The "Lakes"

Sunday, April 06, 2014
El Chorro, Andalucia, Spain and Canary Islands
Following the instructions of Joan, who owns this apartment, we visited the "Lakes" north of Malaga today. The beautiful blue-green water that comes down from the mountains is similar to the colour of the waters of Lake Louise in Alberta. However, they are not truly lakes, but rather large reservoirs the Spanish have made to preserve their precious water. Even though it is early spring, many fields and trees already seem dry and brown.
Before getting to the lakes, we found many detours . At El Chorro, we crossed a bridge, which is also a hydroelectric dam, and drove into a town in the mountainside. An electric train runs through the mountains via tunnels at this point. Joan pointed out that this is where the Frank Sinatra WWII film, "Von Ryan's Express" was filmed.   Tom and I had our picnic lunch, enjoying the views, before carrying on to the "Lakes".
A little further north, we stopped and saw a very high bridge, over 100 meters high, spanning the gorge below. And looking carefully, we saw a very high treacherous steel path built along the mountainside. We didn't risk it as it's been condemned, but it had been built by sailors in the early 1900's, who were used to working high above "the abyss".
Travelling on towards the lakes, we took another detour to walk along another Spanish reservoir, high atop a mountain. We couldn't figure out where the water originated from.
Driving along to the lakes, we finally found them, and they were as beautiful as they'd been described . Hard to believe, but at the end of the lake, we saw a small house and gazebo. This house apparently belongs to the King of Spain. Just a barrier with a stop sign keeps us out, so little security around here!
We spent some time at the beach by the lakes, watching the many Spanish families enjoying a Sunday afternoon at the beach, with BBQ's and picnics. We left the lakes around 4:30pm, heading back towards Mijas, or so we thought. An hour and a half later, I was sure we'd past the same caves and rock formations, when we discovered that we'd gone around the mountain in one large circle - coming back to the reservoir where we'd started. That's the great thing about Spain and roundabouts, we just go around again until we find the right way home. But, that sure was the largest roundabout we've ever been on!!
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