Trip to Andalucea 27th November to 18th December 2017-12-25
Will Rowland
Highlights of trip
First ever Trip to Colmenar 7thDec 2017-12-25
I left the main Coach station in Malaga by autobus and headed northish through the city of Malaga past Ciudad Jardin and the Limonero reservoir and joined the A45 road winding up through the mountains following the course of the Guadalmedina River .The river was a mere trickle at the time … there had obviously been little rain this year. The main vegetation along the route were Wild olives, Mastic trees (Pistacia lentiscus) and the odd Carob tree amongst scrubby grassland. Also were orchards of Almond trees and citrus trees in places , with the ever present Arundo donax (giant bamboo grass) along the valley bottoms together with various reeds eg Cattail (Scirpus sp) and Phragmites australis. The mountainous country on the right (Monts de Malaga)were higher than the high land on the left …though it was hard to tell this from the road as the road was situated down in the valley.
Above: Typical scenary travelling up through A45 road foothills of Montes de Malaga , the road follows the Rio Guadalmedina Valley . This photo and following two snipped off google maps
Above: Looking down onto the Guadalmedina river which in this photo is a trickle .
Above : Another view of A45 Road from Malaga heading north.
Eventually we came to the small town of Casabermeja, situated at the top of the valley with views to the northwest of the El Torcal Massif . At Casabermeja we took the A356 road East for a few miles till we came to the northern edge of Colmenar . Colmenar is a small quite old mountain town, full of white houses built down a quite steep slope. The central plaza of the town was closed to traffic as it was undergoing major renovation. Therefore the bus dropped us at the highest , northern endtown and i started my walk heading in an eastwards direction to the edge of town. Here there were stunning views to the east of the large mountain called La Maroma in the distance ,with the town of Colmenar below in the foreground, several other sizeable mountains were faintly seen behind la Maroma . I took a walk past some very modern architecture houses to the north east of Colmenar till I reached a dirt track heading roughly west-north-west. The view North from the highest point of the track overlooked a vineyard and behind that a long ridge of quite high mountains, to the south of the path was a large plantation of olive trees all heavy with olives. I sat on a low wall at the gate of the olive plantation and ate an early supper of tinned sardines , an apple and a yoghurt and then sketched the mountains to the north. The sun started setting to the east over the other high mountain range the montes de Malaga with cresta de la reina silhouetted as the highest point at approx 1300 metres. It was a lovely sunset with many of the northerly mountains painted in an orange-pink glow.
I then walked back downhill to the centre of town where i went into a quiet, traditional bar and had a beer and read the local paper.There were old 70s paintings of flamenco dancers and agricultural workers on the bar wall. I caught the bus back into Malaga and by now it was pitch black so no more scenary to be seen. It was a pleasant outing Colmenar appears to be a quiet town with maybe quite a few wealthy house owners and, being 600 metres above sea level , offers stunning views of the mountains around .
Three visits to Aljaime
On my first visit of the holiday to Aljaima i decided to follow the railway track for a change. I spotted glued onto a bramble stem the large creamy coloured egg case of a praying mantis, still unhatched . These eggcases are made from a foam like substance secreted by the female mantis . This foam hardens, inside are hundreds of eggs which hatch into tiny miniature mantis when the weather begins to warm up.
Next i came across a small concrete railway hut with an unlocked door. Upon entering i noticed a large pile of organic looking debris on the floor at the back . Upon closer examination i noticed in the pile a great many tiny skulls and bones of mice and small birds, and a few pellets amongst them. In the ceiling was an open hatch where a bird of prey, probably a barn owl must have been regularly sitting and regurgitating the pellets. The number of bird skulls could suggest it was a kestrel rather than an owl …or even a Sparrowhawk , though im not sure if Sparrowhawks prey on rodents.
I left the railway siding and headed down a track all the way to a gravel processing plant ( after getting past a very vociferous free roming dog that belonged to a house across the railway track ).
I started exploring the area of river Guadalhorce near the gravel extraction plant . The land around the river had been terraced into many levels as a result of the gravel extraction and a large wide pool had formed where the river had been widened and deepened . I noticed a great number of baby tamarisk plants germinating in the newly disturbed banks as well as Cattail Rushes of varying ages . Barbel were still feeding on the opposite side in the shallow muddy water even though it was December the water was still warm enough for them to be active near the surface.
Suddenly two large birds flew past overhead . I had already noticed them quite far off sitting in a dead tree but wasn’t able to identify them till they flew past …. Black storks !! Quite rare birds , I last saw them in Southern Africa 25 years ago!! They were obviously using these fairly quiet wet lands as places to feed on frogs etc.
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