Itinerary
This part of the route offers a perfect mixture of history and nature. The path is rather flat and it goes across
olive trees fields, through pine woods, and afterward it stretches from the bottom of Turón Castle to the Town of El Burgo, home of a beautiful track along the river
Summary
Stage 22 starts and ends at the Río Turón as it passes through the towns of Ardales and El Burgo respectively. In the absence of an itinerary that follows the straight line between two points along the valley, the approved path leads up for more than 800 metres above sea level to three public mountain areas with managed forests and the marly limestone Sierra de Ortegicar.
Therefore the outline of the Stage shows major ups and downs along the demanding route. Approximately halfway into the walk you head west, and then turn south from Los Márquez.
At all times the walk uses dirt forest tracks in good condition. This is because in the centre of the area there are service access roads to public mountain land and at the beginning and at the end there are several well-known farmhouses and numerous fi elds. Almost half of the walk is in the shade of the forests of Aleppo Pine covering the clay hills.
The best
This Stage takes the hiker to a sierra which is quite unknown, located limestone Sierra de Ortegicar to the north, and the Río Turón to the south. The area is quite popular with walkers and mountain bikers, with the famous circular route called Espinazo de Perro and a network of forest trails that allow planning diverse circulars including the GR-7 E-4 in his fi fth leg.
It is the first time that the GR-249 follows such a huge area of marly limestone covered with a repopulated forest, rather dense in some spots with Oaks, junipers and savins.
The departure and arrival, in turn, let you meet the Río Turón, just before the dam of the Conde Guadalhorce, which can be seen from various points, as in two previous stages.