In honour of a friend who has come in from Spain and will be in Cork for the next two days, I take my own trip back to Spain in this post. The destination is the El Torcal Natural Park in Andalucía, a bit north of Malaga.

Let me be totally up front about the images here – many include yours truly and for these the credit has to go to The Wife.

This destination once again underlines that the region is much more than just beaches and sangria. The road to the park was a joy to drive:

Despite being in April and out of high season, the cars parked on verges gave warning as to its popularity. Parking in the lower car park we took the shuttle bus up to the park’s centre and from there headed out on what we hoped would be the quieter yellow route.

It started out the same as the green route, before splitting, and this part was pretty busy, but then looking around at all the rock formations it was easy to see why people come to the place.

Trying to get images without others in was a somewhat difficult mission, but after the green and yellow paths split the challenge became a bit easier. This next part was probably my favourite part of the walk:

The rock formations are impressive and in places one gets a good idea of the strata.

The route finally led us back to the more crowded section and following a quick shinny up a slope we were rewarded with a view over the valleys below.

Some times it pays to leave the beach and bars behind for a day and this is certainly a venture worth taking. I would, however, warn that it can get busy in the park – even at off-peak periods.

I just hope that Raquel and Rodrigo have just as good a time in my neck of the woods. 😎