Gitano

Walk Description

First of two P600s planned today. 90 minute drive with Gina from Cabopino driving past cloud capped Gibraltar and towards black clouds shrouding peaks of Parque National Los Alcornocales.

Barred but unlocked access in El Cuartón.
Decided to use access near Puerto Hondo off N-340 in case locked on return.

Mapas de España showed a track all the way to the summit, presumably access for comms workers. I had hoped to use access from El Cuartón at 36.0682°N, 5.5376°W but an unlocked barrier was down and did not want to risk it being locked on return without being sure of an alternate access point.

Plan B was to return to N-340 and use the track to Casas del Tio Noria. We will still end up at the crossroads on the 464m spot height but with a known exit route. 

The track with compacted stone is perfectly adequate for a road vehicle, as long as you do not drive too quickly, and remains so all the way to the gated and open entrance to Parque National Los Alcornocales. Beyond this point there are a couple of hairpin bends and at one of these I had a little difficulty with wheel spin along a rut requiring me to reverse a little and take a slightly different line.

Not a lot to see adjacent to Gitano summit.
Summit is 40m away, top right of picture

It took nearly 1 hour to drive the 9km to the parking near the summit and was greeted with low cloud and wind driven rain wearing just shorts and tee shirt. with the summit being only a short walk away I decided to keep with the shorts and head for the summit. Gina was quite happy to stay in the van and even more happy when I reappeared 10 minutes later.
During that time I had photographed the summit surmounted by a comms building with the highest point looking to be near the SE corner of the building. There is a tor further south about 30m away which could be as high so after photos went to it just in case it was higher. Ground is a little uneven with a short scramble to the top. Not a problem really but felt a little more difficult than it should have been wearing only sandals. Looking back at the main summit I could not decide if it was higher through the cloud but visit both and it is not an issue.

Summit to south looks as high. Visited just in case despite only wearing sandals

Returning to the van soaked, Gina refrained from making any comment. The return journey was quicker than the ascent and also at the 464m spot height took the road leading to the gated access at El Cuartón. It was a tarmac road and more importantly the gate was still unlocked so guessing it is not likely to be a problem, but if it was locked could always return to the N340 via Casas del Tio Noria.
From here it was another 90 minute drive to La Sauceda and the trailhead for the second summit of the day - Aljibe.

Walk Statistics

Walk Date - 11 October 2019
Walkers - Steve Smith, Gina Smith

Accommodation - Camping Cabopino, Cabopino 

Start Point - Parking at comms building near summit (36.09823°N, 5.54101°W)

Start Time - 12:32

Finish Point - Parking at comms building near summit (36.09823°N, 5.54101°W)

Finish Time- 12:43

Total Duration - 0hrs 11mins 
Overall Average pace - 0.71mph
Total Distance Walked - 0.13 miles
Total Height Ascended -7.00metres

Peaks visited

Spain/Portugal 600m Prominence Peaks (168S - 185S&P - 2165E)

Gitano (68S - 70S&P - 99E)

Spain/Portugal 300m - 599m Prominence Peaks (1000+)

NONE

Spain/Portugal 150m - 299m Prominence Peaks (3000+)

NONE

Spain Autonomous Community High Points (19)

NONE

Spain Province High Points (52)

NONE

S: Spain
P: Portugal
E:Europe

Final walk from previous trip

2019

July

26^th Posets (attempt)

Other walks on this trip

2019

August

27^th Oitz

September

02^nd Umbría
22^nd Cerro del Lastonar attempt with Gina
25^th Pico de Mijas with Gina

October

03^rd Cerro del Lastonar

11^th Gitano

11^th Aljibe

15^th Cruz de Juanar

Route

More Photographs

Full set of captioned photos providing journal and description of key parts of ascent, descent and summit photographs.

Road looks OK to drive to Gitano summit. Does get worse but still drivable later (just).

Click on photograph to view slide-show