We decided to flag the sights of Malaga as we'd seen a fair bit of it driving around finding out hostel the previous evening, instead we opted to get straight on with the itinerary Nico had planned out for us.We had a bit of a slow start to the drive, taking a few wrong roads out of the city but we eventually got ourselves heading in the right direction and what a road it was! The countryside was classic Spain with tiny villages of whitewashed housed dotted throughout the rocky, dry hill, some precariously perched on edges of cliffs in what looks like it would be impossible to access by foot let alone car! We were certainly pleased we'd chosen to do the car thing, enabling us to get deep into the heart of Spain and not just be trodding the usual tourist trail.Our first stop for the day was El Chorro which is known for its El Camino del Rey (King's Path) which is a crumbling concrete pathway with no hand rails which is pinned to the cliffs of the 10m wide limestone gorge, some areas of the path missing altogether. The walk is now closed as a tourist died while walking it a few years ago and you can certianly see why when you visit it, or you can go here and watch a madman charging along it with a video camera going. Mental I tell ya! Once we'd gaped at the gorge and dam that runs through the 200m high cliffs we headed around the corner and up a mountain to get nearly 360 degree views of the surrounding countryside. Spectacular! Along with the views there is a dam up the top of the mountain, not something you expec to see up at such a height!On the drive back down Nico and I battled the heat and walked to the ruins of Bobastro, a 10th century Mozaribic chruch carved out of the surrounding rockface. It was a very impressive sight as you could stillmake out where arch and doorways had been and there were perfectly circular windows still intact that had been chiseled out all that time ago.
Our last item on the agenda was to visit Lagunilla Corta in Campillos which is a wetlands reserve which is home to some 3,000 pink flamingos. Unfortunately for us there weren't any in the swaps with walkways nearby but the binoculars enabled us to see across the wetlands to where they were all hanging out. Another extrmely impressive sight for the day!That afternoon we discovered the major downfall of having a car in Spain and that is trying to locate hostels situation in the old town of a city. What a nightmare we had driving around and around Grandada trying to get near enough to our hostel to first of all just locate it and then hopefully find a park nearby. This went on for a number of hours due to all the one way streets or bus and taxi only lanes in what seemed every corner we turned. What a nightmare! Only after Kelly and I abondoned the car and set out on foot did we discover it and also discovered it was on a pedestrian only street anyway so all our driving about had been in vain. Not to worry, we can laugh about these things later but at the time we weren't up for much laughing, just dinner at the first place we could find and then straight to bed to rest our weary eyes from all the impressive sights and then straining to see street signs well into the night.
Our last item on the agenda was to visit Lagunilla Corta in Campillos which is a wetlands reserve which is home to some 3,000 pink flamingos. Unfortunately for us there weren't any in the swaps with walkways nearby but the binoculars enabled us to see across the wetlands to where they were all hanging out. Another extrmely impressive sight for the day!That afternoon we discovered the major downfall of having a car in Spain and that is trying to locate hostels situation in the old town of a city. What a nightmare we had driving around and around Grandada trying to get near enough to our hostel to first of all just locate it and then hopefully find a park nearby. This went on for a number of hours due to all the one way streets or bus and taxi only lanes in what seemed every corner we turned. What a nightmare! Only after Kelly and I abondoned the car and set out on foot did we discover it and also discovered it was on a pedestrian only street anyway so all our driving about had been in vain. Not to worry, we can laugh about these things later but at the time we weren't up for much laughing, just dinner at the first place we could find and then straight to bed to rest our weary eyes from all the impressive sights and then straining to see street signs well into the night.
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