On the top of La Maroma
Hi
For a number of years the name La Maroma has been bandied about as a possible destination for a walk. For one reason or another we have never done it, various excuses have been used, we have no maps of the area, it’s a long drive, it’s too hot, it’s covered in snow. In November last year we walked along the bottom, northern side of it when we started the GR7 from Ventas de Zafarraya. It looked so interesting I was determined that we would go and explore it in 2013.
There are a number of ways to the summit, for us the ascent from Alhama de Granada, on the northern side, looked the best option. The southern slopes look incredibly steep, more suitable to mountain goats, while at least on the Granada side you can walk up. Admittedly it is still quite a climb.
Last week we thought we would be kind to Rene, for a change, and let her choose a walk. She is going back to Australia for the summer and we wanted her to go back with a positive image of the group. A few days later we changed our minds and told her she was going up La Maroma. She is normally a bit confused in the morning anyway so she would not have known where we were going in any case. To keep the positive image thing going I did say she could stop at her favorite bar, which is near the start/end of the walk.
There must have been a slight misunderstanding here, as she took that to mean we would stop for coffee and toast on the way out, I was thinking more of a beer and tapas on the way back. So, blissfully unaware I drove to the start of the walk in the middle of the forest, not realising the bitter disappointment that had developed in the second car, Rene had been telling everyone what a great place it was to stop for breakfast. To try and console them I promised them we would stop there on the way back for beer and tapas.
The main route to the summit climbs steeply from the car park. We had chosen an alternative route, more suitable to our advancing years, that followed a meandering path. Unusually for a mountain walk it started by heading downhill where we soon came across the river, there were two options to crossing it. You could either paddle across or use a carefully positioned tree, Mr dare devil himself, Dr Mike,chose the tree, the rest chose to paddle.
The path took us through a succession of changing landscapes, wildflower meadows, rocky gullies, sometimes following a path, at others necessitating the use of the GPS across the open countryside. In the distance you could see what looked like a precipitous path contouring across a steep hillside, I was hoping no one else would notice it, as it was our route. I had not brought the rope this week. Eventually word got round so I promised Mike we would look for alternatives if necessary. The path came out on a ridge which gave us our first views down to the coast, unbelievably there was a 4X4 road up here which we followed for the next 1.5 km in the direction of La Maroma. At the end of the road we came to the precipitous path but close up it was not the ballbreaking, death defying path it had looked from afar. Mike was soon across and we started the steep ascent of Llanadas de Sedella and the amazing little fuente of Tacita Plata, a tiny spring that appears from a pipe in the middle of a rock. At least it enabled us to refill our water bottles.
At last we were on La Maroma, this is an enormous mountain, not in height, just the sheer size of the area it covers, We still had 300 metres left to climb as we set off across the rock strewn hillside with it’s steep drops on it’s southern flanks. After climbing for nearly 6 hours we finally arrived at the summit, I don’t think I have ever climbed one with such an extensive top, they had even put a tower up so you could survey the area, only Dr Mike was inclined to climb it.
After a very late lunch we started our return journey back to the cars, this involved backtracking along La Maroma and then following the main route up, this was a lot quicker way than our outbound route and also a lot steeper. We were surprised at how many youngsters were making their way up in ones. In the end curiosity got the better of us, we were worried we were missing out on something important, perhaps there was a good tapas bar up there somewhere. They were all on a course and this was part of their examination, camping overnight, and continuing the walk the following day. I am glad I was not heading up that track with a full pack at 4 in the afternoon.
The path back was superb, extensive views, forest, wildflowers, mountain goats. We got back to the cars around 6, unfortunately Dave and Julie had to be home for around 7.30. So they and their party had to leave straight away, no time for them to be stopping off at the bar for drinks.
Poor Rene, Kees and Mieke, you could see little tears in the corner of their eyes when they realised there was no beer or tapas for them. There were big tears in our eyes a few minutes later when we arrived at the bar and found it closed. We had to drive on to Arenas del Rey to find a bar open.
This was a first class walk, up amongst the best and one that has to be repeated
We walked 21.8 km and climbed 1246 metres, the height of La Maroma is 2066 metres.
