Ardales-El Chorro

I have been asked by various interested parties to give more details about the scenery I'm passing through. (My reports are rather sparse because of the difficulty of using the palm pilot to type lots).
What struck me in Tarifa was the greenness of the countryside. If it weren't for the cork oak trees the rolling hills would make you think you were in Herefordshire. The change came on the third day - a steep climb up to 900 metres and real mountain scenery. From Ubrique, the dramatic pink and grey outcrops of the Sierra de Grazalema started to appear, and oak and olive trees replaced the cork.
After a stretch of low hills planted with cereal crops and casas pijas round Ronda, I climbed up and into a well cultivated valley before Serrato and Ardales..
Distances covered
Day 1:Tarifa Facinas 21
Day 2:Facinas Barrios 24
Day 3:Barrios Castellar 20
Day 5:Castellar Jimena 20
Day 6:Jimena Mojon 28
Day 7:Mojon Ubrique 7
Day 8:Ubrique Villaluenga 13
Day 9:Villaluenga Montejaque 20
Day 10:Montejaque Ronda 10.9
Day 12:Ronda Arriate 8.9
Day 12:Arriate Turnoff 14.3
Day 13:Turnoff Serrato 10.1
Day 13:Serrato Ardales 16.2
That brings me up to today's walk. Hostal el Cruce was only €20, and very good value at the price. My destination was El Chorro, which is a small village at the end of a series of large reservoirs, and a spectacular gorge. The barman told me to go the wrong way because he thought I was talking about the road. However, I met two old gents walking down the road, and one of them remembered that there had been a signpost outside the hostal before they put in a mini-roundabout. So I came back past the hostal and set off up the other road. I was soon hot and out of breath as the road shot up the mountainside. I still wasn't sure I was going the right way, so I asked a farmer. Of course, he told me I was going completely the wrong way and that I should be on a different road. A bit further on another man told me I was going the right way, and soon I picked up the red and white markers of the GR7.Then it was up and down over a series of mountainlets, until the path turned north to El Chorro. Where the path came back out on to the road I sat down for a break and chatted to two Welsh cyclists doing various tours round the area. They told me they have a friend starting the walk in two weeks, and this reminded me that I've still not met anybody else walking the route.
_After the break I walked through pine trees round a reservoir at the top of a hill, used to provide water for the hydroelectric station at El Chorro. I also saw the giant rusting turbine thing in the photo. Then I started on a steep path down 'El Tajo de la Encantada', which seemed to me to be a vertical cliff face. I'd thought when I started this morning that I would be in my luxury hotel by one o'clock, but the path was so long, steep and treacherous underfoot that it took me an hour to descend 400 metres. As I did so I passed through several geological layers; conglomerate with big pebbles in a concrety rock; sandstone cut into curves by the wind; and sharp shiny black rock splitting into tiny fragments.
Finally at the bottom and in the village, I looked for the hotel 'La Posada del Conde'. Nowhere to be seen, so I went to get a late lunch at a restaurant. The waiter told me the hotel is TEN KM from El Chorro. Fortunately the restaurant has apartments in a converted flour mill (this is where all the European money goes!). After a good lunch of healthy vegetables and a bottle of Don Faustino, I arranged to rent an apartment. It's amazing - a room cum kitchen in funky blue and yellow, a bedroom up a dinky spiral staircase with ensuite bathroom, and a further bedroom in the eaves for unexpected guests.
To round off a very satisfying day, I took a walk up the railway line which cuts through the gorge in a series of tunnels and bridges, to see the famous 'Camino del Rey', which is a precarious walkway stuck to the side of the vertical cliff face of the gorge. They've knocked down the first part now, so it's inaccessible unless you're one of the crazy mountaineers who are the main inhabitants of El Chorro. I wouldn't have gone on it, not even for ready money.
__
A wayfarer in Spain