It's a Sign!
If you've been on a walking holiday with me, you'll know that our routes often combine official and unofficial (ahem, goat or sheep) paths. Where we do follow an official trail, there are usually wooden posts and signs with different markings on them, and I'm often asked what they are.
Federación Andaluza de Deportes de Montaña, Escalada y Senderismo. (FAM)
The control and regulation of the hiking trails in Andalucía falls primarily to the Junta de Andalucía and the Andalucían Mountaineering Federation (FAM). The Regional Government defines the principles for sports trails, and the FAM, as the competent body, is responsible for the technical approval, maintenance, and enforcement of the regulations governing these trails.
I can only imagine the amount of work that goes into preparing a potential route; negotiating with land owners, ensuring that an actual path exists, along with any construction and remedial works necessary to make the route safe.
Only after all the prep work is complete will the signs start to go up, and the official route board is installed.
At the start of a walk
At the beginning of an official trail, whether it is linear or circular, there is always a board displaying route information showing the route name (PR-A 395, for instance).
This information can contain -
- Length of the route
- Estimated time
- Accumulated ascent
- Accumulated descent
- Type of path surface
- Suggested time of year to walk
- MIDE chart
- Signs along the route
- Chart showing ascent and descent
- Route Map
- Route description including highlights
- Warning signs
As you can see, it's a lot of information which helps you to enjoy your day on the trail.
Off we go
I certainly would not recommend having no GPS or route tracking software to accompany you along these routes (more about maps later). However, you'll notice the signs have been installed in strategic locations along the path, so that, unless they've been damaged or removed, it is difficult to get lost or go the wrong way.
To aid you in staying on the correct path, you will see, at a minimum, a wooden post with coloured collars on it. These are installed when a decision has to be made, such as at a crossroad or a fork in the path. The correct way has the wooden post; the wrong way will often have another wooden post, but with the coloured collars forming a cross. This cross can also be painted on rocks or on a wall.
On top of the wooden post may be a sign indicating the route name and the distance to the next waypoint or the finish.
When it is not so obvious where to go, such as across more open terrain, you may see a wooden post or rock with two lines, indicating a slight change of direction.
You may be on a local path which also includes a section of a much longer trail. In these instances, the posts and signs will indicate this, such as three collars: white (the common one), red, and yellow.
It may also include signs with information for different routes.
What trails do we have?
Long-distance paths (GR - Gran Recorrido)
Red and White markers
These paths are longer than 50 km and connect points that are a great distance apart. They stretch across beauty spots, areas, regions, or countries that are far away from one another. These trails are generally divided into stages.
Short-distance paths ( PR - Pequeño Recorrido)
Yellow and White markers
These are between 10 and 50 km long, go through specific areas or lead to a particular village or town, or other destination, and can be done in a day. PR-A indicates a short-distance path in Andalusia.
Local Paths (SL - Sendero Local)
These paths can be up to 10 km long and have a minimum of difficulty.
SL-A indicates a local path in Andalusia.
A little bit about maps.
In Spain, we have the CNIG (Centro Nacional de Información Geográfica), an autonomous governmental body responsible for the production, distribution, and commercial sales of official geographic data, products, and services for the country. It is very much like the Ordnance Survey.
They produce a range of maps, down to 1:25'000. The clarity and level of detail are not like the OS Explorer Maps, and navigating just on a 1:25'000 CNIG map can be very difficult. For instance, there may be buildings, paths, and even steep rock faces that are not shown. And they are often cluttered with information on what type of grove, forest, or orchard covers the land.
I do have, for reference, the maps for all the areas I walk in, and even though they were bought recently, their publication date can be up to 15 years ago.
When writing this article, I wanted to check if any of the maps had been updated, and it looks like many have been, with 2024 listed as the publication date. I will order a few to see what changes have been made.
