The Castano Arena

Nobody walking the Camino del Molino Real gets past this one without stopping. The Castano Arena stands at the side of the track that runs down toward the valley of the river Genal, right where a medium slope begins to fall away toward one of the streams that feed it, and the register's own sheet says as much: it does not go unnoticed by the walker. The trunk is 7.20 metres round at chest height and 10.20 at the base, on a tree 17 metres tall, and the register attributes that thickness plainly to advanced age without putting a number on it. It stands out from everything around it, and what is around it is the point. The Genal valley is one continuous chestnut wood, tens of thousands of trees running across the whole basin and on into Pujerra and Igualeja, and in late October the entire valley turns copper at once. It is the reason people drive this road in autumn. The land is private and the track is public. No age has been published: if you know one, tell us.