Marbella 4 Day Walking - Day 4

Today was Day 4, the last day, of the Marbella Walking Festival. Just the one big up and down today as we headed into the hills up towards La Concepcion reservoir and back via Lago de Las Tortugas (Turtle Lake) and along the front from San Pedro.

This was our route.

Here are a few of my photos.

It had been raining overnight, but it was just stopping as we headed for the start, so no need for the waterproofs.

The clouds were dispersing as we walked along the sea front.

It was much more my temperature for walking today, but I still had to stop for breath climbing past Aloha College for the second time this week.

And now we started on our off-road section up to the reservoir.

The sun was out now.

This bit was steep enough to need another pause for breath.

This was the view at our highest point. Lovely. And well worth the climb.

As we descended I caught up with Sue and Chelle, here treading the precarious boards past the flood in the tunnel under the road.

"Don't fall again, Chelle", I thought. But they were picking their way carefully....

...down to the lake, where I left them behind while they had a toilet stop.

This was another familiar site - we passed here the other day.




Alongside a long stretch of road there was a banana plantation.

As I looked back I could see Sue was gradually catching me up, but as I got to San Pedro, I got a surprise when Hayley arrived. I was puzzled. "I thought you were ahead of me ", I said. It turned our Hayley and Miranda had missed a turn in the mountains and had done an extra km or so getting back on route.

I liked the fishing boat in the middle of the street.

Another familiar sight - we arrived at the sea front in the same place the other day.

I decided to take a detour off the official route to look round Puerto Banus harbour. Very plush!

A little further on, I stopped by the river crossing to wait for the others to catch up so we could finish together.

Cathy came past and then Nicky and Julie, who were on the 20km walk. They waited with me for a while, but then carried on so as not to stiffen up.

So I finished the walk with Joyce, Miranda and Jane. Here were some of the costumed ladies we passed.

Nearly there. We were on the Via Galdiolus (so-named for the day) and collected our gladioli before reaching the finish...

...where we found Dawn and William, who had enjoyed the 10km walk.

Photo time...

...and party time.

We stopped for a fozen yoghurt on our way back to the hotel.

Then it was goodbye to most, but Julie and Jane were staying on another night so we had dinner with them.

So that was it. We had some lovely walking, entertainment, dining and scenery, and, of course, great company. Thanks, Joyce, for persuading everyone to come!

You can see more details of our route today  here on MapMyWalk and more of my photos here on Flickr.