day 3 walking

Steve collects us at 9 am and drives us to Competa where we begin our walk. We climb gradually up a good track through fir trees and the remains of a forest fire. There are fabulous views of the coast, mountains and Competa. After 3.5 kms we drag ourselves away from a stunning viewing point and turn left to contue our climb, at times quite steeply until we are directly below a look out station for forest fires (5.2 kms) The track is shingle/stones so can be a bit slippery. We are very high so the views are amazing particularly of El Lucero (1,700 ms) and La Maroma (2,065 ms).

The track levels off and we continue for another couple kms along gentle ups and downs, enjoying the staggering views until we start to descend through lovely fragrances of rosemary and sage. The track is steep in parts and quite slippery on loose stones. Shortly after passing some behives we arrive at a wide good quality track, where we turn left. A very gradual descent takes us to a tarmac road (13.25 kms). The walk becomes flat and easy taking us through cultivated land of olives, almonds, oranges etc. until we arrive at the Ermita at the top of the village of Canillas de Albaida We stop for lunch at a lovely restaurant in the main square. (15.5 kms. After lunch and a short tour round this picturesque village we continue our walk by following a tarmac road which drops steeply to the river Cajula taking us past the chapel of San Anton and an ancient Roman bridge. ( 16kms). Next we continue along the tarmac road which now climbs quite steeply until we reach the track of Los Eriales (18.6 kms) and we continue along this good quality track with beautiful views on all sides until we reach the steep climb down the ridge to Daimalos and home (24kms).