Tom Powell
LIKE an illustration from a fairytale, the Barranco Blanco will enchant you – once you find it.
But the search is more than worth it, for this serene spot (which means White Ravine in Spanish) is set in stunning woodland teeming with wildlife – including wild boars – and its river ends in a magical waterfall.
Located in the foothills of the Sierra Alpujata between Coin and Alhaurin el Grande, it cannot be seen from the surrounding roads.
These days it’s a photographer’s paradise and a hotspot for horseriding, mountain biking, walking and river swimming. But, just like the stories by the Grimms brothers and Hans Anderson, it has a darker side, too.
This beautiful spot was allegedly used as a Nazi training camp during the Second World War, due to Hitler and Franco’s friendship.
The Olive Press previously investigated the area’s Nazi history in 2010.
The remnants of their occupation are not obvious at first sight, as nature has done its best to erase Hitler’s impact, but they are still there.
Driving in from the main road, past the water tower, the small white building on the left was originally a sentry point.
Around the waterfall there are more houses, now in disrepair, which were formerly part of the Nazi military complex and home to SS soldiers.
“There is certainly some truth to the links,” says one Austrian resident. “It seems to spring back to a former SS officer who bought a lot of land here and eventually fled to South America.”
It is difficult to picture this wonderful valley as a cradle of evil, but it seems that even the Nazis were unable to resist Barranco Blanco’s enduring charm.
BARRANCo BLANCO Barrera Blanca- first info
We went to Tom’s party in Mijas, probably in 1970/1. Tom was n American Cartoonist , he had bought a village house, not far from our little villa in the quaint old Town of Mijas. In those days the road up from Fuengirola was only a track and nearly impassable when it rained. They already had a few Donkeys to ferry the few tourists, who were mainly pilgrims, up to the holy sight of the Madonna high at the top to the mountain overlooking the Town. An American lady had walked up there as her son was dying; she had prayed and the son was cured. She gave all her jewels to the church and in those days when there was no thieving at all in the town, they dressed the virgin in the church with the gems At Christmas time church would put a record on, so that the whole local population could hear – it was Bing Crosby singing “White Christmas”. This incongruous sound echoing around the plaza was because they were under the impression it was an American holy carol.
Anyway it must have been April time when we visited Tom for his fabulous party. His little white house appeared to be only two storeys but the back of it dropped down the hillside another two floors. We had plenty to drink, but what interested us was his story of a German village being built down the road near Alharurin. There was a helicopter pad there and a school, hospital were being built. Apparently it had electricity, which was rare in remote areas (someone said it was there before Mijas) Franco had had the mountain side planted with trees. This interested us so much we set off the next day. If the road up to Mijas was bad, this was considerably worse, potholed so badly that in places we nearly came to a standstill. We drove around and around till eventually we found a gate house built of dark grey stones, very South German, Bavarian, and some of the buildings had paintings on them not unlike the Austrian buildings in the passes to Italy. We found the hospital and were set upon by armed guards. They were German and in no light terms unpleasantly ordered us away from the site. We got back to the main track and turned right , not far along there was a thatched building it looked full of people. Perhaps it was a bar. We stopped and went towards it – there was a large stuffed black bear on the left hand side of the entrance. On the right hand side was a wind up record played belching out German marching songs. It was very eerie and strange, but the Germans looked so surprised to see us and we asked for drinks and were told it was a private party.
Yet again we were sent on our way. But we would return some years later.
Very interesting story. Looking forward to the description of your second visit to Barranco Blanco
Ann, been there and the last time I visited, three or four years ago, the guard post were still there. But I did hear the pine forest were already there and bull dossers had paved their way through them. the few time that I did visit was due to one of the lodges being turned into a restaurant and as you say the potholes remained and swore each time I visited never to return due to the car being thrown about. Naturally one of the attractions was the waterfall and believe it’s now been turned into a small hotel.
Think you will find it on Google World.