Walk in the Serranía de Ronda: Alpandeire - Atajate

Time: 1:30 to 2 hours
Ascent: approx. 100 meters
Descent: approx. 250 meters
Distance: approx. 6 km
Type of walk: linear
Walking level: low/medium
Time of the year: avoid in hot weather as there is not much shade on the Atajate side
Starting point: opposite the pharmacy and the Hotel Restaurant La Casa Grande
Description: this walk meanders through Cork Oak woodland on a wide dirt track, crosses a little river (mostly dry in Summer but be careful in wet winters as it can be quite wide and deep)and follows an old Moorish path cobbled in places through ancient olive groves. The last section leading up to Atajate, the smallest village in Malaga Province, is concreted.

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Park by the church if at all possible and take the street at the back of the church leading down to the Hotel/Restaurant La Casa Grande on the right-hand side and the chemist on the left-hand side. Take the way-marked track (yellow and white stripes) on the right behind La Casa Grande and follow it down, round a block of buildings ignoring the track on the right, and where the track forks, take the dirt track on the right going up, with a house on the left-hand side. Keep following the main way-marked path down through cork oak woodland, ignoring any tracks on the right hand side.

After a very wide right-hand hairpin bend (red sandy soil and fenced land with a ruined farmhouse in the distance and little tarns to your left as you are going downhill), keep following the same track down (bearing right) and keep an eye for a smaller track going down to the left with small metal green posts either side of it. Leave the main track and take this smaller track on the left and follow it downhill. The track will eventually narrow and fork. Take the path on the left-hand side, ignoring the one going to the right which takes you to a property.

Keep following the path down to the bottom of the valley, walk past a farmhouse with orange groves. Cross the river immediately after the property, and carry on uphill (the path skirts round the property).

Go through a first gate and keep following the track up. You will come to an intersection, turn right and shortly after, at the second padlocked gate (there is a sign on a big oak tree warning against bees – take the path opposite that sign), leave the main track and take the narrow way-marked ancient Moorish stone path immediately on the left. Follow it up. It crosses ancient olive groves.

At an intersection with a goat track, with a stone wall opposite and a sign reading something like “prohibido de paso” (there’s a ruin also further away to the left), take the continuation of the stone Moorish path slightly up and to the right. Be careful here as the path is not obvious as it is hidden by bushes! DON'T turn left or right on the goat track, but CROSS it and take the path opposite behind bushes.

 Follow the stone path up and go through 2 or 3 makeshift gates. It has been recently cleared. This path follows a fence on the right-hand side and on the left, the edge of a field. Just before the end of the cobbled path, you will walk under a very impressive oak tree. At the end of the path, where it comes onto a wide track, turn right and follow the main track going up to Atajate.