Читать книгу Coastal Walks in Andalucia. The best hiking trails close to Andalucía's Mediterranean and Atlantic Coastlines онлайн

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Since Iberian times these coastal paths have seen the passage of livestock, charcoal, fruit and vegetables, dried fish, ice from the high sierras, silks and spices from distant lands, contraband coffee and tobacco along with muleteers and shepherds, itinerant workers, fortune seekers and armies on the march. Ancient byways have a logic of their own and when researching this book I was constantly struck by a sense of Times Past, and not only when a section of ancient paving or cobbled path suggested Roman or Arabic origins. This sense of history, and of continuity, gives nearly all the walks described in this book an added appeal. It’s as if these ancient byways serve to reconnect us with something that has been around since time immemorial but which we rarely get the chance to experience.

If the areas described in the book share a common historical thread the different parts of the Costa have their own unique character. The cliffs, pine forests and marshlands close to Vejer are very different in feel to the wooded slopes of the Algeciras hinterland with its unique canuto (gorge) ecosystem. The lunaresque landscapes of the Sierra Bermeja stand in marked contrast to the forested mountainsides behind Marbella and Mijas, while the cliffs and crumpled massif of the sierras between Nerja and Almuñecar have a beauty all of their own, as do the mineral landscapes of Cabo de Gata. Each region is described in greater detail in its corresponding section but – rest assured – there’s superb walking in every one of them.