Álora - Pizarra GR - 248 Etapa 2 (Málaga)

31 05 2021

Alora – Pizarra GR 248 Etapa 2

This is a linear route starting on the outskirts of Alora to the outskirts of Pizarra.
The best option is to park your car at the Pizarra train station car park and take the train to Alora. It takes five minutes and costs 2.30 euros.
To be safe be at the station at 10:10am. That is the time on the timetable but it arrived at 10:17am.

I looked for a shortcut to get to the start of the walk from the back of the station, but the bridge to get across the river Guadalhorce was washed away in the floods of 2014, and there was no way to get across the river.

It takes about 20 minutes to get to the official start of the walk. There is a shortcut on your left (about 500m from the station) down an embankment to get to the trail. But I didn’t bother with that; I carried on into Barrio Estacion.

This is an interesting walk. In its heyday it must have been nice walk.
It is not signposted well and I had a few glitches trying to keep to the path. Crossing the riverbed (fortunately dry this time), the path had been fenced off, so you had to go along the side of the fence with bamboos on your right. I can see this being a problem at some stage in the future and difficult to pass.

Further down, another area was fenced off, so you had to stay close to the fence.

There are great views of Alora castle and the Guadalhorce valley. Some of the walk ran parallel with the river Guadalhorce.
The walk then goes onto the main road for a bit and then onto a path on your right which I initially missed.

There was on crossing over a stream (around 8km) that will cause problems if it has rained previously. The small bridge has been damaged. The water was gushing really fast. From here you head into a sparsely populated woods, which again goes back onto the main road. This bit is a bit challenging as there aren’t enough marker posts to show you the way, and it’s a bit of a climb to the road.

The walk ends on the outskirts of Pizarra. Add another kilometre more or less to get back to the train station car park.

The bar Estacion has some nice food for after the walk. It’s a popular place with the locals.

I wouldn’t recommend taking a dog on this walk.