The Pinsapo tree is exclusive to Andalucia and a steady survivor from the last ice age. It is a formidable tree with a certain rounded shape. It has adapted to the present day climatic conditions. Since the area was declared a Natural Park their numbers have increased.  

The walk through this ancient forest begins close to the town of Grazalema. It is called 'Sendero del Pinsapar'. Permission must be sought.

A detailed map of the entire area with contour markings is available from Grazalema's Visitor Centre - the main centre for mountaineering / trekking. There are also qualified guides such as the 'White Village Walks' by David Lanfear. Contacts:

The Green Throat Canyon - La Garganta Verde

This is by far my favourite place. So wild, immense in its presence and magnitude, home to the Griffin Vulture - Buitre Leonado - whose shrill cries bounce off the canyon walls, send shivers down your spine and force you to look up. They nest on the cliff edges of this canyon and clean up every living thing that perishes here - one slip and your Vulture pickings, amigo. (See detailed link 'the Griffon Vulture - Buitre Leonado').

This is well worth doing, hot thirsty work, but you need not carry water for at the Garganta's humble ending is a permanent spring bubbling from fissures in the limestone. This place is truly magical - a tropical setting that only Alexander Von Humboldt and other New World scholars-explorers could put into Words.

It just so happens that the water is plenty enough to replenish the final 2 kilometres of the canyon. From this point on you are descending in the rapids, flowing over the boulders with the water, pushing against vertical cliff sides and jumping into deep pools, then walking ankle deep. When you pass under a roman stone bridge (pictured below) you know that the end is nigh, that the sun will tickle you once again as the cliff walls diminish into lowland banks lined with cacti, olive trees and typical spiky-leafed Mediterranean vegetation.

Once again you are free from the piercing eyes of the Buitre Leonado, who remain in the wilder, higher, remote cliff edges.

I often go and fill up 5 litre bottles for my friends in the village, as well as make difficult cliff ascents to get to the numerous bay trees. The leaves the woman all desire, and I their praises for having achieved such a task. They say that the bay leaves - Laurel - of the Garganta are the tastiest in the World. And how mature bay trees grow out of tiny earthy pockets in cliff rock I shall never know; one of the many wonders of nature.

When you reach the canyon floor after the windy descent, head right downstream and you will come across an enormous cave called the Ermita de la Garganta. Like a fantasy World inhabited by strange beings, goblins, doves whose calls resemble Gregorian chants in lost abbeys; inside the body of the Ermita it is coloured pink and stalactites hang down in rippled waves of minute residues, stalagmites crowd the cave floor . Yes, La Garganta Verde is by far my favourite place.

The 'path of the Fisherman' following the river Río Majaceite is a very old, well defined route trampled by the Moors who went from village to village selling their catches of trout from out of the rivers. Later the idea of trout farming was developed, but the route was still used to bring the fish to market. Today there is a large trout farm in the village of El Bosque.

If you walk it in this direction then you are descending with the river and the distance is 6 kilometres. It isn't difficult to park your car in Benamahoma, do the walk to El Bosque, have a tapa or two and then retrace the path back up.

Just short of arriving at El Bosque you may spot a sign to the botanical gardens - Jardín Botanico - and may be gripped by the moment to embark on a brief detour to whiff some jasmine, sage and other fanciful odours.

The Old Fisherman's path is romantic with the calming presence of the river, the channels of sunlight through thick vegetation, the windy path that crosses over wee footbridges, skirts past rock ledges, then takes you back over to the other side once again.

You brush past giant fig tree branches, Spanish cane and walnut tree leaves. There are plenty of idyllic spots to stop, paddle, contemplate, read, pull out the weeds...

İOh qué bonito es el Río Majaceite!

There was a path - a camino.