La Capilla from El Chorro

Kevin Mawdesley

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El Chorro is known for its dramatic limestone features and with little difficulty this walk gets you up amongst these classic formations before offering easy, moderate and difficult destinations from which to view these wonderful mountains.

The walk starts in the delightful village of El Chorro at its quaint railway station (if it looks familiar, Von Ryan's Express was filmed here), next to the pleasant hotel and bar I'm sure you will be comtemplating as you make your descent. The first three or four kilometres of the walk is a steady climb on a good, designated trail beneath the sheer cliffs, firstly through pine forest and then hill-farms of goats, almonds and olives. The walk then suddenly opens out and you are confronted with classic limestone formations in the foreground and wonderful views across El Torcal, the Guadalhorce Valley and the Montes de Malaga in the distance.

You have the choice of ending your walk after about 5km, comfortably taking your picnic and enjoying the view and looking out for vultures, eagles and paragliders. Alternatively, you can persist to more dramatic destinations higher in the limestone buffs. To continue you take a clear path along a vegetated valley surrounded by classic limestone features until you reach a saddle and more inspiring views. From here you have a choice of two impressive targets: the first is eminently attainable, a further kilometre or so on reasonable paths to an unnamed summit, the other, La Capilla, is another thing entirely and looks to be in the category of Snowdon via Crib Goch or the knife-edge off Helvellyn. The limestone seemed to provide enough hold for sensible scrambling and there appeared to be a passage to the summit, but it was too late in the afternoon when we reached it and it awaits another day.

Spain - Southern Spain - Malaga - Malaga

Features

Birds, Cafe, Great Views, Lake/Loch, Mountains

11/21/2013 - Andy Chapple

Having downloaded this walk,I followed the details to the letter and thoroughly enjoyed the day out. I would say that since the author completed last the walk the main pathway has been upgraded. It looks as though many of the marker poles mentioned have been lost in the process, although sufficient remain at the junctions to allow for the gaps. One benefit of this upgrade is that they have now corrected the distances on the sign posts! A word to the wise -the last 2kms of deep gorse are not meant for Brits wearing shorts and gaiter-less. Oh yes, please find a nice heavy walking stick as there are the usual packs of local dogs left free to roam by their useless owners. On the plus side, there's plenty of wildlife to see. Finally, like the author, I didn't attempt the scramble up La Capilla - probably best attempted when not walking alone as valuable time can be lost trying to spot the best route up and it is also quite isolated with poor mobile reception, should anything untoward occur. All-in-all a grand day out Grommit! PS - if you don't fancy walking up to La Capilla from El Chorro, there's a road that takes you to the start of the stretch of gorse.