El Chorro

We had to have an easy day as we are a bit wasted after yesterday’s shenanigans.  We planned a tiny walk to see the Gaitanes Gorge.  There used to be a concrete catwalk along the cliffs, which was called El Camino del Rey.  It was built between 1901 and 1905 to provide access between two waterfalls for construction of hydroelectric power plants.  The catwalk was never maintained and had deteriorated to a large degree, but people would still walk it, even though it was very precarious.  After several accidents where walkers plunged off the catwalk it was closed in 2000.  Now it has been completely restored and unfortunately for us, is not set to open until the end of the month.  We would have loved to walk the catwalk.

We drove to the little town of El Chorro and went on a short walk up into the hills so we could see a small portion of the restored catwalk.  After having lunch on the rocks, we walked back to town and drove to Antequera for a few supplies and had a café con leche, which is always really good.

Once again we wasted an inordinate amount of time in the supermercado mulling over which bottle of cava to buy and which bottles of wine to buy, the selection is huge.  The selection of everything is huge, Spain is paradise for a carnivore, a zillion types of dried sausage and giant legs of cured ham are on offer as well as cheese and every other grocery item imaginable.

That is it for today, tomorrow we plan to visit some Roman ruins, it is time for some archaeology.

Limestone Cliffs

Railway bridge, a train goes through the gorge

There is a bridge that connects the two cliffs

The restored catwalk and the railway tracks in the foreground

View of the reservoir

Jagged limestone cliffs