A Hike around Sierra Almijara

I’ve done most of my hiking this year in the Sierra Nevada and Cabo de Gata, this trip to the Sierra Almijara was the first visit to this part of Spain in more than a year. And what a location! The trip was around 10k and included mountains, a lake and even a cave dwelling.

Sierra Almijara is part of the mountain range that separates Costa Tropical from the plain of Granada.

The landscape is totally different to the Sierra Nevada, not so much of a moonscape, more reminiscent of the Picos de Europa or even the Dolomites.

The route from the road to the valley bottom is well trodden, a little vertiginous in places but perfectly doable for anyone with a moderate level of fitness and agility.

Once at the bottom of the gorge, there is a petrified waterfall that to be honest is a little underwhelming, It clearly was a watercourse at some point and trees grew up through the water, gradually becoming petrified and turning to stone. Great location for a snack, or to examine the graffiti that previous visitors have so thoughtfully left behind!

Not far from here though is a real visual feast, a lake fed by the Rio Verde. It’s a struggle to get the water’s edge, but the water itself is beautifully clear.

From here we started the long climb up to the starting point, in 30 degrees heat, this should be avoided if possible. We followed the dry riverbed and then a dirt road which afforded virtually no shelter. But one more surprise.

This building is a facade that backs onto a cave. Long abandoned and several kilometres from any road other than the dirt track, this is student accommodation at best! We took a look inside.

Strongly reminiscent of scenes from the Blair Witch Project this is not a place I’ll be spending the night anytime soon!

Kitchen facilities somewhat basic, and no sign of the chef!

Photography Notes

All photographs taken with a Canon Powershot G1x MK III – this is the camera I swapped for my Ricoh GRIII x.

Processed in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop and where applicable, converted to Black and White with Silver Efex Pro.

The Canon is increasingly impressive, for trips like this I use Aperture Priority and leave it to select the ISO itself.

With DxO’s PureRAW plugin, noise reduction is a formality, although this camera is surprisingly good at handling noise. The cave images were shot at ISO 6400 and far surpassed my Canon 5Ds in terms of generated noise. What noise there is can be passed off as grain in the black and white renderings. I had no need of PureRAW in these quick edits.

Summary

An excellent and extremely photogenic walk. Best taken in Spring or November/December to avoid the heat. If you must go in the summer take plenty of water, a hat and do this in reverse, either early in the morning or late evening to avoid the heat. The climb up is much more sheltered, make that the endpoint. We did the reverse.