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The view out the window of our parador
in Ronda, taken at 5:45 this evening |
This day, Friday, we started out in Grazalema and ended in the busy and tourist-crowded city of Ronda, the third-biggest tourist attraction in Spain.
In contrast to previous days, my journal does not say much about specific sights we passed as we walked, but is a pretty fair description of the day as a whole. So I think I’ll follow Mark’s example and simply transcribe the whole journal text. This is in the left-hand column. Pictures appear in the center column, and when I have a special comment, that will be a caption to the picture. As always, you can get a small version of the picture by clicking on it; to get the full-sized picture, click on the bullet (•) directly beneath the picture.
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From my journal: No transport to the head of the trail today: we just walked out of Grazalema to a downward-leading trail that followed a Roman road for a piece, before it started back up to follow a stream, the Guadares, that went along farmland. It was the weather that most occupied us: again we would keep our cameras out as long as we could, and when the rain became unignorable, put them away for their protection. There were plenty of nice views, but since our path was essentially flat, perhaps not as many as the day before. The cliffs and escarpments were visible much of the time, however, and I hope that at least a few of my pictures can show this. This was farmland we were traversing, and we frequently, even constantly, had to watch out for cow-pies and goat turds. There was a lot of mud, too, and when this occurred on slopes or near stream crossings, it presented a serious hazard. Indeed, I think that at least half of us fell down one time or more. Mark says the he didn’t, but I went down twice, neither time seriously. The rain was intermittent, and occasionally fairly heavy, though I don’t think that it could ever be called a downpour. We chose a nice place with a broad low wall, undear a couple of trees, for our lunch. But there was rain as accomopaniment the whole time. We continued in the intermittent rain, over paths that were intermittently muddy. Throughout the walk, there were no extremely steep ascents or descents, but there were places where Nick needed to give us a hand to get through a sticky situation. I hope my pictures do justice to the beauty of the surroundings: the day was dark, and the contrast may not be good in these snaps. We walked till we got to the town of Montejaque, where there was a bar where we watered, coffeed, and beered. The group was moderately boisterous, and we sat relaxing and reliving the day for some while, before our bus came. It took us to Ronda, where we debussed in front of a parador, very elegant, right at the end of the bridge across the Guadalevín that dates from the 1760’s. The town is the third most betouristed in the country, after Sevilla and Granada, and its setting on an amazingly deep gorge fully explains its popularity.
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