"TRAVELLER,
THERE IS NO PATH..." WROTE MACHADO. HE CERTAINLY
DID NOT MEAN MALAGA, BECAUSE HERE, THROUGHOUT THE PROVINCE,
THERE ARE ENDLESS PATHS TO BE DISCOVERED. ALL OF THEN
SUITABLE FOR THE QUIESTEST AND CONTEMPLATIVE SPORT OF
ALL: TREKKING.
This
is a sport in which the winner is always oneself. Trekking
is, mainly walking through rural or mountains areas, linking
villages and valleys, crossing rivers and lanes, always
through specified paths, a return to the traditional connection
networks.
Trekking is always practised in direct contact with nature,
with the healthy aim to contribute to the conservation
and protection of the environment. At the same time, it
allows us to tranquility become acquainted with a place
and its people, its artistic, natural and ethnographic
heritage. In short, it is a diferent way to get away.
Origins
of trekking.
Its beginnings place us in France, after World War II.
Trekking was conceived there as a different way of "liberation".
People wanted to get away from war events and their terrible
consequences, and in the countryside they found the ideal
place to "disconnect" from that blood stained
world.
Countries such as Germany, Holland, Switzerland or Belgium
imported it later to promote tourism in their respective
mountain areas. In Spain it came through Catalonia at
the end of the 60's and from there it spread unevenly
to other regions. The Spanish Mountain Federation, today
the Spanish Federation of Mountain Sport and Climbing
(FEDME), assumed this new sport activity, born in the
mountaineering environment, and called it trekking.
The
main difference with mountaineering was that it used beacon
marked paths.
At present, Spain has little over 14.000 km. of marked
ptahs. A tiny amount in comparison with countries such
as Germany (with 210.000 km.) France (with 172.000 km.)
or Switzerland (with 50.000 km.), in spite of the fact
that the latter is a much smaller country.
Trekking has many natural spaces in Málaga, perfectly
adapted. Let's explore a few:
