The Los Camarates Aljibe walk

The Los Camarates Aljibe walk is a short walk with magnificent views

By Nick Nutter | Updated 5 Mar 2022 | Almería | Walking | Login to add to YOUR Favourites or Read Later

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The Los Camarates Aljibe walk

In semi-arid areas, the local residents had to provide themselves with water through the construction of wells and cisterns. All these constructions are part of the ethnographic heritage that still exists in Andalucia. The well is generally cylindrical in shape and lined with stones to prevent its collapse. This stored water from rainwater seepage or underground water reserves. The wells were made near small ravines or slopes. The well was crowned by a hemispherical vault of stones and plaster, with an outer plaster coating, leaving the stone visible from the inside.

The Los Camarates Aljibe walk

In Albox there are numerous wells scattered throughout its territory. At present, most of the wells in the area have run dry or have little flow, due to decreases in the water table. The aljibe (from the Spanish Arabic algúbb), is a rectangular-shaped tank designed to store drinking water from the rain. The Romans built similar tanks that they called cisterns. The water is collected via a canal, like a ditch, made on a slope, which leads the water to the cistern. They are usually built with bricks joined with mortar. The roof is formed by a barrel vault made of bricks or flat stones.

The Los Camarates Aljibe walk

The internal walls are usually covered with a mixture of lime, sand, iron oxide or red clay, to prevent seepage and putrefaction of the water it contains. Of the Arab cisterns, only one remains on Cerro Castillo, which is in a sorry state of abandonment; its barrel vault is partially collapsed.

Another existed near the Arab tower of Aljambra, unfortunately it was destroyed years ago. In this area there are other more recent ones, from the 19th and 20th centuries, but built in the likeness of the Arabs. In Los Collados you can still find several well-built cisterns in the shape of a cave, generally in shady areas, in reddish terrain, where water does not filter.

The Los Camarates Aljibe walk

This walk takes you past a 19th century aljibe on the Los Camarates road.

General Description

The Los Camarates Aljibe walk

The walk is only about 6 kilometres but the views are spectacular. Maximum height gain is 150 metres so it is not too strenuous. The entire route is on a rough track, ideal for mountain bikes as well as walkers.

Route

Park at the small sun farm on the Rambla del Agua Salada, a couple of kilometres northeast of Albox.

Rejoin the main track and turn left. Almost immediately a track takes you to the right and starts a gentle ascent. After about 350 metres you will get to a crossroads of tracks where you turn left. After about 1 kilometre you pass an attractive finca on the left. The aljibe is 50 metres further on your right.

Continue up the obvious track. The views behind you open up across the Almanzora valley all the way to the Sierra Nevadas on a clear day. As you reach the highest part of the walk off to your right you will see the glitter of the sea somewhere near Villaricos.

After about 1.5 kilometres you will see the Finca Camarotes on the top of a prominent hill ahead of you. About 60 metres from the finca, take the track that branches off to the left, now heading due north. A gentle descent between isolated olive groves takes you to a ‘T’ junction after 2 kilometres you arrive at another ‘T’ junction with the Rambla del Agua Salada running from right to left ahead of you about 50 metres away. Turn left, now heading due south.

It was on this latter stretch that Julie and I saw two golden eagles soaring over the ridges to the east. Magnificent birds.

Just stay on the track for the next 1.2 kilometres to arrive back at the sun farm.

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