We woke up to frigid temperatures. A chilly 15°C and overcast. If it wasn’t that we’re already leaving Antequera, we so would. We wouldn’t want to single Madrid out (see day 1 and 2). By the time we had breakfast and checked out of our hotel the temperature was up by 2 degrees. We then promptly proceeded to drive up a mountain and lost 3 degrees and accidentally proved that hot air doesn’t float on top of colder air. If it did, it should have gotten warmer as we headed up right? My science books and science teachers would all appear to be wrong.
Our drive up was to get to 📍El Torcal de Antequera. The natural reserve’s main attraction are the limestone peaks that were eroded in the shape of rock stacks. As soon as we got out of the car we knew we may have made a terrible mistake. Not only was the temperature low but the wind was ready to blow us away. As we changed shoes from our usual summer sandals to our hiking shoes I almost lost one of my shoes to wind. It picked it up but blew it straight in the unmovable obstacle that was my leg.
With all the wind we put on our warmest layers and hard shells. Walking to the small bar the Spanish obviously had to put on top of the mountain was a challenge. As for why a bar would be put in top of the mountain, I’m not sure. I’ll admit it’s much more convenient than trying to call a Saint-Bernard with their small barrel of brandy.
As we began our hike Karine whispered-shouted to me over the wind: “Keep the core warm, you can loose the limbs!”. I’m sure she was referring to our inordinate number of layers over the core of our body and it wasn’t a disparaging comment over the usefulness of my limbs. Still, it was darn cold and we agreed that, while lost of limbs remained unlikely, 12°C with 50km/h winds is no fun. Despite our best judgment, we kept going forward and went on a hike, lying to ourselves thinking we would do the short 1km loop instead of the full 3km.
About 250m into the trail the wind did die down making the hike still cold but much more manageable. As such, surprising absolutely nobody, we ended up doing the full 3km hike. Karine’s purchase of hiking pole did prove to be useful and key to her success as the terrain pretty much goes a little up and down constantly. There might be only a 30m difference in elevation between the lowest and highest point of the trail but we managed a total of 130m of elevation gain.
By the time we were done with the hike in what turned out to be surprisingly lush vegetation for a windswept mountain, we proceeded to grab a snack at the bar before heading out. We managed to confirm the Spaniards could be one-upping the Swiss’ Saint-Bernard by providing food and booze in a convenient building. While the Saint-Bernard might come to you, try and have them bring you chips while hiking the alps. At best you’re getting a bag of chip covered in drool or at worst an empty bag and a slightly fatter dog.
Without much prompting we headed down our peak and pointed the car toward 📍Setenil de las Bodegas, a charming little village built in a rocky hill. While not quite the Sassis of Matera you’ll find houses dug into the hill with overhangs that cover most of the rooftops on one side of the street. While a beautiful village made of white houses under beige overhanging rocks make for a beautiful setting, a village under tons of rocks must be an insurer’s nightmare. Insurance or not the village is setup for a large volume of tourists. Being on the tail end of the season however we pretty much had to share the place with a very small number of people and a whole lot of closed stores. It served us perfectly.
We took our leave of the village, with many pictures of rocks over houses in our phones. We set sails for 📍Ronda and its famous bridge over its slightly less famous ravine. One could say you don’t get the bridge without the ravine yet the famous pictures of Ronda feature the 📍bridge.
Arriving later in the day allowed us to get to Ronda at its warmest for the day. Around 22°C that felt cold. We refused to carry long sleeves and went on the explore the city and walk around in search of the path down the ravine to take “the shot” of the bridge. Alas, it was all for naught. The famous walk with the famous stop to take the famous picture of the famous bridge was closed for maintenance. The tail end of the season means less people but also more construction in tourist areas.
We’re not ones to despair over a mere closure. We kept going and decided to try our luck at the smaller bridge that no one takes pictures of in the hope it had a decent view of “the bridge”. Luck wasn’t on our side and while a good idea, the twists and turns of the ravine completely obscured our view of the bridge. Still, undeterred by this setback, we looked at the map and noticed a park that went back up along with the ravine on the other side. Surely we can get a decent shot from one of the many lookouts. Well… no. There was a lookout that would have afforded us a great angle but the construction gods were against us and it was fenced up. It would have been an almost perfect spot but a rope extended from the middle of the bridge to the lookout with people with way too much climbing gear hanging next to the rope anchor on the lookout. No chance for us to sneak past the barrier and sneak a shot while pretending to be dumb tourists unable to read signage or the concept of barriers.
We did find a path slightly down that would also allow us to visit to take a decent picture. The entrance to the path was gated. Turns out you can visit the inside of the bridge for 2.50€ each. Paying the required amount allowed us to go down the stairs and take our picture. As long as we were there we stopped to visit the empty room below the bridge. We called it a consolation prize and made plans to drive down to bottom of the gorge tomorrow to take “the shot”.
Places
El Torcal de Antequera · Calle el Torcal de Antequera, 70, 75, 29200 Antequera, Málaga, Spain
★★★★★ · National reserve
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Setenil de las Bodegas · 11692, Cádiz, Spain
11692, Cádiz, Spain
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El Tajo de Ronda · C. Armiñán, 3, 29400 Ronda, Málaga, Spain
★★★★★ · Tourist attraction
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