20 years ago today – Day 36

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Monday, April 8 – El Burgo to Ronda, 1690 km

The road to Ronda climbs directly from El Burgo and continues to do so for a long time, at least a long time when I am starting cold in the morning on bicycle. From El Burgo’s height of 580m, it reaches a pass at 970m, then dips down a ways before climbing to a second pass of 1,060m. This happens in the first 15 km or so, a tough start for the day but at least it is over with quickly.

Again, the road surface is broken in places and I need to watch my speed as I descend from the passes. From the second pass, Ronda can be seen in the distance. In the mountains there is a fierce crosswind that threatens to blow me off the road at times. As I descend from the second pass it becomes a tailwind blowing me across a grassy plateau to fabled Ronda at the end.

Mike has his own maps now so he doesn’t wait for me. I am becoming used to cycling on my own. Even in the towns where we stay, we spend less time together. He much prefers to be alone so he doesn’t make good company most of the time anyway. Today, he raced ahead, fearing that I would not make it to Ronda before the tourist office closed, even though we only have 30 km to go, our shortest loaded cycling day yet.

Of course, even I get there shortly after 1 and he is waiting at the tourist office. We find a room for 1600 pesados with saggy mattresses for 1600 pesados a few doors away. Mike goes out for a haircut and I do all my laundry, as I am usually too wasted to do it all after longer rides. Then I set out to explore the town.

Ronda’s geography is perhaps difficult to explain, or at least to understand how it evolved that way, but simply put it is astonishing, breath-taking and very memorable, more than any place we have seen so far. Approaching it from the north-east as we did, it looks like any other fortified town on a smallish hill. Even cycling into town from this way is easy, but the fortifications are only on the north-east side. Walls on the other sides are only there to stop one from falling off, as they have sheer drop-offs anywhere from 70 to 200m.

The most amazing feature is a stream that runs right through the mesa-like end of the plateau. I suppose over many millennium the land has been shoved skyward by the moving continents and the stream continued to cut through it as it rose. Where it enters the town on the east side it forms a modest canyon, which is spanned by an ancient Roman bridge, so obvious with its semi-circle arches. It’s only a few metres deep at this point, but from there the town slopes upward and the stream drops further until the precipitous gorge is 200m deep at the far end. Where it exits the plateau to the plain below, the gorge looks like the gods have tried to hack off the end of the plateau with a sword.

The town lies on either side of the gorge with the “old bridge” or “Arab bridge” (as opposed to the Roman bridge) crossing where the canyon is only 70m deep and the “new bridge” (18th century) where it is 120m deep. Besides the wondrous setting, the architecture and rolling streets are very pretty. Ernest Hemingway and Orson Welles both spent time living here for inspiration and it is also the place where modern bull fighting was developed 200 years ago. There’s a Moorish bath house in the oldest part of town near the Roman bridge, but it is closed for renovations.

I join Mike for dinner in an Italian restaurant, then return to my saggy mattress to write a couple letters. I have a great deal of difficulty sleeping tonight. My congestion worsened and so has my hacking cough. I am sure that is no fun for Mike either. To complicate matters, I have pinched a nerve in my lower back somehow, which makes it painful to cough or lie on my side, the way I usually sleep. I am glad I have visited here though, even if it kills me.


PHOTO 1: view from above El Burgo
PHOTO 2: Sierra de las Nieves
PHOTO 3: pass in Sierra de las Nieves
PHOTO 4: house on hillside
PHOTO 5: approaching Ronda
PHOTO 6: gates of Ronda
PHOTO 7: footpath outside the lower walls
PHOTO 8: Ronda main square
PHOTO 9: cliffs of Ronda from below
PHOTO 10: steep street down to lower town
PHOTO 11: main pedestrian way
PHOTO 12: Roman bridge in lower town
PHOTO 13: bull fighting arena, where bull fighting began
PHOTO 14: gate in upper town
PHOTO 15: doorway with painting above
PHOTO 16: west cliff looking north
PHOTO 17: west cliff looking south
PHOTO 18: housing at the edge of the gorge
PHOTO 19: looking down at the mill 250m below
PHOTO 20: new bridge, town along west cliff
PHOTO 21: Roman (lower) bridge
PHOTO 22: lower end of town
PHOTO 23: new bridge from the gorge
PHOTO 24: Basilica del Espiritu