Some friends of ours visited last week and it is a tradition that we “do a long walk” which is normally followed by a few beers and a tapas lunch…. There are many many fantastic walks that you can do in the Manilva area, from a leisurely stroll to a full on, 6 hour hike!! This year, we choose to do the walk of the Utera Gorge.
http://www.eportbic.com/Destinations/content.cfm?contentid=463
I would always suggest that you read through the directions before starting off as you can normally adapt the walk to suit you. This walk says to start in Duquesa, and work your way up to Manilva but as we live in Manilva we skipped this bit and just started in Manilva – plus it meant the walk would not take a long and we could to it before it got too hot… It is August and we did start at 8am!!
The main part of the walk starts at about 3km up the Casares road from Manilva, (look for the cattle grid) . There is a sign at the start of the route which shows you the route and explains what you will see. It is written in both English and Spanish. The route is marked out by small green and white squares painted on various points along the route so you know you are going the right way..
Be prepared though, this walk may say medium difficulty but it does involve quite a bit of climbing over rocks as you descend through the gorge. The scenery is amazing – a totally different world. Once through the gorge, you find yourself on the roman baths road. You can either pop along there to cool down or carry on to the end of the walk. The downside of starting in Manilva is that whatever way we go, we have to end the walk with an uphill climb….. makes you feel that you have definitely earned that beer!!! You can just as easily do this walk in reverse, and climb up through the gorge, there is an information sign and route map at both ends .. we’re going to try that next time.
