As you may remember, I am walking from home to Málaga as a prequel to my forthcoming Camino Mozárabe. I walked the first leg a few weeks ago, from my front door to Algarrobo Costa. I wrote about it here.
As it is only four weeks until I set off on the Mozárabe it was time I got on with the second stage from Algarrobo to Rincon de la Victoria. So I boarded the 9am bus from Canillas this morning (Sunday) to take me back to my finish point of stage one. The fare was 1 euro and 98 cents. What was that all about? What a silly fare. Why not just make it 2 euros and save the poor driver having to fish about for change? My friend joined me at the next stop and paid a fare of 1 euro 73 cents and we trundled down the mountain to the coast.
Roly had to stay at home today as dogs are only allowed to travel in the boot of the bus – not the way I would treat my boy!
The weather started off quite fresh but soon warmed up and became quite hot. We walked along beside the beach, past Caleta marina and then I noticed that a wide path of sand had been compacted to form a lovely firm walkway along the beach all the way through to the far side of Torre del Mar. The path was packed with walkers, runners, cyclists and even someone with roller skates and ski poles.
(I am using the wordpress ‘gallery’ option to display the photos in this post. You can click on the pics to see them full size)
I didn’t really know quite how this walk would turn out – how much road walking we would have to do, but we were very pleasantly surprised to discover that we were able to walk on the beach or on dirt tracks and pathways for probably 85% of the way.
Once past Torre del Mar we had to cross a stream, so the boots came off for a few km’s which was rather nice. We took advantage of the shower on the nudist beach at Almayate to wash off our feet and return them to our boots, and felt rather over dressed amongst the nudists enjoying the spring sunshine.
I found walking on the beach quite hard work so every now and then we would pop up to the roadside path for a few minutes, and then return to the sand. We walked along the promenade at Benajarafe, which is a lovely resort, and stopped off at a chiringuito for a cold drink. All the tables were filling up with spanish families out for their Sunday lunch. This is a lovely tradition and all the best restaurants fill up very quickly and the waiters are rushed off their feet for a few hours.
We passed countless fishermen along the way. Fishing seems to compete with cycling in this area as the most popular participation sport.
The walk from Benajarafe into Rincon de la Victoria was longer than I had anticipated and it had grown rather warm by the time we finally met up with David who had kindly come to meet us and drive us back up the hill.
My iPhone app ‘mapmywalk’ told me that we had walked 24.25 km. However I am not quite so confident in the accuracy of this app as, for reasons I won’t bore you with, I have been using two GPS apps side-by-side for the last few walks and they show quite differing distances covered.
This was a really lovely day’s walk in the company of a very good friend. Thanks Renate.
Trepidatious traveller - camino blog 
Hi Maggie, love reading your posts! I wanted to read about the making of your super-duper shoulder cape, but could not get into it. What password do we need? I tried my WordPress password, but that didn’t work for me.
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What GPS apps did you use?
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I have used ‘mapmywalk walk’ for over a year. And have recently tried ‘wikiloc’ and ‘motion gps’. The variation in distances is a bit disarming.
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Nice to hear you’re back on the road again Maggie. Now stay healthy and enjoy each step of the way. I also have been using Map My Walk for my training walks but maybe I should strap on my Garmin and see if they agree. Love your photos – that looks like hard work for the team of horses!
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Yes very hard work – they were mules – but pulling that cart through sand must have required a lot of strength. I would be interested to know the result if you use your garmin and mapmywalk.
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Glad to see you back at it. I’ve latched onto an idea from reading your post that since I can’t do any kind of Camino walk, I would like to do a day-long walk when the weather is nicer (snow and cold here now). I look forward to your posts when you begin again.
Magnificent pictures. Thank you for sharing. ❤ ❤
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Thanks Tess, it’s good to get going again. I’m glad we’ve not got snow here – it has even cleared from the top of the mountain over the last few days.
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Spring is on the way for sure then. 😀
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Hola Maggie!
So are you in training now? Will you be doing all 1,210 K’s in pieces? Wow…just calculated that into miles 751! Good on ya! I have to go back to work from April 1st to Sept 30th so I will be out of the ‘long trip action’ til after Sept. Then, in October a possible Camino reunion in Cape Cod with ‘my family’. Then, after that maybe Greece, or Vietnam. I have to start researching…and start anticipating! Thanks for your blog. And always love your photos.
Kristina
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Hi Kristina. I would like to think I could do the lot in one go, but I don’t think its very likely. I shall just see how far m legs will take me. Your plans sound exciting – what decisions you have to make!
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Thanks for the interesting post – That area really appeals to me! I’m taking a few weeks rest from walking because I have a moderate but persistent foot pain (too much walking in heavy boots on hard surfaces, a month or two back). I’m confident that it will heal properly if I give it a chance.
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Sorry to hear about your foot pain – these things always seem to take so long to heal. Wishing you a swift recovery.
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following your camino. very interesting writing
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Thanks Zohar. One more stage before the ‘real’ thing!
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Buen camino! Looking forward to reading about your newest adventure!
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Thank you so much
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always love reading your trip reports
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Thanks Judy, I appreciate your comment
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