directions_bike by Chris Riches -

La Herradura to Malaga

The journey from La Herradura to Malaga crossed from Costa Tropical to Costa del Sol.

I paid the bill at the campsite and left quite early. There were a couple of steep ascents out of La Herradura to start off the morning, and a tunnel where the acoustics hugely amplified the noise of any traffic in either direction. After the tunnel I was overtaken by a couple of German cyclists with panniers, and one later informed me that they had cycled there from Germany in about 22 days. Compared to France it was rare to see any other cyclists with luggage so it was interesting to chat with them.

The cliffside coast road provided nice views towards Nerja, where I diverted to have a look at the town and the steeply sloping seafront area. The town was quite characterful with white traditional style buildings overlooking the sea and narrow old style shopping streets.

As I got closer to Malaga the terrain flattened out with much more development along the coast, including some new construction occurring in the town of Los Llanos where I stopped at the bakery for lunch.

The route then headed inland near Rincón de la Victoria, up a steep path and then dropped down in to a town called Jarazmín on the outskirts of Malaga on the other side of the dry riverbed. The scale of the city started to become apparent as I was cycling alongside the beaches and the city was on my right, it stretched for miles before I reached the city centre.

After checking in to the apartment where I was staying I visited the old part of the city with the Cathedral, Alcazaba and Roman Amphitheatre. There was a small protest about AirBnB near the Roman Amphitheatre. I then walked down through the gardens to the port area with the Pompidou centre and the Muelle Uno shopping area. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to visit any of the cities museums but found that Malaga had some similar elements to Cartagena but was much bigger and there were fewer signs of dilapidation around.

Distance: 45 miles

Maximum temperature: 28 degrees C

Costa Tropical looking towards Nerja

El Acueducto del Águila

Nerja

Malaga

Roman Amphitheatre and Alcazaba, Malaga

Cathedral, Malaga

directions_bike by Chris Riches -

Malaga to Benálmadena

It was only a short ride southwest out of Malaga to Benalmádena. The route went via the bus station, train station and airport in order to make enquiries about travel arrangements back to the U.K.

It wasn’t until reaching the coast that there was a segregated path to use, which ran along the seafront and made the cycling more relaxing and enjoyable.

The coast immediately southeast of the airport had a pleasant beach without being very built up.

Further southwest there were many hotels, shops, bars and restaurants in the Torremolinos area, the sun was out and it was a nice temperature but there were some fairly big waves hitting the shore. I was expecting a lot of development along this stretch of coastline but it didn’t seem as dense and high rise as parts that I’d seen further north along the Costa Blanca.

Next was Benalmádena where I had booked to stay for the night. There was a nice harbour area then a palm tree lined beach which was a nice place to spend the evening as the sun was setting.

Distance: 15 miles

Maximum temperature: 24 degrees C

Torremolinos, Costa del Sol

Benalmádena, Costa del Sol

Benalmádena, Costa del Sol

Benalmádena, Costa del Sol

Torremolinos, Costa del Sol

Costa del Sol