Category Archives: Sierra de Grazalema

News from the Grazalema Guide, Wildside Holidays, Ronda Today, The Caminito del Rey and the Iberia Nature Forum

A bit of news from the Grazalema Guide!… Here in Grazalema, international tourism seems to be picking up again with quite a few French, German and Dutch visitors exploring the village and walking trails. Very few UK visitors still, but hopefully this will be solved once borders open properly again and covid restrictions become more relaxed.

The Grazalema Guide

Its still really odd not seeing the groups of walkers setting off in the mornings for the peaks of the Sierra de Grazalema or neighbouring villages. Tourism has changed here over the covid years with much more day visitors on motorbikes, cyclists and day visitors. There has also been a huge increase in campers vans parked up for short stays.

Out in the countryside, almond trees in blossom are the most noticeable which adorn the hillsides and fields, varying from almost white to a shocking pink. The Paperwhite narcissus, Branched asphodels and Broad-leaved iris as each can create swathes of colour across pastures. Even the much smaller flowered Andaluz storksbill and Field marigolds can cover a large area in pink or golden yellow blooms. Migratory birds are returning and spring is definately around the corner.

If you are looking for a wildlife guide for this area then look no further than Sue of Nature Plus Grazalema. More information here: https://wildsideholidays.co.uk/nature-plus-grazalema/

Regular visitors to Grazalema will notice a few changes in the Hotels, bars and restaurants as the guys running the Kiboka burger and sports bar have now taken over the Simancon restaurant after the previous owners retired. The Torreón restaurant has new owners as does the bar Travesía. There is a new burger joint opening in the old Contrastes bar next month and Rumores bar is now removing the bakery area and replacing it with a new eating area. The hotel Peñon Grande has been closed for a while now and I believe its up for sale!

Here is a bit of a roundup from our other tourist infomation projects in this fantastic corner of Western Andalucia

Wildside Holidays

Spring is on its way and it is great to see bookings for the coming season are on the up and up. Hopefully very soon we can put this awful covid event behind us and get on with what we are good at, which is, of course, guiding people across some of the most stunning natural areas of Spain.

A bit of news from the Grazalema Guide

Traffic to the home page of Wildside Holidays is now exceeding over 4000 unique visitors each month and (not surprising to us) some of the wildlife information pages are getting upwards of 20,000 hits a month. (Especially the life cycles of the processionary caterpillar and various reptile pages). So, the plan for the coming months is to continue the ongoing project of Iberian wildlife articles as well as some info on the Vias Verdes of Spain and finishing all the entries for the Global Geoparks.

Sustainable rural and wildlife tourism in Spain is a major key to wildlife and habitat protection. There are many studies showing how wildlife tourism can impact local economies, habitats and the wildlife it contains in a very positive way. Read more about Wildside Holidays here: https://wildsideholidays.co.uk/

Ronda Today

Ronda Today continues to be the largest and most informative English language information website for the town of Ronda. A walking tour of Ronda is a pleasant and enjoyable way to spend a lazy few hours, almost everything you could want to see in Ronda is no more than 200-300 metres from the new bridge. See the homepage here: https://www.rondatoday.com/

Ronda Today

Ronda, too, has suffered greatly from the covid crisis. Hotels,bars and restaurants have changed hands, reduced staff or simply closed. That said Ronda continues to be an important bucket list destination for foreign travellers and our site reaches more than 20,000 unique visitors each month. Traffic and hotel bookings on the site a rising steadily so the outlook is pretty good. Over the next few months we’ll be editing and reviewing certain pages to make sure all the information is current and up to date.

The Caminito del Rey

The Caminito del Rey website has continued to grow in both traffic and content. During the last four months we have sold over 20,000 euros worth of tickets via the affiliate adverts.

Caminito del Rey

When the official website stops working or selling tickets, sales from our site continue, helping people to get and entry ticket for this very popular destination. Ticket sales for the Caminito del Rey in 2022 look to be record breakers for us so our recent affiliation with Get Your Guide continues to be a great success. Guided tours for the Caminito del Rey can be found here: https://www.caminodelrey.es/get-your-guide-for-the-caminito-del-rey/

Recently the operation of the Caminito del Rey was taken over by a new company and so hopefully the official website will be improved as well as the general infrastructure such as local connecting roads, bus services, the interpretation and carparking areas. Time will tell but you can be sure any news and changes will be published first in English at https://www.caminodelrey.es

The Iberia Nature Forum

The forum is developing into a nice English language resource for information about the wildlife of Spain and there are quite a few interesting subjects ranging from the VCF Tracking Iberian black vultures, the bearded vulture 2022 Andalucia captive breeding season, A petition to stop illegal water extraction in Doñana and the collapse of the endemic lizard Podarcis pityusensis on the island of Ibiza.

Iberia Nature Forum

Here are a few other topics at the Iberia Nature Forum. Please feel free join in with the conversatons and don’t forget to share with your family and friends across your social networks!

Look forward to hearing news from your “neck of the woods” on the forum!

So, there is a bit of news from News from the Grazalema Guide, Wildside Holidays, Ronda Today, The Caminito del Rey and the Iberia Nature Forum!

Please feel free to share will all of your friends and family across your social networks and blogs! 🙂

Hotels in the Sierra de grazalema

There are hundreds of hotels, rental houses and apartments in the Sierra de Grazalema.

The Grazalema Guide uses an affiliation with Booking.com and we get paid a small amount of commission when you book a room. This helps us to pay for server costs and to keep all of our websites as up to date as possible.

Thank you for supporting us!

Booking.com

Wildside Holidays – Spain

The top wildlife, activity and walking holiday companies in Spain. Small family companies living and working in Spain. Local guides are the best!

https://wildsideholidays.co.uk/

A Small river in the Gaidovar valley

Lovely observations from Rachel who stayed in the Grazalema area with her husband for a few months last year (2019). After exploring the main footpaths such as the Garganta Verde, Pinsapo forest and the high peak of Torreon they found a small River in the Gaidovar valley and walked upstream finding some nice surprises in the heat of the summer.


At the beginning of August, when the heat was turning up towards its maximum for the year, Dave and I decided to walk for a couple of kilometres up one of the smaller river beds within the Sierra de Grazalema natural park to see if any small pools lingered through the summer and just what treasures they would hold, we were more than pleased with the results!

Dried, bleached algae blankets the river bed rocks
Dried, bleached algae blankets the river bed rocks

The striking images above show a blanket of algae that has been bleached and baked dry in the sunshine clinging onto boulders, in stark contrast to the heavy flooding just 4 months earlier!


Booking.com

Expecting a dry river bed

The first part of our walk turned up several dried exoskeletons of crayfish that had dried out as the exposed shallow pools diminished in the heat. Tamarisk, oleander, willow, brambles and smilax at times virtually closed off our access as we traced the dry waterway upstream. The first water filled pool that we came across had a distinct autumnal feel despite the time of year. Some trees drop their leaves in the summer to conserve energy. These ash trees overhanging the pool had cast a yellow cover of dried leaves, crunching through them at the edge were a couple of terrapins unsuccessfully trying to avoid detection. The pool at about half a metre deep and 20 metres long may provide a safe haven for many creatures.

leaf covered pool and a Spanish terrapin (Mauremys leprosa)
leaf covered pool and a Spanish terrapin (Mauremys leprosa)

The next of these pools that we came to was teaming with tiny frogs. As we developed an eye to pick out their tiny forms we could count 10 or so in a metre squared, some clustered in small groups on rocks and others with just a pointed snout breaking the water’s surface.

Left: Young Iberian Water Frogs. Right: Tiny fish looking for a meal.
Left: Young Iberian Water Frogs. Right: Tiny fish looking for a meal.

A larger body of water which stretched for perhaps 50 metres had many small fish that were extremely inquisitive, shoaling around my feet looking for an interesting snack. There were less frogs in this pool for a very good reason. Further upstream some larger boulders held what would be an impressive cascade in the right season but, for now it simply retained a higher pool with amazingly bright green algae and families of terrapins sunbathing on exposed rocks. It seems that each wet area is host to different creatures depending on depth, overall length, shade etc. This small pool has more sunshine hence the algae growth and terrapin occupation as an important need for their metabolism is warmth from the sun.

Snakes!

The next pool may have put some people off as I noticed a Viperine snake moving around the edge despite its impressive camouflage against the gravel base. Once it realized that we had seen it, this small aquatic snake made a dash through the open water before hiding briefly around Dave’s sandals and then disappearing around rocks into the deeper area. And next we had to climb out and over some large boulders to avoid breaking long strands from a spider’s web!

Left: A Viperine snake underwater. Right: A spider's web blocked our path.
Left: A Viperine snake underwater. Right: A spider’s web blocked our path.

Deep in the shade of overhanging trees we found a pool with ripped apart remains of large fish. But just the bones and scales with none left swimming around. These enclosed water bodies had made catching a summer meal much easier for the hunter. A strong odour emanating from rocks along the banks quickly led us to numerous spraints laced with fish bones and crayfish shells which confirmed to us that we were in otter territory. We were surprised to find that an otter could survive through the summer on an area that virtually dries out but having walked it, and given the over grown nature of the banks an otter could easily wander up and down stream undetected to the various pools in order to find a meal.

The frogs were plentiful down stream and further on we found a good selection of large fish in an area with slow flowing water with plenty of grassy cover on the banks. This new area was popular with dragonflies and damselflies which danced lightly through the air in colourful displays as we briefly disturbed their tranquillity before leaving the river and returning to our car.

Left: An otter spraint. Right: A Small Pincertail dragonfly (Onychogomphus forcipatus)
Left: An otter spraint. Right: A Small Pincertail dragonfly (Onychogomphus forcipatus)

Wildside Holidays – Spain

The top wildlife, activity and walking holiday companies in Spain. Small family companies living and working in Spain. Local guides are the best!

http://wildsideholidays.co.uk/

A walk in the Garganta verde.

Digging up old articles and reviews from 10 years ago or more I came across Steves great trip report about a walk in the Garganta Verde. First published in 2012.


“After recently enjoying a family holiday in the Sierra de Grazalema Natural Park, Steve has written this article to share his experience of hiking the Garganta Verde.”

Remember that to enter this restricted area you need a permission from the park authorities. Read here about how to obtain permits for restricted areas in the Sierra de Grazalema


As part of our week at the end of August with Clive and Sue (of The Grazalema Guide and Wildside Holidays) we had permits for a visit to ‘La Garganta Verde”‘ a “must do” for the more adventurous visitors to the Sierra de Grazalema Natural Park.

Continue reading A walk in the Garganta verde.

45 days of lockdown in the Sierra de Grazalema

So, here we are at day 45 of quarantine lockdown in the Sierra de Grazalema, Spain. To be honest, for the family and I, it really isn’t too bad as we live in a house in the countryside 10 kilometres from Grazalema and we have about a hectare of land with vegetable gardens and plenty of space for the 3 children to play. I feel for the parents and kids stuck inside small apartments.

Grazalema so far has no cases of the dreaded virus along with other fairly isolated villages in the area such as Zahara de la Sierra, Villaluenga del Rosario and El Gastor. Ronda has had its share of suffering with over 100 registered infections and, sadly, 13 deaths but that is to be expected as the regional hospital is located here so infected people have arrived not just from the town of Ronda but, outlying villages as well. The nearby village of Ubrique has suffered with many people in an old peoples home becoming ill with the virus.

Tourism is effectively finished for the time being. Towns and villages normally bustling at this time of year are empty. The roads through the Sierra de Grazalema have hardly any vehicles on them and wildlife is quickly reclaiming its space.

I leave this post with a few pictures of the stunning views in the Sierra de Grazalema.