At only 771 metres high, it was far lower that most of the Tour du Mont Blanc that I tackled last year, however it was a pleasant surprise to have the chance to go up as I was only expecting to have a simple “bucket and spade” holiday with my lovely wife and kids; fortunately I had packed my running shoes!

The trail map to Mount Calamorro, Cerro del Morro and a few other treks in the municipality can be seen on a board just by the start of the cable car, Teleférico Benalmádena, which is where I left my the family and set off.

After deciding to do Route One direct to Calamorro, I initially found two slightly baffling things. First that Route One was actually two trails to different destinations and second that it was a couple unmarked kilometres through the streets on Benalmádena to the trail head; fortunately I had my iPhone with me.

I finally made it to the official start of the trail just under the E-15 motorway, about one mile by my Garmin, which luckily is marked with a big wooden route board, however the board adds further confusion by not mentioning the Calamorro at all. It only mentions the other destination that Route One takes you to, Ermita.

However I had noticed the both trails went passed the cemetery which was sign posted further up the trail. I ran the half mile or so up the road, past the cemetery and local tip (!) to the junction of a very new neighbourhood that looked only recently built with very low occupancy.

This is where the fun began. At the junction were two signs, the first I came to was a route map exactly like that near the Benalmádena cable car and on a reasonably well made, but clearly small, tarmac road. The second was another reddish wooden route board, proudly proclaiming that Route One was straight up the hill on its suburban street.

What should I do? My heart said to follow the small road surely this must be the access road mentioned on the map. My head said but surely they would mark this as the split in the paths and proclaim that this was the path to Monte Calamorro? Wouldn’t that make sense? Basically I forgot what country I was in… and followed the Route board. Mistake 1.

Following up the residential street I came about a third of a mile I came to another trail map, turned right up a dusty track and felt vindicated, yes my head was right. A few minutes on I came to another reddish wooden route sign. But wait this one was broken and what was left of it was clearly pointing me to go through a track blocked with barbed wire. Hmmm. Maybe its round the back of this big white building I thought and thus began a 10 minute waste of time rounding the building and walking through the scrub to no avail. Mistake 2.

I eventually got back to the last route marker, realising why some fellow wanderer had attempted to dismantle it, then went back to the last trail map and turned right down the hill to find another way up. Final mistake.

After about a mile and another wasted ten minutes I returned to the junction to find a runner coming down the access road and after a quick nod to my “top of Calamorro” question I was back on route, 30 minutes behind and about 2 miles of extra road under my feet, but back on route!

From here the route was easier to find after nearly a mile of fairly boring, but well tarmaced road I came to a red arrow pointing up a trail and a downhill mountain biker coming hurtling towards me. A little envious of him, I let him continue after he confirmed I was on the right track and I continued up the gorge.

The path was well kept and clear to follow, apart from what looked like a small and relatively recent landslip, which I navigated around. The running was fairly easy but a bit sandy in places and I could feel my shoes filling up.

After another three quarters of a mile I joined up with Route Two, which I remembered from the trail map also continued to summit Mount Calamorro.

Another quarter of a mile and this joined up again with the access road and was tarmac again for the half mile up to the top station of the Teleférico Benalmádena with the summit a short jog up rocky steps with handrails.

Although a bit annoyed at the unneeded diversion, I was happy have achieved a quick run up a mountain especially on my birthday.

Calamorro is not a massive test or a hugely exciting trail by any stretch of the imagination, but the views along the Costa del Sol from the summit certainly make for it.

I was lucky enough to share these views with my wife and our three and five year old in the cable car on the way down; pointing out to them the downhill cyclist coming back up in the Teleférico for another go.

Total run from Tivoli World (including mistakes)

Time 01:42:30     Distance 5.86 mi     Alt 3,044 ft

Actual Route from Tivoli World

Time 01:12:53     Distance 4.21 mi     Alt 2,831 ft

Calamorro Route One from Tivoli World Google Earth KML

Fri, 1 Oct 2010 | By Sebastian Joseph

The beta version of the resource lists sites across industry vertical sectors automotive, community, entertainment, finance, media, property, retail, sports, technology and travel by the number of unique visitors received each month.

Page impressions and rate card metrics will also be published, available exclusively to new media age subscribers as a complimentary resource.

Originally produced during the dotcom boom, nma’s Traffic Update has been relaunched to fulfil a perceived need in the market for manually checked metrics.

Metrics from the automotive, property and sport verticals will launch today, with the remaining eight sectors set to follow over the coming months.

Some of the site owners already signed up include 2View Group, The Digital Sports Network and Auto Trader.

“Although we’re a new business, we own 47 .co.uk URLs, so initiatives like Traffic Update are a good way for us to raise our profile,” said Tony Ragan at the Digital Sports Network. “From a business point of view, it’s important to get references and benchmarks across the industry and see what other companies are doing.”

Designed to sit alongside established site measurement services from companies like ComScore and Hitwise, Traffic Update will consist of metrics collected manually by new media age directly from participating site owners each month.

Despite expressing concern over the need for greater clarity around the nature of data published in Traffic Update, Paul Goode, head of industry relations at ComScore Europe, felt it was a good initiative.

“The industry is going through a process of consolidation when web analytics and media measurement departments are coming together,” he said. “As this happens there needs to be greater transparency and awareness around data, which Traffic Update could provide.”

Sean Reilly, marketing manager of 2View Group, whose viewlondon.co.uk is one of the sites already taking part, echoed Goode’s reservations but felt transparent charts in trade publications was the “true mark” of a maturing industry.

“Charts that measure an industry’s performance are only truly of interest if they’re public,” he said. “This is the only way buyers can make the right decisions and sellers can set the right prices without having to spend half their day hunting down the information. Markets only work effectively when standardised metrics are publicised and in a single location.”

ABC Electronic MD Richard Foan felt that although Traffic Update could educate the industry and gain an understanding of traffic within a particular sector, it needs to be based on industry agreed standards, as with any other media  channel.

“Transparency is key to the success of Traffic Update. Clearly identifying where the data has been sourced, verified and audited will allow readers to make an informed judgment on how the data is presented and interpreted,” he said.

Justin Pearse, editor of new media age, said, “Traffic Update is complementary to existing sources of data on website traffic. The manually compiled resource is in its early stages of development and we hope the industry will welcome its arrival and support its expansion. Please get in touch to give me your thoughts on how we can develop it into a useful tool for your business.”

Traffic Update is avaible to new media age subscribers at nma.co.uk/data/trafficupdate

new media age launches Traffic Update site traffic resource | News | New Media Age.

Moves – 16.09.10 | News | New Media Age.