Days Out Southern Axarquia Drive

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A SCENIC DRIVE THROUGH SOUTHERN AXARQUIA

A really beautiful drive that takes in phenominal sea and mountain views, white villages, in real historic andalucia. We did both loops of this drive in one day and with several stops including a two hour lunch at the nispero festival leaving at 10:30 am and we were back at 19:00 with 182 km on the clock.
We took the motorway to Rincon de la Victoria, taking the turn off marked Rincon de la Victoria and BENAGALBON and following the Benagalbon road (MA 149) you wind up into the mountains and on to MOCLINEJO then to ALMACHAR where we took a break in this white village which in spite of the narrow steep streets they had managed to fit a travelling funfair and they were obviously recovering from the previous night festivities it was apparently the festival of Santo Cristo and the street cleaners were doing their best to move the debris that made it evident that it had been a good party. With the stage, bars and disco still set up in the tiny plaza outside the church and everywhere littered with part full plastic glasses.

Any of these white villages are worth a stop, but if you are not a confident driver you will be safer parking before you get into the village proper as they were built a long time before cars were thought about and the roads degrade to impassable alleyways or even turn into a flight of steps, with no signs to assist you.

As you follow the contours of these mountain roads you are presented with an ever changing vista, each even more breathtaking than the last. There are plenty of the ubiquitous olive trees along the route, but there are mile after mile of, what I subsequently learned to be, Avocado trees.

Out of ALMACHAR we turned on to the MA 147 to EL BORGE and then to CUTAR the road then turns into the MA 146 to BENAMARGOSA. Turn right out of Benamargoza (signed to Velez Malaga) on the MA 145 through TRIANA and on to TRAPICHE.

This is around half way and you can abort here if you wish and either divert on up to Lake Vinuela and take in the scenery or return to the coast through Velez Malaga. However I would strongly recommend that you carry on with us.

Turn left onto the main A335 away from Velez Malaga and keep you eye out for the turning off to the right (C 335) signed to Vinuela and you will come to a well signed junction that is the start of the RUTA TURISTICA (MA 25) through the nature reserve and Parque Natural. The road twists and turns ever upwards to CANILLAS DE ACEITUNO, then SEDELLA and SALARES where the road becomes the MA 158 to ARCHEZ.

At ARCHEZ you have a choice of scenic routs to return you to the coast, we took the MA 115 to SAYALONGA where there was obviously something happening as cars were parked in every available space outside the village, and the village itself was negotiated at walking pace through the throng of people making their way to the source of the loud flamenco music. We managed to “drop in” to parking space just as someone was leaving, and we joined the masses. It turned out to be a festival EL DIA DEL NISPERO celebrating the “nispero”, no we had no idea either, but we found it to be a small yellow fruit that they were handing out freely along with small glasses of a liqueur made from the fruit. After some research it turns out to have been a Medlar in the UK of a Loquat in the US I am afraid that although I was aware of their name I cannot recall ever having tasted a medlar in the past never mind attending a party to celebrate it! The streets were packed with the bars and restaurants serving at tables on the pavements, the main plaza had been turned into an outdoor theatre with continuous entertainment (I never had the info available on the link above) We squeezed onto a table had an excellent, although slow in arriving, lunch and watched and listened to the entertainment and the world going by. Back on the road again, we drove through ALGARROBO continued under the Motorway down to the coast road which we followed back to Rincon de la Victoria before joining the main road back to Benalmadena. I took these photographs along the way, whether we were fortunate or these sights are encountered everyday, and as far as the fiestas are concerned there seems to be something happening every weekend through the summer months as each village has its own strange reason to celebrate.

Please note that this route was first taken and recorded long before smart phones and global satellite assistance were available and map reading was a skill. You will almost certainly have Sat Nav but please suppress the urge to follow its instructions as it will continually try to usurp your efforts to stick to our route. We are going on a scenic drive and time your sat nav saves will force you to miss some of the most beautiful sections of the drive

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