Sierra Momia - Benalup Casas Viejas - Circular walk- Parque Natural Los Alcornocales- Embalse del Cemelin

From Benalup we took the A-2226 in a south-eastern direction and took a regional road to the left to the entrance of the Parque Natural Los Arconales.

ATTENTION; The notice board on the entrance gate says that one is not allowed to enter the park on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays as well as on public holiday days because on these days there will be hunters.

After the entrance gate we took a small path to the left that at many places is quite wet and muddy as a stream comes down the mountain here and cattle have created deep holes in which the water remains for a long time. However, it is possible to work your way around the mud and wetness but the going is slow and will remain slow for quite some time.

The views are beautiful from the beginning; rock formations and small and bigger outcrops of stone while you are going up. Having reached the first limestone plateau the view is spectacular. You can see the Embalse del Celemin and all the hills towards the coast while to the west you will have a splendid view on Vejer de la Frontera and, much closer of course, Benalup and to the northeast the Embalse de Barbate and the higher mountains inland.

From here on we descended the plateau finding our way along the ridges of the stone until we reached the bushes and went up the next stone plateau. All the while the going is slow, but the beautiful views and the countryside itself make up for this inconvenience. There are no really visible paths but the direction you need to take is clear enough, going up and down all the time.

Where you see our warning waypoint you must make sure that you do not follow our track for the last hundred metres but try and walk to it in a straight line keeping to the left of our track in order to avoid a very difficult part that we got ourselves into.

Once getting to this waypoint you come upon a real track that will become wider soon after and from this point on you won't have to fight the prickly bushes anymore as you can stay on a track until the end of the walk.

Getting to the most Southern point of the walk you will have a most wonderful view of the Embalse de Celemin and from this point onwards the track goes more down than up.

Arriving at a fork going to a house we took the track to the left and stayed in open country to enjoy the view. Where we took this track to the soutwest one could also decide to shorten the walk by walking straight north until one reaches a big track to the starting point.

We decided to continue to enjoy the views and made a wide bend around evrything until we reached a gate to the park again and from there made our way to the track that goes back to the starting point.

Although you never come higher than 200 metres this was a walk of more than 570 altimetres under sometimes difficult walking conditions.

However, it is a very beautiful walk indeed, giving you the sense of being completely alone in a very impressive world!