Estimated net time	5 minutes
Difficulty	No difficulties, but the drive up the service road requires concentration.
Drinking water	No access to running water.
GSM coverage	Coverage throughout the route (May 2010).
Parking	Room for a few cars at car park next to service road.
Start height	1845 metres
Vertical metres	35 metres for the roundtrip.
Trip distance	0.4 km
GPS-file	X
Map		Google Interactive Map
Route photo	Parking and trail head.

From the town Motril on Costa del Sol drive north on road A44, approximately 15 km. Turn east onto road A346, and follow this road a little less than 10 km. Immediately after a short tunnel you join road A348, comming in from your left. From this intersection drive 4.4 km and turn right onto road A4131, signed for Albunol. Drive 7.8 km on this road and turn right where signed for Olias. Drive 700 metres and fork right, onto the service road leading to the summit of Sierra de Lujar. The rest of the 7.9 km to the summit is driven on a very poor road, which is full of potholes, is narrow, and has some steep cliffs down on one side (not protected by any rails). Just before you get to the antennas at the summit you see a suitable place to park your car on the left hand side of the road. Park here, and make sure you engage your parking brake.

From the car walk east/south-east to the obvious summit, which is marked by a concrete cairn.

Descend by reversing your ascent route.

NOTE: If you want to walk parts of the service road you probably have to leave your car all the way down where the road forks, since the few locations where you can park along the service road is required as passing places.

14. May 2010

During our Alicante stay this year we decided to make a two-day visit to Granada/Sierra Nevada. We left Alicante early in the morning this Friday, and after a four hours drive and several hours at Alhambra, we drove to Orgiva. After checking in to our hotel for the night and a late lunch I wanted to pay a visit to Sierra de Lujar. But I had a time-constraint; I either had to do a quick hike (i.e. driving most of the route), or I would have to wait till late afternoon. This was caused by the fact that I had to visit the tourist office in order to buy a map for my next day hike to Mulhacen, but the office was only open from 5 to 7 (in addition to pre-siesta). Starting from Orgiva after 5 would mean a late return, so I decided to hit the road after food in order to be back before 7.

As I started the drive up the service road to the summit I soon realised that both driving and walking up here would take a long time, hence I decided to drive all the way to the summit. Besides it was very windy and I wasn't really in the mood for a long asphalt walk in windy conditions. This meant I ended up visiting a mountain with almost 1000 metres primary factor after a walk of just over 2 minutes, which didn't really make me very happy. Neither did it help much that all of Sierra Nevada above 3000 metres was covered in clouds.

After taking some photos with shaky hands thanks to the very strong wind I started my return drive, hoping I would meet any other cars on the narrow road. Back at the hotel it was time for a suitable meal before my planned hike to Mulhacen the next morning, and sufficient sleep. A good Spaghetti Carbonara with a couple of glasses of red wine did the trick on both aspects ...
Photos 14.05.2010