our grand tour of southern Spain February 7th Day twenty five The Caminito del Rey

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 Tuesday 7^th February Day Twenty-four

Is it worth walking the Caminito Del Rey in southern Spain?

We have had really good weather for all of the twenty-four days so far. It has got warmer and sunnier as the weeks go on. Chilly at night but consistent sunshine and temperatures around 14C.

So, as I lie awake at 3am listening to the rain falling through the pine trees and on to the roof above, I cannot quite believe it’s happening! On the one day when I book the Caminito Del Rey walk! Rain! Lots of drizzling rain!

I’ve set the alarm for 0630? Why such a ridiculous hour to wake up? Because I’m unsure where to go this morning to start the walk and I’m also unsure on how to ‘join’ a group. I’m not the only one. We met another couple yesterday, facing exactly the same dilemmas. The actual official website isn’t as helpful as it makes itself out to be!  Anyway, the helpful waiter at the restaurant last night gave me the heads up. The website says be there at least an hour before your tour starts!

I wake, get dressed, have cereal and then discover that because I didn’t put my glasses on, its 0530 not 0630! Curses! A thousand pestilences on anyone within earshot! Clearly not Maggie; she’s still out in the land of nod! I crawl back into bed fully clothed for another hours shut eye. Only of course I don’t get any because – wait for it – its raining heavily! Did I say it’s the FIRST day of rain we’ve had in twenty-four days!

I have timed the walk to the entrance kiosk. It will take me thirty minutes to reach the tunnel entrance, another thirty minutes to go down the path after it. If I leave at 0715, I should be there for around 0820. I’m a plodder you see. Old mountaineer …… tortoise rather than hare …… but at end of day when younger, fitter, pacier brethren have exhausted themselves – I have enough spare in the tank to keep going a few more miles again – that’s what mountain leadership training does for you – both summer and winter certificates! So there!

As it is, I arrive in the dark at just before 0800 where upon the security guard almost gives me a heart attack. She was standing between the vending machines and I didn’t see her. An ‘Hola’ out of a coke vending machine can scare the hell out of you, especially in the dark, She was dressed all in black you see. She told me I physically jumped several feet and could she check that I was Ok and that I hadn’t had a heart attack, had I?

Near thing! Voices out of vending machines in the pitch-black darkness! Near thing!   When her companions arrived in the brightening dawn, they described me as ‘loco’ for being so early! I tried to explain what the website said but they weren’t having any of it. Great the butt of god natured Spaniard banter first thing in the morning – great!

Things have improved. How could they not? I’m already drenched! I mean who expects a £400+ Mountain Equipment Gortex mountain jacket to leak through its external pockets? Seriously? I mean, really? Anyway, I’m first in the queue and the nice lady says that I can go on my own if I want , rather than be in a big tour group – but do I want to miss the tour guide’s commentary? Um, let me think about that for ….. a second ….. no …… I’ll walk on my own if that’s ok.

Safety briefing, equipment check, wear the fetching blue climbing helmet or die at the hands of the red helmeted instructors who line the path to the end!

And I’m off. And I get all the great views to myself; uninterrupted by long conga lines of fellow walkers. Wonderful! It may be raining. It may be slippy. Water may be dripping off the helmet and down my nose but this is exciting! I have always wanted to do this walk!

Overall, I’d say, if you have a head for heights then this walk will cause you no problems. There are one or two areas where it is ‘dizzying’ but the views are exciting, the gorges spectacular and the soaring golden eagles and African vultures, heart-warming. I suspect it’s a kind of conga line hell in summer months!  Yes the rain made it a little slippy under foot but the sides are well fenced off and the gaps between individual boards small enough so that you don’t feel vertigo.  The old cliff path which lies directly beneath this new one is terrifying! I mean seriously – what were people thinking? I know you were clipped in to stainless steel rigging wires etc but even so!  I’ve done my fair share of mountaineering and alpine climbing but that old path? Challenging! Challenging indeed! Whoever has walked that old one – my deepest respect to you!

My one wobble came at the suspension bridge. I have a good head for heights on cliffs (not, interestingly enough, on tall buildings though) but as I reached the centre of the bridge and it began to bounce ….. I suddenly had a dizzy attack – short, mercifully, but enough to give me a good adrenaline jolt!

The scenery was great, the flora interesting. I really enjoyed it – enough buzz to get the adrenaline going. It’s around a five-mile walk. Book way ahead, they only allow 100 people a day to walk it and it is sold out months in advance. Only four people got ‘walk-up’ tickets this morning.

Sat on the return bus back to the starting point, I’m trying to work out how I will dry off all my kit. Everything has been saturated by that fine, persistent, penetrating drizzle – what we call mizzle down in the south west! (and a ‘little mist’ – in Wales!!)

I’m told the bus driver will drop me off at the camp site entrance if I ask him. I ask and he doesn’t! He’s been irritated by the ten people who got on at the visitor’s centre, all without masks. He had to break into his own supply and then they all faffed about and protested about having to wear them!

So, I have to walk back up the road! Where upon I decide to offer to take Maggie out for a coffee back down the road at the café where I’ve just walked up from! I know she’s bored and believe me when I say there is NOTHING to do in this area other than walk – and in this rain – that isn’t the greatest attraction is it?

We amble back down the road, adding to my mileage total for the day. We have a coffee. I manage to find a campsite down on the coast which can take us for the next two nights and then Maggie takes pity o me and suggests we get the bus back up to the visitors centre. We can look around it and then walk the 600m back down the hill to the camp site.

The visitor’s centre is closed! Like a lot of places in the mountainous interior behind the coast!

My gear is strung out over the slide out bed racks. The heating is on – a sauna like 20C. things are drying nicely. There is a lot of stuff to dry! I walked ten miles today. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Fresh mountain air and a breezy ‘shower wash cycle’ to boot! I’m clean! My equipment is clean! Great fun!

Useful information:

Useful websites: Caminito del Rey   https://www.caminitodelrey.info/en/