I fancied something a little different from the history and architecture of Malaga, and the pictures I had seen of something called El Caminito del Rey looked pretty stunning, so I felt it was time for a little adventure.
El Chorro is a small village beside the dam of the El Conde de Guadalhorce reservoir (below picture) that serves as the starting point for the "Kings Pathway", as it translates in English.
The high level pathway is pinned to the rock around 100 metres above the base of the gorge in which a massive hydro-electric plant had been constructed in the early 1900s.
Previously the walkways were for the plant workers, but fell into disuse and subsequently were described as the world's most dangerous walkway, so it seemed an ideal day out.
Fortunately after a series of accidents (because it proved impossible to stop people trying their luck), repairs were made and the area was made somewhat safer, even if still nerve-wracking depending on your tolerance of heights.
As an aside, the vision of building the dam and the walkways was down to one man Rafael Benjumea Burin. After it was built, King Alfonso XIII turned up to have a look, walked along a small section, and hey presto, the whole thing got named after him. How typical is that?
Burin did get a title out of it though - Count of Guadalhorce - so there is that, I suppose.
The walkways provide stunning views down into the gorge.
Burin was dubbed the "poetic engineer" because he combined engineering with respect for the natural environment, and it is not hard to see how true that description was.
The trail finishes with crossing the bridge (image below), a suspended metal affair that moves about quite a lot even without the strong gale blowing on the day I picked! Nevertheless, I and the rest of the group made it to safety.
It turns out that if you get the train from Malaga to Cordoba, it runs through the gorge, so if you fancy seeing it from the comfort of a warm, safe carriage, you can.
In the picture below, you can just see the train track in the lower left hand corner.
