The WorldWalkers put up their tents in many interesting places. They camped on a minefield in Mauritania, spent shivering nights in the hills of France, they were visited by a hog herd in a forest in Germany.
But it seems that our planet provides countless adventurous campsites. The hill they camped on in Málaga was a volcano! Or was it?
by FERENC IVANICS
I wrote about our Malaga job earlier, we painted the attic of a five-story building. When we took a break we usually spent a few minutes on the balcony with our employers, sipping coffee with milk. One day—while we were having a nice conversation and contemplating the great views—our boss asked us where exactly was our camp-spot. From that height we were able to take a view on the hills surrounding the city, so instead of trying to describe the place, we showed him the exact location. When looking at our camping spot we noticed a really eye-catching mountain, which had a strange rock-crown on its top. And indeed it was called Monte Coronado, the Crowned Mountain. Then our employer told us that it was a very old, extinct volcano. We were quite surprised but it seemed a nice thing to sleep with a volcano nearby.
When we finished the paint-job, on our way home we popped in to our favorite cyber café. Before we could open our mouth, Inma, the owner of the place approached us and said that she had checked on our blog where we were sleeping, and then asked us if we knew that it was a volcano. So, from that moment we couldn’t help wondering about this volcano issue, we needed a proof. Though the water of a fountain at that hillside is warmer than usual—that was why we used it for “bathing”—, and though Inma affirmed that when she was a little girl she felt the soil warmer inside the crater, we were still suspicious. We decided to climb the hill to see the top for ourselves.
We didn’t want to leave the tents and the backpacks down in the valley, so we headed off with our complete inventory on our back. The experience reminded us to our Sahara adventures. Although it was cooler, thanks to the burning sun and the steep trail all our underwear was getting soaked with sweat. The timing was perfect, we saw blooming flowers everywhere around, and so there was really nothing to complain about. And, of course, we need to have some practice before moving on to the USA, it looks like we will have a tight schedule there in a warm, humid climate.
We have to confess: we don’t think it’s a volcano, but probably a Limestone mountain, that’s what our friends tell us as well. But the crown on its top, made of huge stones, is a spectacular sight. Unfortunately due to the architectural limestone exploitation more than half of that crown is gone now. The center of the crater, crown or exploited stone ring is quite arid, but we think it’s not the global warming that’s responsible for that phenomenon but the local dirt bikers. And you can see remains of beautiful stalactites. They are seriously damaged, you can easily get a view of their cross-sections, which look like tree rings. We climbed to the top plateau and to our surprise we found there a nice wild flower meadow. The view is just beautiful, the air is clean and fresh, the sounds of civilization don’t make it to the top, a great place to trek, to relax, to meditate about peace.
And to make it easier for you to find the spot we provide the GPS-coordinates of Monte Coronado. Courtesy of our friend, Péter Molnár we received a new cell phone and a GPS set a few weeks ago. The package (with other goodies) was delivered by Team Dacia to Bamako—from the Budapest-Bamako rally—during their charity trip to Mali. Thank you very much.
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