Our main reason for coming to Ronda was hiking. As I mentioned in my last post, we tested the waters on our first day there, made a wrong turn or two, and deduced approximately where we’d done so. On our second day, we planned a sunrise hike, which we were super excited about. We’re both hiking enthusiasts, and we’re both in good shape (OK my cousin, Lauren, is in great shape, and I’m in “not bad for 38 years old and really likes carbs” shape). Still though, we’re used to hiking reasonably good sized mountains and all that stuff. So my descriptions of how easy/tough parts of the hike were is based on this. If you’re in significantly better shape/have never hiked in your life, please take that into consideration if using this as a guideline.
Let me digress for a moment to explain our packing strategies for this trip. We left the Monday after Thanksgiving, which meant packing time was limited, given family gatherings and such. Also, we both dislike winter, and the cold, and both particularly despise wearing pants. Which I realize sounds weird, especially for two cousins traveling together. But we prefer dresses and skirts, shorts are acceptable but not our top choice in warmer months, and if we must wear pants, they should be of the leggings/jeggings/stretchy jean variety. Which means packing for a week-long trip where the average highs were in the high 40s and the lows in the 20s was tricky. Especially when you add in active wear. So the “what to wear” discussion for this hike was pretty serious business. Neither of us wanted to wear our winter jackets because they weren’t exactly hiking material. In the end, we layered up and hatted up, and I was lucky enough that I always carry a default pair of stretchy gloves in my coat. For the record, I HIGHLY recommend the 32 Degrees Heat gear. I wore just the baselayer top over a old tank top (not from 32 Degrees Heat) and a track jacket type of getup from Costco (yes, most of my outfit was from costco and I’m not ashamed of that). I actually didn’t freeze to death, despite the fact that it was, ironically, 32 degrees in the morning with frost on the ground. Also: you need to own fleece-lined leggings. Not only are these the comfiest thing on the planet, but they literally saved my ass from freezing.
Bundled up and without any coffee because there was no place to get coffee this early we headed off on our hike at 7:30AM. If you don’t know us, you may not realize what an issue this is. But I’m pretty sure that both our first thought upon waking each morning is coffee. Especially when you’re preparing for a hike, it’s literally freezing, and it’s still dark out. We had thought ahead and bought croissants the day before, knowing there was no place we could get breakfast at this hour on a Sunday. So there was that, at least. But let me repeat… no coffee, 32 degrees, frost on the ground, hiking down a mountain in the semi-dark. We were still ridiculously pumped.
To recap getting to the hiking trail, from our hotel just on the new town side, we crossed the Ponte Nuevo, turned at the first right, and followed it around to the entry point. If you were coming from the opposite side, you’d be turning left at the last street before the Ponte Nuevo, though I’m sure from that direction there are easier ways to get there. I’m trying to explain it as best I can, because the lack of maps of this town is kind of remarkable. Once entering the hiking trail, we wandered down the wide steps, until we got to the fork in the path by the first viewing area. We turned left, continuing on the wide steps and straightaways.
When we got to the second fork in the path, we turned right – the opposite direction of where we headed the day before. You’ll know that you’re headed the correct way because, sooner rather than later, you’ll find path instead of pavement. As you walk along here, you’ll come to a plateau of sorts, with an archway on either side. Go through the one to the left (if you’re standing between them, with the Ponte Nuevo off to to your right side-ish). If you’re unsure, look at the path through each arch. The path that leads to the bottom looks surprisingly steep, and it is. Because it’s a straight shot down the side of the mountain. If you look at this path, you can see the entire thing, until it ends at the bottom. The other side, the side you do not want to take (we tried on the way back just to see where it took us), has more brush, and doesn’t look as steep, but eventually it ends – at least for the every day hiker that doesn’t do the repel down the side of the mountain thing.
So, once you head through the archway to the left, you’re on a narrow path with a few rocky patches. I say a narrow path, but the mountain side is wide open. You just probably want to stay on the path portion. A note here: if you think you’re going to lose your footing (not impossible because of the grade and the dirt/rock combo) crab walking and butt-scooching are totally acceptable. While neither of us were in danger of pencil rolling the rest of the way down the mountain, better safe than sorry if you feel you may be. Luckily, we managed to make it feet on the ground the whole way down.
Let me pause a here a moment to say that even frost-filled and coffee-less, the sunrise hike was worth it a thousand times over. Watching the sun emerge from behind the mountain, as you’re standing in a gorge at the bottom of Ronda, with the cliffs, overhead and no other soul around except your traveling companion, is incredible. It was beautiful, quiet, peaceful. So peaceful. It felt like we were the only people in the town of Ronda. In fact, in the valley all together. We saw nobody else until we were almost back up to the top.
So with that said, back to the hike. Once at the bottom, we were back by the road from the day before. We turned to the right, and shortly after came upon signs for a restaurant, proclaiming to have…. coffee! But they appeared closed. Thwarted again! Still too early, it seemed. We continued to wander, following signs for a hiking trail and, when that brought us to a dead end, for historic houses of Ronda.
Eventually, legs and glutes increasingly unhappy with us, we made our way back up. Through the arch, up the steps, and back to the first viewing platform. We’d vowed that we’d go back to the path that led under the bridge, so we continued on past the viewing platform in that direction (if you’re coming from the top of the hiking trail, make a right by the viewing platform to head this way). This time, we were on an actual path. This was actually a part of the hike in which the freezing temperatures helped us, as the path, quite muddy the day before, had hardened slightly and wasn’t nearly as slippery that morning. Eventually, we reached a sharp turn, followed by a long, downward sloping boulder-type rock that appeared to be wet. We had arrived at official butt-scooching territory. Once down the rock, we had two options. If we headed straight, we had to make our way across the very edge of the cliff, on a ledge that was a foot wide at best, with absolutely zero railing or fencing. In other words, once mis-step or slip or anything of the sorts, and you were in the gorge below. The view was super tempting – it looked like you’d be able to see the waterfall under the bridge in its entirety, and appeared to head toward another waterfall that we hadn’t even realized existed. And I competed in high level gymnastics, including, balance beam, for the majority of my youth so it technically was feasible. But then I recalled the number of times I actually stayed on the beam without falling in those competitions. And decided to not go that way. Instead, we followed the path to the right. This was still a bit nerve-wracking, but at least there was railing and/or a wobbly fence, depending on where you were on the path. There were also some stairs, which I didn’t love, as they were old and cracked. Not super reassuring when you’re over a gorge. Eventually, it took us under the Ponte Nuevo.
Once on the other side of the bridge, we came to what appeared to be almost a quarry-like area. Rock walls flanked either side, water ran flowed down the boulders to the and into a stream at the bottom. There were a few odd buildings – one that warned of voltage, but clearly had been vacant, for years and another little building that almost looks like a guard tower. I’ve looked for information on what these structures might be, but I can’t find any firm answer.
Once we had our fill of picture taking here, we headed back up the way we came, spider crawling up the boulder that we butt-scooched on the way down, and back towards the viewing point, where we made a left to head back towards the top. Finally 500,000 wide stairs later (that might be a slight exaggeration) we were back on solid, even ground. And naturally, we headed towards our next stop: the Parador’s breakfast. And coffee. Lots of coffee.
We returned to our hotel by approximately 10AM, so the whole excursion took us about 2.5 hours, in part because we explored in the valley, and also stopped to take pictures. I wouldn’t say it’s a difficult hike, but it is glute-quad-hamstring intensive, since it consists mostly of stairs and hill – i.e. there aren’t a lot of straightaways. The portion under the bridge isn’t as physically difficult, as it’s more of a straight path, so if you’re up for a little adventure but not a legs workout, this may be the one to check out.
TraveLuxe 