|
A
patchwork hillside |
Temptation, temptation
This month Tony Allen follows a disused railway line
and claims he
resisted the temptation of bars on the route…
Our
editor has often told me that he thoroughly enjoys reading about my
walks but has absolutely no intention of doing one!
This month, I offer him
one which, had he been around 50 years ago, he could have enjoyed from
the comfort of a railway carriage - and soon may be able to again if
the projected Western Railway extension from Málaga goes ahead.
In the meantime, the
rest of us can enjoy a peaceful walk through glorious country along
the old, abandoned railway track between Periana and Ventas de
Zafarraya. |
|
We start from the first sharp
right-hand bend 400m outside Periana on the road to La Muela, taking the
central and most prominent of the three tracks, which lead straight on
from the bend.
For the first 2½ kms the track climbs surprisingly steeply
and the trains would probably have been puffing even harder than I was by
the time I reached the top, but after that it’s a gentle stroll on easy
gradients for the rest of the way.
For two or three
hundred metres the olive trees and golden gorse scattered across the
rocky hillside |
 |
beside the
track are scarred by quarrying and evidence of the municipal rubbish tip
but as we round the first bend a more distant view brings promise of
better things to come. Ahead an isolated cortijo is framed among jagged
rocks on a low crest with a splash of pink almond blossom slicing through
the surrounding olive groves while golden gorse brightens the lower
slopes. Beyond, the huge barren mass of the Sierra de Alhama looms on the
horizon.
The first bridge |
Soon, we come to a solidly
built stone bridge across the track (0.45km).
This is the first of three
such bridges we’ll pass under, all still in good repair and none of
them linked to a significant road or track. They were presumably built
for farmers and herdsman to cross the railway with their mules and
flocks.
Beyond the bridge we
pass through a cutting in the rock and after this the detritus of the
town is left behind and we’re out in beautiful, unspoilt country - a
glorious jumble of rock olives, almonds, gorse and broom, while the
verges of the track itself are thick with smaller wildflowers.
|
|
Already, in late January
when I did the walk, crown daisies, viper’s bugloss and even Barbary
nuts, all normally much later to appear, were coming into flower.
Continuing to climb steadily, we pass under a second stone bridge
(0.945 km).
Emerging from the
bridge, Lake Viñuela comes into view on the right before we pass
through two cuttings carved through the rock. |
Barbary Nut |
Now the track swings left,
heading almost north-west and ahead and to the right of us the jagged
teeth of Los Mosquitos jut from the crest of yet another spectacular slope
clad in almonds, olives and gorse.
Los Mosquitos |
Next, in a long curve to
the right, we swing round to the north of Los Mosquitos. We’re now
running parallel to the ridge of the Sierra de Alhama, with a broad
fertile valley between us and the ridge line and we pass through a
dramatic tumble of huge rocks which lie scattered across the mountain
as though discarded by a careless giant.
After about 2 ½ km,
emerging from another cutting, the track begins to level out, having
climbed about 200m from our start point. |
Almond snowdrift
|
Passing through a stand of
particularly large almond trees, their blossoms scattered like snowflakes
across the track, we curve gently left again to pass across a broad saddle
with the ground sloping away on both sides of us. To the right, Lake
Viñuela comes briefly into view again and ahead the towering mass of
Maroma appears capped in snow as we pass through a long avenue of pines.
Towards the end of the avenue, a subsidiary track signed March a Mona
forks off to the left (3.4km) but we continue straight ahead along the
pine trees.
Just ahead, to the right of the
track, is a smart modern house, built on the site of the old water
replenishment point where the train would stop to top up after its long
climb. This seems like a good idea so I too stop for lunch gazing down
across a rich patchwork of olive groves, pasture and flowering almonds,
dotted with scattered cortijos, towards Lake Viñuela.
Pink and
white almonds |
Refreshed, I head on along
the path sweeping around the head of a valley which falls away down to
Lake Viñuela. We pass through another avenue of leafless trees,
probably poplars, beside an unusually large set of farm buildings,
Cortijo Carrion. At the end of the avenue we ignore another track to
the right leading to an unnamed hamlet out of sight down the hillside
and now begin to climb gently around the far side of the valley.
Approaching the crest of this spur we pass under a third bridge and
Maroma again looms ahead.
At the top of this rise
we’ve reached the highest point of our walk, about 300m above where we
started and now begin to slant very gently down the other side.
About a kilometre
further on we pass under a high-voltage powerline and 100m or so
beyond that, just before a lower voltage line, a graded track signed
el Canuelo doubles back sharply to the right (6.82km). |
| To cut the
walk short by three or four km, turn back here to el Canuelo,
otherwise head on along the railway track, which now slants gently
down across the hillside high above the traffic charging along the
N340 toward Zafarraya.
A couple of kilometres
ahead el Boquete de Zafarraya slices dramatically through the mountain
and beside it we can soon pick out the old railway tunnel for which
we’re heading. Just before the halfway point we pass a large rambling
farm, Cortijo de las Puertas, to the right of the track and, just
beyond, on the left, the rather less impressive remains of the old
railway station, a crumbling ruin reminiscent of a British Rail
waiting room. |
Boquete de
Zafarraya |
|
The tunnel |
Having passed through the
tunnel, we follow the railway track until it crosses the main road
on an old iron bridge and we drop down to the left, just short
of the bridge, into the main street of Ventas de Zafarraya. This seems
a bit of a ghost town, of no particular merit, but the strangely named
Aqui te Quiero Ver bar offers somewhere to quench your thirst as well
as a few old photographs of the railway which decorate its walls
(8.79km).
Resisting the temptation to order a beer, I head back the way we came
to the track junction between the two pylon lines, this time forking
left following the sign to el Canuelo. The track drops quite steeply
downhill across the delightful patchwork hillside which we admired
from the railway line above. We soon reach Canuelo.
Aptly described on its
signs as "Autentica Aldea de la Sierra". it presents a scene of
pastoral peace; a mare and foal graze at the edge of the village, an
old, black clad woman returns with a bundle of newly gathered
firewood, and a herd of sheep floods across the hillside, the music of
their bells ringing out an Angelus. |
In the village is an attractive
looking bar - this walk could easily become a prolonged pub-crawl - but
resisting the temptation we head on to the far end of the village, where
the track becomes a metalled mountain road (13.25km). That road now drops
steeply down the hillside for about a kilometre until it joins the larger
Periana - Ventas de Zafarraya road. Here, we turn right and follow this
road for about 2 km, through the hamlet of La Muela and back to our start
point.
 |
I try to avoid roads
wherever possible but this is very quiet with hardly any traffic.
All I saw was a couple
of villagers taking the evening air and a small boy riding a large and
spirited but beautifully schooled horse (left).
To my delight he was unaccompanied by any adult, wore no riding
helmet, and was clearly very proud of himself and his mount.
Would that all British
Health and Safety Officers were made to serve a compulsory attachment
in Spain.
Walk Data:
Distance: 15 km.
Difficulty: easy. |
The Periana Railway
|
The Periana - Ventas de Zafarraya
railway was part of a network, Los Ferrocarriles Suburbanos de Málaga,
started by a Belgian company in 1908. Most of the network ran along
the coast, where construction was relatively easy, and the line was
opened as far as Vélez Málaga in 1908.
The extension to Ventas de
Zafarraya, involving a climb of 945 m was very much more difficult and
demanded the inclusion of three stretches of racked line to help the train
climb the steep gradient. Work on this stretch began in 1911 but wasn’t
completed until 1922.
|
A train in
Málaga |
It was originally intended
to extend the line on through el Boquete de Zafarraya to Granada but this
never got off the ground.
The Periana - Ventas de
Zafarraya line was eventually closed due to falling demand and the track
was torn up in 1960.
|
