Stepped out the door at 7:10 and rain! Retreated to vestibule to don appropriate gear. Today's route is classified as difficult, but I am breaking it into two parts, the shorter segment being today's because, on the way to Carratraca, the end point of this stage, there is the Caminito del Rey to walk!
Despite the weather, it was a beautiful walk:
The rain was on and off, so I was wondering about the Caminito excursion.
Here is how it works: hordes of people board a bus—it runs every half hour—we are talking major big bus on skinny, serpentine road—in El Chorro, pay €1,55 (about $2.00) and roll along to the start of the walk. This does not include the hoards of people who arrive at the access point by car. It turns out, though, that many of them must be going to the restaurant up there, not walking the walk, because only two tour groups were there when I arrived at the check-in. This is a one-way only walk: You start north and you go south. In ends near the hotel, very convenient.
What struck me, aside form the obvious magnificence, were the remnants of the old Caminito. Now, that was terrifying!
Anyway, so spectacular is this experience that I am going to do the walk again tomorrow.
I suggest you read about it here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caminito_del_Rey
For photos—I am not even going to bother with mine—go here:
There is a supermarket in El Chorro. A lady sits behind a desk in a room less than half the size of my kitchen; there is a chain beside her so that you cannot go to the refrigerator in which there was a bit of random produce such as one head of lettuce, a wilted leek and a few other things, like ham. I bought an apple (not bad), chocolate (not good), and one tomato, (ehhh).
May 05: Since the apple was good, I went back today to purchase another, but Mirabel did not open her market for the good people of El Chorro or its visitors.
I had bought a ticket way in advance for today's walk, the first of the morning at 9:00. Caught the bus at 7:50, which was supposed to leave at 8:00, but wait until the appointed hour, the driver did not. There was only one other person on said bus, who, it turned out, was an employee of the restaurant at the access point. "Wow," I thought, "I am going to have this walk all to myself!" But, no.
When I got to the starting point, after a very pleasant 2.7 Km. walk through woods, tons of people who did not have reservations were lined up to buy entradas. No one tells you which line to get in, so I got in the wrong one. After waiting some time, I figured I had better check, and a guy told me that my "ticket" was not sufficient proof of purchase, nor were the various confirmational e-mails, so, like a naughty delinquent, I was sent to the back of the line of non-ticket holders. When I finally made it to the booth, it took the woman much time to retrieve my information. After forty-five minutes of bureaucratic disorganization, I was on the Caminito again.
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