No through road

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We are moving on today. Our cases are packed, the room checked…we are ready to go. We have two points of interest on the way out of town that require a detour off the main road. First a viewpoint where we will be able to see the place we have been staying, and reportedly also as far as Malaga? And second, the Bobastra Ruins, which don’t look much on the internet but we may as well go since we will be passing!

It’s 9am and we assume the guy will let us out through his barrier. I’d hoed to leave earlier to avoid any hassle but I’m guessing getting out will be easier than getting in!

Ian drives gingerly down the rutted track…he knows where all the danger spots are now but, lovely as our pension was, we won’t be sorry not to have to drive up here again!

We are almost at the bend in the road where all the plastic barriers were scattered last night when we find a new barrier. There is a digger and a huge mound of rubble piled up…there will be no arguing with the guy today…the road is completely cut off! Bugger! We think that means driving all the way round the higher mountain track - the one Julie advised us to avoid at all costs!

We spend ten minutes rupturing to fathom out the route - quite difficult since there is no phone signal here. Ian thinks we should return to the pension to seek further advice from Julie and Glynn.

So up the track we go, the one we were glad we were never going to have to drive up again! We tell Glynn the bad news and he says he will call Julie. We have no idea what the campervan people are going to do as the detour appears difficult even for a car!

Julie appears and tells us not to worry, there is another way out without taking the top route but it’s a lot further round. In fact there are two. Julie and Glynn debate which one would be better. One route is via Las Mellizas, the other through a pine forest. The latter is slightly quicker but might take the bottom off our car…they decide the longer route is better.

Julie says she could drive their car to lead us out. She thinks we might get lost as the track really does not look like it could possibly be going anywhere and we might get lost. I could kiss her…as I’m one hundred percent certain she is right!

Back in the car we follow Julie at a safe distance. She isn’t going fast but we don’t want a stone chip as it would be easy enough on the rubble road. Ian is commenting that it’s a good think last nights rain didn’t continue. We had a massive downpour for around an hour - the first rain they have had there since April.

We reach the bottom of the valley with the railway line running to our right hand side. At some point we will need to be on the other side of those tracks. Julie has slowed right down. Oh yes, that will be because she is crossing a river bed... thanks goodness again for the dry spell!

The track has taken us underneath a single lane bridge, that’s the railway sorted…and now we are passing Melliza railway station. It’s still a track but a much wider and less potholed one than before.

We have reached a junction. Oh crumbs, there’s a car turning in. Fortunate that we are at the junction as they wait while we turn onto some solid tarmac. Julie has stopped and jumped out of her car. We are half way round the loop she tells us, all proper road now, all the way back to El Chorro. A mere 12km detour of which 6km was pretty scary at times, but actually less potholed than we might have expected and 6km back on a civilised road.

We have reached the El Chorro dam. Julie is going into town whilst we are staying on the same road - she waves a cheery goodbye from her window. Thank you Julie, we would not heave found this in our own without any sat nav connection.

Now we just have the windy mountain road to contend with. We think we know what’s coming because it’s the same road we drove in on a couple of days ago. In front of us we see part of the the Caminito del Rey walkway including the bridge across the gorge. We completely missed this coming in as we had our backs to it.

And now we are stuck behind one of the large shuttle buses. It wouldn’t matter except for the fact that we are on a sharp bend and there are two other shuttle buses coming back the other way. The buses are doing a wiggle around each other but they are signalling that we should reverse down the hill. That’s all very well but Ian has already reversed and the road is narrower here. His back wheel is literally an inch away from the edge of the tarmac with a great long drop into the hydro electric reservoir way below if he moves much closer!

more gesturing from the bus and I have a heart attack as Ian concedes and reverses back. I have rolled down my window and can c,early see the tyre literally on the edge of the precipice. Fortunately the bus driver is now happy and pushes his way through. Ian pills forward to the middle of the road and we reverse back further, tucking in to the side as we don’t want a repeat with the second bus.

Finally the road is clear and we are free to go. Another bus comes speeding past in a wider stretch of road…he doesn’t slow down or move over…so glad we are almost at the road about where the coaches go one way and we go the other. Frankly this road isn’t suitable for full size coaches.

Now we have reached the turning for Bobastra and the viewpoint. We unanimously decide that we’ve both had enough adventure for one morning and we will not bother to climb another mountain road. We do have another side trip planned to a cave town that Julie has told us about.

Having reached Ardales, we are now on good roads again, first some dual carriageway and then a quieter but wide tarmac road which quickly takes us to the turnoff to the recommended town of Setenil de las Bodegas.

Julie has told us that parking in town could be difficult so we might want to park ‘up the hill’. As usual we have misunderstood the term ‘up the hill’ so, totally disregarding perfectly good parking places down below, we head off up a steep incline that might just burn the clutch again rolling the blue car park signs. The Google maps arrow is having a hissy fit as we head off down a narrow road, only to find ourselves in a dead end road with only walking paths.

I’ve had enough! Let’s return to the bottom and if we can’t find anything we will give up! With his foot on the brake most of the way down, we descend to the bottom road. We park up and walk. Would you believe it…the place we wanted to see is only five minutes down the road! It is a downhill walk so I think this was what Julie meant about parking at the top!

OK, we have reached the cave houses, many of which are now bars, restaurants or shops. The roof and back of the buildings are the cave, which has been whitewashed, with only the facades being built from other materials. It’s reasonably unique. We go inside one of the larger places to get a drink, use the facilities and take a few new snaps.

Now it’s on to Ronda, said t9 be the prettiest town in Andalucia? We will see. First we drop into the supermarket to pick up supplies. We have a small kitchen and a fridge so we decide to make use of it. It was so nice to make myself a cup of coffee or get a cold drink from the fridge at the last place.

Oh dear, google maps is having hissed fits again. I have to direct Ian to the petrol station and then the supermarket and then the hotel (which is really a pension as it turns out). There are many missed turns, wrong turns and getting in the wrong lane along the way…the air is blue!

Eventually we extract ourselves from Ronda new town and make it to the ring road which will take us to our hotel which is right on the edge of the old town. I think there might be a clue in its name which contains the word ‘rural’. No matter, we’re walking, bussing or taxiing everywhere here as I am not map reading again tomorrow!

We have arrived at our three star hotel. We can see nothing but residential houses. There are certainly no hotel signs displayed. I take the booking sheet and knock at a random door. Amazingly I have got the right place! Ian has overshot the entrance to the car park (ie their garden gate) so I leave him to go to the roundabout to turn the car round. Loud honking - Ian claims the locals are not using it as a roundabout!

Finally inside our room. It’s quite …errr…unique? To be honest it’s clean and has been nicely done up in a traditional style, but it’s quite tight on space. Lovely big fridge and a microwave though so we will be less dependent on the late opening times of restaurants in Spain - it has not suited our early eating habits at all. :-)

We’ve settled in and it’s 4.30pm. I’m going to investigate the pool. Hmmm, it’s really not the cleanest pool I have seen. Plus there is something floating on the surface that looks suspiciously like a huge cockroach! No swimming for me.

The sun is no longer scorching so perhaps we will walk into Ronda. It doesn’t look too far. Google maps assures us it’s only 10 minutes, less than a kilometre and mostly flat. In fact it’s all downhill although the timing is about right. It won’t be 10 minutes coming back though!

We have reached the old city walls and now we have some choices. Ian thinks we should walk down to the Mirador to see the tall bridge today and leave the town for tomorrow. I agree, the sun is in the right place at the moment to take a decent photo. The sign post says it will take 8 minutes to walk so that doesn’t sound so bad.

As we walk down the road, it starts ti snake as it becomes steeper. Cars are passing us and i momentarily regret not allowing Ian to drive here…but then I see two cars trying to pass and remember why!

We have reached a convenient point and I send Ian up the bank to get some snaps (otherwise the trees will blot the bridge out). OK that’s enough…as luck would have it there’s a taxi coming up the hill and it’s free! We jump in and enjoy the return journey to the top. At 8.5 euros for a five minute drive, it was slightly steep but frankly I don’t care. Now I have some energy left to enjoy a little of the town in the pleasant evening sun.

Entering through the walled gate, we now need to climb up into the old quarter. There are lots of pretty white housed streets and interesting architecture and details. We make it up to a small square and stop for a rest in a leafy park. Here I enjoy a little conversation in my limited Spanish with a lady who equally has only a little English. I offered to take their group photo and she is very pleased with the results. Now she is going to take a photo of Ian and I. :-)

We wander in through the photogenic streets right through to the bridge that connects old and new Ronda. Now we think we will return to the pension and come back to see more tomorrow. I’d love to jump on a bus as there are a couple of them going in our general direction, but we’ve no idea if they are going to our end of town. Thus far it’s been impossible to suss out the bus system here.

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