Sunny Walkers 271122: Baños de la Hedionda- Canuto de la Utrera - Manilva 2

This hike takes us on an adventure through the El Canuto de la Utrera a spectacular replica of the Torcal de Antequera , a place emerged from the depths of the ocean formed by a labyrinth of karst relief in which one of the most threatened species of the Mediterranean lives.

Unless you are fit and agile I would bypass the section that deviates from the main route as it’s technically challenging and overgrown in places.

Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for more weathering-resistant rocks, such as quartzite, given the right conditions.

The first news of the Sierra de la Utrera is the place name of “las buytreras”, which appears in an order promulgated in 1497 (15th century). Later it appears as “La Buitrera” in the notarial protocols of the Casares Town Council in the 17th century. Finally, in the XVIII, it already appears as "Utrera".

In the technical studies of the late nineteenth century and early s. XX Utrera does not appear, but sideways in some work. In 1917 they treated it as Sierra de Los Canutos and included it in the Jurassic, relating it to the Sierra Crestellina and the Sierra de Jimena, without deepening their knowledge. Ceballos and Vicioso ( 1933 ) classify it as a thicket area or unproductive space, without major forest interest. It is not known that the Sierra de la Utrera has attracted the special attention of any traveler, naturalist or writer until after the mid-twentieth century, when a press article by Francisco Pacheco Ruiz, member of the Excursionista Society of Malaga appears., exalting the "unique natural beauties" of Utrera. This article is addressed to the tourist authorities in Malaga and is made after a second visit to the Sierra de la Utrera (the first was unsuccessful due to the weather). That visit was promoted after a publication that same year by the professor from Córdoba, José Manuel Camacho.

In 1967 the Manilva City Council contracted the company Hormigones Gibraltar, SA to exploit their own land (from Casares) called “Baldío de Manilva”, on land in the Sierra de la Utrera. At that time, the recent industrial exploitation of the Utrera quarry began . In 1968 the first written protest appears, signed by the farmer D. Francisco Valadez Umbría, alluding to “rubble” of stones that harm his crops and pomegranate. These protests and requests for the stoppage of extractive activity have been followed for various reasons and by different private and public entities, to date, alleging most of the times illegality. To date, there is no environmental impact study of such extraction. Currently, extraction continues, crushing plants, asphalt plants and marble quarrying.

In 1986 , the Casares City Council classified these lands as Non-Urbanizable Soil Protection of Aquifers (SNU-PA) and as Non-Urbanizable (NU) in its Subsidiary Norms. Since 1990 there has been a consensus between the administration and social sectors to name Canuto de la Utrera as a natural monument, approved by the Provincial Council of the Environment of Malaga (Moreno, S. 1996).

The Sierra de la Utrera , is a small and interesting karst complex, located in the municipality of Casares (Málaga), west of the Malaga province , crossed by 3 embedded valleys and parallel to the coast, called canutos, of great scenic beauty and a more open room. At the same time that its geological formation is made up of calcic rocks (nodular limestones and oolitic limestones, mainly) of the type of marls and limestones assigned to units of the penibético (External Betics) with genesis in the Jurassic (Dogger-Malm). It thus supposes a tectonic window surrounded by geological units corresponding to the Internal Betics and the Campo de Gibraltar Complex.

The Sierra de la Utrera keeps excellent environmental values ​​that are manifested by the presence of exclusive and priority habitats for the European Community and fauna. These reasons made the Ecologists in Action federation propose its inclusion as a Site of Community Interest of the Natura 2000 Network . To this is added the geomorphological spectacularity that will motivate the next declaration of Canuto de la Utrera as a "Natural Monument"by the Andalusian Government. Furthermore, its strategic conditions as a refuge and watchtower have made it inhabited since Paleolithic times and at different times in prehistory and history (discontinuous settlement). This fact is evidenced by the large number of remains and archaeological sites that have been found in this small torcal.

At the end of the hike we visited the Baños de la Hedionda a short distance of 0.5km from the car park.
This is the Roman baths built around sulfur hot springs believed to have been used by Julius Caesar's army and is a bit smelly.