Our objective is to summit the Camorro de Castañar, which is 1150 meters above sea level. We start from the Castañar square, which is about 700 meters above sea level. Therefore, we will climb almost 500 meters in about five kilometers.
The route chosen for the ascent is the easiest; it is divided into two sections of equal distance but of different profile, being the second one a little less steep than the first one, when we want to realize we will be at the top.
We take the path that goes to the Calabazas chestnut trees and start the climb between orchards along the stream and the giant chestnut grove that develops in the foothills of Camorro. Depending on the season, it will look one way or another, always enigmatic, surprising and spectacular.
Two and a half kilometers of constant climb, the road helps a lot and only at the end you feel the slope in your legs. If we are attentive we will not overlook some specimens that have a few hundred on their trunks, as well as the many gifts that nature shows us along the way: mushrooms, chestnuts, wild fruits, flowers, animal tracks…
It is convenient to make short stops to take a breath of fresh air, while looking around. When we reach the Postuero we are above 900 meters, the hardest part is over and although there is still half of the climb, it will be a little more comfortable.
We have to take the path to the right, which passes by a goat herd that may have tenants. In the last part of the previous section and in the first part of this one, the route passes through a beautiful oak forest that in some areas is shown forming oak groves and in others as a more or less domesticated pasture.
Immediately, a series of loops in the creek begin to attract our attention. To hold small quantities of water with uncertain destination, since the soil has no signs of having been cultivated, the steep slope and the height of the terrain would make agricultural work very difficult.
I remember about five or six dams; they are very similar in construction and are completely clogged with sediment. Above 1,000 meters the lushness of the forest recedes and only in the most secluded folds an abundant life develops, in the rest of the mountain, where the rich allow it, holm oaks, heathers and rockroses fill with green the lands with low or almost stunted growths.
The road begins to zigzag to face the penultimate step. It seems that it was opened to access the mountain in case of fire, the machines have removed the stones and that has uncovered one of the most wonderful collections of fossils that human beings can contemplate.
El Camorro is a mythical mountain in the local culture; young people keep alive the tradition of climbing it once a year and everyone has the feeling that the mountain is very special. And the truth is that it is quite different from those formed among the quartzites of the Villuercas.
The quartzites here are practically white, some of a nuclear white and a consistency that seems almost quartz, we found a small piece that was closer to marble than to any other possible crystallization. The stones that have been moved show the faces that have been hidden in the earth and these have a very vivid reddish ochre color. The fact is that on face a or face b, in almost all of the cases we observe there will be a fossil footprint engraved on it. So some others follow one after the other in the last stretch of the climb that coincides with the border of the term of Castañar to the south, is the border with the sister Navalvillar de Ibor.
You can retrace your steps or go around the Camorro on the opposite side and so you have another side of the mountain.
