Caminito del Rey

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Alora

October 11

It was an early morning on this day to catch our day-tour to the Caminito del Rey, so up at 8:00 a.m. After cereal and yogurt we headed toward the Malaga train station, about a 20-minute walk, to meet up with the tour bus. I purchased the tour via the Get Your Guide app.  Our tour left via a very comfortable bus at 9:15 a.m. The tour guide was a highly spirited young woman named Dafne. The first stop on this full-day tour was a town called Alora, about one-hour away. There really isn’t all that much to see here but it is a great example of a classic Spanish “white” village as the houses are literally whitewashed.  The main attraction is the Arab Castle of Alora, built on the highest point of the town by the Phoenicians before God was born.

As our bus got close to Alora, the castle was the first thing to come into view.

Upon arriving into Alora, Dafne herded our group of about 20 people through the tightly winding streets in town explaining its history and cultural significance, etc.

We toured a very small church, and an even smaller cultural museum. The most interesting thing about the museum is an artifact that once belonged to Cervantes, who was the town tax collector here for a few years. His tax collection chest is on display.

The main attraction in Alora is the Moorish castle, situated on the highest point in town. Up close, it’s pretty run down and unimpressive, but some of the keyhole doorways and archways were cool.  Among the grounds of these ruins were also an active archaeological dig where the objective was to find remains of victims of the Spanish Civil War from the 1930’s. Ouch.

Also the castle does provide some picturesque views of the citrus and olive groves within the Guadalhorce Valley surrounding the town.

A highlight of visiting Alora turned out to be lunch at La Taberna del Caminito. A tapas lunch with drinks at this tavern was included in the price of the tour. The food was very good, and it just kept coming and coming…we were all very well fed here! We sat with a nice couple from Italy, Boris and Paula. Boris, outgoing and funny, gave us some tips for visiting the Dolomites.

Caminito del Rey

After the never-ending lunch we boarded the bus and headed to the real objective of the tour, the Caminito del Rey. It took about 30 minutes to bus there.

Being one of the top tourist destinations in Spain, this was a very busy place when we arrived at around 2:30 p.m.  Dafne did a good job of herding the cats. She first had us use the restrooms since the Caminito del Rey adventure would take about 3 hours, and there are no restrooms during the trek.  Soon enough we were all at the entrance point where we received a quick safety lecture and hard hat helmets.

The premise here is basically walking along a narrow wooden walkway which clings to one side of a high cliff wall over a chasm.  It is not for anybody afraid of heights.  This was a truly amazing adventure, even though it was quite scary at times for me. This is an example of pictures saying it all.

 

Most scary for me was the last leg, which required crossing the chasm on a wind-induced swaying suspension bridge.

After the suspension bridge, we worked our way off the walkway and got some good perspectives of what we just did.

We each enjoyed a beer at the end point while waiting for Dafne to call us to board the bus for departure back to Malaga.

Arriving back in Malaga around 7:00 p.m. we freshened up a bit at the apartment before heading out for dinner. With some luck we got a table with just a five-minute wait at La Fontana. This Italian restaurant has outdoor seating in the shadow of Malaga Cathedral, a great location for dinner on this gorgeous night. The food was average (we both got pasta dishes), but a great spot.

We walked off dinner by walking around the city near the hotel. The streets of Malaga are kept very clean, and it’s a vibrant place with lots of positive energy…and plenty of gelato!!

Off to bed.

Next: Malaga Cathedral and Alcazaba