A Place Both Wonderful and Strange – Tash & Ricki's Career Break Travels

Before I get into this bumper post of updates, just wanted to flag a new feature I have managed to add to the site (check me out – maybe I’ll have a new career as web developer on return to the UK!). In the top right corner, you can find a link to a Map should you wish to see what destinations we have planned for the year. Will do my best to keep it up to date.

For now though, we’re approaching the end of our second week in Málaga, and it was a marked increase in activity compared to our first. We took advantage of the reasonable car hire rates here, and had three days worth of trips. Although there is still a lot for us to see in Málaga itself, it was lovely to spend some time outside of the city. This is the sort of thing we wouldn’t do much of, or perhaps only a day, if we were on a one or two week break.

Lucky for us, Ricki is quite relaxed about driving on the other side of the road and navigating unfamiliar routes (though admittedly, Google Maps does most of the latter). I’d be willing to give it a go, but adding a second driver to car hire always seems pretty disproportionate in price. It’s also too early in this year to be testing the strength of our marriage!

Of our three days booked, unfortunately the first day was going to be a bit damp wherever we went. We knew we wouldn’t see the best of one of our selected destinations, and opted to schedule El Torcal national reserve in this slot. This hiking spot is a geology lover’s dream. It is famed for its limestone rock foundations and karst landscape, and a bit of wet weather wouldn’t change that. It did make for some pretty muddy feet though!

Although we want to keep our hiking stamina up, we elected to do the second longest of the three trails. The selling point of the longest are the views over Málaga valley and even the African coastline. On a day like Tuesday though, we’d have been lucky to see back to the car park. No matter, we were happy just to see the unusual topography. We also appreciated the atmospheric, misty scenes. We knew other great views awaited us later in the week.

The next day brought us to Caminito del Rey, or Little King’s Path. This is an aerial walkway, 100m up the walls of a gorge.

The pathway we were on was completed in 2015. Prior to this, visitors had to traverse the old path built in the early 1900s for labourers transporting materials for the nearby hydroelectric plant. Elements of the old path are still visible underneath the new, and it certainly doesn’t look like a more appealing option.

In fact, at one time it was known as the world’s most dangerous walkway, with missing handrails and open air gaps. For some vicarious vertigo, check out this video on Youtube. Unsurprisingly, a series of deaths ultimately led to the walkway’s closure and construction of the new path.

We had left getting tickets late, and had to join a guided tour rather than general admission (there are only 20 general admission tickets per day, across two timeslots). But it was really interesting to hear more about the gorge, walkway and native plants and animals. The radio/earphone system they used was also a great way to be able to still hear our guide while inevitably dawdling behind taking photos. That and the fact that after all the safety improvements, it would probably be quite counterproductive to have 30 people crowd round her on a 1m wide path, 100m in the air…

The walk was incredibly awe inspiring given the scale of it all, yet didn’t feel scary. Even over the obligatory glass floor which has been installed at one corner, or at the max. 10 person capacity suspension bridge.

I’d have loved to get a video looking down, but I was too worried about fumbling and saying goodbye to my phone! Ricki happily conquered it all despite being nervous around heights. The bobbing motion of the suspension bridge was definitely not his favourite part though!

Last but certainly not least, our final day was spent in Ronda. This mountaintop city is perched atop another steep drop, spoiling its citizens with some stunning views.

The town itself is beautiful and we quickly arrived at its pièce de résistance – the Puente Nuevo, the “new” bridge, completed in 1793. This felt like the touristic heart of the town. Even in the early January midweek I was surprised to see small crowds gathering. It definitely made me feel grateful to be visiting in low season.

From the bridge, you could tell there were some great viewpoints down in the valley back towards the town, and of the bridge itself. Given the pleasant weather we figured it would be rude not to check these out.

After meandering our way through the old town, we were faced with either following cars and a couple of people down a winding road, or continuing over a dirt path on the hillside, presumably etched out by many feet before us. Opting for the latter, we were unsure if we were heading for Caminito del Rey part 2, especially when confronted by a group in mountain climbing gear coming from the opposite direction. Thankfully this wasn’t the case though, and just when I wondered if we had made the right choice of route, lo and behold….

We were delighted to find a viewing platform entirely to ourselves. It was so good, we almost felt like we should be paying for the private viewing privileges. I’m someone who feels (probably unnecessarily) awkward about asking strangers to take our photo and has a husband who is (probably defensibly) staunchly against selfie sticks. So it was great to be able to put the timer on, prop my phone up on a rail and get a full length shot of the pair of us, without the worry of someone nabbing the phone or just gormlessly wandering into shot.

(On that note, I do owe an overdue photo credit for the brilliant header photo for this site to our friend, Jamie Cowie!)

After the mini photoshoot, we made our way down to the road…only to have the joy of walking all the way back uphill into town in the heat of the day – again, grateful for our winter visit! This was perfect for working up an appetite for lunch though.

After a couple of days of packed lunches, this was our first experience of the trip eating out. We followed the good reviews to El Lechuguita, where I broke my general “no photos of restaurant food unless stunning enough to be mounted on a gallery wall or weird enough nobody would believe me” rule to mark the occasion.

In a sense, this meal did feel pretty weird though. I know tapas is small plates, but EUR 1.20 a dish (for many, though not all) is hard to believe! It was authentic, tasty and fast. For 8 plates, a glass of wine and half pint of beer for a total bill of EUR 16, they could have spilt half of it over my head, insulted me to my face and I probably wouldn’t have complained. Then again, I am a mild mannered Brit, so they could probably do all that and serve terrible food, and it would still be me who ends up apologising!

The remainder of our afternoon was spent checking out the arab baths (the underground chambers would probably be a haven in the hot summer months), and more wandering through the old town and cliffside town park.

After a final coffee stop, we were suitably fuelled for our drive back to Málaga.

Time to part ways with our four wheeled companion, and after some satnav shenanigans, we finally arrived at the car hire drop off point. After taking the pedestrian exit through the building, we emerged into the lobby of none other than a certain real estate consultancy firm. 

I might be on a career break, but escaping my employer is proving pretty tricky!