Looking For An Adventure? Or tranquillity? Andalucía’s Lake District Has Both in Abundance

For most, a visit to Andalucía means one of two things: soaking up the sunshine on the Costa del Sol, or mainlining culture and history in Granada and Seville. As impressive as the Alhambra and Seville’s famous bull ring undoubtedly are, there is a third option. Whether it’s the adrenaline kick of the area’s excellent climbing or the more tranquil pleasures of its fishing, swimming and hiking, the Ardales region’s charms make it a natural holiday choice when you’re trawling through all of those villas in Spain.

First things first, time to ‘fess up. The ‘Lake District’ just 50km north of Málaga isn’t a lake district at all, it’s a breathtaking series of three enormous reservoirs given their shape by dams spanning the Guadalhorce River gorge. This gorge, ‘El Chorro’, is magnificent enough by itself, with limestone sides stretching up 400 metres in some places. It’s topped, though, by a path that winds all the way along its 3kms.

This vertigo inducing catwalk, known as El Camino del Rey, ‘the way of the king’ is the first of the definite attractions renting villas in the Málaga lakes opens up to the visitor. Opened in the 1920s by King Alfonso XIII, the way was originally part of the hydroelectric system. Now, it is somewhat dilapidated, and it’s safest to tackle its dizzying heights with a local guide.

If all that sounds a touch on the intrepid side, or your head for heights fails you, you can always drive to the restaurant El Mirador (‘the view point’). It is aptly named, giving a taste of the views to be had from walking the whole path, and the parts of the Camino round here inspire more confidence under foot than the rest.

A good place to swim is Embalse del Guadalhorce, about 12km walk from El Chorro. It’s warm enough to camp all year round, so if you’re of an adventurous bent you can leave your villas to rent and set off into open country for several days at a time, hiking between settlements where it’s possible to stock up on whatever you can’t catch from the lake or pull from the trees. As in most of Andalucía, oranges are a staple, and in this paradise the fruit isn’t forbidden.

A little along from El Chorro lies Bobastro, a former Mozarabaic (Arabized Christian) castle, once the most secure fortification in the peninsula. Now, just the church, its shape hewn from a giant boulder, still stands of the famous fortress. Bobastro is also famous for being the hideout of 9th Century rebel Ibn Hafsun, the Andalucían Robin Hood. Hafsun opposed the caliphate and its tax system, defending the poor against the abuses of the powerful and taking the side of his native people, of mixed blood and faith, against the prejudices prevalent in the Muslim cities.

So, if you’re after a rural retreat from the touristy bustle of Málaga, you’d do worse than to consider Ardales, its lakes lined with pine forest, and its pace of life steady...unless you strap on a harness and head up a cliff face, that is.