La Axarquía – The walk of the High Axarquía

This is the longest one of Guy’s walks in the La Axarquía area (Guy Hunter-Watts – Walks in Andalucia). It is described as a 7-7.5 hour long hike but with the temperature being around 30 degrees that day we thought it would be a bit too much. We found a shorter version of the walk which was only 5 hours long and started off not far from the lovely village of Canillas de Albaida.

We could feel the heat however the sky was cloudy that day. Nevertheless, it did not take away much from the beauty of the route which took us around the surrounding hills and showed us beautiful views after every corner.

We actually renamed this walk to ‘the walk of ruins and rosemary’ as along the way we passed 4-5 ruins and the path was lined with countless, flowering rosemary bushes. Our walk was accompanied by the constant humming of the bees.

The terrain is very varied which makes it an interesting walk. You walk on dirt roads, dry river beds, you scramble down on the side of the hill on loose white stones that sparkle in the sunlight (be very careful on this bit! It’s not long but it’s easy to miss a step).

The walk is graded as medium/difficult. Although there are a few steep bits overall it’s a gorgeous and rewarding walk that I can recommend to everybody who likes hiking. Our favourite walk in the area.