Marbella’s hinterland is ideal for long hikes in the Sierra Blanca. Here lies the Sierra Blanca mountain range with some beautiful signposted walking routes.
Admittedly, we were not really prepared for a mountain tour, but we had roughly picked out a route that would take us to Ojén. The small town is one of the most interesting places in the region. The aim was to hike there and return by bus. The description found on the internet sounded quite simple, so nothing should go wrong.
You shouldn’t go hiking in a completely unknown area if you only have a rough route in mind. But that has never bothered us before and so we first set off to leave Marbella behind us. Just before the Virgen del Carmen Cemetery, we turned off the main road and entered the hiking area.
Hiking in the Sierra Blanca: it’s steep uphill
At first, the signposted hiking trail, which in our opinion was the right route, still led us along wide, well-built paths. We routed the route and it is easy to follow on the map.
It was not long before the track changed its appearance. The path became narrower and was soon just a stony trail leading up the mountain. Every now and then you could enjoy a beautiful view of the valley. Despite the very hazy weather, we were there exactly at the time with Sahara sand winds, you could see Marbella very well. A dreamlike view that made us forget the ascent.
I liked the path very much. The nature was beautiful, there were always plants to see that I didn’t know and often you walked along the mountainside under shady trees. It was quiet – I think we met maybe 6 people in this part of the hike – and the steady steep ascent of the very uneven path was also a bit demanding on the fitness. In between, we also spotted trail markings from time to time, which we then followed.
After about 1.5 hours uphill, we began to wonder whether we were still going in the right direction. According to the directions we had read before, we would reach a road from which it should not be far to our desired destination. According to Google, a road was not far away either. Looking only at the kilometre figure, we had already done far more than half. Yes, if you looked at the kilometres and not the topography….
It became even steeper, even more uneven, the landscape somewhat barren but even more beautiful. The thought of turning back came up briefly, but hey, it was further back to walk – said Google. In retrospect, the decision to climb higher and higher up the mountain range on the Sierra Blanca hike was exactly right. Even though the climb was starting to show in my legs, I enjoyed being out in the mountains.
There was even a highlight that I will not forget in a hurry. Above us on the edge of a mountain stood an ibex looking down at us. Fortunately, it stayed there until we had photographed it and only then disappeared from our view.
Finally up!
After 2.5 hours, we finally arrived in flat terrain high up on a ridge and suddenly there were families, individual hikers and walkers on the paths. My first thought, whether there would be an easy path that we had overlooked, was quickly shattered. There was a large car park, which was very well filled. From there, visitors walked along wide and well-maintained paths to viewpoints.
We ignored these places and continued to walk across the car park. After all, we had in mind that it shouldn’t be far from the road to Ojén and that’s where we wanted to go.
It’s going downhill again
From the car park, there was only one road that led to the right and left or even further up and down. We were sure that the place was not further uphill and we decided to walk downhill.
As we had to interrupt the route planning briefly, the path on the following map starts near the car park.
So we followed the road, sometimes walking on the road, sometimes on the parallel hiking trail. We found it a bit strange that we didn’t get closer to the village, but there was no other way and we wanted to reach our destination.
After 6 kilometres, we finally reached a major expressway/federal highway and spotted a sign. In one direction we would arrive in Ojén in 7 kilometres, in the other direction we needed 12 kilometres to Marbella. Our “we’ll find our way – planning” had probably gone a bit wrong. After 20 kilometres in our legs, we decided to return to Marbella.
However, walking next to the road was not possible, but we discovered a bus stop where, according to Google, there should also be a bus to Marbella. According to the timetable, we would have had to wait 2 hours for the next bus. Our decision was quickly made. We looked for an UBER driver who picked us up within 10 minutes and drove us to the old town of Marbella. So we hadn’t seen Ojén, but we had experienced a wonderful hike that we won’t soon forget.
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