostal El Anon, Jimena de la Frontera (Day 4, Read my review); Hotel Sierra de Ubrique, Ubrique (Day 5, Read my review); Hotel Royal, Ronda (Day 6, Read my review).

Books. The Rough Guide to Andalucía (Rough Guides, 9th edition); Walking the GR7 in Andalucía by Kirstie Shirra and Michelle Lowe (Cicerone, 2nd revised edition); Walking in Andalucía by Guy Hunter-Watts (Cicerone, 1st edition).

Maps. Page maps in Walking in Andalucía (see above). Also 1064-II Cortes de la Frontera and 1050-IV Benaojan, 1:25,000, Instituto Geografico Nacional de Espana (but rather dated). Various routes printed out from the Wikiloc website.

See also. Ronda and Benaojan; Sierra de Grazalema; Sierra de Grazalema 2.

Day 1: Travel to Malaga. Left home at 2.05 pm and drove to Edinburgh Airport, arriving about 3.15 pm. Boarded plane on time but then there was a technical problem... Changed to new plane and took off about 7.15 pm, roughly 2 h 30 min late. Landed at 11.10 pm, so 2 h 10 min late. Caught 11.58 pm cercanías (commuter train) and was at my favourite Malaga hotel (pre-booked) at about 12.20 am.

Day 2: Bus to Ronda; walk to Jimera de Libar. Left hotel at 8.55 am and caught 9.30 am bus to Ronda, arriving 11.20 am. Started walking 11.25 am, initially following the GR7 west out of Ronda as far as the railway line. Looked at the Cueva del Gato (finally! – see my previous attempt) and arrived in Benaojan Estacion about 2.35 pm. Had a beer in the station and talked to two Californian ladies. Left at 3.15 pm and walked to Jimera Estacion, following the route of “Walk 7: Estacion de Benaojan to Estacion de Jimera de Libar” in Walking in Andalucía (see Books) and arriving about 5.10 pm. Had another small beer and received advice on walking routes from English bar owner. Left at 5.40 pm and walked up road to Jimera proper, reaching my pleasant hotel (pre-booked) at 6 pm (so 5 h 25 min walking). Had hotel dinner of black pudding croquettes, pork tenderloin, all washed down with red wine, followed by a pancake with coconut ice cream and coffee.

Day 3: Walk to El Colmenar. Breakfast at 9 am. Started walking at 10.05 am. Glorious walk and glorious weather. Reached Cortes Estacion at 12.45 pm and had a beer. Left at 1.20 pm and headed down to the fabled Puente de los Alemanes and the spectacular but rugged Cañón de las Buitreras, where Griffon Vultures were indeed plentiful. This was a very tough stage of the walk for my damaged knee. I reached El Colmenar at 5.40 pm. But where was the hotel? A local misunderstood my very poor Spanish and, after a long and unnecessary detour, I finally found it at 6.15 pm (so 8 h 10 min walking). My welcome at the hotel (pre-booked) was friendly and, initially, it looked like I would have my dormitory room all to myself. Had shower and then had dinner of courgette soup, green peppers stuffed with pork sausage meat, apple pie, all washed down with red wine and coffee.

Day 4: Walk to Jimena de la Frontera. A very disturbed night! One guy came into the dormitory to sleep at 2.20 am and two more followed an hour or so later. They had clearly been off doing something exhaustingly athletic and all needed snacks and showers before retiring. Had breakfast at 9 am. Left hotel at 10.15 am. My walks the previous two days had followed marked and signposted trails but now I had to devise my own route, with the help of the Wikiloc website and the advice from the Jimera bar owner. I crossed the bridge over the Guadiaro and walked up the asphalt road towards Gaucín. I “found” the cross-country track I was looking for at about 11.30 am but, stupidly, convinced myself it was wrong and wasted another 45 min looking up and down the road. Finally started off down the track, which was the right one, at 12.15 pm. But then the track forked and I branched right on a promising looking track that led me, after many twists and turns, to a hydroelectricity intake, still high above the river; I had clearly chosen the wrong fork! I descended to the turbine house but there was no way out onto the public road. So I backtracked up the hill some way and found a path that skirted the perimeter of the turbine house and accessed the public road. I arrived in San Pablo at 2.40 pm and had a large and very well deserved beer. Left the bar about 3.15 pm and then it was a long and horrid road walk into Jimena – I had spent essentially all the day either lost or walking on asphalt road. I arrived at my hostal (pre-booked) at 5 pm (so 6 h 45 min walking). Later, I went out for a dinner of grilled belly pork.

Day 5: Travel to Ubrique. Had breakfast about 9.15 am. My original plan had been to walk from Jimena to Ubrique along the GR7, a stiff 10-h walk according to both Walking the GR7 in Andalucía (see Books) and the Jimera bar owner. But clearly this was now impossible with my knee problem, the lack of usable daylight hours now that the clocks had changed on Sunday morning, and my despondency after the previous day’s setbacks. Instead, I decided to take the 4 pm train to Ronda and then the bus to Ubrique. I left the hostal about 11 am and went up to the castle, which was both interesting and excellent. I then wandered down to the Royal Artillery Canal, which was a pleasant stroll. Came back to the hostal about 1.40 pm to collect my rucksack and have lunch. But I began to feel slightly queasy. I left the hostal about 3.00 pm and walked down to Jimena station, arriving about 3.25 pm. The train was scheduled for 4.09 pm but left at 4.30 pm, arriving in Ronda about 5.40 pm. I walked to the bus station and caught the 6.15 pm bus to Ubrique. On the bus, I started to feel really quite ill. I reached Ubrique at 7.40 pm and tried to find my hotel, which I knew was to the south of the town. A brother and sister running the wonderful Pizzeria La Estrella said I still had 20 min to walk and, with incredible kindness, the brother gave me a lift in his car. I arrived at the hotel (pre-booked) at 8.10 pm and was immediately very ill indeed and this continued for the next 14 h. The sickness goes by various names, including “gastric ‘flu”, “D and V” and “winter vomiting”. Just what I needed.

Day 6: Bus to Ronda. I went downstairs to the hotel restaurant at about 10 am and had a couple of sweet black teas. Then I returned to my room and slept some more. Checked out of the hotel at about 12.10 pm and started walking into town about 12.30 pm, buying some drinks on the way. Had another black tea in Ubrique and wasted a whole load of time doing nothing. Caught the 3.30 pm bus to Ronda, arriving at my convenient and inexpensive hotel (pre-booked) at 5.10 pm. I popped out later and bought another soft drink. What a wonderful day.

Day 7: Travel home. Caught 7 am bus and arrived in Malaga at 8.50 am. Had light breakfast in the Maria Zambrano train station cafe. Caught commuter train out to airport. Flight was on time and I was home about 3 pm.

Wildlife seen. Griffon Vulture, Moorish Gecko, Southern Hawker, Copper Demoiselle.

Other useful links. Damas buses

Ronda bus timetables

Bus services from Malaga

Renfe trains

Reflections. Where to begin? Clearly, if I had realised when I arrived in Ronda on Day 5 how ill I was going to be, I would have stayed in the town and forgotten about the trip to Ubrique. However, at that moment I still believed that I would be doing a walk in the Sierra de Grazalema the following day; it was on the bus that I started to feel really sick. Oh well, something like this was bound on to happen eventually on one of my solo trips. But what about the route as originally planned? Days 2 and 3 were fine, although Day 3 was tough for someone with a dodgy knee! My choice of route on Day 4 was a disaster, with far too much walking on metalled public roads, even if I had not got very lost. The Jimera bar owner recommended a route on the western side of the Guadiaro (my route was to the east of the river), which he said that he had both cycled and walked. A third option, which is also on the Wikiloc website, is to walk west from El Colmenar and join the GR7 south to Jimena; of course, I did not want to take that option as I believed I would be taking the GR7 northbound the following day. So, could I have walked the GR7 between Jimena and Ubrique if it was not for my knee? I do not know, of course, but I imagine it would have been very difficult at that time of year with the limited daylight hours; one to leave until the early summer, perhaps?

© 2017 The Untravelled World