On one of our last days in Malaga, we had the privilege of being taken by our apartment host, Julia with her good friend Gemma up into the Montes de Malaga for the day. Julia wanted to show us this area because as she said, you will never bike there - and she was right! Our e-biking friends, John and Darlene had just traversed this route and stayed in a hotel in the Montes on their way to Cordoba and back to Seville where they would end their Tour de Andalucía, and you see day “road warriors” on these roads but no, not for us.
So we found a weather window and after picking Gemma up at her downtown apartment, off we went on the steep winding roads. In no time, we had amazing views down to Malaga and out to the Med and of the incredibly steep and very green slopes, of the mountains.
Julia and Gemma have been friends since they met while doing graduate degrees in Brussels. Gemma grew up in Granada and recently moved to Malaga from Brussels. She says the weather in Brussels is awful. Both Julia and Gemma speak excellent English so we had a wonderful time asking them all kinds of questions.
Coincidentally with starting this post, this article about the Montes de Malaga was just published today in Sur English and this area has just been granted additional protection.
https://www.surinenglish.com/malaga/malaga-city/what-not-miss-the-montes-malaga-natural-20250319080055-nt.html
“This March the Junta de Andalucía has taken a further step to enhance and further protect this parkland by officially declaring it as a 'site of community importance' (SCI, a LIC in Spanish) for being a 'special area of conservation' (SAC, a ZEC in Spanish). This means that this enclave is now fully integrated into the European Ecological Network Natura 2000, in recognition of its high environmental value and the need to guarantee its long-term preservation.”
As the article says, this former agricultural land, much of it protected parkland now, was did reforested less than a century ago, to prevent erosion and flooding, thanks to the efforts of two forestry engineers. Those who rant and rail against the Islands Trust special protection for the Gulf Islands should take a lesson from elsewhere in the world. You can see how coastal development in Spain has overwhelmed some areas.
With 5000 ha of land, and an elevation of 1000 m at its highest point, you have amazing views in all directions.
We stopped at a mirador or viewpoint to more fully take-in the jaw-dropping views. Spring wildflowers added more colour to the views.
We also stopped at the Lagar de Torrijos eco-museum, built in the mid 19th C., also mentioned in the article, where traditional agriculture-based activities for the area were based - wine and olive oil production and ovens for baking bread.
As we drove the roads, we could see old farmhouses in the hills. It was at one time devoted to vineyards but the grapes and the industry were devastated by the phylloxera plague. After the vineyards were abandoned, some of them were converted to other agricultural uses, including livestock and cereals. Farming these steep slopes must have been very hard.
We had a personal tour of the museums’s artifacts by the manager who explained - in Spanish with Julia and Gemma translating - how all the original old equipment was used. They have an event once a year in the fall where they use it again for the grapes.
Julia used to camp on the grounds down by the river with her children when they were in Scouts.
From the article I learned that this area is filled with what are referred to as “water mines” - “the system of water extraction that has traditionally been carried out in the area. The agricultural past of this protected area led to the creation of unique water supplies to guarantee water supply. Thus, today there are hundreds of markers between underground springs and the mines through which the liquid element was extracted.” These mountains are the essential watershed for Malaga and other parts of the densely developed coast. We need to do a much better job of protecting our own watersheds at home.
After the museum, we found a restaurant for lunch, also with amazing views. There are a number of restaurants in the Montes but the one Julia had wanted to take us to was closed that day.
From there we began the long switchbacking descent back down to Malaga. This is not a road for the faint-hearted or height-challenged and Julia did an excellent job of getting us back down to sea level without incident. My photos just don’t capture the stunning beauty of this landscape.
After dropping Gemma off in town, Julia showed us some of the beautiful old houses in our Pedregalejo neighbourhood that used to be in her family or that she visited as a child. She and her family lived in town and came out to Pedregalejo for the summer. She told us that many of the old houses, some remaining, some gone, off the waterfront paseo that we walk on to go into town, used to have gardens that went down to the beach, before that road was built. We felt very fortunate to be able to have an insider’s view of a place we have come to love as visitors. Thank you again to our amiga, Julia!
This featured blog entry was written by Jenniferklm from the blog De Nuevo a España.
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