2026 – Europe- Ep. 14 – Scrambling and getting trapped in a ditch in Spain
The area around Málaga is gorgeous—hilly, mountainous, with beautiful houses built everywhere by the Spaniards. There are also fantastic cycling roads, and they’re heavily used! We don’t have bikes, so Chester finds peaks for me instead 🙂. We start with a couple of easy ones, Reina (1032m) and Molino de Viento (1029m).
On top of Molino de VientoPointing at Reina peak which we hiked before
Chester fixes the North sign
But we can’t stop at something easy, right? How about Peña Negra (1,353 m) in the Sierra de Camarolos?
The first challenge is the gates—they’re all closed but not locked. That’s a good sign! Then we spot a large manor house.
Large manor house
Smoke rising from the chimney means someone is there. We would have preferred to ask permission, but we can’t find anyone.
I walk around but only see Chester
Since there are no “No Trespassing” signs, and we’re in Europe, not the USA, we decide to take the risk and continue. Soon it becomes clear that this is a commonly used road, and the gates are there to keep cattle in.
Not so easy to check the route in a roaring wind and fog
The obvious route to the summit is through a wide gully. From there, we plan to follow a ridge and hope it goes through.
Gully was good but gaining the upper ridge is tricky especially that rock is wet
After exploring Chester decides to decendBut we find a different route. It has one crux – not enough of handholds. Chester went first and I used Chester’s foot as a handhold.Final ridge with Chester on the summit. I follow.I am super happy! Maybe scrambling in the upcoming summer is no longer a dream?The descend was good despite the fogBut we can’t have too many good things, can’t we? While moving Delica to a camping position Chester forgot about the ditch. Now we are trapped: we can’t go forward nor backwardLight was running out so we did not take enough of photos to document the situation in detail. But Chester jacked up the front corner, and added rocks under the wheel. It was spicy!
It did not work with the initial lifting so Chester kept lifting it
Second time it worked. This was a close call. As usual Chester solved the problem. I would have hiked to the manor house we saw earlier and asked for a tractor.The morning after we decide to reach the summit of another mountain I have my doubts it will go. We have no beta, and decide that taking a valley first has the best chance of success.There are some fences here tooWe manage to find an easy route through the head wallAs we approach the summit a person comes from a different direction Soon is my turn to celebrate Geodetic plaque Super wet registerA peak not far away looks a bit higher. We head there just in case. It is hard to know without proper tools.Now it’s time to get out of here – third time lucky
These were my favourite mountains so far, the lack of beta, the unknown of reaching the summit, route founding and reasonable level of scrambling. We could have lived without driving in the ditch….but this is what makes memories
Marta and Chester's Maleficent Adventures 