Walks in the Sierra de Cazorla – Rio Borosa

I chose this walk to be the first one as apparently this is the most popular route in the whole mountain. So far the ‘most popular’ walks have been very rewarding whichever part of Spain we were in so it was an easy choice. We made our packed lunches, put Guy in the bag and drove to the car park where the walk started.

We had to drive there for an hour and our car was the only one in the parking lot! Only we were crazy enough to go hiking at this time of the year, it seemed.

As it was the 30^th December in places the path was still covered in frost and was a bit slippery.

The path and Guy’s instructions lead us into the mountains along the river with strange rocks that looked like coral. 

The route was very nice, leading us along the Rio Borosa with little pools where during the hot months people can stop for a dip.

Everywhere we looked the scenery was beautiful. No wonder this is the most popular walk here. I’d love to come back and do the whole thing in summer.

Then we found the first tunnel. We went into the first one that was 350m long and so dark that we needed to use Paul’s phone as a light. We got through it even though the floor was full of huge puddles.

Then we had lunch in a lovely spot.

Soon we came across another tunnel and here the puddles were so deep that we couldn’t cross them and had to turn back. We were pretty disappointed as the walk is supposed to finish at two lovely lakes but there was no way to cross that second tunnel.

On the way back we cheered up as by then all the ice and frost disappeared and we saw a completely different side of the gorge. The colours have all changed and came out beautifully.

While driving back we stopped at two miradors or viewpoints.

Later that day I saw a brochure that was advertising a 4x4 Rio Borosa trip. On the pictures that were supposed to entice the guests to sign up were two beautiful lakes…the ones we couldn’t see! Rub it in, rub it in, I thought.

The route originally is 22km long but we were forced to cut it short. Although it is rated as ‘strenuous’ we didn’t think it was anything special, I think the rating is due to the length of the walk. As it is a linear walk if you don’t want to do the whole length you can just turn back at any time. Here are the detailed instructions for this lovely walk.