Benoaján and Grazalema, May 15

 I wanted to do another walk in Benaoján before taxiing off to Grazalema, where I will stay four nights.  First was a circular walk to Las Cuevas del Gato.  Got there and umm, I had no idea what you were supposed to see exactly.  THIS was the spot.  There was a restaurant, not yet open, and a kiosk, ditto, but I must have been missing something.  What looks like a cave in the photo is an indentation in the rock on the other side of the river.

Oh, well, let's get on with the circular part.

No, not exactly, because there was no bridge.  It must have washed away in the same flood that took the other bridge.  But no mind, the path I had been on was pleasant enough, and I enjoyed the return along the river.

Part two was to walk to some other caves and off I headed up a nice farm track.  Got to a big gate that looked like it was the enclosure to someone's house; it was not locked, so I went in.  Oh, what a lot of sculptures on the property!

I think this is supposed to represent an ant:

And just one more, probably not an ant:

I realized, after reading my notes, that uh-oh, I was at the home of a sculptor, so I retreated!  But had a hard time finding where the path was to go because the instructions did not state that after this point, it changed dramatically from a track to a skinny uphill climb, the access to which was almost impossible to find.

It was between these two posts that are part of a fence and from the other path they, not being in a close-up picture, are almost indiscernible from the fence of which they are a part. There were supposed to have been cairns, but there weren't.  

Anyway, it was a lovely hike.  I still had a bit of time before the taxi was due to arrive, so I went back on the path where those stepping stones were.  Clearly, other people had quite a different take on them!

BUT they were all wearing bathing suits, and even though I didn't catch a picture to prove it, a bunch of kids were swimming in the upstream part, having a great time!

The drive to Grazalema, an utterly charming town, was through dramatic peaks.  ¡Impresionante, de verdad!  The B and B is sweet.  My room is tiny but the views are stunning.  The person who runs the establishment, one Andrés, is very nice.  He gave me a packet containing instructions for a bunch of walks, but honestly, it was overwhelming, especially since I do not do non-GPS excursions.  The walk I had planned for tomorrow, I learned, has a glitch, so I put together something else that requires a return by taxi from a town that has no taxi, so we will see how that goes!  You really need a car to get to a lot of the walks; taxi service is minimal and buses there are not.

After taking a shower and trying to feel whelmed minus the over, I went to a bar in the main plaza to get something to eat.  Grilled cod with tomatoes; delicious!