Spanish walking with the film stars

Pulling on my walking boots first thing in the morning under an already warm southern Spanish sky, I had a sneaking suspicion that the day might take longer than expected. Sitting down to lunch at six o'clock that evening it seemed I was right.

I was walking a new addition to the list of Inntravel independent walks, a journey through Andalucia's Almeria province, mapped by ex-teacher-turned-guide David Lanfear. For a walk to reach brochure stage much meticulous research has to take place; before clients travel alone with the notes it has been thoroughly checked. Testing this newest route, fellow walker and Inntravel proprietor Linda Hearn explained: "This walk combines our three essential ingredients: a little-known region, small, family-run hotels and dramatic scenery including coastline."

At first glance the biscuit-bleached desert terrain of the starkly beautiful Cabo de Gata Natural Park looked straightforward enough to traverse, give or take a few cacti. But when your guide is also a botanist and historian there's much to see and learn in the desert. Add a couple of steepish descents, a beguiling cove or two, a drift along the beach where Lawrence of Arabia was filmed and an unscheduled skirmish with illegal harpoonists, and the picture pans out in glorious Technicolor. Looking more like North Africa than Spain, this area has its eye firmly on the camera - spaghetti Westerns were made up the road in the Tabernas region.

Our walk had begun in the peaceful resort of Agua Amarga, after an 8am outdoor breakfast. This seemingly passive, empty land has been fiercely contested by Arab, Berber, Moor, Jew and Christian. After the first hill, the track led past Cala del Plomo, a diverting bay where the urge to swim was irresistible. From the next ridge we made a steep descent to Cala del San Pedro, a pirates' cove. Swashbuckling on the high seas perhaps? Almost.

Running behind schedule, we messaged for a boat (this is the movies). Enter baddies. Hardly had we boarded and left the shore than four black heads surrounded our boat, bobbing about like sinister dismantled frog spawn. The park's coast is a conservation area and our boatman, Antonio, realised these divers were illegally harpooning fish. Echoing sea battles of old, angry spittle foamed at the side of his mouth as he hurled recrimination, fighting to protect the fish. I'd call that progress. After much gesturing and shouting, we escaped for our 6pm lunch in La Isleta del Moro - saffron-infused cuajadera fish stew (non-harpooned), served with rustic ceramic jugs of cerveza.

After passing through Rodalquilar, a former gold-mining town with stage-set abandoned machinery, dusk saw us at a ruined farmhouse at Cortillo del Fraile, silent fields stretching every which way. Tragic events here 70 years ago inspired Lorca to write Blood Wedding, a tale of stark revenge.

With a backdrop of cactus-strewn hills, I snuck a sunrise swim at the converted hacienda Cortija el Sortillo, the moon still suspended in a coral-merging-to-sapphire sky. Then, proving that at least we knew the way around it, we skirted San José and reached the plain of el Romeral.

Turning seaward through palm and cactus groves, with a knowing "Aha, Pinus pinea", David plucked a cone, cracking it to reveal, within a shell, a pine nut. Perhaps this explains their high price: "The shells are so tiny you are in danger of crushing the nut," said David. "I doubt there's a mechanical way of doing it, I suspect people still sit on their doorsteps cracking them with a hammer."

The elegant eucalyptus-fringed sweep of Los Genoveses has attracted yet more celluloid attention: Raiders of the Lost Ark was filmed here. Harrison Ford meets Peter O'Toole as the coast segues into the Arabian dunes of Monsul beach. At the sea's edge, volcanic lava grottoes frame another swimming opportunity - salvation for hot walkers.

Journey's end in attractive Almeria offers good retail therapy: I coveted elegant cream boots in chic shoe shops, my dusty footwear more conducive to stomping the vast ramparts of the Alcazaba.

Toasting an invigorating inaugural passage, taking an imaginary bottle of cerveza and smashing it open on the makebelieve hull of this province, I now declare this walk well and truly open.

Way to go

Caroline Fitton flew to Almeria with Inntravel (01653 629010; www.inntravel.co.uk). A self-guided six-day walk costs from £680pp B&B, including dinner and picnics, luggage transfer between hotels and flights.

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