28th December 2022
We took a trip to Andalucia between Christmas and New Year and one of the highlights was the Caminito del Rey, a spectacular walk along a cliff-side path on the edge of the famous El Chorro gorge. Bad weather earlier in the month had caused a landslide which destroyed part of the path, so some changes had to be made. The walk is normally a circular walk, but this wasn’t possible so instead of starting the walk at the northern end, walking to the south and getting the shuttle bus back to the starting point, the walk started and finished at the southern end. It’s a shame that we didn’t get to do the full walk, but it was still a great experience.
We were really lucky too as it was a gorgeous day with clear blue sky, although it was a bit chilly when you were in the shade of the mountain. It felt totally safe, although I tried not to look down too often, particularly when crossing the bridge! You have to wear helmets for the whole walk. The original path is still there and you can just imagine how terrifying it must have been, trying to walk along it! Click here to watch a video that shows the old path in a terrible condition with crumbling rock and huge gaps on the path floor – no way would we have attempted to walk along that!! You can also watch a video here of the walk as it is today (or will be when the path is repaired again).
Parking was a bit of a nightmare. The number of walkers had been reduced by half but there were still a lot of cars trying to park in a relatively small car park! Even parking along the side of the road was full, so we drove around for a while getting a bit concerned to say the least. Eventually we found a space to park across from the entrance to La Garganta Hotel. It wasn’t a proper car space but it was the best we could get – we just hoped we wouldn’t get back to find that the car had been towed away!! Luckily all was well and when we got back after the walk, there were quite a lot of other cars parked near us, in an area that wasn’t really meant for parking.
