Andalucia, Spain 2025

We arrived at the Seville airport from Bari Italy in the early afternoon and waited to be collected to reach the Centauro car rental office. It took a little while to happen and then we were on the freeway onto Carmona. We had visited Seville on an earlier trip,and chose not to return. 

We had booked a room at the historic Carmona Parador. I had prepaid for the room to gain a favourable rate and joined their club and gained a complimentary breakfast out of the deal. After the  check-in, we walked through the historic part of Carmona and then organized SIM cards just outside the old fort walls. Rather than using E-sims, we purchased prepaid Vodafone cards for 10Euros, that included 100Gig of data for 30 days. We had a delicious dinner in the Parador restaurant.

We had a busy first full day ahead of us and after the sunrise we headed to the Parador restaurant. Breakfast was excellent and we attribute our weight gains on the trip from that buffet breakfast. The Parador swimming pool was closed for the season, but that didn't stop us from walking down the hill to have a look at it. Then, we drove through the Puerta de Córdoba to make a quick stop at the Roman bridge below Carmona,and  then we hit the A457 and A431 to the Castillo Almodovar del Rio. The Almodovar Castle is privately owned and well set up for visitors. It wasn't particularly busy and we found the visit to be absorbing.  

We left the castle around 12:30 and drove a further hour and half to Baena for groceries with stops at both Mercadona and the Lidl. We pressed onto  Zuheros and ended up driving through the narrow streets of town to reach our rental unit. It was tight.  There were much easier ways to get there. We had enough daylight to walk around Zuheros that afternoon. There were a handful of domestic visitors wandering the main square.  Our apartment (El Mirador) was spacious and well equipped. It did have a giant TV but we couldn't connect it with Netflix, so I asked the owner about it, and he came by the following day and organized it.

We walked straight out of our rental unit in Zuheros and walked up the  Río Bailón valley and followed a route that brought us back above Zuheros with a distance of 13km with 500m of ascent. It was a pleasant walk, but nothing really extraordinary.  We took the car out in the afternoon and drove to nearby Luque to walk around the Luque castle area. 

We drove a short distance to the old Doña Mencia train station on the  Via Verde of the Sierras Subbéticas (an old olive oil train line). We rented e-bikes and rode the route to the edge of Cabra. We then rode on city streets through Cabra into the historic centre and old castle. We stopped at a bakery for refueling and then retraced our route to the Via Verde. On the return, we rode some ways off the trail on quiet roads, then back on the Via Verde to below Zuheros before returning the bikes. 

In the afternoon, we drove into the mountains to the Mirador de las Sierras Subbéticas and the Ermita Virgen de la Sierra. Our planned return drive was altered because of a road closure.

We packed up our things and drove from Zuheros to the Dolmen de Menga on the outskirts of Antequera. It is a large well developed site with a museum, but we were the first arrivals of the day.  Other than the attendants, we were the only visitors at the dolmens, but we could see the buses arriving when we left.  It was another 45 minutes of driving to reach the outskirts of Teba for the lonely Castillo de la Estrella.  We passed through Algámitas and then parked on the SE462 at a busy parking area to access Pico Terril. It was busy there with weekenders, but they were mostly finishing the hike. Once we got through the small section of trees, the hike to Pico Terril was open, offering expansive views. There are a series of secondary summits, so the hike felt long. The 6km hike (300m ascent) took about 2 hours including stops.

Thereafter, it was onto Olvera. We stopped in at the Olvera Mercadona supermarket to buy some supplies for the following day (Sunday) and then found a parking spot on Calle Vereda Ancha, then walked up to the Olive guest House. The B&B was a well run operation and we had a large room and shared access to patio upstairs. The Castle and church area at the top of the town is quite interesting and was a fine place for sunset. We ate at the El Jardin restaurant and were starting to wonder about Google reviews. The El Jardin was scoring 4.6/5.0 and the food was all coming out of a microwave. Many of our restaurant meals were at highly rated venues but we thought much of the food was mediocre, or perhaps we had been spoiled by Albania.  Thankfully, most of our European dining was self-catered.

Olvera was but a one night stiop. After a nice breakfast, we drove down to the old Olvera train station and rented e-bikes for the morning. We rode out on the Via Verde de la Sierra as far as the Coripe Station. Now, we had corresponded with Dave & Donna of Fernie and had bumped into Dave and Don at the Olvera castle the evening before. So, we were not surprised to see them steaming along the Via Verde that morning. We rode with the foursome from Fernie to Coripe and sat down for coffee  with them. They were touring and had places to go, while we returned on the Via Verde back to Olvera. The scenery along the way was rugged..

Our next stop was in Setenil where locals go for lunch in cafe restaurants below overhangs. Parking up on the main road was tight and Setenil was overflowing with day visitors out for Sunday lunch. We joined the crowds, waited some tie for our meals and then walked around with the flow. By comparison, the roads on our 45 minute drive to Grazalema were quiet. Our accommodation was at the top of the town, but this time, rather than driving through the small streets, we stayed on the main road. We found parking just above our rental unit and entered with a code. The owner had provided me with masses of instructions and information, via a recorded audio Whatsapp message. I fell asleep before I could finish listening to it all. The apartment itself was comfortable and homey, however the only heating was via a fireplace but it wasn't quite cold enough to arrange to buy firewood. The unit was at 850m,, and cooler than expected in November so we ended up wearing our coats in the evenings. 

We were out the door around 8:30am and drove on the Zahara road to Puerto de las Palomas. We parked the car at the pass and undertook the 2km return walk to  Cerro Coros (1.330m) for some fine views. There was a herd of ibex in the area and we got some good views of them before heading back to the car.  

We descended sharply and pulled over at a small parking lot and started out on the .Gargante Verde hike. I didn't know much about it, other than it gains high reviews. I had procured a free permit, that limits numbers particularly on the weekends. The  Garganta Verde hike turned out to be quite enjoyable. We dropped down 300m to the Arroyo Bocaleones to an impressive alcove and narrow canyon. The scenery on the approach walk was excellent. The 6km hike took about 2 1/2hrs. We carried onto Zahara and parked the car for a walk around the scenic white town. We returned to Grazalema and met up with the Fernie gang for a mid-afternoon  lunch.

On our last full day in Grazalema, we did a 9km hike above the town (500m of ascent) through the karst. We encountered quite a number of ibex along the way. Later in the day, we walked to above the south end of Grazalema for views of the town.

We had a  mid afternoon flight out of Seville and were able to make a number of stops along the way back to the airport. It was a 2km return walk to the El Gigante dolmen near the town of El Gastor. We stopped at Castillo de las Aguzaderas for a look around and El Coronil. We made a few wrong turns in Alcalá de Guadaíra and reached the Centauro car rental office in good time.  It was onto Fuerteventura, one of the Canary Islands.