CR Adventures 111123: El Torcal Nature Reserve (Parque Natural del Torcal) Antequera 2

An outstanding area to hike in but my advice is to wait until the spring or early autumn and double check the weather conditions as the going under foot was very slippery in places.
Get there early as the car park fills up fast otherwise it’s the shuttle at the bottom of the hill some 3km distant or you could walk but would add 6km to the overall hike.
A great hike not to be missed.

El Torcal Nature Reserve (Parque Natural del Torcal)

El Torcal is part of the Sierra (mountain range) Torcal, and is a short drive from Antequera off the C-3310 (around 10 kilometers).

It is of outstanding geological importance, and attracts over 100,000 visitors a year.
It is a landscape of karstic relief – a predominantly limestone region – being a series of different rock shapes and hollows known as Torcas: hence the name of this site.

El Torcal is a wonderful and striking range of limestone forms carved out of the rock by erosive agents, starting some 200 million years ago.

A hundred million years ago, the entirety of this 17 sq. km park was under the sea. The movement of the Earth's crust forced it upwards into the hills and mountains. It took another million years for heavy rain and wind to shape these mountains into the incredible forms that exist today.

In many cases these forms resemble animals, people or objects, and the locals gave them imaginative names, the most famous being: Los Bollos (the buns), La Copa (the glass), El Rincón del Asa (handle corner), La Esfinge (the sphinx), El Camello (the camel), El Sombrero (the hat), Los Tornillos (the screws), Los Prismáticos (the binoculars), La Pera (the pear), and El Aguilucho (the eaglet).

The range rises to some 1,300 meters in parts, and is a labyrinthine of walkways. Fog settles quickly in the area and it is recommended to stick to the proposed routes – created by the Nature Reserve organisation – of varying difficulty, length, and rock shape characters. Guided tours are also available, starting from the Visitor Centre there. There are three routes nominated by different colours: the green route takes around forty five minutes; the yellow just under two hours; the red around three and a half hours. The best time to visit if intending to walk into the landscape is Spring and Autumn, as weather in Winter can be a bit severe at times, and a lengthy walk in the Summer is not for the fair skinned!

El Torcal covers an area of 17 square kilometers, and is a hikers and photographers paradise. Amongst this awesome landscape too there are important flora and fauna which inhabit it. Amongst the flora are holm-oak, gall-oak, maple, hawthorn, blackthorn, honeysuckle, ivy, lillies, wild rose, peonies, and over twenty varieties of colourful orchids. Mountain goats, fox, badgers, rabbits, weasels, mole and doormice popluate the area. It is also a birdwatchers delight, including Griffon vultures, the wheatear, martins, tawny owl, the eagle owl, kestrel, woodlarks, goldfinch, redstarts, buntings, coal tits, and many others depending upon the seasons and the area.

Both the Romans and the Moors used this site as a quarry from which to obtain materials to construct some of the buildings and art forms in Antequera. The 19th century saw a period of deforestation here with the holm-oak wood almost disappearing. It was as late as the 20th century before ecological awareness arose, and it was not until 1929 that the Torcal was deemed a Natural Site of National Interest, with protections.