Training

Saturday and Sunday we took the bicycles for the loop to Montes de Málaga. We have finally calibrated our cyclocomputers and the total distance from our place is of 52km.

On Saturday, we left by 7:30am and were very pleasantly surprised when we reached the first dreaded climb and it didn't feel as hard as it had in previous times. While on the park, as it is now usual, we were overtaken by other cyclists but this time, Micael decided to keep up with one of them without any problem, probing that it is me who is the slooooow one. We spotted a pair of Booted Eagles (Hieraatus pennatus) soaring above. We returned by noon, covered in dust, less tired but ravenous!

Have a look at my legs after such a ride:


And if I take off my shoes, you can see the difference due to sun and dirt...



Sunday, we repeated the same route; this time though, Micael pushed faster and would then wait for me every few km. This forced me to go a little faster as well.

This time, we met a group of four men and a woman who were warming up to go running in the hills (we bumped into them again about two hours later, still running happily). Perhaps because those were the last days of the Feria, there were less cyclists.

Micael tested his abilities as a pedaling videographer, one thing I don't dare to do with my shaky balance.

Along the way, we stopped again to do some birdwatching; this time, we had our small binoculars. We saw again the Booted Eagles, plus one Bonelli's Eagle (Hieraatus fasciatus) and a tiny and very pretty Coal Tit (Parus ater).


When we were going back down, Micael had stopped to wait for me next to a gully and as I stopped next to him to drink some water, a wild boar ran out of the gully, passed in front of us and continued up the hill!! We couldn't believe it!

We continued our way down and in one turn, Micael came across another one, also running across the road and up the hill. I was behind but I could still see it as it ran between the pine trees. Amazing!

Visit to "Mirador de las Aguilas"

This past Sunday, we decided to join a group from the local branch of the Sociedad Española de Ornitología (local birdwatchers). I had signed in to receive notices of their activities and there was an outing to observe raptors at this place, located Northwest of Fuengirola.

We arrived at the place at 10 am and spent the next three hours at this high lookout point from where we could spot the birds on either side of the ridge, into two valleys and with some high peaks in front.

The group is very nice and they were willing to help us and two other beginners learn to identify the birds and telling us about their regular visits to the place, so that they've been keeping records for several years now. Their enthusiasm is contagious!

For us, there is the challenge of learning the names - I'm afraid that the few we know, we know in English... So we would watch, ask for the name, look it up in the book in Spanish, then in English... a little messy but we learned some.

In the end, we were able to spot ten species, four of them raptors. It's not the Tropics, and it wasn't the best day given the direction of the wind; besides, they say that in September there will be more migrants passing though.

They also recommended a few other places for birdwatching, such as the mouth of the Guadalhorce river, a few kilometers from our place, and Tarifa, near Gibraltar, which should be the place to go and see the migrants crossing towards Africa.

It was a fun morning and we enjoyed being with such nice group. We hope to join them again in other trips.

Feria de Málaga

On Saturday, we went downtown to watch one of the first activities of this annual festival: a parade of horses and carriages that ended at the Sanctuary of Victory (we missed the midnight fireworks which marked the opening of the celebrations).

Here is a sample of what we saw:

Afterwards, we joined the crowds celebrating on the streets, dancing, chatting and having a drink. We enjoyed some "tinto de verano" (red wine diluted with mineral water) and met a Danish couple who's lived here for ten years.


The festival goes on for the rest of the week, so we'll surely join in the celebrations again!

Sierra de las Nieves

Last Saturday, we went to visit the area of Sierra de las Nieves, some 60km from Málaga.

It is quite nice and we stopped at a place called El Cortijo de la Fuensanta, to walk and explore around..


We hiked a little by a trail with pines, oaks and Spanish Fir (an endemic species).



We then briefly visited the village of El Burgo but by then it was very hot, so we decided to drive back, taking another route.

Visit to El Torcal de Antequera

Last week, we drove to a park called El Torcal de Antequera. It is an area of beautiful karst formations. We hiked and did a bit of birdwatching (lots of Griffon Vultures, a couple Peregrine Falcons and many little warblers, too fast to be id...) and tree watching (Micael is so happy that here is easy to identify most of the trees!).

Have a look:

Pedalling around

These days, we've been using our bicycles to do most of our errands and shopping, and we've also kept our longer distance trips.

We've gone twice back to Montes de Málaga; the first day, it took us a little longer as we got a little lost going there from the flat, but we still did the whole planned route. The thing is, we have to pass a good part of the city to reach the entrance to the park and we were trying to avoid the busiest streets (no easy).

This route is very popular on weekends; on weekdays we hardly see one or two cyclists, but on Sunday, the trails were full of enthusiasts, most of whom passed us quite fast on the way up.



When we finally caught up with some of them resting, we chatted a little and they all say they've been going for a long time. So that's our consolation!


We then decided to look for another route starting closer to our place (or at least avoiding the city). We checked a very good and useful site, called Wikiloc, where people uploads the data of their routes, worldwide.

There, we found one route that starts about 3km from here and makes a 50km loop, following small roads, and trails and stopping by the village of Almogía. So, we downloaded the data to Micael's navigator and prepared for the trip.




That Thursday morning was quite nice and cool. Once we were out of the housing estates, we took a road that follows a river valley and we were pedalling through farms, where we passed olive groves, figs, vineyards, almond groves and lots of orange groves. Gorgeous!


Unfortunately, the navigator had a "crisis" and suddenly we couldn't see the route, though we could see our position, so we continued, trying to go in the direction of Almogía.


We went up into the hills and passed a couple of hamlets and several country houses, some abandoned, some very well kept and nice. I really liked one hamlet where they had their gardens made for the dry conditions: with cacti, aloe, and other xerophytic plants.

So, stopping and asking several people, we had an idea of the route to follow in the maze of little roads, but by then it was already 10am and it was quite hot, so we decided to turn back the same way.

Almogía at the distance

On the way back, we came across a sign for Camino de Santiago; imagine starting all the way from here...