European Mountains, Spain
Sierras de Tejeda

El Fuerte (1004m) & Rábita de Torrox (697m),
Apr 2 2012


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Sunnmøre - Sogndal - Hov - Oslo - Malaga - Frigiliana, Mar 30 - Apr 1 2012

 

Our Snail-house suite at Hotel Los Caracoles

Our Snail-house suite at Hotel Los Caracoles
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The original plan for Easter 2012 was to go skiing in Sierra Nevadas and ascend Mulhacén (3479m)- the highest mountain in continental Spain. But because of an injury, Anne and me had to change our plans in the very last minute (not literally -the very last minute-, but you know what I mean...), and we ended up with a booking at Hotel Los Caracoles, near the village Frigiliana near the Spanish south coast - also known as Costa del Sol. It wasn't hard to shift our mindset from skis to boots and we looked forward to visit the Sierras de Tejeda range.

We took the 06:00am flight from Oslo to Malaga (which meant we had to leave our temporary base-camp at Hov 2am in the morning...) The flight took 4 hours, and during the flight my life-long (yet periodic) back problem decided to kick in for full, and I arrived Malaga in a rather bad shape and with a splitting headache. Things did certainly not improve by having to wait for more than 1,5 hours at the Avis rental car office. The queue was growing into an endless state, and we were in the lucky category. I don't think I'll ever be able to forgive Avis this level of customer service. But eventually, we could leave the airport with a brand new BMW - at least one step up from the category we had reserved a car from...

Driving this kind of car was a new experience for me. I tested the gas pedal, and in the first second nothing happened (Diesel). In the very next, Anne was in the back seat. Well, kind of. In any case, there was a lot more horse power than I'm used to and I had to come up with a sustainable way of driving this car...

After 76,9km, we arrived at Hotel Los Caracoles, and there was a problem with the reservation. No one at the hotel spoke English, and even if Anne practice decent Spanish, I don't know where we would have been without Google Translate. It all turned out well in the end, and the snail-suites turned out to be quite interesting...

It was nice to trade Norwegian rain and snow for Spanish sunshine, but given my bad state I went straight into hibernation, hoping that the headache would eventually cease. Anne took a trip to the nearby town Frigiliana to see what the neighborhood had to offer. Meanwhile, I spent a few hours sleeping on the floor on rocks (yes, rocks) which is an excellent way of massaging aching muscles. Later in the evening I was able to take a short walk, and we walked up to Puerta Verde de Torrox - a 5 minute walk to something that turned out to be a bona fide mountain top with a primary factor of 100 meters! 

Across the valley - just above Frigiliana - we saw a proud mountain top named El Fuerte (The Strong One), and if I was able to resume to human state during the night, we would go there the very next day. My attempt of having dinner at the Caracoles restaurant failed miserably, and I returned to our snail-house suite with a steak doggy-bag. I felt a bit foolish, but with this kind of headache, I could swallow any kind of embarrassment. Easily!

 

Puerta Verde de Torrox

Puerta Verde de Torrox
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El Fuerte - Apr 2 2012

I woke up the next morning, sound as a pound, fine as a dime, good as wood, etc.. (you get the point) and El Fuerte was definitely on the agenda. After breakfast, we studied Google Earth and had fairly good control of the route before heading towards Frigiliana.

 

El Fuerte

El Fuerte
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At the El Fuerte trailhead, we met an emigrated Belgian who showed us around in his fine orchard. Afterwards, we continued up the ridge along a well-worn path. We left the orchard 10:50am and reached point 978m 12:07pm. This is where most hikers turn around, even if it's not the high point. El Fuerte summit (1004m) is located 0,36km to the northeast, and we continued towards the summit after a short stay.

 

On El Fuerte point 978m

On El Fuerte point 978m
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The route to the high point was clearly off-trail, even if there was a vague, vague path and odd cairns here and there. We reached the top 12:27pm and had a most excellent view, even if the clouds found their grip on the higher mountains to the north. Our little favorite wolf Loke took a spin around the summit and it was fun to watch...

 

A flying wolf on El Fuerte

A flying wolf on El Fuerte
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We returned to the trailhead 1:26pm, drove down to the sea and then up to Cómpeta (via Torrox) for lunch. We had some high hopes about obtaining hiking maps here, but because of the siesta, we didn't. Instead we drove back down and decided to hike Rábita de Torrox instead.

 

Rábita de Torrox

Rábita de Torrox
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We headed out from our trailhead by the local restaurant 3:45pm and reached the top 4:27pm. It was a short hike, but it was definitely a proper mountain top - with good views! At 4:56pm, we were back to the starting point and it was time to call it a day. We had bigger plans for tomorrow. We weren't exactly sure what tomorrow would bring, but we would go a higher mountain. For sure!

 

View from Rábita de Torrox

View from Rábita de Torrox
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Pictures

The pictures were taken with a Canon EOS 550D + Canon EF-S 17-85mm IS USM F 4-5.6

 

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Hotel Los Caracoles - Apr 1 2012

1. We are here! 2. We are checked in! 3. Cool suite 4. Still a cool suite (a few days later) 5. Checking out the neighborhood 6. Neat... 7. The restaurant 8. Bathroom 9. Bedroom 10. Living room 11. Our rental car

Puerta Verde de Torrox - Apr 1 2012

12. On Puerta Verde de Torrox 13. View from Puerta Verde de Torrox 14. Frigiliana 15. Nerja 16. A steep hill

El Fuerte point 978m - Apr 2 2012

17. El Fuerte seen from Los Caracoles 18. El Fuerte trailhead 19. Fine colors 20. The Belgian 21. Nearby peaks 22. Pico del Cielo 23. On the path 24. Valley view 25. On the path 26. More flora 27. El Fuerte ahead 28. On the path 29. Mountains to the east 30. The final hill 31. Ridge to the high point 32. Point 978m 33. No more trail...

Wide-angle view from El Fuerte point 978m

34. Wide-angle view from El Fuerte point 978m

To the high point (1004m)

35. Frigiliana 36. Lower hills 37. Los Caracoles 38. Anne 39. The path along the ridge crest 40. To the high point 41. Other hikers 42. Viewpoint 43. On El Fuerte high point 44. Loke - the flying wolf

Wide-angle view from El Fuerte summit

45. Wide-angle view from El Fuerte summit

Descent

46. Descending El Fuerte 47. Descending El Fuerte 48. Descending El Fuerte 49. Frigiliana 50. Frigiliana 51. El Fuerte route info

Rábita de Torrox, Apr 2 2012

52. Cómpeta 53. Cómpeta 54. Map 55. Lunch in Cómpeta 56. Rábita de Torrox 57. Trailhead 58. Cactus 59. Cactus 60. El Furte 61. Steep road 62. Puerta Verde de Torrox 63. Anne and the Olive trees 64. More cactus 65. On our way to the top 66. Olive trees 67. Sea view 68. Flowers 69. Ruins on the summit 70. Anne on Rábita de Torrox

Wide-angle view from Rábita de Torrox, Apr 2 2012

71. Wide-angle view from Rábita de Torrox

Descent

72. El Furte 73. Fire-gate mountain 74. Cactus 75. Descent 76. Back at Caracoles

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